Ideas

I have had so many new ideas on my mind lately! I feel like I really need to sort all this stuff out and write it all down!

*The Raw Food Diet
I've looked into this diet before, about a year ago, and I was pretty interested in it. It's all about only eating fresh fruits, veggies and nuts. Seems a little crazy and I've never wanted to be a vegetarian, but something about this diet seems right. My diet right now is so UNHEALTHY! I'm a sugar addict. I love soda! I never/rarely eat fruits or veggies. Heath also needs to find a diet that works for him that we can do together. I also feel like Haven could use a better diet. I feel sad that she didn't get to breastfeed as long as I wanted her to. If we went on this diet, I think it would be so good for her. I just feel tired all the time. I also have floating anxiety. I think my poor diet contributes to these symptoms.

*Baby Led Solids
I've been reading up on Baby Led Solids (also sometimes called Baby Led Weaning) and I'm really liking the idea. The idea is to never spoon fed the baby, but give him regular food from your plate that he can pick up and eat on his own. What I'm wanting to do with Logan is 1)only start solids when he clearly is interested in trying solid foods. This means I will not push anything on him, he may just have to grab it out of my plate, lol. 2)make sure breastmilk is about 90% of his food source until he is 12 months old. I think people overdo the solids before it is healthy for the baby. I think I made this mistake with Haven, causing her to wean way too early. I am not starting solids in order to wean the baby as a lot of mothers might do because I don't want the baby to wean at 12 months -which is the norm.

*Breastfeeding for Birth Control
This idea is what led me to Baby Led Solids. I couldn't figure out why this didn't work for me with Haven. I think maybe the answer lies in the amount of solids I started giving her at 6 months old. She was eating so many solids and so little breastmilk, that she essentially began weaning at 6 months, causing my period to return! I've heard a lot about people who exclusively breastfed and yet their period returned before they ever started the baby on solids, so I'm not sure if my thinking is correct on this, but I think it's worth a retry since normal birth control methods are not for me.

*Minimalism
I've done a few things in the minimalist area lately, but their is more that I want to do. I want to minimalize my clothes again. I still have so much that I don't wear and it's just getting in the way. I also just have other random junk in general. The more I minimalize, the easier my life becomes.

*Elimination Communication with an Infant
I've been doing this with Logan and have had great results. I love the fact that he know how to poop in the potty and he rarely ever has to sit in his poop. He hates to have a wet diaper, so I change it frequently! I wish I could take it to the next level and have him do all his pees in the potty, but I'm afraid that it might mean being in the bathroom all day long! I'm still taking it easy in that regard.

*Rental Property Business
We have finally bought our 2nd rental property -a duplex. I'm pretty excited about closing on it and getting it ready to rent! Eventually, we hope that Heath can quit his job and the rental properties can be our sole income. Once we get renters in this duplex, our income from our rentals will exceed our income from Heath's job! However, we feel that we will need at least two more rentals to feel comfortable with him quiting his job.

*Exercising for the Baby Belly
I'm afraid of not losing my baby belly this time around and I need to do something about it!

Well, now my mind should be clear!

I Made My Own EC Diaper Out of an Old T-Shirt!

I love ECing, but I didn't know this is what I was going to be doing before I had my little one. That's why I bought 15 BumGenius One Size Pocket diapers (which are amazing). However, they aren't perfect for ECing. Taking the diaper on and off can be a hassle. I've been doing a lot of diaper-free, but my husband isn't a big fan of nakey-bum. I just wish I had one of those EcaWare flip-down, drop-front little learning pants!


But alas, they cost $18. You know my husband wouldn't hear of buying more diapers when I already have 15 perfectly fine ones.

I also needed a diaper that wasn't so water-proof, so I could tell when Haven had wet and change her quickly.
So... I MADE MY OWN EC DIAPER OUT OF AN OLD T-SHIRT!

First I laid one of my diapers on the T-shirt

Next, I pulled the elastic tight.
After that, I marked around the diaper, an inch or two away from the edge.
If your little one is on the floor, she will want to help.

Then I cut it out. This was the hardest part because my scissors STINK!
Next, I laid my little one on the diaper and tied the back flap around her middle. Since I cut it so that the back flap was still a loop, I just pulled one side of the loop through the other side and tied it like that.
Then, I just tucked in the front flap. Now I can simply pull out the front flap whenever she needs to potty and stuff it back in when she is done! Misses will be easily seen or felt. The diaper is also easy to take completely off because the t-shirt stretches enough to pull it off without untying it.

Here she is on the go. She wasn't happy about being my model...

Here she is wearing the other pair I made before. They were a bit too small because I didn't stretch out the elastic before I traced the diaper. When I make another, I will probably make it even longer, just too make tucking it in easier.

