The Journey Begins

Hi,my names Kirsty and I have 3 beautiful children.Eli (will be 8 in Sept 2010) Ebony,who has just turned 6 and Logan who will be 6 months on Thursday 9th Sept 2010.Before Logan was  born,I had decided that this time around I  would use Modern Cloth nappies (MCN). I knew it would create a little more washing,but hey lets face it with a family of 4/5 the washing never stops anyway. I looked at all the beautiful differnt sorts that were available and started to buy some on special throughout my pregnancy. This gave me a variety of different sorts, both sized and one size fits all!

When Logan was about 4 months I started to introduce some solids.It occurred to me one day how convenient it would be to me if he could let me know he had had sufficient. I asked Eli to google 'finished' in sign language. Then I discovered you had Australian and American etc. This led me on to decide to introduce some baby sign language which would potentially help with communicating with Logan while he was still pre-verbal. I decided to follow the AUSLAN dictionary,although it does vary slightly from state to state.

I was aware that by using cloth nappies a baby would be more aware of being wet or dry and this could potentially lead to earlier toilet training. When you are washing nappies, this is of course even more incentive that this may well be the case.Again, I considered how I could incorporate the sign language with early training.I figured if he could tell me through sign he needed to go, then maybe by 1 or so we could think about beginning.

One Friday night 2 weeks ago I thought maybe I would 'google' early toilet training or 'toilet training with sign language'. To my surprise I discovered Elimination Communication (EC). Funny the things in life you get a glimpse of but don't really see,because the timing just isn't right.18months ago one of my best friends (Vicki,hope you don't mind me using your name) and I went for a fabulous holiday to China. We walked the great wall, did kung fu with a Shaolin Monk and had some massages you'd die for,but one of our most memorable experiences were the 'split pants' or 'kaidangku' that the babys/toddlers wore.We were so fascinated (and yet uneducated on the whole story behind them) we even looked out to capture the image as a highlight of the trip.

SO back to EC.Of course I have come so far and learnt so much in the last two weeks it is amazing. To the extent that I have even shopped for where I might (in Australia) get myself a pair of these split pants!I discovered that outside of us westerners (although some are rediscovering something that has been lost over the last 2 or 3 generations... the the extent that it now has a name,when before it was common place) a huge percentage of the world don't have nappies, or certainly can't afford disposables and hence use cloth... and they teach their children much earlier (as you do feed them,bathe them,keep them warm and help them get sufficient sleep) about infant hygiene and elimination. Some begin as early as birth (so really I was dragging the chain!!!!)

Now my experience is only from 5 1/2 months,so everyones experience would be different and the time you begin also varys how it works for you I guess.I am really learning as I go along and have been both thrilled and amazed at the last 2 weeks. I have found some fabulous mums in Australia who have been doing EC for between 9mths and 2 years.They have been a great encouragement for me and great source of info,not to mention shared a good laugh. It is really one of those topics that many may feel uncomfortable with,or have no knowledge on and think that I am quite weird. This is what led me to find some comrades in arms.It is a subject that can be shared more openly with someone who really understands.

I guess one of the biggest points for me is that my aim is not to outdo eveyone I know and have Logan out of nappies in 2 weeks etc. It is about helping him eliminate  that makes the whole process easy,makes him comfortable and potentially less washing.Now I would be lying if I didn't say I had some goals. I guess if I was going to list them (2 weeks down the track) they would to be:

• trained before the age of 2 (hopefully night and day)
• out of nappies at home during the day by 12months????
• start signing and clearly letting me know through communication (be it eye contact etc) by 8/9mths
• bowel movements in the toilet 85% of the time by 8 months.(I'm actually being lenient here, in reality I am hoping 4-6wks from now)

