Playing Potty

I’m starting to feel like we are getting somewhere again (I mean since her growth and development spurt which saw to an EC strike). We still can't see any signals before she wees or poos so we are relying on the timing method. I've noticed that the breaks between when she wees or poos when wearing her nappy have become longer. It's like she's holding on for the potty, she definitely prefers not to do it in her nappy if she can help it and it seems like she is developing the ability to do that (our baby is approaching 9 months of age).

To ensure she still eliminates regularly the way that she feels most comfortable we offer her the potty regularly minus her signals. Usually when she is offered the potty she uses it.

She also enjoys playing with her potty if it's nearby. She beats on it like a drum with her hands or a toy - potty's make a good sound apparently. I think allowing her to play with the potty in her own ways is a good thing because it becomes even more a normal part of her life. The playing familiarises her with it. We make sure that it is clean at all times (emptying and washing with detergent after every wee or poo) so that is safe for her to play with.

Another thing we have noticed/had a laugh about is how fascinated she is with her wee. On occasion during nappy free time on her playmat we notice her sitting with her legs apart, looking down and swaying her legs back and forth. Closer inspection reveals that she is swishing wee back and forth with her legs lol. We have always made it to the mat with a wipe before her hands have joined in on the fun....so far....;)

Great Website About EC

One of the members of Nappy Free Babes on Ravelry sent me a link to this website about elimination communication, it's really terrific for newcomers to EC:

http://www.naturalbirthandbabycare.com/elimination-communication.html

It includes the authors EC journal, info about ECing postitions and ECing on the go, and how to EC an older baby.

A Tuned In Day

I love days like today. Today I felt really in-tune with my baby. When we got up at 9am she was wet, we moved into the lounge room and I offered her the potty, she did a wee and then I wiped and put a fresh nappy on her. Then we had breakfast, got dressed and headed out for the day at 10am.

Almost all of todays EC catches were based on the timing method. Whenever she woke up from a sleep I would take her to a toilet and she would wee into it. Or if we had been walking for a while (which means her sitting in her sling for a while) I would make a toilet stop for her and catch again. None of todays catches were based on her signals - I am still feeling lost when it comes to signals at the moment. But the really cool thing that happened today was I made an instinctual catch.

I was in a book store and I took bub out of her sling to let her crawl around for a little while, as I took her out I said "I bet you're wet" and felt her nappy and I swear it was wet. So off we went to the toilet, only when we got there I discovered I had totally hallucinated the wet nappy! She was dry as could be. I offered her the toilet and caught another wee. We were both smiling and I wondered what it was that made me think she was wet/needed to go?

From before 10am until 4pm today my baby wore the one clean and dry cloth nappy! Just like underpants.

Bubba Mat - an ECer's Dream

I've mentioned before that we aren't a nappy free family. We use cloth nappies on our baby like adults use underwear. We do this mainly because we live in house that is heavily carpeted and it's a rental. If it were our own house we wouldn't care so much about misses ending up on the floor (and if it were our house we'd make it EC friendly, ie. carpert free). The combination of using nappies and baby going on strike during her growth spurts means that we've had a lot of misses of late and have struggled to learn any of her emerging elimination signals. To get us back on track we felt like we needed to have some nappy free time.

Then we discovered the Bubba Mat at our city's annual baby expo yesterday. Now most of our loungeroom is covered with this soft brightly coloured mat which bub can roam nappy free and if we have any misses it's not trouble at all to clean.

Not only is it great for nappy free time, the mat offers something soft for bub to fall onto. Now that she's crawling and sitting up she tends to fall over and bump her head on the floor. And when our daughter starts eating she can make as much mess as she likes on the mat.

Just What I Needed To Hear...

Thank-you to one of the women at Nappy Free Babes on Ravelry for sharing this quote from Diaper Free! by Ingrid Bauer:

“Your baby needs to be in close contact with you, to have your attention and be responded to. But if catching every pee becomes an obsession, you may be missing the point and the sweetness of this practice and the relationship. It’s important to remember that this is just one way of meeting your baby’s needs and not an outcome-based reflection of your parenting. A strong relationship, not a perfect track record, is the goal.

If you recognize yourself in this position, the most helpful thing to do is to take a step back and detach. No matter how hard it seems. Breathe. Try to bring your attention to being present for your baby. Focus on the relationship, not on the outcome. If necessary, take a short break from Elimination Communication. Trust your child in her process. Try to let go of all emotional charge to her actions. Expect that she wants to and is doing her very best. Don’t praise her excessively if she goes, and don’t make her wrong if she doesn’t. Deal with accidents completely calmly and neutrally. Pee your baby if you think she needs to, but immediately respect and signs of a “No.” Try again later, and always respect the “No.”

And, here’s the ultimate and ongoing parenting lesson: Reach for that place deep inside where you can let go of any desire to control your child or what happens. That’s when you can truly be in the moment and respond.”

Beautifully said!

And this reminder could not have come at a better time as we are facing the big developmental stages of teething and crawling, the offset of which is far more misses than when she was younger and more obvious in her communication about elimination.

Crawling & EC: A Diabolical Mix

On the weekend I was helping our baby poo into her potty, when she finished I looked away for a second to grab a cloth to wipe her bottom with, and when I looked back she had leant foward and got herself off the potty onto her hands and knees. And just like that she (and the pooey bum I was trying to clean) crawled away. Her first crawl!

Since then ECing has been a lot more labour intensive. Baby rarely wants to spend the amount of time it takes to do a poo on her potty. She'd prefer to poo on the go, which is just not on in a house with carpet LOL. I'm finding that it takes a couple of "goes" to EC with number twos now. I sit her on her potty and she does a little bit, then tries to stand up or crawl off the potty when I know there's more to come. So we take a brief break, wipe, get back on the potty.

Despite being able to sit on the potty she still requires support. Sometimes she prefers for me to hold her over the potty. Sometimes she is happy to sit there with me beside or behind her.

I am finding that ECing a crawling baby does require a little more patience than ECing the pre-mobile bub. But we have no intention of stopping, it's just a regular part of our day now. And crawling in itself demands more patience from parents and can be a trial, but I'm not going to try and make her stop for my own convenience. Parenting just don't work like that! :)

PS. For readers who use nappies October 13 - 19 is Reusable Nappy Week!

I learned the following from their facts and figures page:

"Every disposable nappy ever dumped still exists today as they take centuries to break down.
Washing/hanging out/putting away nappies for a bub in cloth full time takes 7 minutes a day - less time than it takes to go to the store and return home with a box of disposable nappies...

1.375 Billion disposable nappies used annually in Australia and New Zealand
3.75 Million disposable nappies dumped every single day in these 2 nations alone!
3 Million trees felled every year to make disposable nappies for Australia / New Zealand.

50% of total household waste will be disposable nappies, in a household with 1 baby using disposable nappies full time.
7 times better for the environment, reusable nappies compared to one use nappies.
2 Tonnes of landfill created by each baby in disposable nappies full time.
1 degree hotter the average temperature of a boy's testicles in a disposable nappy - possibly related to increases in infertility and testicular cancer of the last 25 years."