A good day with Landon

So, given the fact that I have four kids and it's summer so there's no school and that one of those kids is 18 months old and into everything and that another one of them needs me to breastfeed him every 2 hours, I've decided not to stress about pottying Landon. I think it's been an asset in getting MORE catches though. I've just been taking him if I think of it while I'm changing his diaper or if I notice any cues and it's a convenient thing to do right then. His cues have been pretty easy to read compared to Alaina's (or maybe I'm better at it?). I can even recognize pee cues, though I don't recognize them as such when I decide to take him--I just think, "oh, he has to go potty" and then he pees.

But here's the point of this post: Today Landon kept his diaper dry for about 6 hours straight! I caught a poop this morning and a pee midmorning. Then I missed a poop and maybe a pee too. I changed the poopy diaper and then I caught the next poop and then he took a long nap. I was just sure that he filled his diaper during his nap because he got all squirmy a couple of times and had gas. But then after his nap I went to change him and, not only was he not poopy, he was also DRY! I thought, "well, surely he's got to poop then. He must have been holding it despite all that squirming." So I took him potty and he peed! A lot! Who says babies have no bladder control?!

Yay! Alaina pooped in the potty! And Landon's pottying

Yay for Alaina! We've been putting her in unders (that's what Ryker calls underwear--we love it!) the last few days because life has been crazy and I haven't been washing the cloth ones often enough and we've been out of disposables for a long time. She does pretty well. She's only wet in them once and messed in them once. But the other day, she was toddling around in the nude and I stepped into another room for a second and when I came back, she was getting off her little potty. I looked in it and there was poop in there! A full load too (most of the time, if she poops at all in the potty, it's a tiny little bit and she finishes the rest in a diaper later). And she'd gone all by herself! I hadn't suggested she go or asked her if she needed to go. She just took herself! Good job, baby!

In other pottying news, Landon is doing great with it too! Actually, I caught his very first poop in the middle of the night after he was born. He started squirming and when I checked to see if he would root (meaning he was hungry), I got no response. Then he grunted and I thought, "Well, I'll have to change his diaper in a minute anyway, so I might as well see if I can get him to go in the potty instead." He kinda wiggled and fussed at first, but then he calmed down and pooped the biggest pile of meconium I've ever seen! Holy cow! That would have ended up on everything if it had been in the diaper! At the same time, he peed all over the place! The penis thing is going to be a bit of a learning curve. Fortunately, I was sitting on the plastic we had down for the birth so clean up was easy. Since then, I've taken him potty here and there when I think he might have to go based on his behavior (fussiness that isn't because of being hungry or tired, scrunching up his legs, grunting) and had quite a bit of success with that. I also offer him the potty any time I'm changing his diaper and I think of it, just to see if he'll go. Almost every time I offer him the potty, he'll go. Sometimes not, but I've been surprised at how much easier it seems to be to recognize his cues compared to Alaina's. I've caught both pee and poop, though I can't really distinguish a "pee cue" from a "poop cue." I've been using a different cue with him for some reason. It just kind of naturally came into existence. The way that I hold him to go potty, I have a clear view of his "boys" so I can see when he goes. For some reason, it crossed my mind to blow on his boys as a cue--it seemed like a natural way of indicating, "you're free to go." It also seems less ambiguous than an auditory sound, any of which would overlap into speech and perhaps be confusing at first. This seems a little more clear-cut and direct. You're naked=go pee.

My sister has a 3 month old baby and she's been working on baby pottying with him the last little while too. She's been doing GREAT! She's so dedicated! She catches a lot of his pees and she can clearly see that when she's been doing a good job of offering the potty, he will hold it and his cues (fussing) will be more pronounced. If she has a couple of busy days where she isn't as diligent about taking him potty, she notices that his cues are more subtle and he doesn't hold it as long. It really does work! I encourage any of you who have thought about giving this a go to GO FOR IT! It is my opinion that when pottying is a regular part of a child's life always, there will be less resistance to it and they will be happier and so will their parents. I also think that babies do not want to pee or poop on themselves and that they will be much more comfortable eliminating NOT in their diaper. Lastly, some statistics that I heard (but can't remember precisely) indicated that diapers are one of the very worst things we send to the landfills and that we send them there in unbelievable quantities. And our country is by far the worst. Now, I'm not usually one to preach about being "green" since I'm really not very green and, to be honest, I'm not really worried about the fact that I'm not green (now don't go thinking that I'm "black" either, I'm just...normal). But the statistics I read were so crazy that it motivated me to work a little harder on this potty training thing so that I wouldn't be counted among those sending bazillions of diapers on their merry way to spend the next half a century decomposing. It's just kinda gross.