Monday, August 23, 2010

A New Home and a Lot of Pee

Jo Hunter Adams

We're [almost] all moved in to our new place, which is remarkably spacious. We literally have a room just for eating. Which is a common phenomenon, I suppose, but it still feels weird. We have a tiny couch in our living room looking really ridiculous-- surrounded by empty space and some plants. And we have amazing wooden floors. Word on the street (word from Eug) is that we're going to check out wicker furniture on Craigslist and then spraypaint whatever we get one colour. I think it could be awesome. Colour TBD.

So, you ask, why is it so great that the floors are made of wood? Well, Mr Noah is currently on the journey towards continence-- It's a gentle, slow journey because Noah is 103 days old. I was trying out some infant potty training/elimination communication when Noah was as young as two weeks. It worked well when he was peeing and pooping super-often (every five minutes) because there was a lot of success just by chance. But because our floor was carpeted I wasn't too keen on trying out a lot of time without a diaper, just because it seemed too messy.

With the wooden floors, Noah has caught on really well in just under a week. It turns out he doesn't like the potty, he likes the real toilet. It's pretty easy to take him to the toilet every so often during the day, and either give him a diaper or little trousers the rest of the time. I tried out having an alarm to remind myself to take him, and he often cries right before he's planning on peeing. I'm sharing not because we've gotten it all figured out (we've been parents for all of three months!), but because it's been surprisingly easy and not super-out-there-hippy-crunchy (yes, I came in with some pre-conceived notions). My take on EC is that there's no downside to helping him learn while he's amenable, particularly because it's not an all-or-nothing situation-- he can be in diapers some of the time. With Noah really liking toilets, it's also much easier to let him pee when we're out. I actually even took him to the park without a diaper--risky because he was in a wrap on me-- and he made it home without peeing on me.