Gifts for the New E.C. Mommy

TM attended a lovely baby shower last evening. Due to her present state of gestation, she looked rather eagerly at the gifts being opened by the honored mother. What are the latest colors and styles for the newborn?

There was a common theme amongst the gifts and the bearers of them. Onesies are a hot item. As the woman with the bountiful belly opened package after package containing all varieties of one-piece body suits for babies, the other mothers in the crowd would chime in knowingly with comments like, "I LOVE onesies!" and "You can never have enough of those." And TM used to hold this similar opinion. What has changed?

Well, obviously, it's infant potty training that makes onesies undesirable.  The flaps that snap between the legs are difficult to hold out of the way when pottying the baby. The snaps themselves can be difficult to manipulate while holding the infant over the potty place and hurrying to get the nether regions bare. And perhaps most frustrating of all, in the case of a miss, the entire outfit has to come off over the head, which can be a messy proposition if the miss was a poopy!

So, what would be a better gift choice if you should be invited to TM's baby shower in about 8 months? Or the baby shower of another mom who plans to E.C., of course. You might want to consider the following issues. Does the outfit consist of one piece rather than a separate shirt and bottom? Can the shirt be unfastened in front, or does it have to be lifted over the head? Is the shirt sort of longish, so that it can be worn without pants and won't look like a crop-top?

This is TM's favorite type of shirt:



And what, besides shirts that snap up the front make good gifts for infant potty trainers? For starters, socks and leggings. These babies may spend a lot of time without pants, so anything that covers the feet and legs will help keep the little one warm.How about a dozen cloth diapers? I mean pre-folds, not fitted or pocket diapers or anything like that. These should be the high quality ones which are sold on places like e-bay. They should say "DSQ" on the description, which means "diaper service quality". These can used on or under the baby, and they also make for great burp cloths.



Diaper belts (see the post here for a description) and tiny underwear are much appreciated. Cotton blankets and quilts that can be used on a bed or floor under baby are perfect. If the mom intends to use a ring sling or maya wrap, having more than one really comes in handy in case the baby has a miss in the sling.

Other thoughtful gifts could include diaper pails, little potties and stacks of wash cloths. Books and DVDs about E.C. can provide ideas and encouragement to a mom who is having one of those days where she thinks that her baby will peeing on herself until she's 12.

What else? What do you wish you would have received as a gift? What gifts did you receive that were completely incompatible with E.C.?

All By Himself - He Took Himself To The Potty!

Just a few short moments ago, Tommy yelled at TM from the bathroom, "PEE!"

TM went to the bathroom expecting to find Tommy standing near the toilet with wet undies, which has been the "normal" event for the past couple of weeks. Instead, the underwear was laying on the floor (dry, by the way) and Tommy was seated on the Baby Bjorn Little Potty. As TM entered, Tommy stood up. Lo, and behold, there was pee pee in the pot!

One of his big sisters was using the toilet at the time, and I guess he decided to join her. Earlier in the evening, while TM was using the toilet, Tommy had removed his undies and enthroned himself on the little potty. He also peed on that occasion, which was only the second time he had peed in the Little Potty. His normal potty place is on the big toilet, using the baby seat.  But TM assumed that he had gone into the bathroom only because he was following her. (You other mothers know all about this, right? When was the last time you went to the bathroom alone?)

There will be no delusions or expectations that taking himself to the potty will become the new normal. But the fact that he did it this once shows that he is making progress towards toilet independence. And that means a lot. It feels good.



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Totally Off Topic for the Blog - Breastfeeding Photo

The topic for this blog is Infant Potty Training, Elimination Communication, Potty Whispering and the like. Because the writings are not so much personal in nature, but topical, TM strives to keep the blog uncluttered by not dumping all of the happenings of her seven children, husband, son-in-law and grandchild right here where people come to read about Tommy going poop.

But every once in a while, something happens that is so important to TM that she can rationalize how it is at least tangentially  related to Tommy's E.C. lifestyle. Today is just such an occasion. Enjoy. And have fun coming up with your own explanation, which you may share in the "Comments" section, about how this photo is related to the regular subject of this blog.

Here is a description of the photo: On the right is TM, breastfeeding Tommy. On the left is Tommy's oldest sister, breastfeeding Tommy's nephew. Tommy is 19 months in this picture. His nephew is 4 months.

The E.C. Baby at 20 months

Tommy is such a big boy now. Yesterday TM heard some rustling in the bathroom and entered to see her "baby" lifting the toilet lid and putting his potty seat into place. "Pee!" he stated, rather matter-of-factly. Although when he says it, it sounds more like "Bee."

TM asked, "Do you need to go potty?"

