Potty Time!

Similarly to our attempt at making baby number 2, we are gonna take the chill route with potty training. I am chomping at the bit to be done with diapers, especially since, the girls I was a nanny to, were total pieces of cakes to train.  I really, really don't want to have a nightmare, long, drawn-out, back and forth potty training experience.


We have been doing Elimination Communication, part time, since Penelope was 6 months old.  I was very chilax about that too.  I was perfectly happy to do it part time and not worry about being successful about it.


Since we have been doing EC, the potty has had a presence for a long time.  The potty ain't no big thing to her.  She is not scared of it, or enthralled with it.  It is just there.


For the longest time, Penelope stopped going tee-tee or poo on the toilet.  She refused.  She would go next to the potty, or near the potty, or in the bathroom, but on the floor. 


Again, I just let it go.  And I put no pressure on her.  I would say very simply and even mannered, "let's go tee-tee on the potty next time so I don't have to clean up a mess."  


When she tells me she is about to go, I always asked if she wanted to go on the potty.  When she would say no, I would move on, and not give it another thought. 


A couple of months ago, I bought her some big girl panties.  I was at the mall with my parents and Penelope spied these panties in Macy's and freaked out.  


So I thought, what the hey, lets buy them and see what happens.  Ava, one of the girls I was a nanny to, up and potty trained in pretty much one day.  One day she woke up and she refused to wear diapers, because she wanted to wear princess panties so bad.  


I thought that getting Penelope to wear them around the house, when she normally is just buck naked, might be a good idea and that the feeling of wetness, might motivate her to go on the potty.  


About a month after I bought the panties, she started saying yes, she wanted to go on the potty.  But only for poop.  Not sure what that is about, but I will take it.  She is now back to her EC baby days, of doing all her poos on the potty.


I am no expert in potty training, but I know I don't want to bribe her with M&M's.  I do give her lots and lots of praise when she goes on the potty.  I can't help it.  I am still not sold on the praise is bad theory either.  We sing and dance a potty song and she looooves it.


So we will see how it goes, let her lead the way. 


And now the most important part of the post... cute pictures of my daughter's butt!  Hopefully she won't be mad at me when she is in her twenties.

Princess panties while helping redecorate her playroom!  

This might be one of my favorite baby pics of her.  She was the fattest, cutest baby.

Ok, maybe this one is.   I could eat those thighs!!






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Elimination Communication

We have decided to try Elimination Communication in our house.  Err...I mean with Penelope (although Peter and I do communicate about our elimination, it goes like this, "I need to PEE! Right NOW! Can you PLEASE hold the baby!?!")

I never dreamed I would be participating in something like this.  I am about as crunchy and earthy of a mama as it gets, but EC seemed like too much. Too gross for one. I had images in my head of what it would be like, similar to the scene in the recent movie, Babies, where the African mom is wiping poo from her newborn's butt on her knee, then scraping the poo off with an old corn cob.

Um, no thanks.

I will stick to cloth diapers, thankyouverymuch.

And when my dear friend approached me and said she would be doing it with her daughter. I thought, well good for you, but its not for me.

Insert foot in mouth and today I have done a 180.  I am falling in love with EC.  Also known as Early Infant Potty training, or Elimination Timing,  or Natural Infant Hygiene. It's basically learning to communicate with your child about when they need to go.  Just like you know their signs for when they are hungry or tired, babies give "tells" or signs that they are about to eliminate.   Don't get me wrong.  Its hard work.  And requires absolute 100% attention to your child.  But just like anything that is hard work, the rewards you reap from it make it worth the while.

What sold me on the idea was idea that doing EC makes you more in tune with your child.  I practice Attachment Parenting (ie, breastfeeding, babywearing, co-sleeping) and I thought I was about as attached and in tune with Penelope as I could be.  Once I started doing EC with her, I realized how much I tune her out and become un-aware even when I am sitting on the floor and doing nothing but playing with her.  It forces me to practice being in the moment and not think about anything else.  Notice, I said practice.  Because even though I am yoga teacher and have been using mediation in my life for quite some time, it is still very difficult for me.  My mind is constantly racing in a million directions and thinking about what I need to do next.

Instead of being in this. moment. right. now.

