A journey through our trials and tribulations of Elimination Communication, plus a few other snippets from my life as a mom/dog trainer/wife/UX Consultant.
You can buy Baby Legs or modify knee socks. I'm no seamstress, so I brought some socks that I had purchased for a little over a dollar (at Target on Clearance) to Michigan with me to get my mom's help!
It's cold today, but I'm really trying to work on a bit more diaper free time. So E has on a jacket and some homemade Baby Legs and the cutest bare butt I've ever seen (if I do say so myself!).
Also, I remember reading about how pottying in different places can help and that outside is especially enticing to little ones. So - we watered the plants on our back (mostly private) patio! And by we I mean E! :)
·EC is going well, but starting to get complacent with it. I don't offer as much as I should and still forget sometimes after nursing.
·She varies at night in terms of success.Sometimes we go almost the whole night with a dry diaper, other times, she wakes 3-4 times and goes through 2-3 diapers.
·She is teething (we feel teeth popping through in her bottom gums), so maybe that is what is causing this?What I have read in EC books is that life stages/milestones can affect EC.
·On the positive side, we have changed VERY few poopy diapers.We did get one this morning (10/9/10) after a poop in the toilet, but I fed her plums for breakfast, so perhaps that had something to do with it!And I got a tiny “shart” the other day, but it wasn’t a disgusting “oh my gosh” diaper!
·I think next up I am going to look for some sheepskin or something that I can let her play on the floor on and try to leave her diaper off more – and work on timing, offering pees every 20-30 minutes.Yes, probably will be setting my watch.Maybe I can do diaper free times during the morning in this fashion?Although, I have also read that the mornings are typically the heaviest peeing times.I guessI can experiment and figure out how many times I end up cleaning up the floor!
·We were in Michigan from September 21st – 26th. On our flight to Michigan, I wondered if we would do EC while on the flight. The flight was packed and we could barely get up, let alone get to the bathroom. I had her in a g sposie (disposable flushable insert for the g diaper) and I did change her once in the restroom and tried to go on my own. Disaster! Rest room was out of water for washing hands and although they said they had antibacterial soap, they didn’t. Yuck.
·The bathroom also didn’t have a light, just very dimly lit and it was HOT! E was crying, I was about to cry, her blanket fell on the ground (HOLY YUCK!). I barely was able to get my pants up one-handed as I was not ABOUT to set E on the floor in there and I said screw the belt and just took it off. When I got to my mom’s house, I realized my fly was down – probably for all to see when I came out!
·E did well with EC in Michigan. She went at Great Grandma’s house, she went at my Mom’s house, she pooped every morning. One night we even had a totally dry diaper!!!
·Told my whole family about EC and they were impressed and I was shocked to hear that my Aunt V had actually heard of it before.
·And on the plane ride on the way back to Seattle, she went pee not once but twice!!! I’m so impressed with her ability to wait and tell me that she has to go – The first time, I just tried because we had access to the bathroom and she was fussy. I told her she could go in her diaper, but as soon as we got in the bathroom and got the diaper off she went. The second time, I was standing in the aisle trying to rock her to sleep and she kept pushing off of me – which she typically does when she has to go. Sure enough, I got her in there, got her diaper off and she went!
·AND the flight attendant volunteered to hold her while I went (I had to explain why I didn’t need her to hold her the first time we went in there). Flight attendants were impressed and some surprised to hear about infant potty training. I love that part – the education of EC.
September 8th – 23rd, 2010
·Life has been busy since it’s been 2 weeks since my last post! Since I haven’t been making notes, the best I can do is point out the highlights.
·Still going well with EC. Some days are better than others and I really attribute this to how lazy I am feeling that day. She typically has success after naps and when we wake up first thing in the morning.
·Of particular excitement is that she has been eating more solid foods, which has meant more consistent poop times! Several mornings (at least 4-5 so far) we have caught the first AM pee which is followed closely by a poop. Typically, she’s a one poop per day baby and catching poop is a BIG deal because that means I don’t have to spray down a diaper or really be too involved with poopy diapers at all! Plus, since they are more formed now (sorry, it’s the reality of the life we as mom’s lead that conversations at this stage will involve poop!) even if we do miss (more on that in a minute!) they are easy to get out of the diaper. Cloth diapering seems so much easier, by the way, then I ever imagined it would be.
