Practicing E.C. (finally)

Warning: This may contain more than you want to read, but it's about a baby, so it's okay.

A milestone was reached today, one day shy of Buggy's ninth month: she and I practiced Elimination Communication with great success. For those of you who are unfamiliar, EC is the term given to a parent or caregiver paying attention to a baby's signals that are given when they're about to soil their diaper and, before they do, helping the child to a toilet or other receptacle to do their business outside of the diaper. This is something I'd been wanting to do since Olive was brand new, but somehow it never caught on. The good thing about EC is that it can be done on a part-time basis and can be implemented at any time. Now that Olive is eating more solid foods, her dirty diapers have become increasingly unpleasant, and worse still to clean, what with the cloth diapers. I try to schedule my outings around the times I imagine she will erupt, making myself scarce and leaving Rob responsible for the fallout (not really, but occasionally this does cross my mind when I'm not home and I do derive some selfish pleasure in knowing that I might be off the hook that day).

But today, as I was applying a third coat of gesso to a canvas for a Christmas commission, my ears perked when I heard Buggy, amusing herself with the contents of a laundry basket, emitting a series of strained grunts. I set down my brush and laid her on the floor to inspect her diaper: very wet, and only a tiny bit yuck. It then it occurred to me that it was the perfect time to employ the practice that so interested me, so I snatched bare-from-the-waist-down Buggy and plopped her on our hideous plastic mother-of-pearlite toilet seat
where she finished what she started. It was wonderful, and I gushed and praised her all the while. I waited to flush as Rob was minutes from getting home from the zoo and I wanted him to see, though I did refrain from snapping a photograph to document the occasion.

So not only did this mean not having to pull on the yellow rubber gloves to scrub the soiled diaper, but it really awakened in me the EC believer. I mean, I knew that it could be done, I knew I had it in me, but sometimes it just takes doing it once to really set the wheels into motion. It's going to make me that much more intuitive when it comes to reading my gal's subtle signals, and I'm looking forward to learning more about her and us broadening our communication as we continue this.