Things are going well with Alaina and our efforts at being diaper free. I wish they were better, but for that, I'd have to spend more time on it. And as I'm sure everyone else experiences, time is always short. Now that she's eating some solids, her poop signals are easier to catch. My other two kids had constipation problems when they started solids, which was part of my motivation for baby pottying. It's supposed to help with that. Anyway, Alaina hasn't had any constipation problems so far, but her poop is harder so she has to bear down more to get it out. It's easier to notice when she has to go. So we've had more poop catches lately. Which I must say is very nice. I LOVE not having to change poopy diapers. The last two that I had to change were because she was in the car seat the first time and taking a nap the second. Other than that, I haven't changed poop in about two weeks. And she's pooping more than she used to, so that means we've caught about 4 or 5 poops in that amount of time. I feel pretty confident with poop these days. I feel like if we have a miss it's because I wasn't with her, but if I am with her, we will always catch it. I do still take her more often than she needs to go because I miss-read her cues, but I'd rather that than miss because I wasn't taking her often enough.
Pee is still going okay. I wish it was better but I think time is the issue. We are still making progress so I should be glad for that. I still can't find her cues but she's responding to mine. I haven't done very well at just taking her fairly frequently like I set goals to do. Maybe I need to revamp those goals. But at least she's trying to go every time I take her. I can see her muscles working trying to get some out, but lots of the time she's just empty. She's so ready to start signing, so maybe that will help our cause. If she can sign to me that she has to pee and if there's enough of a foundation built that she would prefer to go in the pot, then we might just be in luck to have her diaper free not too long from now.
I'm a little discouraged that it isn't going better than it is, but I'm trying not to be too hard on myself given the fact that I have two other kids and lots of housework and other things to balance. I think maybe the best thing for me to do would be to get a new book about it (any suggestions?). It might help me to get excited about it again to get some new ideas . Which is not to say that I'm not always way excited when she poops or pees in the pot and not in the diaper! That's still exciting every time. Alaina gets excited too. I cheer for her and she smiles and smiles and wants to look at it. Gross.
