Great Article

Here is a link to a great article I found on the diaperfree baby facebook group. Check it out! http://indiatogether.org/2004/aug/chi-diapers.htm

The beginning

I have begun a new journey in my life...motherhood. My beautiful daughter was born 5 weeks ago! And they have been some amazing weeks! I recently commented on a blog I follow about elimination communication (more about what that is later) and the author suggested that I should write my own blog about EC as well because there aren't too many mommas doing it and even less talking about their experience. I have resisted in starting this for a while because I don't want to be tied down to writing a blog. (I barely ever wrote on my last one!)However I have learned so much from her blog and a lot of her experiences encouraged me and taught me how to do what I am doing. So I want to help others too if I can with my experience ECing as well as mothering in general. I can't promise I will write frequently. I would rather live life with my husband and daughter than spending precious time writing about it. So I will post when I can! I think this will be fun actually since I am having so much fun doing it! So for those of you who have no idea what EC is, I'll explain. It stands for Elimination Communication and can also be known as Infant Potty Training which is a little more self-explanatory! Basically I am teaching and working with my daughter at eliminating on the potty. I heard about EC a few years ago and studied it way before I was even married. It just made sense! Babies know when they are eliminating and even give cues when they need to go just like they do when they need food, sleep, or comfort. So the parents learn the cues and cue their child when to go (We say "psst") while holding them over the potty or whatever you have to "catch" and the baby learns that the toilet is the appropriate place to go potty. Its amazing to see and be a part of! So instead of training my children to potty in their diaper for years then all of a sudden try to tell them to stop and use a giant, cold, hard, and white chair that makes a really loud noise, we teach them that the toilet is what is normal from day 1 (or a little later for some). There are a ton of health benefits but I won't get into them all because you can very easily look them up. But some benefits that I have found thus far and greatly enjoy are less money for diapers, less laundering diapers (we use cloth), no diaper rash, no blowouts in the diapers, happy baby, and satisfaction of poop and pee in the potty where they belong! Now for my experience thus far... We starting Ecing Sammy on Day 5. Before then we were using disposables since everything was so new to me I didn't want to try to learn too many things at once. When I could hear her pooping or feel her peeing I would cue her with the "psst" sound to get her to learn what it meant and I paid attention to noises, faces, and movements she made. On day 4 I was reading the other EC blog I mentioned earlier. She had written about each day of her EC journey for her daughter and now her son who is 4 weeks older than Sammy. Reading how she began on Day 1 for both and had successes inspired me enough to begin our journey. Originally I was going to give myself 3 weeks before we would begin but when I knew that someone else was doing it and loving it I wanted to see what would happen if we started trying to catch. So the next day I waited until she woke up from a nap (babies usually pee upon waking just like we do)and I immediately put her on her kid potty and she peed and pooed a ton! I was so excited and hooked! I could no longer sit and watch her soil her diaper when I knew she could eliminate in the potty. It wasn't hard to learn her cues and since we were paying so close attention we learned her other cues very quickly as well. At first we kept her in a prefold with a cover on all day and night but around 2 weeks I realized I should keep the cover off of her at home to help me see when she peed and what cues she was giving. So now she wears a prefold at home and when we go out or I need to do something around the house where I know I might miss her cues I put her cover on. WE have been very successful. We don't catch every single time but most days we catch almost everything. One day we only used 3 diapers all day and night! I was a very happy momma that day because that's one more day we didn't have to go do laundry! The point isn't to be perfect and catch 100% of the time this soon. Right now we just want her to learn that the toilet is what is normal and establish a trust between us that we will take care of her needs. It is so amazing to watch her through this. A lot of potty training "experts" say that babies/kids aren't aware of their elimination needs until they are 2 or 3 years old! But it is very clear to even the average person that Sammy knows she needs to go potty and doesn't want to go in her diaper. For the past few weeks I have noticed that she will even hold it for a few minutes until I can get her on the potty and relaxes when she is there. The first time I noticed this I actually misread her cry for being in pain! She was giving her grunting cue that she does when she needs to potty but I could get to her and undress her quickly so it turned into a cry. I finally could undress her and as I did she screamed so loudly I thought I had hurt her somehow so I pulled her close to me to comfort her and then felt the fountain of urine all over me. Her scream was her telling me that she couldn't hold it anymore and it was coming. She immediately stopped crying! And I learned my lesson. The hardest thing about ECing has been doing it in public. It isn't as easy to undress her and get her to the potty in public as it is at home. And then there is the issue of restrooms. Some don't have the convenient changing station in them which means I either have to undress and redress her in my arms or on the floor on her changing mat. Not fun! And then at family's houses it is also not so easy. My family is pretty accepting of what we do. I think they just have accepted that my husband and I are kind of quirky and we do most things differently than them anyways. Although slowly they seem to be moving more towards the crunchy side! They are now eating organically!!! Woo hoo! Anyways, it is still difficult because I have to take her out of their arms when I know she needs to potty and they aren't as understanding or think she can wait when I know she can't. And again I have a hard time letting her potty in her diaper when I know I can take her. I wouldn't do that to a toddler or anyone older so why treat a baby differently. (The reason for this is because we live in a diapering culture where we laugh at a baby making poop faces and then change their diaper right afterwards. Letting babies go in their diaper knowingly is what is normal.) Also being in the car has its challenges as well. Recently I have been thinking of trying different methods but currently we have a Tupperware with a lid on it to use as a potty since we don't have the money to buy another potty for the car. I usually pour it out in the parking lot if no one is around or put the lid on and pour it out later. The problem is I tend to forget to pour it out later and then its really stinky later! And it isn't the easiest thing to hold between my legs. I would prefer to hold her over a bush but there haven't been too many opportunities to do so. Also I need to start pottying her before and after getting in and out of the car so that she can go longer wherever we are at before needing to potty. And since I have mentioned everything else I might as well talk about ECing at night. So far it has been pretty easy. We aren't anywhere close to being dry and catching ever night but we still catch a lot of the time and occasionally all night. Sometimes I leave the cover off and put a flannel blanket under her to protect the sheets but last night I realized I just haven't been waking up early enough to catch them and at that rate we will run out of flannels before we run out of diapers. So I think the covers will go back on until I can catch better. Sammy begins to go to bed around 7:30 every night. She cluster feeds (Meaning she feeds like a starving maniac) until around 9 when she finally falls asleep for the night. Then she will sleep for 4-7 hours. (From what I've read I am very blessed that she sleeps that long! And believe me we are very grateful!) When she begins to wake up in the night she starts grunting and squirming. I usually wake up to this but not all the way. And she doesn't actually wake up yet. She grunts like that for sometimes a whole hour or until I realize whats going on and get up to potty and feed her. Depending on how long it took me determines if she is dry or not! I used to be better at waking up but lately I just can't wake myself up all the way and she goes in her diaper but finishes in the potty. Then she eats and back to sleep. So I am trying to remind myself to just get up at the first grunt. We will see if I improve! So that's whats been going on for the past 5 weeks! Till next time...