Baby Training

This can be a pretty controversial topic but I am now a firm believer in training our children from infancy. We started Ecing our daughter from birth. Whenever I noticed her peeing or pooping I would say "psst" to get her to associate the word with the action. At 5 days old we started placing her on her potty and saying "psst" to tell her to go potty and she went for the very first time at our command. At the time it could have just been timing or coincidence but as time went on she learned the association of "psst" and time to go potty. Now it is very evident that it isn't just about timing and it definitely isn't coincidence but rather we have trained her to go potty at our command. Obviously if you have ever read my blog before we don't catch everything yet but she is still trained according to many. (There is a debate among some circles about what potty trained actually means, ex. one is trained when they have zero accidents anymore or when one has an understanding of when and where to potty and occasionally may have accidents. I tend to lean more toward the allowance for accidents since most pregnant women have had an accident before and no one would say they are no longer potty trained) Now some people still find my family very odd for "potty training" my daughter so early. And there sure are a lot of critics of EC out there, but let me assure you my daughter is trained to a pretty far extent.

Now if you understand that she is potty trained-ish, then you should understand that any baby can be trained for other things as well. One of my favorite parenting websites/ministry is No greater Joy. Please visit their website or even better read their books To Train up a child and No Greater Joy Volumes 1,2,&3 for more information on what I am talking about in a broader sense. But for now, this is what has been going on with training my daughter.

I really dislike getting my hair pulled as I am sure most would agree. And little baby hands are notorious for hair pulling or getting at your jewelry or eyeglasses. And I just really don't want to have to always wear my hair up, never wear jewelry, or be forced to start wearing contacts again. So I wanted to train my daughter to not touch those things on me or anyone else. I started maybe around 2 months or so. She was able to hold her head up and her arms were starting to squirm around much more and would grab anything they came in contact with including hair. Developmentally she didn't know what she was grabbing and I don't think was able to distinguish between hair or anything else she would grab so I didn't want to just say "no" to her grabbing and prevent her from grabbing at everything. So at first we began teaching her to let go. When she would grab hair or any other undesirable thing we would say "let go" two times while tapping her hand  and then I would flick her hands until she let go. When she did I would smile and say "good girl!!!" which is also what I usually say when she potties in the toilet.

There weren't too many opportunities at first to train her but as she has gotten older more and more have arisen. Especially this last month. Her motor skills have improved drastically. At first she started reaching in the general direction for something she wanted to touch hoping to be able to grab it. Now she is getting pretty skilled at grabbing exactly what she wants. This whole time I have been training her to let go and this last couple of weeks she has shown HUGE improvement. She understands me now. It usually takes me 2 times saying "let go" and tapping her hand for her to let go. Occasionally I have to still flick her hand but she is definitely understanding what I am telling her. It is so neat to watch her little mind growing!

So now that she is able to grab at what she wants, we are starting to train her to not touch specific things. And now we are using the word "no". I usually give a flick the first time she touches anything because I want to quickly associate the word no with that object and then after she understands "no" I will just tell her once and if she continues to touch or touches again I will flick her hand until she stops touching. Since she already understands to let go when getting flicked it doesn't take her long to let go of something but if she still wants it she will keep grabbing at it a few more times. But has eventually always stopped. Its amazing! Once we can get her to understand the meaning of "no" our life will become much easier with an older baby! So stay tuned to hear more results!!!


 In regards to getting back on track with EC...

So big! She is starting to sit on her potty on her own!

Yesterday went GREAT! I caught every pee overnight which is the very first time!!! Very exciting!!! Part of it was me waking up obviously but another was she was holding longer waiting for me to wake up because I knew I was getting up right away. And then during the day we only had 2 very small misses. One was in the morning after she woke up. She usually has a couple of small pees after she wakes up and it can be hard to catch them all when they are close together. I missed while I was taking a shower. The other one was when I was out shopping. She fell asleep in my wrap and then we went to my mom's house where I didn't pee her right away and since it had been a while she just couldn't hold it. But only 2 misses all day and night is an awesome record!!!!

Last night wasn't too great... we only missed 2 but I like not missing any : ) And this morning has been all catches except for one when she was playing on her belly.

