Potty Training a Seven Month Old

Hello party people! Did you know that I Blog on Tuesday's at Jess' place? Pop on over!

If you're a regular here you'll know that we haven't had an easy time with H's toilet training. You see, we figured that we'd been through this before, we were all cocky and confident that it'd be smooth sailing. Boy were we wrong! So I put out the call, TELL ME A BETTER WAY! I cried. And from the comment section of that very post I heard a voice, a voice that said I should start potty training A now. 

Once upon a time I would have told you that potty training a seven month old sounded insane. But, once upon a time I thought homebirth was crazy too. I guess I've become more open minded. Big Bro calls me a hippie now, not sure if I should be offended or not. Knowing him and his own definition of the word, I'm sure there's a bit of mud-slinging going on, but watevs. At least he's stopped calling me fatty.

So I took my dear friend's advice and I bought me a Roger Armstrong Potty Chair! That was no easy feat by the way. We visited 2 baby stores who said they no longer stocked them. So we ordered it online after my friend said that she found it on special (score!) only to be told that it was out of stock, unless we wanted a different colour. Colour? It's a bloody potty chair, I don't care what friggin colour it is! I politely told the customer service girl. 

Day 1: A woke up, had a breastfeed and then I popped her on the chair. She's always on the move and didn't want to be stuck on there, so it was a struggle. I don't like upsetting her but we managed to distract her long enough for her to do a wee. The 4 of us clapped and cheered and she grinned like "What's the joke guys? What did I miss?" We put her on it before and after naps and before bed time but we only had one wee that first day.

Day 2: Same routine again, though this time she managed two wee's. Now I feel the need to add here, we only put her on it as long as she was happy, and once she started to get upset we took her off. We figured if it works, then awesome, if it doesn't, no big deal.

Day 3: After her feed in the morning I sat her on the potty and she poo'd! I have never been so excited about a poo in my life. I cheered and clapped and she cheered and clapped and H looked downright depressed. (Hilariously, he came up to me later and said "I do poo in toilet" in his most serious voice, then walked into the bathroom with such determination that I struggled to keep a straight face. He did his business without a problem, he obviously didn't want to be shown up by his little sister!) That day, every time I sat A on the potty, she wee'd.

I won't bore you by detailing the entire week, but I will tell you this; after only a week of potty training we are using less nappies. She's happy to sit on there and not needing to sit for long, sometimes peeing within seconds of sitting down and then grinning her goofy grin at us. She has poo'd on it 4 times, and the poo's that didn't go into the potty... well... I think that was our fault? You might think I'm reading too much into it but there were several occasions when she climbed up my leg whinging and I couldn't figure out what was wrong, then after a few minutes she poo'd. I'm sure she was trying to tell me that she needed to go!

The only problem I'm having is the lack of consistency. We've been out and about a bit and I haven't taken the potty with us, so I'm worried that by having days where she hardly gets put on it at all she might get confused. I dunno. But I'm enjoying it. I think it's less stressful this way because I KNOW that she is just a baby, and that if she doesn't use the potty then it's perfectly fine, whereas with H, HE KNOWS how to use the toilet at that he SHOULD be using it but just won't do it, and that does my head in. 

But I'm excited, the thought of having both A and H out of nappies before we have another baby is just fabulous. Economical. Awesome.

And so ends yet another toilet training post. Perhaps I should start a toilet training series?

And I'm interested to know, is there anyone out there (Hello? Echo echo echo...) who's tried this?