It’s sometimes hard to find a balance between living life and offering the potty.  For me the thing that has always worked the best is timing.  Just getting to know about how often my baby goes potty.

This past week I picked a day and jotted down when Galen went to the bathroom so I could get a feel for how often I should be offering potty opportunities.

He’s not peeing nearly as often as he did when he was a tiny baby   And since he’s crawling (and cruising!) he’s not on his belly, which seemed to cause him to pee very frequently.

Now I’m able to offer him the potty with longer stretches in between and he stays dry.  I usually still offer based on timing, or if he goes for one of his potties.  Even if he seems to only want to play with it, I still put him on it!

The most frustrating thing for me thus far has been mealtimes.  Even if I offer right before a meal he always seems to wet his undies while he’s in his highchair.  I need to teach him not to do that! :p

I mentioned last month that I wasn’t sure how to deal with the cold, EC’ing, and an older baby.  Well this month I’ve got it a bit more figured out.  Galen has one pair of wool split pants.  These pants are great – I slip those on him and they keep his legs cozy warm.  Then I pull on a pair of undies/trainers over them and he’s covered.  The wool wicks any moisture if we have a miss, and I notice misses right away so there’s never much chance at them getting wet.  If you’ve ever used a wool diaper cover or longies you know how this works.  I think I’ll probably get at least one more pair so if I need wash and air dry one pair I’ll have a backup pair.

So that system is working well, and timing things is working well.

Galen also shows a classic Cassidy sign that he needs to poop.  Cassidy, my oldest child, was also my first elimination communication baby.  I could always tell when she needed to poop because she’d get very still and her eyes would get red-rimmed.  Galen does the exact same thing.  He’s also pretty vocal and “grunt-y.”  I miss a poop every once in awhile but not often.

We’re still using diapers at night right now, and some days I still have Galen in diapers, though I offer the potty.  I’d like to have him out of diapers, soon, though, so I’ve been making a big effort the past couple of weeks to keep him in undies and offer the potty a lot.  Hopefully once he starts toddling he’ll be able to learn to sit on the potty himself, too.  He’s already super coordinated so I don’t see it being much trouble for him

Galen was chronicled on Natural Birth and Baby Care from start to finish (in fact, I started this blog because we were TTC him!) I thought I’d share some highlights:

We’re pregnant: a very faint positive at 10DPO (days post/past ovulation)!

My chart hits 18 days of high temps – a pretty certain sign of pregnancy! (Scroll to the bottom to see my chart)

We discover we’re expecting a son!

I do a marathon freezer cooking session to get ready for baby!  Talk about nesting.  This year I created a freezer meal plan for you based on that session

Scott and I use The Pink Kit to prepare for the birth (it’s excellent!) and I write down all the details for you.

Finally, finally, finally, our precious baby boy arrives – and Scott and I are the only ones to witness his debut!

And now today, one year later, our little man is growing strong.  He has been such an incredible joy and blessing to our family.  I’m delighted he decided to join us   I’ll leave with a parting shot of his first few minutes:

I like to highlight this particular seasonal special because I took advantage of it. I am a real mom. I’m a real mom who stays with my kids full time. And I’m a real mom who runs a real business while I do it. On top of all of that, I love my life

So I like to share with you just what has worked for me, and what works for other moms.

Natural Birth and Baby Care is a hard-working site. Thousands and thousands of moms just like you visit it every month. Enough of you email me that I know it’s helpful to you. I love it when you email me and I can help you personally. Or when you help me by telling me ways I can improve it for you.

Because I publish articles here to help you, I’m able to get something in return. A website is a perfect business for a mom. If you’re looking for something that will fit around your schedule, this is it. In fact, there are tons of moms who are raising their families – and their businesses – just like me. They aren’t all obsessed with birth and babies like me, though. No, perhaps thankfully, they have websites about as many topics as there is sand on the seashore

Just Go For It!

I took advantage of this excellent holiday special to get started on my second website – it’s a Two for One kind of deal. I know you know the lingo, it’s a BOGO ;p My second website is already off to a strong start – and my third website is already growing in my mind.

I was really procrastinating getting started with website #2. You know how I feel, right? It’s sometimes hard to have faith in yourself and your abilities when your major accomplishment for the day was getting a shower without the baby crying (yeah, I didn’t accomplish that today…).