Now, if you have a sewing machine and you are a great seamstress, you probably will not care for this diaper. I, however, have no sewing machine or any sewing abilities. In fact, my sister is hesitant to allow me to even use her machine for fear I might break it! If you have a fear of breaking sewing machines -this could be the do-it-yourself EC diaper for you. Happy ECing!

Diaper washing

I just put the diapers in the wash and there were 25 used diapers. That means over the past 6 days, Haven has used an average of 4 diapers a day. That's about half of what she used to wear.
plus I used to have to wash diapers every other day. This is great!

Another Dry Spell

No, I'm not talking about the weather.

August 5 misses: 0
August 6 misses: 4
August 7 misses: 0 (so far)

This includes night time. She hasn't peed in bed in 3 nights.

Let the Misses Commence!

We had 3 misses within an hour (or maybe a half hour) while I was washing the dishes. Discouraging, but it was bound to happen. They were easily wiped up off our laminate floor. Actually, it was way easier than changing a diaper...

Haven was giving me vocal signs with 2 of the 3 misses. I took her to the potty, but she was arching and whining. I must be more persistent in the future.

Amazing.

We are still on our accident free 2 day streak (well, it hasn't been exactly 2 days yet...). Very exciting.

Can you believe this?

0 accidents! All day long!

Diaper Free? Isn't that gross?

Today, Haven has not had an accident (it's 12:47 pm). She has used the potty 6 times already today!

This morning I had an "aha moment." I've been reading http://www.tribalbaby.org/ and she is so inspiring! She talks a lot about "part-time diaper free." I have been very skeptical of diaper free. The first time I ever heard of diaper free was about 5 or 10 years ago when I saw a special about it on the news. My reaction was "That is so gross! I would never let my baby pee all over everything like that!" Of course, I didn't have a baby, or even a husband, at the time.

Starting Infant Potty Training was not planned at all for me.
Haven was about 4 and a half months old when I was about to put her in the bathtub. On the way, she pooped on the floor -right next to the potty! I thought, "She could have pooped in the potty..." And that's how it started. You can imagine my shock when, after only setting her on the potty about 3 or 4 times, she actually peed in the potty! I was hooked!

However, I did not want to try diaper free. I was so scared of my baby peeing all over everything! For 3 months I just took off her cloth diaper to potty her and put it back on when she was done. This became an annoying task, especially when she would refuse to go. Then there was the problem of misses. I wanted to change the misses as soon as possible so that she wouldn't get used to being wet. I was getting sick of diaper on-diaper off-diaper on-diaper off!

Suddenly, I thought, "Hey, she could go diaper free while I wash dishes or cook. She would be in the kitchen and any misses could be quickly wiped away. Taking her potty would be a cinch, since there would be no diaper to mess with." So I tried it this morning and I couldn't have asked for better results. Thank you, part-time diaper free!

Misses

I just got done putting the diapers in the wash and we've had 27 misses in 3 days. That's an average of 9 misses a day. Most websites say that a 6 month old wets 6-8 times a day. She's obviously wetting more than that. The website that had the highest number of wets for a baby said 12-15 times per day. If Haven is wetting 15 times per day (which is very likely), then we are catching about 6 wets per day. That's not half, but that's pretty good. I guess I should start counting the catches. I'm good at counting the poopy catches. We've had 2 today. Those are the ones that matter the most anyway.

Yay!

Haven only had 4 accidents over a 24 hour period!

UPDATE6: Training up a child

In the middle of the night last night I put Haven in the bed with me to nurse. She nursed for a while then she started patting me with her hand. I read yesterday that that could be a sign that she needs to potty. I took her potty, but she had already used her diaper. I took her and laid her in her crib and said, "Go night, night." I only had to lay her head down once at first (my memory of this is hazy). I had to stop her kicking several times, then she tried raising her head a few more times. Finally I was satisfied she wasn't going to try to move anymore. The light was out so I could see if her eyes were closed. I don't know what time it was because I didn't have my glasses on. I laid down in my bed (which is right next to her crib) and waited to see what she would do. I couldn't go to sleep. She was tossing and turning a bit. Finally, after about 5 minutes, I bent over her crib to see what she was doing -she was looking right at me, lol! So, I picked her up and put her in bed with me... I couldn't resist.

I would call it a success because she didn't get up or cry, even though she was still awake.

Explaination Video about Elimination Communication

http://www.5min.com/Video/What-is-Elimination-Communication-118133187

She mentions the child arching his back to indicate that he does not need to use the potty. However, in my experience, Haven arches her back because she would rather do something besides use the potty. For example, just a few minutes ago she woke up from her nap so I took her to the potty. She immediately pooped a little and I praised her. Then she started arching her back. I said, "No, no" and put her back. Then she pooped some more. So when it comes to Haven, arching her back does not mean she doesn't need to potty.

