Three weeks of EC
I planned on blogging about EC every week and keeping up with our progress, but I didn't. I'm not good at these kind of things, but I'm here now to update on how we're doing.
Let me first say, I am having a really good time with pottying my little tiny baby boy. He turned three weeks old today, and while we were at the Ihop for breakfast this morning he peed and pooped on the potty in the restroom. He also peed and pooped in the potty when we stopped at an antique store this afternoon. It's funny to enjoy taking my baby to the toilet, most people find potty training to be tedious and frustrating, we find it entertaining and exciting. I honestly couldn't wait to get back to tell Erich that our little bitty boy pooped on the potty.
So here's how it's been going. First of all we did try to get started in the hospital, but it really was tough because of all the people coming and going and because I was recovering from a c-section. We did however start cueing him when we knew he was going, and we did catch a few pees in the sink. We noticed that he pooped when he was nursing, so we decided to take off his diaper and sit him on a towel to nurse, and to our amazement we caught our first poop. The next time I nursed we held him over a basin, and again we caught a poop. That's really all we did in the hospital, but it was exciting to us to see that we would be able to make it work.
We came home with little mister baby and tried to pay closer attention to when our mini man needed to use the potty. It turns out our little one is very easy to figure out, he pretty much only fusses if something is wrong, so we can follow his cues without much issue. If he starts to squirm or fuss, we try the potty first, then we try to nurse, then potty again, then if it isn't those things we just love him till he goes to sleep. These are the only reasons he makes a fuss. It was obvious right from the start that Erich is better at picking up on Frankie's cues than I am, and that he remembers better than I do to cue him when he is going. I was better at holding him in position and getting him to go potty, so working together we are really pretty good at this.
We did have an issue though, our boy pees all over everything. We couldn't get his pee to go in the sink or the toilet without getting a mess all over the wall. We solved this problem one day at my parent's house. On the counter in the bathroom was a dixie cup, I picked it up and held it as a shield over his penis and voila, all the pee went in the sink. We bought little plastic cups to use for this purpose after that, and now that isn't an issue. We often pee him into the shower too, that makes our lives just easier and nobody really cares if there is a little pee in the shower anyway. I'm getting pretty good now at controlling where his pee goes, I haven't used a cup all day today and we haven't had any messes.
Another convenience is that Franklin seems to be waiting longer to go after he signals now. In the beginning we needed to hurry up when he signaled because he couldn't wait too long, but now we have a little more time. He also seems to be beginning to hold his poo until he is in position and signaled to go. At least it seems that way because he has pooped twice on the potty today and did once yesterday too. Up to now he has only gone while nursing. We haven't really bothered to try to catch the poops while he was nursing, because he is a little fussy about nursing positions and we didn't want to make him uncomfortable, that is completely not the point of EC. We don't mind changing his diaper after he poops, because we know when he is going and he doesn't have to sit in it for any amount of time. Being 100% toilet trained isn't our point, communicating with our baby and meeting his hygienic needs is the point.
So considering that Frankie pees in the potty about half the time, it seems like we should be saving diapers, but the opposite is true. We are going through diapers like crazy, and we couldn't really understand right away, but then we realized that we are just so aware of his elimination that we change him as soon as he wets. Franklin also has learned to dislike being wet or soiled and he will let us know if he has used his diaper. I think that just being as aware as we are and changing him as often as we do, we are going through more diapers than an average baby. But that just makes me feel so sad for a normally diapered baby, I know our little boy doesn't wet more than once in a diaper, nor does he have to sit in his own elimination like a lot of other babies do. One morning after an endless night I woke up to a baby in a soaked diaper and I actually cried, I felt so bad that he had been in that wet diaper long enough for it to have gotten really, really wet. He had clearly wet in that diaper at least a few times to get it that wet and I felt like a bad parent for not taking better care of my baby. Then I realized that so many babies wake up that wet every day, and I felt so sad for them. At least I love my baby enough to feel the guilt of not meeting his needs overnight, it's just normal for most people to get up to a soaked baby like that.
