The Eberhard Family

* 2 years, 2-3 months *

Emma is slowly getting to the age where you can check if she’s ready for toilet training. So mummy bought some cloth nappies and tried them on whenever she can. Although that was hard, as she’s in daycare 3 days and with grandparents 1 day. So only Friday to Sunday is toilet-”training”-able time. Also it has to be the times we are not going out, which is also rare.

One Friday morning, within 3 hours, we had 5 wet nappies and 4 wet pants later… mummy gave up. I thought, she’s probably not there yet, as she was wet through and couldn’t tell she was wet.

But cloth nappy still comes in handy in those odd times when she needed a change 1-2 hours before bed time. Saves another nappy!

Toilet-”training” is an activity that is done by mummy. No one else in the house seemed to want to play with the cloth nappies; nor too bothered about toilet-training.

It wasn’t really any “training”, I thought now, we will just wait till she’s more ready and see what to do.

Then…

Friday, 18th September, (2 years, 2 months and 2 weeks), Emma came to me and said Emma 大便臭臭 (poo, stinky). So I checked and found no poo in her nappy. Then I quickly took her to the toilet and sat her in the potty; I had to sit on the big toilet with her. We sang and we mucked around for a while; then I pretend to make the grunting noise. Emma did the same too. We were having fun. Then she started doing some serious ones…. then she was quite excited, got up and said: “ohh, 臭臭 (stinky), look mummy”.

Yes, we’ve pooed in the potty for the first time! I took a photo but I won’t share it here.

After that, the following Thursday, we did the same again, except this time, it was a lot faster, she knew exactly what she has to do and did it.

The following week, when she was with me at home, including evening time, she pooed in her potty. 3 times. A few times she woke up with a poo nappy, or pooed while we were out. But the funny thing is, she would only go to the potty with me so far.

This week, on Sunday, 4th Oct (just turned 2years 3 months), she peed in the potty for the first time, too. She pooed in the potty earlier that day. In the evening before bath time, I found her nappy to be dry after 1-2 hours, so I sat her on the potty and asked if she wants to pee. And she did, she was most amazed. Kept asking me to look. The next day, she also asked to go pee, but only had 2 drops. I think she’s not quite there yet to control her pee, so she knows it is happening but then it’s too late to get to the toilet.

Friday, when we went out, she told daddy she has a poo nappy, and it was about 10-15 mins later before we got into the toilet in the shopping mall. I checked, no poo. So I rushed her into the cubicle and sat her on the toilet + holding onto her. We peed in the toilet and then took a while before a few solid poo came out. I think she’s a little constipated.

But this is a big change, pee and poo in the public toilet! Still with mummy only but hey, this is really amazing as it is!! Because, I really didn’t do anything in terms of “training” her.

Now, I used “training” with quptation marks, because, to be honest, it really was all her own work. She just started asking to go to the toilet and did it. Once she’s done it, slowly she gets used to the idea and more happens.

So I guess it won’t be too long now, she would be nappy-free, at least during the day. Maybe a few more months. We will see.