Hello blogging world! I have done this sort of thing before, but not with this specific task. My desire is to share my "potty training" experiences with the world.
My sister-in-law, Lindsay originally told me about this new thing called Elimination Communication (EC). It's basically infant potty training. You come up with a noise or cue for when your infant eliminates and make that noise every time you hear or see them go. Eventually you can put them on a potty or bowl or whatever you choose (the women in the bush like to just have them go on the ground and then clean it up later) and then make the noise to teach them when to go.
It sounded crazy ... but then so did the prospect of changing thousands (yes, I believe it is thousands) of diapers in the first two or three years of Levi's life, so I wanted to try it. I started looking online for websites and found this great one www.diaperfreebaby.org and started reading testimonies or moms who had tried it and loved it. They sounded a little extreme, but a lot of it made sense.
So when Levi was born I started making a noise every time I heard or saw him eliminate. It's sort of a pssssss psssss sound, like the sound of peeing. I thought it would be appropriate :) I wasn't sure if this was getting through or not, he had a difficult time nursing and I didn't "feel" that instant connection right away. Communication with him felt difficult at times. He was about 5 or 6 weeks old when I was nursing him one day and I noticed he was extra squirmy so I made his little noise and he went immediately! I didn't know if it was on purpose, but it seemed to work.
The next big milestone that made me a believer came when he was 9 weeks old. I decided to nurse him without a diaper (very scary considering he's a boy!). He didn't poop the whole time, I don't remember if he peed or not, and he would usually go during or just after nursing. So I got out his little Baby Bjorn potty and stuck him on it and made the noise and he went in the potty! on the first time! What?! I was going crazy, I took a picture of it, yes, poop and all, and sent it to my husband. It was amazing!
So now Levi is 14 weeks old and is pooping about half the time on the potty. We have our ups and our downs, our good days, our bad days and ugly days. Days that we can't seem to catch a single poop, days when he is hungry all the time, days with diaper rashes and days that are hear perfect.
This is my EC adventure. Join me if you would like.
I'm only 2 months pregnant and want to thank you profusely for encouragement and preparation...I'd prefer the more "bush" woman -style of outdoor elimination, because that's my personal preference when noone can see me... Unfortunately my husband and I don't live in a tropical place yet where that would be remotely close to realistic, so I appreciate your advice about combination diapers and diaperless.
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