Some numbers

I was thinking about how many days old Hannah is. When she was tiny, I used to think, "she's only 11 days old once" and just really try to enjoy each day. I got away from that after she got older, but I'm trying to remember to enjoy each day! (Regardless of how many days old she actually is!) I figured out she was about 411 days old, a couple of days ago. My first thought was translating that into about 400 nights of realy bad sleep! Then I started thinking about EC, and approximating and average five "catches" per day, means 2000 times Hannah has peed and/or pooped in a potty and not on herself. I like that.

Cloth diapering full time- not so much fun!

We were at my mom's a few days ago, and Hannah just wasn't interesting in using the potty. We went through more diapers there than we ever have! I think we had our first poop miss away from home, too. That was not all that fun. I am so glad that we do EC and don't rely on diapers ALL the time! It is just so messy!!!!!! We only did what I would consider "full time cloth diapering" for a day and a half, but even that was too much! If I didn't do EC, I would probably use disposables more often. (As it is, I bought a pack in November for our airplane trip up north, and just used the last one this week! I wanted to take the cloth diapes up north, but I was too close to our weight limit, and I didn't want to pay for the extra weight on the flight up and back!)

I think moms who go for it full time with the cloth diapers have an awesome commitment! I'm just not sure I could do it.

Trying to get this figured out

I can't quite figure out where Hannah wants to go potty, and maybe she doesn't know, either. She definitely tells me when she needs to go, but refuses the choices I give her. This hasn't been going on long, and I'm guessing is just part of her development. (I hope!) This evening she let me know, so I took her into my bathroom. Earlier, she had peed in there while I was going, so I thought I'd try that the next time. I had two of her potties in there, plus the seat reducer. She was playing with the potties, making her potty sound the whole time, and just didn't go. She did actually sit on her potty by herself, which was awesome! I let her sit on the potty, and we hung out in there for quite awhile while she made the potty sound and played with the potties. Then she went on the floor. It seemed like we learned something about each other and pottying there, though. I cleaned it up, no big deal. It's easier cleaning a pee miss off of the linoleum floor than changing a wet pair of pants!

She's wanting to be taken potty in the night again, too, which is very cool!

A new skill!

Yesterday Hannah took off her own diaper! I saw her walking around naked, holding the diaper. I wish I had seen her do it, it would have been fun to watch! At least it's not a big deal going nakey around here!!!

Awesome EC Milestone!

Today Hannah went to her potty when she had to use it!!! For the first time! She walked over to it and tried to get on it. I helped her (next time I'll probably see if she can get on it by herself) and then she made her potty sound, peed, and got right back off! That was cool!!!! I know some babies do this even several months younger-- whenever they do it it is an exciting milestone!

It's a real mixed bag right now

Right now some really amazing things are happening in terms of Hannah using the potty, and some frustrating things as well! She had a couple of days this week where she decided not to tell me she needed to poop. I don't think anyone likes cleaning poopy diapers but since poopy diapers are relatively infrequent with EC, it seems even less fun to clean poop! So it was kind of frustrating to have her poop on the floor a couple of times this week, and poop in her diaper, both! I have also been extremely sleep-deprived, so it's hard to maintain perspective sometimes. (Really, in the scheme of things, cleaning poop is not a big deal!!) Anyway, with some excellent advice from the moms on MDC, I started realizing that right now she's really moving towards being independent. So I'm trying to let her have more say in the matter as to when and where she potties. Hard to do, since I'm so used to just taking her to a potty and offering. She doesn't like that anymore, though! Yesterday I discovered that if I let her sit by herself on her bunny potty she will go. That was a nice discovery! It's so much cleaner for all concerned if she just goes in the potty!

I love this show of independence! It's really awesome! It took some adjusting on my part, but it's very cool.

So this is a potty strike!

Every so often I realize the potty strike becomes more and more intense. Maybe it's because I forget what it was like before, or maybe it is becoming more intense! At this point, Hannah really hates it when I put a diaper on her, and she declines just about any potty opportunity I give her. I know we've had a few days with zero catches, which we haven't had since we started! Today she pooped on the floor in the living room, which somehow was easier to clean up than if she had pooped in a diaper. The thing about it going on the floor is that it doesn't get smashed up into her skin. (New moms talk about poop, we just do, right?) Then some time later she peed on me while I was holding her. OK, that top was ready to go into the laundry anyway! Twice she peed outside, which is just fine! So I'm watching her and trying to see what kind of signalling she might be doing. It does seem like she's trying to tell me some of the time, it's just so hard to tell!

She did signal by saying her "sth" sound for something like 2 weeks in a row, or maybe it was a little longer. That was cool. I think she made the sound today, too, while she was peeing when I was holding her. At least she still has the awareness of needing to go.

Honestly, this morning I was pretty bummed about her flat refusal to use the potty. She doesn't just sit quietly and not go, she arches her back and jumps around. Not fun. It's so much easier to just go without the dipes for awhile.