"Botty!" responded Tommy, patting his underpants.

Actually, he had already gone pee pee, but hey, at least he realized it! After being placed upon the potty seat, he peed some more. "Ganny?" asked Tommy. (That's how it sounds when he says "candy") Yes, yes, his mother started the bad habit of giving him a Skittle for going on the potty. She only gives it to him if he asks, and often he forgets to ask.

So, as you can see, things are going pretty well in the E.C. world of Tommy Gunnar. Some days he only wets in his underpants once or twice. Other days, he never makes it to the potty. TM relies primarily on timing, that is, taking him to the  potty every so often . But occasionally Tommy initiates the visits to the potty. Right now he is learning to remove his own underpants so that he can sit on the potty chair all by himself.  It has only been in the last couple of weeks that he has shown any interest in that contraption at all. The toilet is his preferred place for relieving himself.

Bowel movements are a completely different story. He doesn't seem to mind leaving a crap in his pants. But he wants someone to clean it up pretty quickly! He still gives no sign at all. Usually he comes to me right after and says "Bee." At this point one wonders if this is just a girl vs. boy thing. The first E.C. baby in this family was a girl, and BMs were the easiest thing.  Nearly every single one after she was about 2 months old was caught. The second and third E.C. babies are boys, and they don't give signs about pooping.

When he's on the toilet and has either finished going potty or doesn't have to go, he proclaims, "I done!" From the time he makes that proclamation, there is no point in encouraging further activity. When he says he's done, he IS done.

Pictures coming soon...

The Signal That Couldn't Be Ignored

Today TM lifted Tommy up onto her lap at his request of "Mah! Mah!"

As soon as he was seated he grabbed his crotch, tugged on his little romper and yelled "Ahhhhhh"

Tommy's Mommy asked, "Do you need to go potty?"

"Paaahhhh" responded the little cutie.

After unsnapping the crotch snaps of the romper and removing Tommy's underpants, TM placed him on the Little Potty. He smiled and sat there for approximately 2 seconds.  He dislikes the potty chair and has yet to pee pee in it. "Let's go potty," said TM. Tommy stood up and started toddling down the hallway towards the bathroom. This is the cutest thing ever, and it MUST be captured on video. He was saying something like, "heh! heh! heh!"

When he arrived in the bathroom he patted the toilet lid and shouted, "PAH!"

TM took up her place on the step stool in front of the toilet, lifted the lid, placed the potty seat on top of the toilet seat and hoisted Tommy onto the seat. He immediately began making a grunting noise. He sometimes does this when he pees, perhaps because as soon as he starts grunting, who ever else happens to be in the room will start grunting with him, which is amusing.

Then Tommy peed in the toilet. A catch! Yippee! Right, right, the books say not to make a big deal of it. Try to state very matter-of-factly "You went pee." But hey, around this household, we tend to get excited about things like that, so Tommy will just have to get used to it.

Pee, Pee and More Pee

As soon as he awoke this morning, Tommy was taken to the toilet for his first morning void. Like so many others, that first one in the morning can take awhile. He peed and peed and peed. Then he made the sign for "all done" and he was taken off the toilet.

At that point, TM needed to do some chores in the laundry room, so Tommy followed her there. Thankfully the flooring in the laundry room is vinyl because Tommy wasn't wearing his undies and during the 5 minutes he was in there he piddled on the floor 5 times! And not just a dribble each time, either.

Obviously he is blessed with a large capacity bladder

Oh, by the way, he didn't give any sign or signal of any sort that was perceivable to TM before he urinated on the floor. He didn't seem bothered by it at all after the first time, which soaked his socks.

TM is reminded of the advice she has been given by every EC book she's read - after a miss, always give them a chance to sit on the potty, because they might not be finished.

A New Development

Tommy has started doing something very exciting! He is now just over 13 months old and yesterday he walked to the bathroom door (it was closed to keep him from playing in the toilet) and said "pee pee". Actually it was his cute, baby version of "pee pee" which sounded more like "pah".

Today, he did it again. After peeing a tiny bit in his underwear he headed for the bathroom to finish the job.

TM decided to try to get away from diapers altogether and has been contemplating how to accomplish it. The first step has been to switch from using the prefold diapers and diaper belt to using Gerber Training Pants
during the day while at home.

Tommy will need some more pairs of undies because his older brother has put a lot of wear on the ones he has now. Unfortunately, it is impossible to find the 18 month size training pants in stores, so they will have to be ordered from Amazon.

For times away from home and for nighttime, Tommy will be transitioning to All in One Waterproof Training Pants
from the disposable diapers he is using now. These are also made by Gerber and are available on Amazon.