·Of note over the past couple of weeks…
·I took her diaper off in the living room in order to take her to the bathroom and was surprised by a poop in the diaper (whoops – missed her cue!) and since I didn’t know the poop was there it flung across the room – okay, it wasn’t really that dramatic, but it seemed that way at the time – in reality, it flipped out of the diaper and on to the floor narrowly skimming the couch on its way. Lovely! I guess non-EC’ers don’t have to deal with that, since they typically change on a changing table or somewhere where they expect a baby to lie down. I laughed hysterically, took her to the bathroom, wiped her up, called the dogs back to the bathroom so they didn’t eat/roll-in said “poop”. After she was cleaned up and diapered, I grabbed some paper towels and disinfectant and thankfully it was really easy to clean up!
·Also of note, E’s baby cousin C was born! We went over to meet her and E went shii shii in the Potette potty when we were on the ferry (a little toilet seat that has a bag over it). She was successful a second time after she woke up from her nap when we went out to eat lunch with her Dad. I love new potty places because it shows that she’s not localizing to one potty! She truly understands the concept and the cue words!
·And my most exciting news comes last – granny babysat E so that we could have a date night. She knew we were doing EC, but not sure that she ever saw Scott or I giving her a “pottytunity”. When we got back from our date, Granny reported that E went in the potty and she said it almost surprised her how quickly it came. I think E was crying/fussy and so she went to the potty with her and sure enough, that is what she wanted! I was so proud of both of them for “communicating!!”.
·Had a great EC day today! We woke up at 4am and actually went in the potty! This time no struggling and a totally dry diaper!
·Later we missed a couple, but she was diapered, so no big deal.
·We also caught an AM poop! Hooray!
·The rest of the day we didn’t catch as much, but a few is better than none.
September 1st, 2010
·Not feeling so successful today. She is crawling a lot more and I’m almost sure has teething pain as she has been chewing on her fingers a lot.
·We missed the AM pee. Missed the after nap pee (the second nap).
·I do remember catching one pee this morning, left her undiapered for a bit after nursing and since she was sans diaper I was sure she would cue me, she did not. I didn’t even notice that she went until I saw the couch was wet and that my pants were wet. Doh! Thankfully there wasn’t too much pee.
·I’m diapering for the rest of the day and not going to stress about it too much.
·Alright, so that diapering for the rest of the day thing was my plan, but after taking her to potty and then rocking her to sleep for a nap sans diaper, that didn’t happen. She slept bare butt on me for almost 3 hours this afternoon!!! Once she got up, we went to the toilet and she peed. Yay!
·Tonight, Scott took her after I nursed her and said it’s probably best to try – sure enough, another pee!
·We went to sushi dinner and she pooped on the 3 minute drive down there. Oh well.
·Got home, changed diaper – by the way, Scott found a sprayer that will attach to our shower in the guest bath which is where we pee her most of the time anyway. It is GREAT! Lots of pressure and we essentially almost get the diaper totally clean before throwing it in the diaper pail.
·I nursed her the last feeding, then Scott peed her. Success again!
·Then as I was trying to rock her to go to sleep, she pushed away from me and started crying. So I gave her a pottytunity, wasn’t interested in sitting on the toilet with me so I held her over the sink and she went. Dry diaper! Whoo hoo! This day didn’t turn out so bad afterall!
September 2nd, 2010
·E woke up around 1:30a to nurse, then she was stirring and wouldn’t go back to sleep. Scott asked if she had to go potty and got up and took her. Sure enough, I heard the “shii shii” in the toilet.
·I’m wondering if this means that she will start EC on her own at night. If I take her and she is too sleepy, she protests and won’t go – guess we will let her “lead” on this one.
·I caught another pee at 4:00am when she decided it was time to wake up. Not sure why, but she thought it was time to be up for the day. (I guess maybe because she took a 3 hour nap earlier in the day!).
·I FINALLY got her to bed again and at 6:15a she woke up again, caught pee AGAIN (diaper was soaked, but at least we got more of it in the toilet) and she also grunted for poop – it has never been more exciting to see 2 tiny formed poops in the potty!
