EC Grad

I think I can say with 100% certainty that Pookie is now an EC Grad. In the last 2 weeks she has started waking up in the middle of the night to tell me she has to go pee, and during the day she has been 100% reliable, and lets me know when she has to go. My hope was that she would be a grad by the time she turned 2, so we are 2 months ahead of schedule!

I remember when I first started reading about EC it seemed so over the top, and foreign to me. By no means was I against it but it just seemed extremist. Now it seems like the most natural thing you could do.

Last week my sister sent me a link to an article on ECing,
http://www.parentcentral.ca/parent/article/599942
and it just BLEW MY MIND that people got so angry and were so negative about it in their comments. I think a lot of people totally miss the point, and think that you are trying to "train" a newborn, and really it isn't about that at all. Some people say "it is the parents that are trained"... I know some EC parents get offended by this but I do think there is truth to that... and SO WHAT?

So what if I have trained myself to listen to my babies needs, and make sure she isn't sitting in a dirty diaper? Is that really so bad? After my husband - who really just goes along with my ideas, read the article and comments he said "but who puts an age limit on getting past crapping yourself? Seriously!?! " . So true! What is so bad about a child learning to use the potty sooner than later?

Drawing at 21 months & EC update

Pookie is 21 months today.  This morning we did some drawing.  Of course she insisted on using a pen.  I think she likes the tiny lines she can make with it.  I am just so impressed with how she holds the pen.  I can remember being taught the correct way to hold a pencil.  I let her do whatever she wanted and then I stole an idea from a Kumon book I was flipping threw at the bookstore yesterday.  I drew two dots and showed her how to draw a line from one dot to the other.    She had a hard time understanding you stop at the second dot but she loved doing this nonetheless.  Then I drew some circles and asked her if she could draw a circle.  I think she does a pretty good job!

I also drew some pictures of underwear for her to colour in (or over :P ).  Her new favourite word is "UNDEE".  She is quite aware that she gets to wear underwear instead of a diaper and she really loves picking them out.  On the EC front... I don't even think about putting her in a diaper during the day anymore.  Now I am starting to wonder when I will consider her potty trained.

EC - graduation in sight?

Pookie has been doing SO well with using the potty. It has been 3 weeks and I think we have had one accident - when she had a tantrum and lost control. She is even in undies while she is with my mom!! I think the next step is for me to let her have a chance to tell me when she needs to go. To get back on track after the holidays I had to remind her a lot, but now she seems to want to tell me. She will race over to me saying "poo poo, poo poo" (her word for both #1 and 2). I am just fearful of accidents. It feels so good to go so long without one, but perhaps one step back will = more steps forward.

She is still waking up with a very wet diaper in the morning, but she nurses a lot at night. I could put her on the potty, but with sleep being so poor lately I am just not interested.

Zoo Day, great EC day

Yesterday is was -18 celcius (0F) when we arrived at the Zoo to meet our friends and their 1 & 3 year old daughters.  We haven't seen this family since Pookie was a few weeks old.  They are also an AP family, so I was really looking forward to having someone to talk to that was on the same page.   I was also excited to see their youngest who we have never met.

We ended up having such a nice day.  Pooks was into some animals more than others.  I actually thought she would be more excited than she was.  Her favourite animals were definitely the Gorilla's her and the 3 year old "B" really enjoyed watching them for quite some time.   I am pretty sure Pookie had the most fun holding B's hand and walking around.  Seeing the two of them made me so excited for having another baby, and seeing our friends two little girls also did.  I think it also got Jeff more excited about baby #2.  He made a comment about wanting my sister to hurry up an decide on her wedding... so presumably we can figure out when we can start TTC.  YEAH!

During lunch Pooks asked for some "boo boo" -  what she has started calling nursing.  It was nice to be able to nurse her and not feel awkward.   The one year old also had some "boo boo" and chowed down. :P   

I put Pookie in a pullup because I didn't want to chance an accident in the freezing weather.  As it turned out she didn't need one.  After lunch I took her pee and her diaper was still dry.  And at 3pm when we were leaving she kept saying she had to go.  She was all bundled up so I didn't bother taking her.  I thought for sure she would just pee in her diaper, but when we got home her diaper was still dry!!  This is almost 2 weeks with no accidents (except at night and at my mom's).  Even at my mom's she is starting to wear her underwear and has only had accidents when waking up from naps.  I am thinking... hoping she will be potty learned by 2!