Anyways, I really knew that I wanted to start a new site because I love working on this one, I love helping others, and I like helping my family with the income. But I had a million different reasons on why I should “wait.”

Thankfully, I also have a one-in-a-million husband who, after I brought up the special (for the hundredth time) and why I should just sit and wait until the next time it rolled around, told me to stop babbling and just go for it. So I did. And I’m really glad

In fact, not only do I look forward to every day of teaching the kids, playing with the baby, and spending time with said amazing hubby, I’m also super excited to get up and work on building my business. I’m also excited to know that site #3 is waiting quietly in the wings for me to get going with it (you get 9 months to start the “GO” in your BOGO).

Building a website can be a truly rewarding business for you, too. I encourage you to give it a try. If you’ve been considering, now is the time to act. Don’t worry about all those “what-if’s” and “but, but, buts…” going through your mind. Starting a business is an awesome experience and you will learn through all your successes, and your few mistakes (believe me, I’ve made plenty!) Just go for it – you have nothing to lose.

(learn more about my story here or contact me)

Joanna congratulations, and look for an email later today!

Thank you to Linen Kids for sponsoring the giveaway, and thank you to everyone who entered!

Contest will close at Midnight Eastern tonight: Click here to enter

Life is busy for us. Since the school year started I’ve been keeping Galen in diapers more.  He has a time while I’m giving Cassidy her lesson where he’s playing alone in a playpen (yes, we own one of those!) and I have him in a diaper while he’s in that.

He and I have been getting up really early in the mornings too.  He’s been wakeful early in the mornings.  The early morning time gives me an opportunity to get a little work done in peace, so I haven’t minded getting up.  The house is really cold at that time in the morning, though, so I’ve been bundling him up in a diaper and warm pants and letting him play on the floor while I work.

One benefit is I’ve noticed he’s often dry if I get right up with him in the morning.  He’ll go on his potty almost right away.  Most of his poops lately have been during this time period too.  I’m catching most of the poops, which is good.

I tend to miss the morning pees while we’re doing school lessons because he’s in a diaper and is heading all over the room.  It was actually much easier when he was a newborn and he was in my lap all the time – I just got a feeling about when it was time for him to go.

I’ve thought about just starting to offer him the potty at set times in the morning, as we change from one lesson to the next.  Without doing that most of the pees I catch are right before or after sleep periods.  He’s still taking a morning and an afternoon nap.

The Weather Challenge… Again

We had a pretty cool summer and now, in mid-October, it’s already pretty cold here.  It’s 34 degrees outside now.  Even inside the house it’s cooler and we need long sleeves and long pants on.  I haven’t quite decided how I’ll handle this yet.

We have wood floors, so even in split pants I worry Galen will get chilly crawling and sitting on the floor.  Last year it was easy to keep him in split pants because he was always in my lap covered in a little blanket.

I feel like with the cool weather at this point just offering the potty at set times will be our best option.  I’ve found it pretty easy to continue to catch bowel movements but I’d like to catch more pees again.  I’m also looking forward to when Galen starts to walk and we can teach him to get to the potty on his own :p

He remains pretty content to use the potty when I hold him over it.  Sometimes he fusses and doesn’t go, sometimes he fusses and does go, sometimes he just goes without any fussing.  I haven’t really figured out his fussing on the potty – the only thing I can think is he’s annoyed at having to stop what he’s doing to sit on the pot!

Even with the challenges of an older, mobile baby, and the start of very chilly weather, I’m really enjoying EC’ing Galen and I’m very glad we went with it.  It’s so nice to avoid dirty diapers!!

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Now, my husband swears that things are probably never going to go wrong.  He says he’s been living here for decades and has never had much of a power outage, never had a bad blizzard, and that tornadoes and flooding aren’t going to come anywhere near here.

Me, well, I trust my hubby.  But I also like my own peace of mind.  Besides… my kids getting sick, me getting sick, him getting sick – and nobody being able to make it to the grocery store for a week… I can see that happening.

So whatever the “what-if” I like to have some supplies on hand.  I found an awesome website that has step-by-step “baby steps” that walk you through getting your supplies together.  It doesn’t matter what level of preparedness you’re looking for – a brief power outage, a week-long winter storm, or even a layoff where you need to draw on a few month’s reserves – these little “baby steps” will help you to accomplish those goals.

