Real-Life EC: 10th Month

I have to say that now at 10 months in, I am surprised that Alek still isn't signing for the potty! After a nearly miraculous start to our signing journey when he was only 5 months old, at 10 months he still doesn't purposefully sign for the potty. Nor does he show any other purposeful signs that I have seen 10 month olds exhibit, such as crawling to the potty or the bathroom, banging on the toilet lid etc... On the other hand, he loves to wave for "hi" and "bye" and even tries to say the words most of the time. The other signs I have been consistently trying to teach are "all done", "more" and "milk". He does not do any of these, although he has developed his own sign when he is reeeeeaaaalllyyyy hungry (he ululates using the back of his hand in front of his mouth and moving his fingers - its adorable). 

I may have also discovered a signal for pee - though perhaps a little too late. For many months now I have noticed Alek occasionally doing a full-body shiver. I assumed at first that he was doing this as he was peeing since I had observed it once or twice while he was on the potty. But sometimes after a "shiver" I would check his diaper and it was dry, so I (naively) assumed that it didn't mean anything. Well.... A few weeks ago I was at a gathering and was speaking to an acquaintance of mine, when I observed her 1 year old do a 'shiver". Since they practice EC, the mom said "oh! I just saw a shiver, better get her to the potty", and off they went. Whoa! Lightbulb moment! Funnily enough, a couple of days later, I was on my Southern Alberta counterpart's facebook page (check out Go Diaper Free of Calgary here), when she posted something about signals. I mentioned the shiver and lo and behold a couple of other mom's reported seeing this one as well. Amazing! Since then, unfortunately I have only seen a couple of shivers, but they have proven to be reliable.

Despite all of that, most days we continue to have very good success at catching pees! Certain general times such as a few minutes after waking from sleep, and after coming out of the car or the high chair, and about 20-30 minutes after nursing are very reliable. Outside of that, Alek is usually really good at holding his pee until I offer the potty. Sometimes I think to myself, oh man, his diaper must be so wet by now! Then I take it off and am shocked to find it still completely dry. 

Loving life on a beautiful fall day!

As for poops, I am having less success than I would like but at the same time I think I have been learning a lot, the biggest lesson being "never ignore the grunt!". As long as Alek is within earshot, he makes an unmistakable grunt right before or as he begins to poop. Its usually just one grunt and then its too late, so you have to be on alert! There were several times this month that I was too "in my brain" and as I heard the grunt I thought to myself "was that a grunt?" or I would look at him in the eye "are you pooping?" but decide that he couldn't possibly be (because he had already gone that morning or because it didn't look like he was etc...) but in actuality he was pooping every. single. time. What is most insane about poops though is that he is also exhibiting privacy behaviour much of the time, and sometimes retreats to a place where he can stand in a deep squat to poop. Under a dining chair, or the dining table are popular spots, as well as just retreating to the living room when the rest of the family is in the kitchen, etc... It does make it a little trickier to catch, but now that I have recognized the behaviour I will be acting on it!
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In my parenting life, I am the main ECer. My husband thinks it is totally amazing and is supportive of it, but he does not really participate in it unless directly asked. He is actually pretty horrible at remembering to change diapers at all and will often be holding a crying Alek "I don't know what's wrong!". I will change A's soaking diaper and SURPRISE he's happy again! Anyway... lately my husband does seem to have a 6th sense as far as poops are concerned and seems to catch more than I do! I think that this makes him feel quite proud, and it is lovely to see the way that poop (?!?!) can be a bonding experience between him and his son. 

Clothing-wise nothing has changed this month except that my diaper belt is missing!!! I have also switched from "infant" to "baby" size prefolds because the infant ones are in horrible condition after years of use. I now have only 12 baby size prefolds, 4 Flapawrap inserts and 5 fitted diapers (mostly used at night) and wash every 3 to 4 days. Oh! And for nighttime I finally got a wool cover. Its been WONDERFUL. I highly recommend it. I went from regularly resorting to disposables, being sick of nighttime leaks, to absolutely no issues whatsoever. He is wearing a size large Disana cover and it is perfect for nights.

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