Andrea's transition

Andrea has been going thru a transition to a 3 year old baby girl over the past month. I have also been making some major changes in order to adapt to the new reality of having a baby daughter.

Andrea's inability to control her bodily functions has had a major affect on her mental and emotional state. Every time she wets or makes in her diaper she cries. I hold her in my arms and tell her that there is nothing wrong with that. That is how babies communicate that they need to be changed. I have told her that she must be in diapers until she can control herself. She remembers the terrible accidents she had. So embarrassing.

Andrea has begun potty training. She sits each day on a potty chair for an hour each morning. Hopefully she can regularize her bowel movements. The bottom part is transparent plastic which makes it easy to monitor her progress at a glance. Sometimes, when I have visitors, I take out the potty chair and have her sit on it within clear view of my guests. That is when i use the trigger word "Sissy Andrew". That is extremely humiliating for her.

Andrea only has a vocabulary of about 10 or so baby words (mama, dolly, milky, etc). Much of the time she just uses baby gibberish. Her days consist of at least 12 hours in her bed (babies need lots of sleep), playing with her dolls, coloring pictures, watching some cartoons, and drinking milk from a bottle and jars of baby food.

I am converting her room to a baby nursery. We need more day care (baby sitters) for her but that is working out fine.

I am definitely planning on changing Andrea's attire to something more appropriate - baby dresses. One feature of baby dresses is that they always leave her diaper and plastic panties at least partially in view, This is both to make clear her status as a baby for both herself and others, but also for practical reasons as it will make her diaper changes easier.

I received an interesting suggestion today. What do you think about it?
Another idea for your consideration concerns her hair. While her long curls are the envy of any eight year old, I dont think they suit Baby Andrea so well. I know this may sound too outlandish initially, but you should consider the option of having her head shaved, after which she can be made to wear a preferably semitransparent bonnet. Actually you could leave a small tuft of hair on the top of her head to be tied with a pink ribbon, this can be combined with her bonnet wear by leaving a small opening at the top of the bonnet through which the tuft can be pulled an tied. Her new hairdo can be motivated by telling her that she wil be allowed to have her hair grow back when she has learnt not to wet her diapers any longer.

Joanne