So i’m going to take this opportunity to introduce myself. I’m a young 30ish stay at home mama. I have 3 kids whom i love with my whole heart, body and soul. I’m pretty crunchy, meaning i try to live lightly on the earth and help others to do so too. I try to lead by example. I’m not a great speller. I had advice for pretty much everything, but i try to give it in the nicest way possible. I’m not judgmental. I’m not a writer, and i dont plan on being one. I want to live by the seat of my pants, but i’m far too practical for that. I’m married to a man i met online – by accident. He challenges me in ways i never thought i could be, sometimes i like it, sometimes i done.
and of course, I use very little diapers.
I started learning about diaper free/elimination communication when I was pregnant with my daughter. That was 2 years ago. My husband got out a book from the library called “Diaper Free – the gentle wisdom of natural infant hygiene”. I wasn’t overly impressed. did he have no idea what it’s like having a newborn? Did he know of the lack of sleep? the constant pee-ing? and how to keep the house stuff up on top of it all? Well, I guess not, not if he expected me to do all that and try to not use diapers. I read the book a bit (but not a lot) to humour him. What I got from it was that you let your baby go around without a diaper and then you held him/her over a bucket when you thought they might pee or poo.
Silly me. we didn’t do any diaper free with Pait because I’m a stubborn scorpio and I had no intention of holding my baby over anything. She could pee in a diaper just like any other civilized child.
The more I heard about it, the more it intrigued me. I became a part of an online attachent parenting group and learned that there was families that practiced ec with their young ones. I belong to an online group of wonderful mamas and learned that some of those mamas do it. I saw a talk show that had a segment about diaper free. It just kept popping up in my world, and I was intrigued.
I planned on taking the diaper off Pait when she hit about a year. I thought it was best that way, because it would be easier for her to go when she was standing up, and I’d be able to notice her easier. yea, that didn’t work the way I thought it might. By the time they’re walking, they’re running away. good luck trying to notice anything!!
We continued potty learning with Paity. She had a bit of success, but by then I’d already trained her to go in her diaper. I taught her to not listen to her body, not learn to control it. Sometimes she got it, sometimes she didn’t. by the time she was 20 months old, I had cleaned up a lot of pees. She had lost interest, and I was 7 months pregnant. We put little miss Paity back into diapers, and we were both fine with that.
When Lief came along, we decided we were going to do this. I decided I wanted to do this.
I started to “cue” him whenever I’d change his diaper and we’d get the fountain of pee. I’d make a “psspsspsspss” noise when he’d pee. We had him in diapers for the first 5 weeks but then I noticed that he wasnt pee’ing when I’d change him anymore. I wasn’t getting the oppertunity to “cue” him. After talking to some other ecing mums, I took the next step. I started to put him on the potty after he’d wake up. the first time it worked, he pee’d. so i made the cueing sound. the second time, it worked again, and again, and again! it was amazing! I’ve been doing this for just over a week now, and I’m in love with it.
He’s peeing and pooing on the potty. Yesterday was our best day, he only used 3 diapers – cloth at that – in total.
You know what the best part is? Paity is going on the potty too. After no suggestions to her from us, she just started to ask to go. She doesn’t seem at all jealous, she just wants to go. The “pretty pink potty” has never been more used!
So this blog will be a cronicle of the ups and downs of ec, and our journey on the wave. Enjoy!
Jen
