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.
·This month has been a little challenging where EC is concerned.She is now 9 months old and I think going through as many changes as a baby should ever have to endure at once!
·She’s crawling, pulling up, teething, got her first case of the sniffles, eating more food, eating less milk, etc.
·This last week she has been very obviously on a potty strike.She is still mostly consistent with the after nap pee if I offer it in time.
·Other than that, however, if I try to put her on the potty chair many times she will sit for 5 minutes or so and do nothing only to get off, crawl around and pee (or poop) on the floor.I have to say I’m thankful that the pees and one poop have been on the hardwood – so much easier to clean!
·The other day Dad changed her and set her in her crib while he got a diaper ready – almost immediately she began to pee when he put her down in there.The same thing happened to me recently even after I tried for quite a while to offer her the potty, the potty chair, the sink, etc.
·Night time EC we have mainly given up on.Occasionally when she wakes around 5 or 6 am, we offer her the potty.I typically have more success than Scott does – not sure if it’s the way I hold her or just the fact that it’s me.I will have to try to get a picture, because I don’t think this hold is in the EC books – it’s not the prettiest thing and after a few times of being peed on or missing the toilet and peeing on the ground, I finally figured out the way to master it!You have to hold a cloth diaper under her butt and let the drips go there.J
·We are still offering after naps during the day and occasionally after nursing, but she nurses such a short amount of time lately that I don’t think she’ll have to pee afterwards.
·I guess on a positive note, I have learned that when not in a diaper – she very clearly squats to pee and I have seen her squatting and focusing/pushing to poop the couple of times it has happened when we were not over the toilet.
·Today, after offering the potty chair for a while, she crawled off came over to me, then went back to her chair and started playing with it.I KNEW she had to go, so I went over to her and put my hand underneath her but and sure enough, she peed a very tiny amount in my hand.I told her “E no shii shii on the floor, shii shii in the potty” and then set her on there – and of course got nothing, but not sure what else to do and this seemed to be the recommendation from the DFB group.
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.
