I’ve decided that, if any mother claims she has never brought her baby to the bathroom with her when she pees, she’s lying.
Obviously it’s not something we go around proclaiming. “My baby sits on my lap while I pee!” or, “When I’m going number 2, my son continues to sleep in the front pack. He doesn’t even seem to notice the smell. ” Still, I’m pretty confident every mother has done it at least once.
During the newborn stage, especially if your baby is in some type of carrier or sling, it’s simply easier to keep them bundled in than to take the whole contraption off. Not only does it take time (and who has time when your “hold-in-the-pee” muscles were recently stretched to oblivion during labor and delivery), it runs the risk of upsetting an otherwise happy, content baby.
When your baby gets older, in the 4-6 month age, he may start to get upset if you leave him alone in a different room. I don’t know about you, but even though the idea of sitting on a toilet while holding my baby might be gross, the idea of putting my baby on the bathroom floor to keep her calm is even worse.
Once your baby enters the crawling stage, it can be dangerous to leave him in a room unattended. I’m amazed at how quickly my daughter can get into things she isn’t supposed to touch, and all she does is scoot and roll.
Now that she is getting too big to comfortably sit in a carrier while I “go,” I’ve permanently placed a Bumbo in the bathroom, right across from the toilet. I plop her in, plop myself down, and away we go.
The poor thing doesn’t have a clue it might not be normal to witness her mother relieving herself on a daily basis. I’m embarrassed to admit it, but she gets a huge smile on her face as I’m going number one. She likes the sound. She probably thinks it’s music.
I’ve convinced myself that other mothers must be doing the same thing as me. In addition, I’m trying hard (unsuccessfully) to convince myself that, because she watches me go on the “big potty,” she’ll potty train early. It makes sense; babies mimic their parents, right? Hey, I’ll tell myself whatever I need to to make myself feel better.