Potty Training at 18.5 months

I am a bit hesitant to post about this as I don't want to "brag" about the early success I am having potty training Lainey if we go backwards next week.  I am going to risk looking like a fool though!

For the past 4-6 weeks Lainey has been telling me every time she pees or poops and immediately wants her diaper off.  She grabs at it and says, "Wet. Off!"

So, I decided that I might as well try potty training her now with hopes that she will be diaper free when baby #3 arrives.  I started on Monday.  Since then she has used her potty chair 2-5 times a day, for both pooping and peeing.  I started with a very casual approach - set her on the potty chair 2-3 times a day - but ramped it up a bit when she seemed interested.

Anyway, I am now leaving her diaper free whenever we are home and she is awake.  She can go up to 3-4 hours without using the bathroom/having an accident.  At least 2-3 times a day she will tell me or Victor that she needs to "poop" and she actually does pee or poop when you put her on the toilet.  She has even told us correctly that she needed to "poop" while wearing a diaper at home and in public (at the library today) "asking" to be placed on the toilet.

She does have accidents 1-2x a day (only urine so far) which seems to upset her.  She does not like getting wet.  If you tell her to "stop" she can and will finish on the toilet (or hold it forever)!

She has been waking up from her naps dry.

Anyway, if this process follows a similar course to when we potty trained Erik I probably won't make her diaper-free for a couple of months but I am quite surprised and encouraged by her success so far!

She is such a cute little girl!  We "hoot and holler" when she is successful and she gets so excited and happy about the celebration.  If she uses the potty chair instead of the potty seat she insists on dumping it out herself (as independently as possible).

Rock on baby girl!


Note: "Poop" is her word for both peeing and pooping.