Potty Training... at 20 months

Well, we are doing potty training little by little. I have heard many people say either do it or don't do it, you will confuse the child... all that stuff. I'm ignoring advice right now. :) As usual.

It's not full our potty training because Levi can't talk all the way. He knows what the potty is. He knows what going tee tee is, I think he knows what poop is too. He knows he doesn't like diapers. But, I'm not sure he likes training pants that much either. I wouldn't like them, they are Walmart and the elastic seems too tight and rough on his skin... Might need to go shopping for some softer version.

So, I put him on the potty after he wakes up usually, he hasn't pooped on it yet, but he has peed a couple of times and he receives lots of praise when he does. Then he gets to help dump it into the big toilet and flush it. He usually tells it "bye bye" ... which is adorable if you could just hear it in his sweet little voice.

Last night I put him on the potty for a little while. I don't ask him if he has to pee as much, I just say, "Now we're going to sit on the potty." Because usually he replies "no" to any question at all. It's his default. Also, I've heard some kids just don't want to stop doing what they are doing so they just hold it in. I want him to know that he HAS to sit on the potty sometimes and at least try. This is what we do, this is part of being a human being. So he sat on it for about a minute or two, played in the shower curtain, tried to get up and play in the bathtub, we talked about how when you have to go poo poo you have to push it out, we talked about going tee tee. Finally, there was nothing so I said, "Okay, I guess you don't have to go" and I let him go.  Of course then I was lazy and didn't put a diaper on him. I like to let him run free sometimes because I feel like it's good for his skin. He loves it too :).  Of course about ten minutes later I caught him peeing on the carpet. I don't think it was on purpose, it just sort of surprised him. He looked at me worried and I said, "whoops! We don't tee tee on the carpet, we go on the potty." So I took him to the potty and he didn't have to go anymore. Then I cleaned it up and we talked about how if he needs to go he can tell mommy and I will take him to the potty.

I never get angry at him or spank him for going on the floor. I don't stress out if he's not going on the potty. It's all just a trying game. We talk about everything. We talk about how we won't have to weary yucky diapers if he will go tee tee on the potty and how we will get to wear big boy pants like daddy when he stops going in his diapers. (He wants to be like daddy SOOO badly and it's adorable).

Yep, so that's my story.

Okay, so all day I have been wanting to post about this morning's craziness! I was nursing Levi and he just felt like he was really super full, but he wasn't pooping and his nursing was slowing down, I wasn't near empty. So I took his diaper off, he didn't complain and I put him on his toilet and immediately he pooped and peed, it was like he was waiting for it! My husband came in and I told him about it. Levi had stopped for a bit so I assumed he was done. His diapers were in the wash so I took the diaper out from under him to actually put on him (a cloth one) and had a fleeting thought of putting him on his potty again. I sort of was looking at how much he had pooped, got distracted and like 5 seconds later he pooped everywhere! I mean, more like directly at my poor husband who was sitting there and playing with Levi. It shot out like 6 inches ... it was ridiculous! So we had to get the carpet cleaner and wipe it all up.

Lesson: I should have gone with my guts again that he might need to poop again. Now I won't be so quick to take him off and be quicker to put him on his toilet :)

So today has been a success and an unsuccess. I don't take myself too seriously if you can't tell already. :) I'm just excited about this process of teaching him to go on the toilet, this process of communicating and learning about what his little body needs and doesn't need.

He has been so fun and interesting to get to know. It's all just a process that feels like forever sometimes, and sometimes feels like passes by so quickly.

I am disappointed to miss the La Leche League Friday morning... I was hoping to talk to some of the other EC moms some more, oh well, it will come around again next month.

I need to get a wool blanket so I won't have to worry so much about my carpet during diaper free time.

I also want to get some infant training pants. I was thinking about making them but then my mom suggested getting the smallest I could find and altering them... that might be easiest, I'm not sure. Is $7 expensive for infant potty training pants? I'm not sure. I'll look online I guess.

Levi's going through a growth spurt. He's 4 months as of last Tuesday. Bout time for that. I feel like I'm nursing all the time. I think he might be kind of teething too :(

Okay, so today has officially been and "unsuccessful day" I categorize a success as anything in the potty. Actually, now that I put it that way, I can't count today as unsuccessful. Today Levi pooped all over his pee pad (so thankful it didn't get on the carpet) and then I put him on his potty and he pooped about the size of a dime. So I guess that was sort of a success. Not really.

My standards are low so that on days like today I won't feel so bad and on good days like yesterday and the day before I will be soaring. And because I am working with a baby. :)
I'm working with a baby and he is only 16 weeks out of the womb, therefore, my standards need to be low. This is what I need to remind myself of in these moments when he is tired and I am tired and I just want to break down and cry in the midst of his screams. I need to step back and re-focus.

Re-focus on what is my goal? What are my intentions? Am I putting too much pressure on him? Am I offering the potty too often, not often enough? Am I keeping a loose eye on the clock? Is he well-rested? Does he have a rash? Stepping back seems like a healthy thing right now. Not quitting, I won't quit or throw in the towel all together, but I will just lay all these troubles down at the Father's feet and remember that His mercies are new every morning. Or just that His mercies are new after every nap time :)

Lord, give me strength for today. Your grace is sufficient for this impatient, overtired mommy. Teach me to love him as You have loved me. Let him grow into a strong man of faith and love. Let him be full of compassion and mercy for those around him. May he stand in fear of the Lord and lead others from sin into the beauty of knowing You and Your death on the cross. Thank you for perspective Lord. Thank you.

I woke Levi up again this morning. He had a couple of toots, but I still decided to nurse him or else he would scream while on the potty. Potty-ing before food does not work for Levi, he will have none of it. But he held it until we were finished. I put him on his potty, made the noise and he started pushing.

Can I just say that I'm amazed by him? He's so little and young and already has this natural instinct? God is amazing. He created us fearfully and wonderfully. Levi and his little personality already starting to show, the growth that has taken place in his life thus far, his little smiles, his movements... God is amazing and I am in awe.

I was just thinking about this yesterday, I want to literally tell everyone about this potty training thing. It's like the best kept secret. I heard a statistic that the average family spends 2500 dollars in diapers in a child's life. Much more I'm sure as the child gets older and continues not to be potty trained. Now, cloth diapers help, but you still have to wash and dry them, so that's money in water and electricity... I think about this EC thing and it's the best idea! It's much cleaner than having to clean poop off your child's bottom. When Levi poops on the potty, I hardly have to wipe him at all, when he poops in his diaper it is all over his bottom. It's economical and it's logical. If you're a stay at home mom, you have to deal with poop all day long, why not just get it directly in a potty where you won't have to touch it? You can just dump it out and rinse out the potty.

Even working moms I think could do it. They can just put their child on the toilet in the morning and in the evening, make the noise and if they go they go. At least they become used to sitting on the toilet. They will get it sooner or later. I think it's more psychologically damaging to train them to be completely unaware of their bowel movements and need to pee until they are two or even three... I am sorry if I have offended anyone, but I just had to go on another rant today. Just thinking about it gets me kind of excited and all. :) I'm totally weird... I KNOW! :)

First Post!

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.