So that realization was pretty profound.    I realized that I had no idea what Penelope's "tells" where before she poo'd or peed.  I knew when she was pooping, but had no idea what her behavior was just before.  I am still learning her tells, but I am finding that she usually farts about a minute before she actually starts pooping or peeing.  And she tends to poop about the same time each day.  She also gets real quiet and still right before.  And I have even noticed a couple of times, she will crawl to the same spot.  I don't have it down pat AT ALL, sometimes she pees while she is getting breast milk (either through a bottle or nursing) sometime she pees 5 minutes after getting milk, sometimes as much as 25 minutes.  She seems to pee a whole bunch in the morning, after "sleeping" all night, and not as much in the afternoon.

Since I don't have her tells down pat yet, that means I am cleaning up a lot of messes.  Which doesn't really bother me, actually.  With cloth diapers I need to spray it off in the toilet before putting in the dirty bin, so its almost as much time to do that, than it is to clean up a little puddle on the floor.  It also means I have been peed on.  But I just throw the clothes or the spill mat in the laundry and go on about my day.  It does get frustrating sometimes.  I will be on the floor with her, intensely staring at her or constantly putting her on and off the potty and making the "ppppsssssss" sound and NOTHING.  Then the second I get up to do something, and I am not 100% paying attention, she pees all over her mat!!!  Not only do I have to clean up the mess, but I missed an opportunity to say "pppppsssss" while she was peeing to help her with the word/sound association (which will help her pee on command later).

We have the best success just after she gets up from a nap or in the morning.  I put her on the potty right after she gets up and make the sound.  I am usually on the potty as well and saying things like "Mama's going potty too!" I am also making the sound, and signing the sign for potty at the same time.  When she goes on the potty, she gets lots of praise and joy!  Then I dump out her little potty in the toilet, spray it down with water and then spray with an all purpose spray to kill any germs. 

I am not going to be hard core about it and I don't have a goal of being diaper free.  Instead we will do it part time, when I have engery to do it.  We will keep using cloth diapers for when are out and about, during sleep, and anytime during the day when I can not give her my full attention.  I think any little bit of EC is good, there are so many benefits to doing EC.   It's less time she is sitting in a pee diaper, and she is learning to be able to tune into her own body and notice her movements.    Hopefully, it will set the stage for real potty training and maybe make it easier or happen sooner.  There is no goal for me except to learn more about my daughter, and be more in tune and connected to her.  As long as that is happening, I am a happy mama.

Mimi the Sardine Spill Mat Review

Mimi the Sardine sent me their Spill Mat to review about a month ago, when they sent the Messy Baby Bib to giveaway.  I have been using it this whole time under her high chair when Penelope eats dinner with us.  It has really worked great.  Its a large enough of a square of fabric (42"x42"), that it pretty much catches everything that falls.  I lazily, wipe it down, after dinner or pick up the big pieces (ok, Peter does this) and then I fold it up and put in the little bin that is on the bottom area of her high chair till next time.   Once a week I wash in the machine for a good cleaning.  The Spill Mat can double as a art mat for letting the tots go crazy with creative time, but I found and even better use...

Just last week we starting doing Elimination Communication with Penelope. Half of our house is tiled and wood floors but the other half is carpet, and she spends a good amount of time playing on the carpeted areas.  We have our house on the market and just got our carpets cleaned, so I was not about to let her go diaper free over the carpets.  As I brain stormed about what I could do to contain any messes, I gazed at her Spill Mat folded up underneath her high chair.  And I thought, "BINGO!!"  I can spread her Spill Mat over the carpet and let her play with her toys on that.  And it worked perfectly! If I don't catch a pee-pee, I just wipe it and spray it down with my homemade all purpose spray and keep on using it.  Once, I missed part of a poo-poo, and I wiped it down and then through it in the wash with the cloth diapers.   I let it air dry in the laundry room and it was dry within a half hour and ready for use again.

The mat is made of organic cotton with a water based acrylic coating on it.  So no nasty chemicals!  And they have the CUTEST patterns and designs to choose from.

I really, really like this product and recommend it for feeding/art time OR if you are practicing Elimination Communication!

{Full disclosure: Mimi the Sardine sent me the Spill Mat to review and in return I keep the mat.}