At Home with Heather

When Emerald was first born someone mentioned something to me called, "Elimination Communication"-EC. The whole idea is related to "Natural Infant Hygiene" and helping your child learn to recognize the urge to eliminate from the very beginning of their life. I thought it was really strange and I like to think I'm open minded when it comes to alternative parenting techniques. :)

When Emerald was about 5 months old I found a GREAT group of Naturally minded moms on Meetup.com. Some of the moms there were talking about how they were practicing Elimination Communication with their little ones who were around Emerald's age. I was fascinated. I went home and googled it a bit and then not too long ago in my issue of Mothering Magazine there was an article that summarized the whole process up very well. Basically, the whole idea is that if we tune into our babies to find their cues to eat and sleep why not to eliminate as well. That made sense to me. Also it is mentioned that many children get emotionally attached to diapers and see them as a "security blanket" and then later on have a hard time separating from them. I think this makes a lot of sense as well. If we never teach them to ignore the urge to eliminate when they are able to bring themselves to the potty it won't be such a big change or a possible traumatic experience. Why not start early?

Another good point was the fact that many people around the world do not have access to disposable diapers or cloth, or even clothing to wrap around their babies bums. What do these mothers do? They tune into their babies and figure out what signs they give to eliminate. It's funny, looking back to the time I spent with the street children in India, many of those babies had no diaper and I didn't even think about what happens when they had to go. Those mothers must of had a system going on! And what did mothers do before the invention of diapers?? It's very interesting topic to ponder on.

Some people practice EC to different degrees. A lot of the people that write about it are completely "diaper free." They do not use diapers for their babies unless they go out and even then, not always. I haven't met anyone yet that does the diaper free method.

Most people I know use dipes all the time and then watch for signs of elimination and then put their child on the potty. Some people start at a very young age-birth and others wait until their children are closer to the toddler years-9ish months.

I tried for the first time when Emerald was probably about 10 months. She was a little scared of being on the big potty, so soon after we got her one of the kiddie potty seats to put on top of the big one. This did not scare her at all and she seemed to think it was a new, fun thing. :)

The way we are practicing EC with Emerald is to attempt to catch all the "poops" in the potty. For the past month and a half it has gone great! It is VERY obvious when she needs to poop, so we just take her dipe off and then set her on it. Sometimes it takes her a few minutes and she usually likes to play with a toy or shampoo bottle from the shower, but she always seems to do very well. She even claps for herself now when we say, "Good job!" It's like she is proud of herself and it is really cute to see! In the past few weeks it also seems like she looks to us when she needs to poop as if to say, "Put me on the potty, I am pooping!" I'd like to learn more about how to read when she needs to pee. This seems much tricker to me. I also know a lot of people who sign with their babies and once they get the hang of it, they can sign when they need to use the bathroom if they are not talking yet.

Call me crazy, but I am excited about the prospect of Emerald being potty trained "early"

And the truth is I'd rather take the time to put her on the potty then change a dirty diaper ANY DAY! :) I'm not sure when we will start this process with the next, but I think I would like to try it sooner than we started with Emerald.

For anyone who is interested in this process a good article to read:

http://www.mothering.com/green-living/mothering-mindfulness-and-babys-bottom

A great site to check out:

http://www.diaperfreebaby.org/

A good book to check out:

http://www.amazon.com/Diaper-Free-Baby-Natural-Training-Alternative/dp/0061229709/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1276894036&sr=8-1-catcorr

Between taking care of Emerald, cleaning, running around, socializing, doula certification stuff and well, life-I just never have the time or inspiration to blog. So we will see how long this lasts.

The last time I blogged Emerald had just turned 6 months. She is now a year old!! It is very hard to believe that time goes so fast. When she was first born it seemed liked she would stay tiny forever, but as soon as she started sitting up and being able to be a little more independent it seemed like the time went so fast!! On her actual birthday we went to the zoo, just the three of us. It was a really special, memorable time. Last weekend we had her party at the park and while it was sweltering HOT, I consider the party a success. :) She seemed to enjoy herself and of course all the attention she received.

The latest news in our family is that we are unexpectedly expecting baby #2! This news was quite shocking to us as we were not planning on having another for quite some time! I will be 17 weeks on Saturday. It definitely took awhile for it to sink in, but we are excited and I know Emerald will love being a big sister. She absolutely adores babies and other children.

We are not going to find out what we are having with this one. I am pretty sure this will be our last and I want the opportunity to experience what it is like to be surprised in that moment. However, I am quite convinced it is a BOY! I feel completely different than I did when I was pregnant with Emerald. I had hardly any morning sickness, my hormones aren't making me too crazy, :) and I am actually enjoying it for the most part-something I thought I would never say about pregnancy!! :) I have always had dreams it is a boy and all I dreamt about with Emerald was having a girl, so time will tell!

Speaking of pregnancy and the like, I am on my way with my doula certification. In just one month, I will be going to the CAPPA conference and then doing my doula training with a CAPPA instructor. I've been learning so much through my reading and research and I am really excited to be going down this path in my life.

Other than that life is pretty much mellow and going good. Sam is still enjoying his job and working hard in school.

Hopefully, I can keep everyone updated a little better over the coming months. :)

Our little baby girl is 6 MONTHS old, already!! I don't know how this happened. I swear, she was a little baby who couldn't do anything on her own and BAM! Now she is sitting up, entertaining herself and looking to eat "real" food. =) I am truly amazed with how fast she is growing!

