EC (Elimination communication) – Page 4

Days and nights with new babe…

Khéna is a great baby… Of course there is not such thing as a bad babe, but there are babe’s that are easier than others and he is one of the easy ones.. of course it helps that all of his needs are met the second that he expresses them and he is never out of arms awake or sleeping.. but he is a very relaxed and mellow baby.. Days are spent sleeping, nursing and with a few diaper changes and ECing thrown in there.

I started to EC him on Sat morning so he was 4 days old then… Now on Day 9 he gives me good signals when he has to poo… and semi clear to pee…

Yesterday I caught all of his poos except for one and though his diaper is most often wet when I go to potty him, he still does one then also… today again I have just missed one… and his signals are getting clearer… or at least he is expressing himself louder 😉
Nursing him has also been really easy. Though I didn’t have big problems with Xavier or Colin, I have even less with Khéna. Though he was doing a lot of clicking noises for the first 2 days until my milk came in, he had no problem latching, he wasn’t hurting me at all and just a few times of sucking on my finger and me pushing his tongue down a bit combined with my milk coming in fixed that problem. He is also the first of the three that has no problem latching on while laying down and doesn’t gag at my overactive let down. I guess those few extra pounds have him an advantage…
This has made night so easy. He nurses when we go to bed and then gives us a solid 5-6 hour stretch before waking to nurse. Simon gets up to change of diaper, potty him and then I nurse him and he gives me a few more hours.

I have really enjoyed baby mooning also. Besides having twice slept in a bouncy chair next to me while we ate supper he hasn’t been out of our arms or cuddled near us in bed since birth. I have also not been out of the house since I gave birth. We have ordered groceries online, Ordered gifts for the kids online, Simon has walked to the store`with the boys etc… we have not had many guests either, so we have truly been in a bubble made for five…

To be honest, though I am getting antsy to leave the house, I am not looking forward to going out, not in the car at least. Because Simon doesn’t drive that means that I have to, which in turn means that Khéna will be in the bucket seat in the back seat. Simon will sit next to him but he will seem so far away from me and I am not looking forward to that. Though I was very attached to the boys after birth, this baby moon has made me so much more attached faster.It is truly amazing and I didn’t think that it was possible.

Response to comment on the EC post…

Kelly wrote this in the comments on the EC post…

“I think there is a huge distinction between Natural Family stuff and AP. There are folks out there who do both, but there are also lots of super AP folks who just don’t care for the NF stuff.”

I really need to respond… To me EC IS AP…

In itself I don’t see diapering as a whole being part of AP though I do see Cloth diapers as being NP (Natural Parenting)

However… I see EC as being an extension of AP more then an NP practice.. (though it can be NP if you look at it simply as a diapering issue i.e… using less/no diapers at all)

To me EC is about my child communicating a basic need (to eliminate) and me being in tune enough to pick up on those cues and bring him to the potty… It is a relationship, such as breastfeeding is a response to hunger and comfort cues, EC is a response to elimination cues…

Though changing less to no diapers is a big plus of EC for me it is not the goal… it is the communication that occurs…

I think this is the point that doesn’t get across to many people… it seems that they just see EC as being about early potty training… It is so much more!!!

Though I understand that it is not for everyone, and I don’t think it needs to be necessary part of AP, I truly believe that EC is an AP practice and not NP…

Potty Training and EC…

I have had two very different little boys… Xavier was a baby that didn’t care at all if he sat in a dirty diaper all day (not like that ever happened!) As he grew he cared even less! Cloth or disposable, nothing mattered…

Colin however hated having a dirty diaper since the day he was born, he cried if he wet his diaper and cried harder if he soiled it. Then he would cry afterwards because we had to change it and he was still mad… I had heard about EC (Elimination Communication) when Xavier was young but I thought it was a little too weird for me… However, At about 2 months I was sick of changing about 15 diapers a day just for Colin alone, tired of blowouts and tired of the crying that came with it all. Colin was just so unhappy. We thought it was Colic, or gas or something but nothing helped.. so on day he got the face, the one that you just know he was going to have a blowout and I brought him to the bathroom, took his diaper off and put him over the sink and he went! From that day on we have been pottying him. He still wears a diaper but goes on the potty more often then not. The most amazing thing though was that day he became another baby completely. He became the smiley, happy baby that I knew was underneath the discomfort…

EC is amazing for us. It just makes sense like so many of the other things in Attachment Parenting and Natural Parenting. Babies have the knowledge of control and know when they need to go but are taught to use their diapers as a potty and therefore learn to suppress the feelings that come naturally from birth. Then, later on we expect them to unlearn what we taught them and to learn to listen to their bodies again. It is so confusing.

I predict that Colin will be potty trained early. He uses the potty every day and many days he doesn’t at all use the diaper that is on him.

Back to Xavier now… He is just getting interested in Potty Training.. and finally it is starting to work… Not long ago he would refuse to wear underwear and on Monday I not only got him to wear them he has been mainy in underwear since. We still have accidents and he still refuses to use the potty when he has to poo but it is a great step in the right direction.. Finally!!!
As for the next time, next child… We are starting EC at birth!

Colin – around 5 months old