So how have we gone so far? Well I officially started Sat 2 weeks ago.I have a spare padded toilet seat insert Vicki left here for her son, and I think for me to use in the future when necessary (neither of us expecting that could POSSIBLY be soooo soon!) So I figured I would use that.The very first few times I tried I did try and have his head to my chest and hold him in a squatting position over the toilet.This is quite common for newborns or infants not yet mobile.One of the important points is for both him and I to be comfortable.I didn't find this to be the case.This is when I moved to the padded insert. Although he is not yet sitting,he is strong enough with me holding his torso to sit comfortably without falling through the hole.PLUS he was facing me,which we both like better.With EC you cue them with a sound or word to wee/poo when you take them to the toilet. There are a number of key times you can take them which are after waking up from sleeps and after a feed. Then there are times you can look for cues like suddenly getting unsettled or grizzly,facial expressions,or typical concentration/grunt etc for bowel movemets. At this stage I don't consider I am too good with obvious cues so I figured it couldn't hurt to go with the obvious timing trips.
Now sometimes when they wake,they pee straight away,and you will often miss that one... I think as time goes by they get better at holding it,and you can probably start to catch this one. I believe some people have their first successes this way. I found if he didn't wee then,I would only leave it 10 mins or so to offer again.

This first day I 'caught' 5 wees. I was so excited I can not tell you. In fact the first wee was such a shock to me, that the poor thing only got half out. I gave a little squeal and jumped and he got stage fright.I couldn't get the grin off but was more controlled for the rest of the day."chssssssss,chsssssss" I would say, and then big grins and lots of 'good boy' as he'd wee.I was thrilled at day one,and wondered how excited I'b be if I caught a poo.

I won't give you a rundown of everyday till now, but day 2 was also a great day. I took him before his bath , after having some dinner and getting suddenly a bit whingey  to the toilet to find within seconds he gave me my first poo.One of the fabulous things about EC is there is no right way about going about it.You can go from one extreme to the other or anywhere in between. They could never wear a nappy, you squat them wherever and whenever you want to or they could wear a nappy full time, and just be offered these key opportunity times.This gets them use to the toilet, they see you going and realise that this is ultimately the norm, not learning to go in a nappy for years to then have to unlearn the skill.I am trying to be inbetween this to help the process along. This means that of course at the moment we always go out in nappys. I give him some nappy free time at home whenever possible,especially if the kids are at school. I feed him without a nappy on,and just hold something there just in case.But he almost never wees while I am feeding and very regularly will go on the toilet between 5 and 10 mins after the feed. I am actually going to make some training pants to put on him at home (with leg warmers cause it is still to cold to go nakey bottom half for awhile yet) from a pattern I bought from Marnie at http://www.nooneewilga.com/ . She has also made me some split pants I am looking forward to receiving this week,especially made to measure. I highly recommend her site for resources and top hat pottys for young babies.

So the last 2 weeks I have had many wees and about 14/18 poos caught in the toilet (missed one tonight...dratz.) I am constantly amazed at how it works and that he is doing it,and I feel fantastic that he will get the hang of it more and more as time goes by. I know (from the other mums) different things can happen and they might protest,or be bored or you might be offering too often as they hold it in longer etc. It honestly has felt like if I gave him the opportunity,unless he has just done something he was glad to take it. When you are washing nappys,any poo caught is one less to wash and I am excited to have begun this journey with him.

This weekend he hardly weeed in the toilet,and I think he was getting a bit bored with hopping on.I have a potty now too (which he will use more later once he is crawling and mobile and probably walking) and it may help for me to offer him some more places too.Sometimes I find singing him a song or something different distracts him and helps him relax to just do his wee.This weekend I pulled back from 'over offering' and I was thrilled this morning when he did a nice big BM for me. (My husband laughs at how easily I am excited.) At this stage lets face it, if I never caught another wee but we did well on the BM's that would be a success on it's own.

Tomorrow I am meeting one of the mums I have been contacting who has 2 girls.Sh ehas EC'ed both of these and I can't wait to find out some more info.Her youngest is still a baby,so she should be a lot of help.

I have ordered a great toilet seat that will replace ours in the main toilet.It has a lid,an infant/toddler seat and an adult seat with soft closures on all.I am looking forward to getting this,this week as moving the padded insert in and out and around about is a bit tricky when everyone is home.

Well I think that is the beginning of my journey.If you're interested to see how I get on, I will keep you updated. Thanks for reading!