ECing is back on track

Over the holidays we got really lazy with ECing.  I stopped offering the potty, I kept her in diapers and we pretty much only got her on the potty once a day.  Now I am getting more sleep and we are back to our normal routine, she is back in undies during the day.  Within a couple days of being in underwear she had her first dry day!  She still needs me to tell her when to go, but if the past predicts the future she should start taking the initiative again.  She told my mom she had to poop when she was over there, and before bed she usually tells me she has to go.  She also has woken up in the night and asked to go, and today she woke up from her nap to go.

She is 20 months now so I have changed my mentality a bit because I feel like the end could be in sight.  I want to do all I can do to get her potty learned sooner than later, without putting pressure on her.  For me that just means not being lazy about reminding her, and not using diapers at all during the day, even when we go out.  Today I took her out in underwear.  We went swimming and she peed before and after, and then we went grocery shopping and I never worried.  I am hoping tomorrow will be a dry day.

The one thing I must not let myself do is get angry if she does have an accident.  I am never mad at her, but I do get mad at myself, and it does no good to show that.  I just have to remember that if she does have an accident she is still learning and gaining understanding of how it all works.

Good Intentions don't always = a good day

Today I had all these wonderful intentions.  Pookie would have a dry day, we would spend lots of time outside happily enjoying nature, and we would do some fun activities together.  Unfortunately Pookie and I were not on the same page.  For some reason she decided to pee in some weird spots today.  These weren't accidents - she intentionally peed on top of her slide and then in the dog bed.  It is frustrating, but she is only 18 months and I just keep reminding myself it is normal and she is ahead of lots of children who are older than her.

Next... I have decided we need to go outside to play even when it is chilly.  I took her out and it was a disaster!  Everything was frustrating her.  She loves to hold the dog's leash and she had zero patience when the dog wasn't cooperating.  There were quite a few tears so we came inside. 

Then I thought she might like to do some of her Montessori activities... nope she wasn't interested... until she found a M&M's container and decided she would like to put water in that.  I got her set up and she poured water from various containers for almost 30 minutes.  Then she got bored and went to her Montessori shelf and brought the chickpeas over and poured them into the water.  She really liked that and it kept her busy for another 20 minutes.

Sometimes you just need to take a step back and forget about your own agenda and see what your child wants to do.   She often does enjoy it when I initiate an activity, but there are lots of days were I just need to be a passive observer, keep her safe and let her do her own things.

Great EC Weekend

We had a surprisingly good weekend on the EC front.  On Saturday I had a choreograph a ballet dance so Pookie and Daddy were on their own.  Daddy took Pookie to the mall in her undies and she did a poop at the mall.  Then yesterday she was commando the whole time we were at her cousins.  She did a pee before we went to leave and wouldn't put a diaper on for the the drive home.  I decided to chance it and let her go diaper free for the hour long drive home.  About 10 minutes into our drive along the highway she signed to go potty.  We pulled into a McDonalds and she pooped!  

She is really enjoying pulling her own pants down and up.  I am really looking forward to her "graduation".  I hopeful it will be before she turns 2.  

I really love these Ikea potties.  They are only $2.99 canadian.  Before I found them I bought the Baby Bjorn Little Potty but it is 5 times as expensive and Pookie actually prefers the Ikea one.  The one good thing about the BBLP is that it is smaller so it is better for infants.

Our EC Story

 Today Pooks and I went to the mall.  I put her in a diaper but I could of taken her in underwear.  I took her to the washroom after we had been there for a while and she peed in the huge public toilet.  A few months ago she would go near those big toilets but now she will happily go on it.  I think I will start taking her out in underwear with waterproof pants overtop.  I find she knows the difference between underwear and diapers, so it seems like it is pretty important to keep her in underwear as much as possible.  I am really hopeful she will be totally diaper-free in the day by the time she is 2.  My goal has always been to have her potty learned by the time we have another baby.  

She is around 8 months in the above picture.  At this point she was going quite frequently on the toilet.  She seemed to prefer the potty insert. The way I approached it (we were "late" starters at 7 months), was to put her on the potty when she woke up from sleeping, or anytime I thought I could get her to sit there.  I tried to catch one pee a day.  While she peed I would say "You are going pee pee".  Sometimes I would catch no pees and I felt so discouraged.    Eventually she started to make the connection and would release her bladder if it was full when she was on the toilet.  I just kept up-ing the amount of pee's I tried to catch.  I remember it was Boxing Day when I caught the first poo, and something really must of clicked because since that day I have probably only cleaned about 10 poopy diapers.  Things just got easier and easier.  The best thing I did was to stop putting so much pressure on myself, and not aim to be "perfect".  Once I did that we became so much more successful.