Contest

I am a big fan of baby wearing. I don't keep her in tow 100% of the time because I like her to still have some independence, but baby wearing has certainly saved me when she is gowing through a clingy fussy time. Here is a link to a contest I thought I'd share with those of you that also are interested in it.

Win the Essential Babywearing Stash from Along for the Ride (one Beco Butterfly, one Hotsling baby pouch, one BabyHawk Mei Tai, one Zolowear Ring Sling, and one Gypsy Mama Wrap)

EC (Elimination Communication)

EC (Elimination Communication) is the practice of learning your baby's ques that are given when there is an elimination need. It is not a new practice, as it has been practiced in countries such as Africa and Asia for centuries. It is only new to our culture. In our society of disposable everything and hurry up and wait mentality the art of parenting has been forsaken. Parents let their children get away with throwing tantrums, and being lazy, and becoming spoiled brats. There are so many things that our society and gleen from other cultures that would make our lives, and the lives of our children, better. This is just one of those as it would reduce the need for rubbing chemicals on our babies (diaper rash cream) and reduce waste (disposables) as well as save us time (washing cloth diapers and changing diapers in general).

I will first admit that I do not practice EC full time. Part because of my running around too much, and part because up to a certain point Faith couldn't hold her head up by herself which made that difficult in itself. Well, I can proudly say that I have been able to read her signs, and get her used to it enough that every time I place her on the potty she pees and when I wake her up from her noon nap she poops (her normal elimination time every other day). I don't catch every thing of course as I am only doing it part time; but I have to tell you that no messy diapers is a blessing especially since I use cloth prefolds.

At first she fussed a bit when I held her over our toilet, or placed her on her Baby Bjorn potty (babies'R'us $10), but it didn't take her very long to get used to what I was doing and why I was doing it. I hardly have to make the Pssss sound anymore. I hope to start being more dedicated now that she is getting bigger, and especially once she's able to sit on it by herself. For now, I put her on the potty each time she wakes up. She is 8 weeks old today and I think it's just a matter of time before she starts waiting for the potty to go potty as she hates sitting in a wet diaper for too long and sometimes not at all.

The book Diaper Free Baby by Christine Gross-Loh is great. Please feel free to email me if you have any questions. imkita@gmail.com

Below I have listed a few websites that I also found useful in case you are interested. Now, I am not advocating everything on all of the websites listed. They just happened to have information about EC.

http://www.naturalbirthandbabycare.com/elimination-communication.html
http://www.kellymom.com/parenting/infantpottytraining.html
http://www.tribalbaby.org/ECindex.html
http://www.timl.com/ipt/
http://www.freewebs.com/freetoec/mythologyreality.htm
http://www.natural-wisdom.com/nihgentlealternative.htm