UPDATE: Training up a child

Heath and I are now proud parents to almost 7 month old Haven Norah. She has been the best baby I could have hoped for. Such a sweetie. Most of my days are consumed with feeding her, diapering her, training her, and loving her. I can't imagine my life without her. Getting her here was quite a journey, which I'm sure you'll hear about later.

As a parent, I am determined to have well-behaved, obedient children. I don't think that is too much to ask. I think, if I expect unruly children, that is what I will get! I am aiming much higher.

I mentioned "training" Haven and that may sound strange to most. How do you train a 7 month old baby? Well, I'm still working it out myself, but I will share what I have learned:

According to the Bible, a child must be trained. I have been quite worried about this in the past because, I had no idea how to "train up a child in the way he should go." I was sure to fail with no plan. I mean, I did have a plan kind of.... I knew that I would spank my kids if they disobeyed me. But that didn't give me peace. There must be more to know. I finally found a website
( http://www.raisinggodlytomatoes.com/ ) written by the mother of 10 children that explains how to train children. It was such a revelation and relief to find!

She starts with the very basics - from day 1. This is just my paraphrasing:

0-about 6 months: Love, hold, cuddle, comfort your baby. No need to train, just make them feel secure and loved. Plus, you are still recovering from delivery and probably have no time to think about training.

About 6 - 12 months: Start teaching your baby the meaning of the word "no." It is time to start teaching your baby that you are the authority that must be obeyed. It is kinder to teach them now, rather than wait until they are older and more independent and resistant. This isn't full-time training, just a time to basically teach that when you say "no" they will not get their own way. In my opinion, there should be no painful spanking in this stage. Ultimately, according to the author, if you begin training early and consistently without painful spanking, you will rarely have to spank in the future.

This is about how all I have committed to memory, since Haven is still 7 months old. Let me share what I have done so far.

July28, 2009
11:15 am Haven was sleepy so I put her lying on her stomach in her crib. She lifted her head and I gently pushed it back down and said "No, no. Go night, night." After about 5 repeats of this, she started whining. after about 5 more repeats, she started crying. After about 10 more repeats she started sucking her thumb. After that, she only lifted her head about 5 more times before going to sleep. This whole process took about 15 minutes (although it SEEMED much longer to me!). I was so amazed and excited! Can you imagine? Your child is only 7 months old and you've already won your first battle of wills in just 15 minutes? (By the way, I do not HOLD the baby's head down. I want her to choose to keep it down on her own.)

11:30 pm Haven was sleepy so I laid her on her stomach in her crib. She lifted her head and I gently pushed it back down and said "No, no. Go night, night." There was barely a whimper of protest this time. She continued to try to raise her head for about 5 to 8 minutes before falling asleep. Another success!

July 29, 2009
11:30 am Haven was kind of fussy and I thought she might be sleepy so I laid her on her stomach in her crib. She lifted her head and I gently pushed it back down and said "No, no. Go night, night." She begin to fuss and continued to lift her head for about 5 minutes. Then she became calmer and I thought she was about to doze off. However, she suddenly begin crying more loudly than before and lifting her head more often. (I believe in psychology this is called spontaneous recovery.) This continued for about 15 more minutes, when I had to go finish Heath's Lunch. I was pretty upset that I had to stop the training before she went to sleep, since consistency is the key here. But I did wait until there was a pause in her crying before picking her up and putting her on the living room floor.

1:00 pm Haven was tired and sleepy so I laid her on her stomach in her crib. She lifted her head and I gently pushed it back down and said "No, no. Go night, night." She resisted MUCH less than before and was asleep in about 8 minutes. Progress!

The only other area that I am currently training Haven in is associated to her IPT (infant potty training). I have been noticing for a few weeks that she has become resistant to being held over the potty and arches her back a lot. Since learning more about child training I have started saying "No" and putting her back over the potty whenever she arches her back.

She's been really good about using the potty. She usually uses it about... 4 to 10 times a day. I NEVER get upset if she uses her diaper (maybe a bit discouraged, if she does it all day long), becuase I don't expect her to know how to hold it yet. I just praise her everytime she uses the potty instead of her diaper. People seem shocked when they find out I take her to the potty, but why not? I believe that children can learn things very early and I don't plan to wait around and let her "learn" that the diaper is the only place to go potty. In the same way, I don't want her to "learn" that she can do whatever she wants all the time and no one will ever make her do anything she doesn't want to do.

I will try to keep posting about this, mainly so I can look back to see what works and what doesn't.

~Summer