We put up our Christmas tree and Emerald adores the lights and all the sparkly things that come with Christmas. Sam and I are excited to start our own traditions with our little family.

Sam started his job at the IRS a few weeks back and everything is going well. He is now working on being promoted in the Army, which will be good for his future profession, so I know he is excited about that.

We are both in school full time and I JUST finished a 10 page paper. I know all college students have to write papers and I know that there are lots of other moms out there who go to school, raise a baby AND work. So I have to think that I don't have it all that bad. I think I would be more motivated if the school was for a purpose other than the check we get that pays me to go. I am researching different Doula training organizations and I think I found the one I am going to go with. There is a seminar to start the training in July, which works out perfect for us because Emerald will be able to be apart from me for more than a few hours for the training.

I am excited about the prospect of this and feel that I am finally on my way to doing something I hope I will love.

We had a good Thanksgiving and most of all I am thankful that Sam is able to be home with us. Although, I can't say I am not a little worried the Army is not going to send him back over as they are sending 30,000 more troops out. All we can do is pray!

I can't believe that Christmas is only 25 days away! Hope everyone is having fun getting into the holiday spirit!

Anyway...our little punkin is now 5 months old! Where did the time go? She definitely wants to move around and scoots her little body all around her play mat...we will see when she decides to attempt crawling. She is attempting to sit up and is doing well, but still needs support to sit up for more than a few seconds.

We are now on week 3 of our cloth diapering adventure. So far, so good. The Bum Genius cloth dipes really are great and I am glad we decided to go with them. We are still doing the disposables at night, but will eventually switch over to 100% cloth when we run out. The diaper sprayer we connected to a toilet is a "must" in my opinion if you are are going to venture into this world. But we are having fun and Sam doesn't even mind them either.

I got a Moby wrap after having so many people suggest it and then suggesting it myself without ever owning one. I LOVE it!!! It is very nice to have the two shoulder support that the sling lacks to perform in. I found a camo colored one online and told Sam I was going to get it for him for our NEXT baby. =) (I have to put those messages in his mind b/c he says we are only going to have one!)

We didn't go trick or treating with the crew (Cauthen's and Stroud's) because Emerald was feeling "under the weather." I loaded up on herbs and essential oils and gave her the ones she could take and she is feeling LOTS better. It's no fun when your baby doesn't feel good, so I hope that the rest of this "sick season" we can keep the yuckiness at bay and continue to do preventative care.

Onto to other news...school is going pretty well. I have found it difficult to tend to Emerald and get everything done. I have had my sister come stay a few times just so I can do my schoolwork undisturbed. It will help when Sam is home every night and we can "take turns" as he is in school full time right now too.

Speaking of Sam coming home...this is his LAST week of paralegal school!!!! HURRAY!!! We only have 3 more nights apart and then NO MORE!!! We survived. The first few weeks were not fun, but it really started to go by fast after that. I am just glad it is over for now.

That about sums up our news for now!! Looking forward to the holiday season!

I've noticed since becoming a mommy that one of the first questions people ask is, "how does she sleep?" It's so interesting to me that it is such an important topic among parents!! Emerald sleeps very well once we get her down at night. She fights sleep at night, but we have learned various techniques to help soothe her into sleepydom. One important one is rocking and nursing her to sleep, which means we usually have to be home during that "fussy time." Multiple times this week we were out too late and she was not much of a happy camper. Sam finds that we are losing our independence, but I assured him it is not all lost and we just have to sacrifice a short amount of time...being a parent really does change your life! But the responsibility is a gift and I believe a test from God as how we are going to steward the gift He has given us. I am currently reading, The No Cry Sleep Solution. And hoping to find some good tips in there.

Another thing about becoming a parent would be the fact that we gave up our MINI Copper for a Mini Van. What?? Although we don't NEED a mini van with only having one child, I have to admit it is nice to have the extra room for the stroller and groceries and the like. Sam's main goal in getting rid of the MINI was to eliminate the car payment and have something more practical. So while I miss the MINI and it reminds me of my "free-spirited" days, I just look at my baby and realize I got something much better in exchange. =)

Onto other news...My sister Katie and I are going to try to embark on a road trip up to Michigan to see our older sis, Jen and her family. We are still trying to find out if Katie can get the time off of work, but I am excited and a little nervous of the prospect of taking a 2 month old and a toddler (my nephew is 3) on a 13 hour road trip! If we do go, we will be stopping half way over night because Lord knows our little ones won't last that long in their car seats!!! Are we crazy?? Maybe! We will most likely leave on the 20th and stay a week because....

Sam leaves for Army training on the the 21st of August for 10 weeks. :( He is going to paralegal school and we are hoping it will open up doors for him, once he is finished, to get a full time job at the Army unit in Charlotte. We are going to miss him so much! He will be able to come home on the weekends because he will be in Fort Jackson, SC-about a 3 hour drive~that is the silver lining to the madness.

On the 31st I start school full-time online. Woohoo!!! Alright, I am not excited at all about it, but Sam feels I need to enrich my life by going to school. What fun! I'm sure it will keep me busy while he is gone and hopefully it is easy and interesting enough. We will see. I might actually enjoy it.

Can't believe summer is almost over. Hope everyone has had a great one!