My biggest worry about doing EC was how we were going to deal with our families. My mother told me straight that she thought it was stupid and wouldn't work. It couldn't work because babies have no idea of their own elimination needs. Well, mom saw him pee in the sink and was the first person to take him to potty by herself. Now she is not only supportive of what we are doing but she is actually an advocate for elimination communication now. A friend of hers is expecting a new grandchild and mom has turned them on to some research about EC. She has also watched the videos on youtube, and done some research herself about EC. Erich's mom would never tell us she thought it was silly, they expect Erich to come up with these kind of ideas anyway. But it was obvious that she wasn't exactly sold on it, until she saw it work. Now she also takes Franklin to the potty when he needs to go. It makes me feel good when other people are involved with Franklin's toileting, I feel like it validates us a little.
The funny thing is that I still have people telling me to let him be a baby and use his diaper. This has been working for us for weeks and people still tell me that we are going to spend our lives running back and forth from the bathroom, even though this has already not been the case. Here is an example of how this is saving me time, not taking more time. This morning I took Frankie into the bathroom at the Ihop and his diaper was dry. I opened one side of it, pulled it aside and held him over the potty. I made the sound. He pooped, then peed, I wiped his butt and closed his diaper back up. If he had used his diaper, like a baby, I would have had to take off his outfit, wipe his butt and those wrinkly little testicles, then put on a new diaper and get him dressed again. The potty was much faster then the diaper, and he never had to sit in his own mess. This does not take more time than diapers, but it does take more attention. I can do that.
This is how it's going for us right now, I'll keep you posted.
Oh by the way, I forgot to mention that we have been on the road for a week. We have been in the truck every day, toured a little, spent a day at the zoo, eaten out every day, staying in hotel rooms, and still having success with EC. The baby goes potty as soon as he comes out of the carseat or ergo carrier, today he peed in a water bottle in the truck once. He has also peed in the parking lot once too. And sometimes he just goes in his diaper and we change him. This baby is so flexible with us, I love it.
Let me first say, I am having a really good time with pottying my little tiny baby boy. He turned three weeks old today, and while we were at the Ihop for breakfast this morning he peed and pooped on the potty in the restroom. He also peed and pooped in the potty when we stopped at an antique store this afternoon. It's funny to enjoy taking my baby to the toilet, most people find potty training to be tedious and frustrating, we find it entertaining and exciting. I honestly couldn't wait to get back to tell Erich that our little bitty boy pooped on the potty.
So here's how it's been going. First of all we did try to get started in the hospital, but it really was tough because of all the people coming and going and because I was recovering from a c-section. We did however start cueing him when we knew he was going, and we did catch a few pees in the sink. We noticed that he pooped when he was nursing, so we decided to take off his diaper and sit him on a towel to nurse, and to our amazement we caught our first poop. The next time I nursed we held him over a basin, and again we caught a poop. That's really all we did in the hospital, but it was exciting to us to see that we would be able to make it work.
We came home with little mister baby and tried to pay closer attention to when our mini man needed to use the potty. It turns out our little one is very easy to figure out, he pretty much only fusses if something is wrong, so we can follow his cues without much issue. If he starts to squirm or fuss, we try the potty first, then we try to nurse, then potty again, then if it isn't those things we just love him till he goes to sleep. These are the only reasons he makes a fuss. It was obvious right from the start that Erich is better at picking up on Frankie's cues than I am, and that he remembers better than I do to cue him when he is going. I was better at holding him in position and getting him to go potty, so working together we are really pretty good at this.
We did have an issue though, our boy pees all over everything. We couldn't get his pee to go in the sink or the toilet without getting a mess all over the wall. We solved this problem one day at my parent's house. On the counter in the bathroom was a dixie cup, I picked it up and held it as a shield over his penis and voila, all the pee went in the sink. We bought little plastic cups to use for this purpose after that, and now that isn't an issue. We often pee him into the shower too, that makes our lives just easier and nobody really cares if there is a little pee in the shower anyway. I'm getting pretty good now at controlling where his pee goes, I haven't used a cup all day today and we haven't had any messes.
