Day 1: Good Start

Julia turned 16 weeks yesterday and I've been thinking a lot about her diapers. As much as I like how the Seventh Generation diapers fit her, I want to try to get away from disposables for many reasons. I also don't like washing cloth frequently -- the energy use bothers me. I do pretty well there with 1-2 times a week depending on how disposable free we go that week.

So I was kind of flailing about wondering if my old idea of getting her to pee in a container was worthwhile or not when I stumbled upon the phrase "elimination communication."

Fascinating!

And more fascinating that I had been instinctively trying to do it when we first brought her home and she was squirting all over the place as Paul struggled to care for her while I was dealing with C-section recovery. At the time I had this little sandwich box type container laying in the crib. I remember Mom asked me why it was there and I didn't feel like getting into it all. But I did manage to pee her into it a few times when Paul wasn't handy for a diaper change.

I don't feel like getting into it all with relatives or friends just yet either. I want to give Julia, Paul and me a fair chance and trying to work this out on our own before we face any comments from people "in real life" -- be it for good or for bad.

I think Paul's a little frightened of cloth diapering. He's done it a few times, but he sticks to what he's gotten to know best -- disposables. He does a great job with it and I love how involved he is with her. But approaching Paul is best on the slow and easy. Like when I got him to try Indian food and he found out he liked it. Or to try vegetarian food. Or to ride Space Mountain with me. Or getting married. Having the baby.

Paul told me in the car last weekend that he had had a block about disposable diapering before the baby arrived. That he wanted to be as involved in her care as possible, but he struggled to get his mind around the how's of changing a diaper. I remember coaching him through the early ones from the bed -- those stupid C-sect. staples wouldn't let me bend so he did all the diapering for 2 solid weeks! I let him go with Seventh Generation disposables because with everything else he was doing we could spare him extra laundry chores. Then we compromised on cloth at home (where I do most of the changes) and disposables out (where he does them.)

I'd like for him to move on to the next step to getting Julia housebroken -- cloth 24/7 if not EC. Children in cloth train faster since they can tell when they are wet. Super wicking disposables are awesome for leak control but they do make it hard for the baby to know when she's soiled. Besides, I have all the cloth supplies. Why bother buying more disposables when there's cloth diapers around that work just fine?

But before I can ask him to think about doing that, I have to take some experimental outings in cloth first. He likes it better if I preview things before he has to do it. (Like the dentist!)

Paul told me once that while he is compeltely behind me with nursing Julia, he feels kind of tense about it when we're out in public. Not that it bothers him to see me nurse her in public, but he's always worried some person will come along and comment in a bad way. I know it's the shyness.

And while we seem to be raising an AlternaTot, I can understand his qualms about other people making comments about how we do things with her. I think about that kind of thing and how I would react too.

[...]

This morning I heard her start slurping her thumb so I got her up after a 7 hour sleep block and got her squatting over the plastic shoebox I sometimes use to shuttle dirty diapers to the bathroom to pre-wash. Probably could have let her sleep more but I was too excited about watching her pee in a box. She kind of yawned, twiddled her feet, and stared at the box.
I said, "Pee, baby, ssssssssssss..." and she went!

I got so excited I accidentally squeezed her too tight and she let out a little squeal. So I caught my 1st official "elimination communication" pee. I'm not counting the really newborn ones because I wasn't making the effort to read her potty cues then. I was floundering around trying to find my groove.

But I'm happy. I like being home with her and I like facing new challenges and watching her development.

Dad told me I'm doing a good job on Friday and Mom told him that I know more than she did with me as a new mother. She was impressed that I handle Julia with the confidence I do.

I'm a bit curious to see how they react to my choosing to start potty training her at this age.

[8:05 PM]

Unexpected monkey wrench in my EC plans today when Mom called about car trouble. We had to go over there and help them out and we were rushing because they had to be at work by a certain time. So no time to nurse baby or move her from cloth to disposable. I'd been smack in the middle of anticipating a poo cue within 30 min. So we bunged everyone into the car and went to Mom's 5 miles away. I'd been hoping to catch it at their house but she was too fast and it was a BIG one and leaked on the car seat cover.

Paul was kind of teasing/complaining about cloth after that explosion.

Not fair since we were trying out something new with this EC business and it was the first time she's ever exploded out of a cloth. She simply had too big a poo to contain. It happens with disposables too. Once it is saturated, be it cloth or disposable, it just starts to leak out because it has no other place to go.

I asked him to help me understand what the struggle was with him and cloth diapers and if there was a way I could help him feel more confident. Like if he'd prefer countoured diapers or AIO's to prefolds. Paul said he was just joking and he probably should just stop joking around and avoid misunderstandings. He knows that baby care wears me down and while I try to understand where he's coming from if he teases me too much I can get mad.

I think he is just having trouble moving from something he's grown comfortable with (7th Generation disposables) to something new. (cloth) I pointed out that disposables were new to him once too -- he's just grown used to them and whatever happened with the "I'll support you if you want to do cloth" talk?

He laughed and told me, "Yep. I'll supoort you while YOU do the cloth changes."

To his credit, Paul got one on today and it was fine. We went to the park and back in it without a problem or needing a change out in the playground.

We both were a bit worried though when we noticed a slight red blood stain in her poo diaper. None since the one time so I don't know if it's discharge like when she was born from my BCP or dairy in my diet or what. I plan to keep an eye on it and if it happens again make a doc appt. I'll keep a closer watch on mny diet too.

[9:55 PM]

Was nursing Julia and when she started pulling away and looking away I took her to the crib and held her over the box. She peed! Yay!

Sometimes when she pulls off the breast it's gas or being done or just being grouchy. Learning to tell the difference between all these signals is going to take some time but I'm so proud of her!

Mailing list person suggested 15 min into a nursing as time to expect a cue. I hadn't been watching the clock -- I was watching her. But I'll start paying attention to that too. Maybe I'll catch more that way?

She was in the Huggies that Paul had put her in and it was nice to get her in and out quickly. Much quicker than a Snappi'd prefold and a Bummi cover. But they have a strange odor that the Seventh Generation diapers do not have. Definitely my second choice disposable. The fit is good, but that funky smell. Ew. Ever since the pregnancy smells get to me even more, I was bad about smells even before that!

I'd considered having her in her swim diapers for EC but perhaps I should reconsider an AIO. The speed for me to EC and then the familiarity for Paul to cross over to cloth?

Stuff to think about while I wait for my copy of _Infant Potty Training_ to arrive.

Overall, good start for sure. Here I'm flying by the seat of my pants and I catch 2 pees and almost a poo. I was also at least aware of 3 other diaper events before they happened even though I couldn't EC her while out. I missed a couple completely like the one where I fell asleep, but I'm getting more of them that I'd thought I would on day 1!

There's much to be said for mother's intuition -- and the bulk of it lies with good observation!