I've lost the pot.....

I've been having a very successful time with ECing Magnus lately, including quite a few 100% dry and clean days. I don't remember having this with Esme 'til she was much older, he is only just six months old.

I've been feeling pretty upbeat about pottying and my confidence must be rubbing off on him: I've been doing it out and about (on Levenshulme High St waiting for the bus, in public loos, Whitworth Art Gallery!...) and even managed to keep him totally dry throughout the day on Saturday at a family wedding where he was passed about the relatives like a happy little parcel ;) Often when he's not close I lose my sense of when he wants to go but he was holding on for ages and telling me very clearly.

I''ve found my ideal travel potty, in the form of a small IKEA mixing bowl with a lid, part of a set I already owned and hadn't thought to adopt for this purpose. Unfortunately, I seem to have misplaced it. After re-tracing my steps, the last place I can think of using it is the Peel Arms in Padfield, where we had pub grub on Sunday before we went to Padfield Plum Festival. Magnus weed in it, impressing his family and raising the eyebrows of a couple of baffled looking locals. I put the bowl (lid on) under the "banquette" thing.... and forgot it. ]

If the pub people have found it they must wonder what sort of strange "not-local" folks have been visiting for their festival. Who on earth would leave a small bowl of urine under a bench in the pub?!! Granny wonders if she should try to retrieve it but how would one go about asking for this back?

As I mention confidence above, I would like to say how easy it is for this to be sapped by others' negative vibes. With EC (and most other things parenting related) I am usually pretty thick skinned. But the same local lady who sneered at Magnus weeing in his bowl in the Peel Arms was staring at me as I santa-tossed him over my shoulder to wrap him on: I had a real wobble, nearly dropped him and couldn't do it. A total physical/mental block on babywearing. Perhaps she was a witch! Or maybe I just felt her thoughts: "how dangerous....." ;(
Must work on strengthening my protective bubble when up in the windy wilds of the peaks!

There are no shortcuts in Bushcraft

The wise words of Ray Mears also ring true with nighttime EC, as I found to my dismay the other night. 

Night time is perhaps the easiest and most difficult time to EC for me. A (concentrated!) pee is pretty much guaranteed after hours of sleep. If Magnus does wet his nappy he's difficult to settle properly and he stirs more, so it makes sense to catch it instead of doing a nappy change. I then get him back a deep sleep as soon as possible. To facilitate this I have a bucket by the bed and I just sit up and sit Magnus on it (sometimes whilst nursing to keep him nice and quiet) in the dark. It's a faff getting the nappy back on but we manage ok. 

The other night I caught a particularly large wee at the time of our dream feed when I go up to bed. Then in the early hours at his next awakening, in a sleepy haze, i decided to put the bucket on the bed for pee time instead of sitting up. How lazy am I??! Well it backfired, oh yes, the enormous, strong wee from earlier drenched my bed, blanket, pillow, the lot ;( 

My daughter woke suddenly proclaiming "IT'S WET!". Bed stripped, 2 more potty trips for us girls and a very full load of washing for the morning. 

Ah well. I won't try to cut that corner again! 

For Liz

I am having a blast with wordle here ;)
This one's for you Liz M....

www.wordle.net

Regularity and receptacles.....

Producing a poo seems to have become an every other day event for Magnus. It's slightly alarming how he doesn't need to go one day, and then every time he's on his bucket the next! Still, it's only a phase...every time they get into a groove it changes!

I am struggling to find a good (travel) receptacle this time. At home he seems to like his bucket but I can't carry that about really, apart from to LLL where nobody cares how indiscreet we are!For Esme the trifle bowl was perfect, but I can't sit him into a bowl enough for his wee to go down, it comes over the top. I bought a travel potty on ebay, but when it arrived it is MASSIVE....way, way too big for his tiny bottom. It would take up my entire bag. I am going to have to keep on letting him pee into a cloth and taking him to the loo whenever I can for now. Thankfully his pees are becoming less frequent as he's older now (nearly 6 months) so weeing is causing fewer interruptions to the flow of our activities. The downside of this being they are stronger so if I get peed on it is a bit more whiffy! Ah the joy....

No stares at the swimming pool

Today we went to Victoria Baths for the monthly open day. I'd never been before, it was stunning. I can't believe the City Council would tear the place down given half a chance, scandalous.
Esme had a great time running about and looking around. She was remarkably interested in the architecture and she also got to do some lino cut printmaking which she was very pleased with. I enjoyed that too ;)

Magnus slept on my back whilst we were there, when he woke up I took him for a wee in the loos. I'm always a bit wary about being disturbed but a nice old Asian lady who saw me today said "That's brilliant you are potty training him so soon! I wish my daughter-in-law would do that with my grandson, he's 2 and she won't even sit him on a potty, it's terrible...."
How nice to be suprised by positivity!

Some thoughts on EC , at last!

'kay, so I really should start blogging about EC ;)

I don't really know what to write! It's just so much part of what we do with Magnus, that I almost forget it is a freakishly un-normal thing to even think of for most people. I've stopped mentioning it and just get on with it most of the time....bring on the stares! The only time I feel inclined to say anything is if someone suggests he has a pooey nappy, in which case I usually mention that he doesn't do that, and start (or leave) a conversation from there. Most people I have spoken to have been really positive, and amazed that we do this.

I am amazed more people haven't realised this is possible. If we can house train dogs and cats, why would our babies be any different?

When you actually tune in to what babies are saying when they start fussing and crying, it's really quite obvious that they are often telling us they need to go. EC is definitely a case of positive reinforcement, if we respond to signals they get stronger. If they're ignored, baby is eventually going to stop saying something as nobody helps them stay clean, no matter how hard they try to make their need known. My friend, a novice ECer with a 5 month baby, told me that her baby was delighted when she took off the nappy and made a grunty cue noise for a poo: her little face spun round and lit up as she relieved herself! Fabulous!

I really feel quite sorry that the majority of babies spend their time in nasty disposable nappies that (don't) rot in landfills or in cold, soggy cloth nappies. I recently visited a day nursery for the first time- Esme had asked to look around there as a few of her friends go and the peer pressure thing is kicking in. I was taken to the baby room where I was told that nappies were "changed at 10am, 12noon and 2pm, more if they were dirty, of course". I couldn't stop myself from almost screaming "He's not coming!". It made me shudder to think of leaving Magnus at all, but UGH to have him sitting in his wee more or less all day ;(

I don't think this is our biologically evolved expectation. It's "convenient" to ignore elimination, and big business would have us think it's impossible to do anything else. I'm really proud that we are proving to our society that there is another way, even if this must seem completely obvious to millions of people around the world.