September 3rd, 2010
·I think it’s funny how when I get cocky, she likes to knock me back down a few notches.
·This morning, I nursed her and then tried to pee her at least 3 times with no luck. I diapered her for a bit, she crawled around, then I heard the unmistakable grunting of poop.
·Too late, poopy diaper.
·Cleaned her up, cleaned the diaper. Put another diaper back on.
·Later in the AM, nursed her again, tried to pee her (again, probably 3 or 4 more times) with no results.
·She was sleepy so I rocked her (bare butt) on me. Of course, I sat down for a few minutes and in that time (with no warning) I felt the other unmistakable warmth. Thankfully it was just a tiny bit, but it meant a change of clothing. Oh well, I had to get dressed for the day anyway! ;)
September 4-7th, 2010
·Alright, got a bit lazy on the blogging, but I also got a bit lazy on the EC’ing.
·On Sept 4th, we cleaned in prep for Granny to come for a visit. As a result, we didn’t focus on EC’ing.
·Sept 5th, we ate breakfast and then got ready and took Granny over to Poulsbo to hang with the other Klein’s. We missed more than we got, but we did get 2 pees while over at Auntie Monica’s house (and Uncle Dale’s house). J
·Last night (9/6-9/7), she woke up when we came to bed and was not happy to be woken up. Scott and I need to learn to do our chatting in the living room, not in the bed! I tried to rock her, but that didn’t work, so I figured maybe she needed to pee. She didn’t want to do that either, she was thrashing and crying so we quit. Tried to hold her and she kept laying her head on me to go back to sleep, but then started pushing away from me again (sometimes a sign she has to pee). Took her to the toilet again – nothing.
·So I figured enough with that and put a dry diaper on her. As I laid her down and was grabbing the diaper, she let out a squirt of pee (hardly any) and then SCREAMED. I’m not sure if she did it on accident and then wished she hadn’t gone/felt bad about going on the bed or what. I told her it was okay and rocked her for a bit more before trying to get the diaper on again.
·Finally, we snuggled in bed and she calmed down and went to sleep. Phew!
·Today after several errands and missed pees, I decided to take a lazy EC day. We did catch a few pees (after the second nap and after nursing, but in general, I didn’t try too much).
·Which brings me to my next point… I’m lazy!
·Since sharing this blog people tell me that I’m “brave” to do this or “Wow, that’s great, but I couldn’t do that.”
·I am trying to remember what I felt when I first picked up the book about Natural Infant Hygiene – I did envision pee on the carpet and on me (okay, both have happened, but not a lot!).
·Since cloth diapering and starting EC, I think it’s easier/lazier than shopping for disposables. I dislike spending money on disposables now and really can’t believe I waited this long to go to cloth diapers. I don’t have to plan shopping trips to Target or store boxes upon boxes of diapers in my house.
·Also, this laziness contributes to thrill of catching a poop in the toilet – it’s SO much less work than wiping (and wiping and wiping and wiping) a poop off of her.
·Alright, so it was a week of project work for me, thus I had no time to keep up with blogging. The highlights as I remember them:
·We caught quite a few more after nap pees and first thing in the AM pees, but aside from that, I did not have the time (or energy) to observe and change diapers, so – we didn’t.
·The days the babysitter was here during the day (she has officially been downgraded from nanny-status to babysitter status since she didn’t do much of anything with E – aside from watch her while I was working – this is a whole other post, but she was frustrating to say the least!) – anyway, I watched the video monitor to see when E woke up from naps and went upstairs to pee her whenever the babysitter was over. Not great success rates during that time, but I know we got at least one because I asked babysitter if she heard her go in the toilet, and she said yes! Yay!
E sporting her Baby Legs - SO much easier than yanking pants off of her each time.
·Yesterday, the 29th, I caught a pee in the morning and also a poop! Catching poops is so exciting. It’s way less gross when it goes directly into the toilet than having to clean her up when she goes in the diaper.
