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.

You may have read the blog entry about Tommy's birthday here. If so, you know he received a new potty chair as a gift. The goal being to keep the old potty chair in the car and have a new potty chair to keep inside the house on a permanent basis.

If you read TM's review of the potty chair, you will know that she wasn't too impressed with it. As a matter of fact, she returned it to Target over the weekend for a full refund. Returning it was simple. Target didn't seem to mind at all.

In the end, it just wasn't usable. It will be replaced with this model
as soon as anyone in the household makes an order from Amazon. After it has been thoroughly tested you will find a review right here. Stayed tuned.

Birth Story of Tommy Gunnar

This blog is dedicated to a single subject. It was planned like that as a way of reaching out to other parents who are interested in EC, to let them have a glimpse into the life of one family who does it. TM didn't want those other parents, most of whom are complete strangers, to be forced to search for the EC bits amongst the volumes of posts about Tommy's siblings, her trip to the grocery store, her unhappiness with the weather, etc.

However, TM knows that sometimes parents who share views in one area of parenting may share views in other areas. This is likely the case with EC and natural child birth. Actually, natural child birth is something about which TM is very passionate, unlike EC, about which she is merely highly interested.

For the reason stated in the first paragraph, TM has chosen not to post the birth story of Tommy Gunnar here on this blog. You can find a link here, to TM's daughter's account of the event. Or you can navigate directly to the daughter's blog to read it.

You can also see the birth on the net by going here.

Now, for the purpose of this post. TM has another blog where she posts her thoughts that no one would care to read, but she's saving them for a book to be published after her death. Anyway, she has posted over there her own description of the labor and birth of Tommy. Some people like to read birth stories, and if you are one of those people, feel free to read it. But before you go there, be warned that it contains some brief references to intimate relations between TM and Tommy's Papa. They are tasteful and not overly graphic, but they are there.

Also, if stories about home birth, and particularly unassisted home birth, and particularly unassisted home water birth cause you to become violent and foam at the mouth because you believe the ONLY proper place for birth is on dry land in a hospital, then do YOURSELF a favor and don't read Tommy's birth story.

The warning has been sufficient, do NOT come back here and comment on how you were ambushed by the private moments mentioned in the birth story, ok?

The Unassisted Home Water Birth of Tommy Gunnar