Another convenience is that Franklin seems to be waiting longer to go after he signals now. In the beginning we needed to hurry up when he signaled because he couldn't wait too long, but now we have a little more time. He also seems to be beginning to hold his poo until he is in position and signaled to go. At least it seems that way because he has pooped twice on the potty today and did once yesterday too. Up to now he has only gone while nursing. We haven't really bothered to try to catch the poops while he was nursing, because he is a little fussy about nursing positions and we didn't want to make him uncomfortable, that is completely not the point of EC. We don't mind changing his diaper after he poops, because we know when he is going and he doesn't have to sit in it for any amount of time. Being 100% toilet trained isn't our point, communicating with our baby and meeting his hygienic needs is the point.
So considering that Frankie pees in the potty about half the time, it seems like we should be saving diapers, but the opposite is true. We are going through diapers like crazy, and we couldn't really understand right away, but then we realized that we are just so aware of his elimination that we change him as soon as he wets. Franklin also has learned to dislike being wet or soiled and he will let us know if he has used his diaper. I think that just being as aware as we are and changing him as often as we do, we are going through more diapers than an average baby. But that just makes me feel so sad for a normally diapered baby, I know our little boy doesn't wet more than once in a diaper, nor does he have to sit in his own elimination like a lot of other babies do. One morning after an endless night I woke up to a baby in a soaked diaper and I actually cried, I felt so bad that he had been in that wet diaper long enough for it to have gotten really, really wet. He had clearly wet in that diaper at least a few times to get it that wet and I felt like a bad parent for not taking better care of my baby. Then I realized that so many babies wake up that wet every day, and I felt so sad for them. At least I love my baby enough to feel the guilt of not meeting his needs overnight, it's just normal for most people to get up to a soaked baby like that.
My biggest worry about doing EC was how we were going to deal with our families. My mother told me straight that she thought it was stupid and wouldn't work. It couldn't work because babies have no idea of their own elimination needs. Well, mom saw him pee in the sink and was the first person to take him to potty by herself. Now she is not only supportive of what we are doing but she is actually an advocate for elimination communication now. A friend of hers is expecting a new grandchild and mom has turned them on to some research about EC. She has also watched the videos on youtube, and done some research herself about EC. Erich's mom would never tell us she thought it was silly, they expect Erich to come up with these kind of ideas anyway. But it was obvious that she wasn't exactly sold on it, until she saw it work. Now she also takes Franklin to the potty when he needs to go. It makes me feel good when other people are involved with Franklin's toileting, I feel like it validates us a little.
The funny thing is that I still have people telling me to let him be a baby and use his diaper. This has been working for us for weeks and people still tell me that we are going to spend our lives running back and forth from the bathroom, even though this has already not been the case. Here is an example of how this is saving me time, not taking more time. This morning I took Frankie into the bathroom at the Ihop and his diaper was dry. I opened one side of it, pulled it aside and held him over the potty. I made the sound. He pooped, then peed, I wiped his butt and closed his diaper back up. If he had used his diaper, like a baby, I would have had to take off his outfit, wipe his butt and those wrinkly little testicles, then put on a new diaper and get him dressed again. The potty was much faster then the diaper, and he never had to sit in his own mess. This does not take more time than diapers, but it does take more attention. I can do that.
This is how it's going for us right now, I'll keep you posted.
Oh by the way, I forgot to mention that we have been on the road for a week. We have been in the truck every day, toured a little, spent a day at the zoo, eaten out every day, staying in hotel rooms, and still having success with EC. The baby goes potty as soon as he comes out of the carseat or ergo carrier, today he peed in a water bottle in the truck once. He has also peed in the parking lot once too. And sometimes he just goes in his diaper and we change him. This baby is so flexible with us, I love it.
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