Elimination Communication, Day 8

Some funny things have happened over here since I last posted.

Natasha poo'd on the floor just as I was lifting her onto the potty. Guess she just couldn't wait. I've also been peed on. Don't know what that was about.

When the weekend came, I was a bit nervous about going to church, to Target, to Wholefoods. Up until this point I stayed mostly at home. I resolved to stay relaxed about the whole thing and just listen to her signals, give her a chance to potty at departure and a chance to potty at arrival. (Basically, same rules that apply to Noelle, as well).

I have a little portable potty that I keep in the car for Noelle. I just use this for Natasha and it's working great! It only takes a minute or two to potty her in the car. She goes, I dump the pee on the ground outside the car.

At church I just took her out of the carrier to pee after I went to the bathroom myself. And today at Wholefoods she was making a bunch of sounds letting me know, "I NEED to go!" So I said, "Ok, wait just a little bit and I'll try to get to the potty." I have a certain route I take when I'm at the market, grabbing everything on my shopping list in a certain order. I tried to work fast, and when I got to the back of the store, where the bathrooms are, I left my cart and took Noelle and the baby to the bathroom. I let Natasha out and held her over the toilet. She went like a race horse again! Does it completely surprise me that she can hold it this long? YES. It seems like she can hold it longer than my oldest girl.

We also went to the park today again. But today I wanted to stay longer and let Noelle play. What was I going to do with the small-bladder-frequent-peeing-baby? After about 45 minutes, she needed to go. I went behind a tree and squatted her there. She went. Nobody saw. Nobody cared. She had privacy because I was shielding her. And besides, don't people change their babies' diapers at the park, on a mat, wiping their little tushies for all to see anyway? So what's the big deal? I figure that she will mature as she grows older, be able to hold her bladder for longer and longer. This is just a temporary inconvenience.

Ok, now what about night-time?

At first, I was taking her to potty in the middle of the night when she would make sounds telling me she needed to go. Or maybe she already went and wanted to get up and have some social interaction time with mommy. But after 4 days of her not wanting to fall back asleep until an hour or two later, that got old really fast. I think I was waking her up too much by going through a whole pee routine. So right now we are wearing a disposable to sleep at night. I nurse when she wakes up and put her back in bed immediately. She falls right back to sleep. We need our sleep!! So I've decided just to let her soak up her diaper for the 12 hours she's in it!

What about naps?

As of today, she woke up from two naps dry. First time EVER. Usually she's wet upon waking. She must be maturing. She's almost 5 months old.

I'm not sure how much more I plan to post about our EC experience. Maybe when there's a major glitch. For now it seems to have settled into a routine without too much eventfulness.