Tuesday, December 4, 2007

More on Elimination Communication

It's funny to me how much Rachel understands about going on the potty. She actually looks proud of her self every time she goes--she looks up and grins at me. We've been making a lot of headway communicating with each other. I'm starting to understand Rachel's cues and she's starting to understand mine. She's been staying dry all through the night. I've done a lot of research on the internet today and it seems that most babies don't pee themselves in their sleep--they wake up to do it, then fall back asleep. It's only when they're used to sitting in it all the time that they turn off their "censors" so to speak.

We've only had one accident so far. I was holding her over the bowl and her stream went up instead of down. I didn't think that girls did that. Pee got all over the floor but it wasn't a problem. We just used our handy dandy Clorox wipes.

One of the dilemmas we've faced has been getting her clothes off in time. She makes plenty of grunts and groans before relieving herself, but getting off her pants and a onesie and a diaper can be tricky in that short of a time frame. I now understand why they have t-shirts for infants--they really bothered me before because they just don't stay down, but they're great for using the potty. You just keep your baby in a t-shirt and a diaper.

Skirts work well because then you just have to worry about the onesie and diaper. We don't have many skirts and it's a little too cold to go with bare legs so I looked at getting her some baby leg warmers. They are $12 a pair though!

I decided to make her some instead. At first I tried my knifty knitters, but they were too big. Then I remembered that I know how to crochet--I always forget that. This is the first thing I've attempted to crochet that hasn't been flat and rectangular. Don't knock them.

Here she is, my super star!

Now Rachel stays toasty warm and we don't even have to take them off to go potty. Somehow it throws me back to another decade. Viva scrunch socks! (We're still working on the design).

I haven't been brave enough to attempt going diaper-free yet, but we'll get there. For now I'm just happy that I've only had to change two poopy diapers today. For anyone who knows how often my baby goes, that's a real treat for me!

Does anyone know where to get inexpensive cloth diapers?

5 comments:

Nancy said...

In answer to my own question, Target.

I think I might want to try some...

heather b. said...

She looks so cute in those leg warmers!!!

Crys said...

Nancy how much would you charge for some of those leg warmers? They are adorable! OK so inspired by you today I put Grace in clothe diapers and started putting her on the potty regularly. We've already put her on a couple of times before and she's pooped so I thought, why not? Anyway though today I started but my questions are what sign is there that the kid is peeing. Grace lets me know she is going to poop. She also is gracious enough to pee for me every time I put her on the potty but I don't see any sign that she is going to pee. I just notice that when I take off her diaper to put her on the potty she has already gone. What kind of clues does Rachel give she is peeing? Anyway who knows if I can last on this. Its hard to pay attention every second when I'm chasing after EZ as well. She definitely gets excited to go on the potty but I think she's just mirroring my excitement. Fun though. Thanks for any tips you can give.

Nancy said...

I'd love to make you some leg warmers. I still need to figure out how to put elastic in them.

As for peeing, Rachel tends to get really quiet and get a blank look on her face.

The easiest time to catch a pee though is right after waking up and shortly after eating. At least, for me.

We miss a TON of pee!

Joy said...

Another good question is how do you keep her excited about going potty? Karen was all into it about a week and a half ago, and now I can put her up there all I want and she won't do anything! And that's sad because for a few days she did really good too!