·Also of note yesterday was that we went for a walk with Dad and the dogs and I had Eleanor in the Ergo. We went on the path that is wooded and E was fussing and pushing away from me in the Ergo, so I wondered if she had to pee. Sure enough, I de-pants’d her and she went! Unfortunately, her cloth diaper was already wet so we had to put that back on since we were out walking and she wasn’t a big fan of that, I don’t think.
·Today (the 30th) she woke up and went to the potty with Daddy. Success!
·I also caught a couple of pees today, namely one after her 3p nap. She went and went on the potty, we went to grab another cloth insert, I set her on my lap and checked something on my computer, and then I caught more pee all over my lap. I don’t know where it all came from, but… I just laughed and did the shii shii sound and then put the diaper on her and then changed my clothes!
·Later she was playing and I heard a couple of toots and some grunting, so I took her to the potty. She really lets us know exactly when she DOESN’T need to be on the potty, so when she sits she normally will do something, even if it’s just pushing some gas out.
Here you can see pee in the potty (sorry), but more that she is fighting me saying "I don't have to go anymore!"
·After reading an article about praise and what not, I decided to try to minimize the praise for successes and include praise for just sitting on the potty and pushing as well.
·We got more than just gas, we got poop! It’s amazing how great that feels!
·I know, I know – EC is not about potty training at this point, it’s about learning to respond to her cues and according to the books, it’s not about winning a parenting race either, but it sure does feel satisfying!
I normally don't pee her in the sink, but sometimes she will "sit" for me here as she watches herself in the mirror or plays with the soap dispenser or faucet.
·Baby slept awful last night, not sure if it’s because she was warm/cold or what, but she nursed a lot and slept very little.
·On a more positive note, even though she woke up at 7:00a for the day, Dad got up with her and she peed for him! Yay! And we even got a little poop in the toilet, too!
·We did not catch post morning nap pee (only a 30 min nap - little bugger!)
·Next up grocery shopping and when we got out of the car I thought I smelled poop, sure enough! Tried to put her on the potty and got nothing.
·Mid-afternoon nap, thankfully it was about 1.5 hours. I watched her on the monitor and went to after I knew she was waking. Held her for a bit, tried to pee her, but she protested. After a little more cuddling, I tried again and she went shii shii!
·This was followed by a trip to Babies R’ Us (BRU) and when we got home, I tried to pee her and got nothing, but another tiny bit of poop and pee in the diaper – what is it with pooping while in the car??
·Took a quick nap at 5:30ish – when Dad got home and woke her up (oops). Didn’t want to go on the potty as she kept arching her back and crying once she was on there.
·Set her on the kitchen floor while we made dinner, gave her a bib and some avocado, then when I went to go pick up her piece of avocado I noticed pee on the floor – wee, so fun to slip and slide around in says E! Clean up on Aisle 1, please!
·Now in the diaper and I’m sure she won’t pee now. :)
Day 19: August 14th, 2010
·Dad tried for the morning pee again when E woke up at 6:30a. I’m not so sure I like this trend of waking earlier and earlier each day! Especially on a Saturday! He wasn’t sure if he got pee or not, but she definitely had a full pee diaper!
·Last night we tried a cloth insert on top of a disposable/flushable diaper and we essentially made it through the night. No wetness on the outside, anyway.
·So far we have tried to catch a couple of times, but were unsuccessful.
·After breakfast, we tried to potty E and left the diaper off for a little bit. She had the diaper underneath her, but Dad had her standing up on the couch… and then got pee on his arm and the couch as a result (have I mentioned lately that I’m thankful for leather!?)
·E didn’t want to nap much today (it was hot!) and possibly as a result, she had less urine overall? When she finally did go down we did catch pee while on the phone with Grandma W! Yay!
·Though E had just gone, talking with my mom made me realize I need to remind family and friends that we don’t say her “cue” word when we are not on the potty. I told my Mom the story that the DFB (Diaper Free Baby) moderator told that her MIL didn’t believe that her daughter was “trained” and jokingly used the cue word and baby peed in her pants. MIL thought it was a coincidence, so the next day she tried it again… seriously?? Are you 5?!
·We’re doubling up with biodegradable disposable and cloth on top – seemed to work well last night, though I still feel bad about the pee being against her that much at night, so I’m not sure what the solution is here.
