0-3 Months: We started on his second day and caught his first pee on that day. We used a combo of disposable diapers and cloth diapers and ended up just using cloth after a couple weeks. We would take him around 15 times a day and as to be expected mostly missed everything but it was fun to try and guess and get one pee or poo a day. I think his diaper rarely had more than two pees in it. I loved guessing if he had to go, needed food, or a burping. I usually fed him first, then if he was fussy, held him over a big bowl, and then burped him. I had to deal with a bit of frustration in the second month as I was starting to expect too much of him. I think I took a day here and there 'off' just to recalibrate and try to see the signs better. We tried to listen for a 'neh' cry which according to the Dunstan method, meant he was hungry.
3-5 Months: This is when we saw his bowel movements become regular. He would typically go only once at 7:30 AM when he first woke up. We started catching around half his pees so he wasn't going through quite as many diapers. I also started doing more diaper free time, usually just around 20 minutes a time a couple times a day. I loved having my 'Itti Bitti Luxury Change Mat' for the diaper free times. He started to enter the 'distracted by everything' stage and having him pee in the toilet was great because he could see and hear his pee which brought his attention back to using the bathroom.
6 Months: I had hoped to have him out of diapers at 6 months so I did a big diaper free push. This wasn't so smart and after about a week I had to give up the idea of telling everyone that he was potty trained at 6 months. Then magically, a few weeks later, things started to click for him. At night we just put a blanket or towel down over his waterproof mat on the matress and left his diaper off because he was peeing before we could get it off. This made it easy to change his bedding if he did pee. Generally, if he cried for more than a minute at night he would pee, unless he had just peed within a few minutes so we were quick about nursing him and then taking him to the baby potty if he fussed. The baby potty was great for night time since he could hold himself up and I didn't have to turn the light on all the way. I was sure to keep both hands on him at all times and typically made sure he was pointed down so we didn't make a mess, although it still happened from time to time. After the first few diaper free nights I started doing more diaper free time during the day again. From being diaper free for half the day for a few days we went to three quarters of the day and then bypassing diapers all together if we were at home.
7 Months: We have started going to town diaperless. I've had to wash the car seat cover a few times but it's been worth it. When he is under my direct care it's great but he still goes into a diaper if he goes to the nursery or if I know I'm going to be distracted and not holding him. My husband started taking him in the morning so I could get a little extra sleep and discovered that he pees right when he wakes up, and usually poos too of course, but then he needs to pee in ten more minutes and then in twenty minutes. The rest of the day he usually doesn't go more than every half hour.
8 Months: He has started arching his back when I take him. It seemed like he needed to move around to get things going so I made a game out of it and he really liked it. My husband is a little more utilitarian and would just hold him until he peed and then play with him. Well... of course Andy started getting upset if I didn't hold him upside down and do all the play before hand, or even if I did. I don't know what was going on but he started just being unhappy when I took him. I wouldn't keep him in the bathroom for long doing my best to trust this little baby but then he'd pee thirty seconds after I got his pants back on. It got so that if my husband was available I'd ask him. There is nothing quite like having your child go nuts in the grocery store bathroom and then trying to explain EC to really embarrass you. After a day or two of this I finally started just holding him in place to pee even though my little angel became possessed for a minute before he'd pee. Now that it's been a few days he's back to normal!
9 Months: It seems to help now to have a distraction for when he needs to poo. He can sign 'all done' and so we sometimes need to say 'almost' and keep him over the toilet a little longer to get more out. In the mornings it's pretty important for him to use his baby potty that he can sit on for a longer period of time to get his poo out because my back gets tired and he gets too bored when we hold him over the toilet. We have had a few nights where he held it all night long (9pm - 6:30am) but I still can't count on it and if he gets too mad, he litterally gets 'pissed off.' I had to think a bit about that one...
10 Months: Well, I'm going to say I think we've regressed a little, or are entering a new stage or something. If we have a full day of no misses we're happy but I feel like we are missing more pees. Maybe we've gotten lax on taking him? He can make it from 9pm to 5am without needing to go to the bathroom though! Other than a certain whiny cry he still isn't signaling that he needs to go. I have started taking him whenever I see him put his hands in that region and sometimes it seems like it is a signal. He has more control as well because sometimes he will sign 'all done' without having peed but I will make him wait a little longer and he will pee about half the time.
17 Months: Andy is now signing 90% of the time to tell us when he needs to go to the bathroom. We can ask him and he will either run to the potty or shake his head "no." He had his first accident at night in months last night. He is able to pull his pants down and empty his potty into the toilet. He still can get his pants up over his bum. He is sleeping from around 7 to 5ish, Dad takes him to the bathroom and then he nurses off and on to around 7:30.
19 Months: Andy has learned to hold it. This means that most of the time he will say "no" if I ask if he needs to go potty. So, we will force him to go when we see him do the potty dance. He has had some accidents but I want him to be able to feel the consequences of not going: the discomfort of wet pants and cleaning up after himself. A friend of mine told me that both of her kids went through this faze around the age of two.
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