[Above is a pic of my sweet baby at 3.5 months weeing in his potty with the help of his dad.]
My baby, let's call him 'Sesame' was born July 2018 and we began infant pottying after about 1 week but in some ways that's not where all this started for me. My parents are Vietnamese and despite being born and raised in Australia my homelife growing up was very culturally Vietnamese, my sisters and I were ourselves pottied from the time we could sit, around 6 months of age and were out of nappies by 1.5 years old.
My mum tells me she still used nappies at that age overnight just incase but it's like once we were potty trained during the day we just stopped going at night as well - which can be a common experience with infant pottying.
My youngest sister is 12 years younger than me so I recall helping to take her to the potty the same way I helped with any other activities related to her care like feeding and bathing. There was no fuss about it, no focus on it at all really. It was quite simply just another way we provided care.
I don't even remember when she stopped wearing nappies, there was no formal potty training period, she just wore them less and less over time as she became more and more communicative I suppose which is the beauty of infant pottying.
Having no other children so closely in my care I didn't think anything of this. I didn't find it the least bit unusual so I guess I was a bit suprised to learn when I had my own baby that children here aren't often potty trained until they show signs of 'readiness' which is a whole nother topic.
So did this make starting pottying Sesame easy for me? Hell no. In an unusal twist my partner is the one who insisted we start from birth once he learnt about it. In my highly hormonal state post-birth I took this with about as much grace as a duck on ice.
I was bone-tired like I'd never been before, sleep deprived, I was emotionally depleted from the sheer magnitude of transitioning to motherhood, I'd fainted from blodd loss just days after giving birth.
I burst into angry, resentful tears. I thought about all the things I was already doing day and night in my new 'full time job' the fullest full time job I'd ever had and felt so upset about the thought of adding another responsibility, it was just too much, so if you're feeling this way. I get it! Don't feel guilty, there is NOTHING to be ashamed of.
But after the tearful misery I knew it made sense, I wanted to start the way I intended to go on and the reality is it wasn't as hard as my weary self made it out to be because the reality is it's only as hard as you make it. NO-ONE is there pushing you to do more than you can each day, no-one expects you to catch every wee and every poo or to spend all day nappy free, no-one expects perfection from you. If you simply offer your infant the potty once a day because that is what you can manage that is enough, you are enough, mumma. Never beat yourself up. A start is a start.
And from this I've started my own business and hope you'll enjoy following my journey as I potty my beloved Sesame and pour my heart into my new infant pottying clothing venture.
