A One Time Thing?

The kids had been in for a swim and then became "mud monsters" in the yard and of course needed to have a shower. I followed them upstairs with Mitchell (after he had been forced to have his shower in the laundry tub) to check on the progress. Mitchell was still nakey-butt. And....

He walked into our bathroom where Marlee was having a shower,

and

SAT

down

on the potty

and

peed!!!!!

All on his own accord!

This is a first and HOPEFULLY a sign of things to come?

[It would be so nice because frankly, to say that I have been a bit frustrated about this side of development would be saying it mildly. Typical from what I read but still, I have high aspirations.

We typically get his after sleep pees and a few throughout the day but we definitely aren't accomplishing what we had been. The poops are the most disappointing. It is SO much easier to clean a poop out of a potty than out of a diaper:( ]

Anyway, here's hoping, and I just had to share my JOY!

Warning!!!! Graphic photo!

Don't say I didn't warn you.

These seem to be getting bigger and more and more foul

with the new foods we've been introducing.

And all I have to say is that I am filled with JOY that it is here in the potty

and not all over his behind (although I'll admit it was still a bit sticky to clean up Yecchhh!).

Never-the-less......

He signaled again!

Mitchell definitely signaled potty again today and made the tsss sound!

We were in the basement and he waved his hand but his fingers were together (not like his hello/goodbye wave). I asked if he had to go potty, signed it myself and then he made a tsss sound! I took him upstairs talking about it. He had already gone poop but I certainly see this as progress. Too cool!

He is clearly communicating!

Just after I finished feeding Mitchell a few minutes ago, he made the raspberry sound I didn't really think much of it (I was looking at the laptop and he has been "playing" with the sound a lot in the last few days). But then he pooped. Clearly. I made mention of the sound, took him and changed him and then put him on the potty. Where he then made the noise and pooped some more! Totally cool! We continued on and about 15 minutes later we went downstairs so I could download what I had on the computer and he went in the exersaucer. Again he made the sound and the facial grunt. Too late. He had gone. But cool - he is making the connection!!!

Now I have to learn from this too. Take him seriously. And spend less time on the computer lol!

Intuition is an amazing thing...

Mitchell just woke up from his nap with a whimper moving into a cry. I went up to him and noted to myself that he shouldn't be crying - he had a good nap (2 hours)! Hmm - did he have to go pee? He resisted for a second, then relaxed, and then peed. And the best part? He completely changed and was ALL SMILES! Intuition. Amazing.

Diaper free miss!

This is what diaper free - (or elimination communication) is supposed to look like.



This is what happens when you get distracted.

(It even got all over my toes). Yuck!

Otherwise we have had a great week in this department. Major success and communication - really neat to be doing this and actually having him communicate. I'm really enjoying most aspects of this. Sometimes the up-down-up-down during nursing gets annoying but seeing his face after he goes makes up for it for sure.

Dream a little dream....

I love seeing him like this...

And can I say that he has been making my nights amazing???

Well once I go to bed that is. He is still tending to be up for most of the evening but once we all go to bed he has been doing so well. On Tuesday night he slept 7.5 hours! Most nights it is still somewhere between 4 and 5 at a time but we are also experiencing a lot of EC success. Today we had two poop misses - I was distracted after with guests and didn't think about having just fed him. Yesterday though I caught all of them! He has also had 2 dry nights (me being able to catch him before he goes upon each stirring). The times that we have missed he is just lightly damp which is great. I love this success however it does mean getting up and down a lot. With the side bar now on our bed and Marlee still getting in some nights I have felt a little claustrophobic - even though it is a king! I have found myself sleeping along the bottom of the bed in the early hours. Still, I am happy that he (we) are doing so well in this department. If it all leads to being diaper free earlier then the other two I am ALL for it!

Today he was in the swing, he was fussing, I checked his diaper, he was dry, took him to pee and he went. It is really cool to see him communicating with me this way! So however it works, we will take our sleep as we can and be happy! I know I am!

