Friday, February 4, 2011

Diaper-Free by 2012?

Potty training is still a ways away for Eliza, but we're starting "potty awareness" already.  We're following her lead, though, so as not to push it.  Over the past month she has started to show us that she is becoming quickly aware of her bodily functions, and it's really interesting - and kind of amazing for such a little person!  She can tell us when she pees, or perhaps just after, when she can feel her wet diaper.  She points to her diaper when it needs to be changed - it's quite handy sometimes actually!  All we've been doing is talking to her about peeing and pooping and explaining to her that that wet feeling in her diaper is because she peed, and that sometime soon, she will pee in the potty like mama and dada.

Part of this process includes leaving the door open when we use the bathroom.  Quite honestly, I've been doing this for a while when I'm at home alone with her, so it's not a big change for me.  I've just started talking about it more with her.  I know she understands me, because she will point to her diaper when I talk to her about it and sometimes she'll point to the toilet, too, so she definitely gets the connection.

I think in the next couple of months we will get a little potty chair to put in the bathroom.  I figure it can't hurt to introduce her to it and get her interested in the process, even if she is many months away from official potty training.  Though, I'll admit, it would be nice if she potty trained on the early side... as much as I love cloth diapering (and her cute CD bum!!), it will be nice to not change diapers for a while!

What are your experiences with potty awareness/learning/training?

2 comments:

Abby said...

Vi told us that she'll potty train when she's three. "How about two? Two would be nice!" "No, THREE!" She claims she'll do it quickly at three though. =) You're welcome to one of our potty chairs if you're interested (have an Elmo one and a bjorn one, neither used much - both our kids prefer the big potty).

Jeanna Blume said...

I did the same thing with Saffron....she'd watch me go potty, and I even got her a potty chair early on, and allowed her to sit on it, while I went. We are still in the process of working on the potty training, she goes #1 well, but it's hard to catch the #2. She does well on saying she needs a new diaper, so I have that going for me....I was hoping she would be out of diapers by the time Sebastian was born, but not going to rush it. I just hope we can catch the #2 on the potty soon.

Eliza's Stats

Birth: 8 lbs 5 ozs
Going home: 7 lbs 10 ozs
5 days: 7 lbs 13 ozs
2 months: 12 lbs 6 ozs
4 months: 17 lbs
5 months: 18 lbs 12 ozs
6 months: 20 lbs 13 ozs
9 months: 24 lbs 3 ozs
12 months: 26 lbs 13 ozs
15 months: 28 lbs
18 months: 29 lbs 3 ozs
2 years: 32 lbs
3 years: 34 lbs

Alice's Stats

Birth: 8 lbs 11 oz
2 Months: 13 lbs 10 oz
4 Months: 17 lbs 15 oz
6 Months: 20 lbs 4 oz