Daddy is home!!!

Our Family bed is complete again. He was so sleepy!

I woke up Tuesday morning and had a quick thought wondering if Chris would ever just come home one day and surprise me. Nothing made me think that; I just did. Then later that afternoon he text me saying that he was busy right then but would call me later. I was planning on going to a community group that night at 6 so I was hoping we wouldn't call then so I asked him when. He said he probably wasn't going to work that night and would prob call around 8-9. I thought that was a little odd since he had worked 2 weeks straight with no time off but then again maybe they were giving him time to rest or something. But because I had the thought of him coming him everything he said made me suspicious! So then I asked him what he was doing and he said he was driving. They were sending him all over the place for Union stuff. I reasoned in my mind that that could be true because he had been having some issues with the union earlier that week where he did in fact have to drive all over. But my heart was still hoping. I went to community group and was hanging out with everyone when he asked me when the group would be over. It hadn't even really started yet. Then he sent me a picture of inside our house with a glass of wine and our white lights lit. I immediately knew he was home and I announced to everyone that I had to leave because my husband was home. They were all excited for me and helped me get all Sammy's stuff in the car to rush home to my beloved husband who was waiting for me with M&M's!

She nestled into his armpit and fell asleep. She missed her Daddy!

Needless to say I was very excited and we both cried a lot that night! So I  have my Baby Love home with me at last!

Since he has been home EC has not been going so great haha! I have been a little preoccupied with spending time with Chris that we have just not been paying attention to the potty cues. Oops...sorry Baby Girl! So we ran out of cloth diapers really fast this last week which means yesterday and today she has been in disposables : ( Which by the way are horrible for trying to catch! They have made our catch ratio plummet!  We are probably catching about 20% these last couple of days!! But today is laundry day and I think our family is back on course so this week should get better.

I do have a funny story to tell about parenting. We saw a little boy this week that a family member was baby sitting who was 10 months old. He crawled into the bathroom and when he was pulled out he cried. Not a long cry which he dried up pretty quickly when he saw there were people he didn't know in the room. A comment was made and everyone started "aww" ing to him and he started crying again which was even funnier to everyone else not realizing they were why he was crying. But not because he had been offended; he couldn't even understand what was said. He was crying because he was getting attention for doing so. So after he stopped and was happy again I said, "Watch this" and for absolutely no reason I looked at him and began saying with a sympathetic face, "Aw, poor baby. That is so sad poor baby..." and immediately he started bawling again right on cue. Sometimes I don't think people realize how much children's emotions aren't true emotions but just a reaction to the emotion that is being given to them. Like a hurt child for instance will scream uncontrollably when people are around and especially if they are focusing on their "pain". But when no one is there or even just paying attention, they usually might cry for a second then keep playing. Unless they know someone is nearby who will give them the show they want. Just an interesting observation. Try it at home... for fun of course. Wouldn't want to make it a habit ; )


On another note... I finally made Sammy's 4 month onesie and took pictures today! It a little over a week overdue but better now than never! She is currently 29 inches long and 16.8 pounds! Thanks to Granny for the adorable new flower headbands and tutu!!! Enjoy!

Trying to get back in the groove

Since we have been home we have been having quite a few misses. I went to my mom's Sunday and stayed the night and then came home late last night. We had lots of misses over night there. I think I was just absolutely exhausted and was having a really hard time waking up. I am still trying to catch up on sleep but Sammy still isn't sleeping as much as she used to at night. She has gotten a little better; waking up about every 3 hours. But oh how I miss that good 6 hour stretch.

Her bottom gums are starting to get a little swollen and mushier. Not sure what that means but she has been incredibly fussy today! It could be that she has gotten used to being held all day long from last week or she is teething. Not sure which or if its both but little bit is throwing icky tantrums left and right. It has been a pretty hard day today to say the least. Thankfully she finally settled down and I nursed her to sleep for her afternoon nap.

Hmmm, now that I think about it I  have heard other EC moms say that they start having more misses when teeth are coming in. i wonder if that could be why. I have also heard that some babies don't like laying down when they are teething... maybe! We shall see.

So that's my day, how is yours?