EC Update

We had a bit of a breakthrough today regarding Elimination Communication! Mitchell fell asleep feeding a few times but wouldn't transfer to another area. Finally I decided to try feeding him in the bed - it worked. He fell asleep within a few minutes and I was able to get away to spend some time making lunch and spend time with the other kids. He slept from 11:30-1:15 (1 hour and 45 minutes)! When I heard him stirring I went right up and he was playing with the blanket and doing a lot of wriggling. I started to change his diaper and realized it was dry so I quickly took him to the bathroom. He pooped! I took him back to bed and he was feeding and then asleep 10 minutes later. (And don't worry - the kids were on their Wii and Dora time and the monitor was on). He slept until 2:40 when we had to start getting ready to go to school. He was wet but he peed again!


On a related note, we've been catching probably 8 out of 10 poops a day! Pees? This kids pees a LOT! I manage to get him to go on the potty frequently but more often then not he is already wet. This is not doing a great job for our diaper service as we go through the diapers very quickly. Thank goodness I have a few extras as I used 15 of my own diapers by pickup today!

Making Progress

Yesterday (I think) I made great strides with Mitchell's elimiation comunication. It was him and I and we just took it easy. I've noticed that some of the times he is crying (after being put down for a second) he is actually saying that he needs to go. So I did follow that lead several times and had A LOT of successful catches. But man he goes a lot! It seemed like I would be there, he'd go and then we'd leave the bathroom and he'd squirm and utter a cry and back we'd go. They weren't all successes but I certainly feel we are making prgress!

Potty Progress!

So I haven't explained it much yet (if at all?) but I am attempting to use elimination communication (EC) with Mitchell this time around. Basically aiming to go diaper free as soon as possible. I'll admit that it was a bit ambitious for me to think that I could attempt to start it from day one, in the hospital. Not when I could hardly move. So fast forward to day 5 when we got home and yes I've been trying to hold Mitchell and catch his "cues" as much as possible.



So far I have learned that he is a good pooper. He likes to go at least 2 or 3 times while I am nursing him. Therefore out came the potty and/or the silver bowl. Not the easiest to hold mind you but I'm getting better. The whole point is to see when he is going and to start "cueing" him with a sound or action - I've chosen a grunting noise for poop and a "Tsss" for peeing. I make these noises when he is going so that eventually when I hold him over the receptacle or toilet and "cue" - he will go on his own.



Fast forward to yesterday - he went on cue for me 4 times!!! Unbelievable! It was really quite cool. I don't know if we are at the point that this will save diapers (we've had to have the diaper service come early both weeks because we have used all the ones we have), but I feel we are making progress! Drew is not impressed that we used the sink so I'll have to work on that.



I've been reading two good books about the topic from the library and there are a few good websites if you google "elimination communication" or "diaper free". The books are Early Start Potty Training by Linda Sonna and Diaper Free! The Gentle Wisdom of Natural Infant Hygiene by Ingrid Bauer.



BTW, we also decided to go with a cloth diaper service (since there is one locally) and the experience so far has been worth it. As I mentioned, he goes through them rather quickly - often soiling one as I'm changing him! The service has been very accomodating but it does take some getting used to. When he wets he is definitly wet so I don't let him sit in it for long - if at all. This is actually supposed to help with the potty training though - not allowing him to get used to the feeling of being wet or dirty which disposables can sometimes do. Either way, I can tell that it is going to be an interesting learning experience.

Diaper discussion

I met today with a woman who I plan on signing up for a cloth diaper service with. She came to the house to show me her product and tell me about her washing service. I am totally excited! I had been debating about how to go about this whole issue since we found out about the baby. I really felt that cloth would be the way to go this time - especially since we can't recycle or compost the diapers through Small Planet anymore. I read some really good posts about cloth diapering on Simple Mom but have honestly left things till the last minute. I then came across an article in the paper about Munchkin Bums and put it on the back burner - still thinking I'd just do it myself. This week I went around to the used clothing stores and realized that there really aren't a lot of used diapers to get out there. Enter the service again - and when I asked Drew, he was totally on board with using a service and not doing anything ourselves. Works for me!


So anyway, I met with Lisa today, who apparently MAKES all of the diapers herself! They looked to be of great quality and the price is comparable to buying disposables. I am still totally on board with trying to go as diaper free (using elimination communication) as much as possible but I realize that I still have to have something around. I can't wait to see how this works out.