August 15th – 19th
·The babysitter has been coming during the day while I have been working on my project. Certainly there were a few caught pees here and there, but I have been so busy, I did not journal it. Have been going to bed after midnight and waking a few times at night to pee/feed E. Very tired!
·Of note, one time I do recall taking her to the bathroom and trying to sit her between my legs (squirming) and then resorting to holding her over the sink. As I was about to try the same squatted/facing outward position over the toilet she went, hitting most of the sink and part of the floor. Thankfully pee is sterile and for some reason baby pee is less gross than adult pee.
August 20th, 2010
·I caught the morning pee and came back to bed with E to nurse. After a few toots and what I was sure was a dirty diaper, Scott asked if he should take her to poop.
·He took her to the toilet and after a bit of protesting, I heard the most wonderful sound… *squirt*! Yay, toilet poop!
·We also caught an after nursing pee, after nap pee.
·Today I also started removing the plastic liner so I could tell when she peed.
·When I am done with my work project, I plan to do a bit more tracking and see if we can’t do a better job with timing.
·Since E went down early tonight (around 7, when her trend has been around 8) she, of course, woke up around 10p. She seemed ready to get up, so I went and got her and tried to pee her, she wasn’t having it. She snuggled me and we rocked/swayed to sleep.
·Since I had read in one of the EC books that some babies pee at night with a diaper on, but don’t with a diaper off (and since I knew I had to wash the sheets the next day anyway), I decided to try it out. Scott put down a waterproof pad/barrier that I was given to go home with after birth (I knew those things would come in handy at some point!) and a towel. I added two more hand towels, so that if she did pee, I could easily peel these layers off and not disturb her too much.
August 21st, 2010
·She woke up at 1:25a totally dry still. Yay! I
tried potty her, she really does not seem to like the nighttime pottying. I
have a little plastic bowl by the bed, but she didn’t want to face out from
me. Since that route wasn’t working for
either of us, I took her to the bathroom.
Tried to hold her over the sink (she cried), tried to sit her on the
toilet between my legs (squirmed and cried), so finally I figured she probably
didn’t have to go.
·So I went while holding her on my chest, legs
wrapped around me. As I finished, she
went. Lovely. I guess I can add “part-time toilet” to my
resume. LOL. I wiped myself and her off and decided that
since she peed, we would leave the diaper off.
·I can’t remember what time it was the next time
we woke up… maybe around 3am? She had
wiggled a bit and I recall feeling the towels.
Both hand towels, bath towel, and pad were wet. And so was the bed *sigh*. I worried about the mattress, but figured – it’ll
be incentive to get rid of this stupid pillowtop anyway! (Side note:
Very comfortable, doesn’t bounce when either of us get in/out of bed,
but because you can’t rotate it, Scott and I each have bed alleyways! DISLIKE!)
·After pulling all of the towels and such off the
bed, I placed a dry cloth diaper over the wet spot and diapered her for the
rest of the night. She nursed probably 3
times which explains why she was pretty wet when waking up at 6:30a! Really not in love with her waking up earlier
and earlier each day!
·Dad got up with her and when I got up at 8:00 he
said he had already caught 2 (and missed 2) pees. We’re more aware now since we have not been
using the plastic liner.
·Dad took her for most of the day, got a couple
more pees from her throughout the day. I
got nothing but squirms and protests. I
wonder if this is because I haven’t been spending quite as much time with her
since I have been focused on my work project as of late? Maybe not, but it was not a very successful
day for me.
·Did leave the diaper off a bit more today, I
specifically worked hard at giving more “pottytunities”. Around 2:30p she was acting tired, so I
rocked and swayed and rocked somemore – she was cranky/protesting sleep, so
finally I tried to potty her.
Nothing. Then we sat on the couch
while she sucked her thumb very tiredly and I read to her. I apparently missed any cues she may have given
because I suddenly felt a warm trickle… ugh!
I didn’t react to her, but handed her to Dad and went and changed my own
clothes. Mom = toilet x2!
·Tonight (with clean sheets on the bed) she is
again diapered with 2 cloth inserts and I plan to try for a pottytunity once
she wakes up and then probably not again until her morning pee. Last night was too disruptive to both of our
sleep cycles, I think!
