I have to admit I love elimination communication with Galen.  There are times it can get frustrating, yes (especially when I get wet…)  But on the whole I'm really enjoying it.  I love Galen's little facial expressions.

I think it's because we've been taught that babies are not supposed to have any bladder control or any ability to do anything but soil themselves until they're well over two years old… but Galen's expressions just amuse me endlessly.

When I cue him to pee or poop he just has this relaxed, matter-of-fact look on his face.  As if it's completely natural (and isn't it??)  And sometimes a “well, yeah, what did you think I was going to do?” kind of look.  I just love it.  And I am 100% sure that it is completely natural and that the “experts” are completely wrong about baby ability to control bladder/bowels.

I don't of course think that everyone needs to use elimination communication with their babies.  It's a matter of personal choice.  I take EC'ing over poopy diapers any day though :p  We do still use diapers, just not all the time.

Galen has crankier days where we have a lot more misses and on those days I'll use diapers more.  And when we were all sick a couple of weeks back, I kept a diaper on him full time.  I still checked it frequently and offered potty opportunities to him, but I kept the diaper on him so I didn't have to worry while I was feeling bad and tending to the other children.

I do think that Galen has come to associate having cloth against his bottom as being “ok” to wet.  Of course I want him to wet if he absolutely needs to, but I'd also like to be able to put little trainers on him without him wetting those.  I tend to let him go diaper free/trainer free mostly around the house.  So I think I'm going to start keeping trainers on him and offering the potty a lot so he'll get used to the trainers being on but still pottying in the potty.

He's got three types of trainers now – the little ones I made him and I bought him two different types to try: Shi Shi Nix and EcaPants.  I really can't decide which ones I like best out of the Shi Shi Nix and the EcaPants.  The ones I made him are not waterproofed at all.  They just stop the “fountain effect.”  The Shi Shi Nix are partly waterproof – eventually the ribbing will get damp but they protect whatever baby is on from pees.  The EcaPants are fully waterproof and have a PUL outer cover.  They also have a soft little belt that goes around the baby, so you can unfasten the front of the EcaPants and pull it out of the way for pottying.

I like the EcaPants because they are completely waterproof and they work well with split pants for quick and easy pottying.  But I also find myself reaching for the Shi Shi Nix (both from .) often because I can just slip them on Galen quickly.  They work really well over legwarmers because I just slide them up and down to offer potty times.  I'll also slide them on over split pants and that goes nicely too.

I'd say that I'm still going mostly based on timing with taking Galen to pee.  He will squirm and fuss sometimes and I offer then (I'm often sorry if I don't!), but a lot of it is based on timing.  I have started to note a lot of intuitive feelings – if I think that I ought to try and potty him then I try do it right then because more often than not he needs to go!

Galen has fussy days every now and then where he decides to have what I call mini potty-strikes.  He'll just fuss and grump most of the day and he won't really be interested in going potty.  He goes right back to being fine with it the next day, though, so I don't know if he's just having an “off” day on those days or what.  He tends to be fussy overall so maybe those are just grumpy days.

One last thing I'm trying to work on is offering Galen the potty whenever we go out.  He likes his little potty bowls here but I want him to be comfortable going wherever we go.  This is harder for me because I'm also much more comfortable with his potty bowls.  But I'm trying to make a point to hold him over the toilet and the sink more so he'll be used to that, and hopefully ok with using a toilet and sink while we're out.  I don't want him to only be willing to potty at home – we had that come up with Brennan and it was hard for awhile there because well… you just can't always be home!!

(Galen is modeling wool split pants in the picture above – prefold between his legs for modesty! These pants are Re-Ewes from . and we love them!)