The 7 Day Challenge

The girls over at Food Storage Made Easy also just ran a “Seven Day Challenge” and I can proudly say my family survived it.  Ok.  With a long list of “to-do’s” at the end of 7 days, my family survived it.

The gals set up a different “situation” each day that we had to go along with and the kids and I had a blast.  It was challenging, to say the least.  But very fun.

Day 1 – Flood!

I was ready for this! I’d already gotten backpacks set up for the family with 72 hours worth of food in them.  I had a list of almost everything I needed to grab.  We had 1 hour to pack the van and “evacuate” and we got our stuff packed and ready to go in under that!  Yay us!

I did realize I needed to add several things to my “grab-list.”  And that I needed to figure out where we would evacuate to… I think my MIL’s house is most likely.  In which case I need to print some directions to her house because I never pay attention enough to remember it with my hubby driving

I think this was one of the best days.  You may not get caught in a flood situation, but there’s no way to tell when you’re going to lose electric service for awhile and need something to eat (or do… I had coloring books for the kiddos!)  It’s really very practical there’s something on the shelves (or in the bag) that can be grabbed and eaten quickly.

Day 2 – Pandemic!

Well, given the uncertain state of affairs in world health, we could be facing this issue very soon.  I felt pretty good about this one too – I’ve been working on our first aid kit quite a bit.  I changed out all the outdated things and restocked what needed to be restocked.  It’s a pretty comprehensive kit.  We made homemade chicken soup for our “sick” boys and Cassidy and I took good care of them.

If there were really a pandemic situation I’d set up an actual sick room and care for them a little differently.  There was also a link to an excellent “Home Care of the Flu” guide I found very helpful.  You can download it here.  Another gal doing the challenge posted that link – I’m very grateful for her!!

Day 3 – Dinner Guests!

This was an “every day” emergency and it was TONS of fun.  The situation was that my hubby called home to let me know that he and his boss would be there for dinner in an hour – his vegetarian boss!!  I had to have an appetizer, main course, two sides, and a dessert made… and I could not go to the store!

Well I managed to pull it off, though I lucked out because we had a box of fresh veggies from our CSA farm.

I made a platter of fresh veggie slices with a homemade veggie dip (fresh sour cream base) for our appetizer.  I made Jamaican Beans and Rice (from Nourishing Traditions) as our main dish, though I did use canned beans instead of dried, and canned chilies.  We had a big salad full of fresh veggies as one side and steamed broccoli as the other side.  Our dessert was an oatmeal/pumpkin bar thing I found online because I knew I had canned pumpkin!  I had to substitute canned coconut milk for milk (we were totally out of milk, even if the veggie boss would have been ok with it).  Anyways, the dessert came out very tasty, so I’ll actually make that again!

The kids helped me clean the house up while the food cooked, and we all got changed into fresh clothes and I had time to teach them a little bit about how to answer the door politely!  Needless to say when my hubby actually walked in the door the house looked pretty nice.  I was proud of myself and I’d like to think I could deal with real last-minute guests as gracefully.

Day 4 – Money is Tight!

I can say that this day wasn’t terribly challenging because I lived this for a long time – never being able to do anything and having to watch every penny because it was a choice between buying food or losing power.  (life is very different now, read my story for more on that!)

This day involved no cable (which we don’t have anyways), no internet (oh no!!), no cell phones…. and water service got cut off!!

Now the “no internet” is hard.  I’ll admit that, well, I do a lot online.  I do, after all, run a website.  Scott and I also play a game together online.

The one big surprise for me on this day, though, was just how hard “no water” was.  I have quite a few gallons of water stored, but it takes an amazingly large amount of water to wash dishes when you have no running water!!  Scott said if we ever actually didn’t have water due to disaster that he would go to the bay and bring back water in buckets for us to boil and use for cleaning dishes.  We had plenty to drink, but washing wasn’t easy.

Day 5 – Earthquake!

Uh oh.  No water again today.  And no power…  I decided I should add some paper plates to my “pantry essentials” list!!  We raided the 72 hour kits again.

The foods in our freezer were supposed to be good still (they hadn’t spoiled yet since power went off).  So we were able to have a cooked meal on the grill outside.  I’m glad the weather was nice, and I’m glad we had the grill.  Especially since my hubby did the cooking

Another thing about the earthquake day – a beam fell onto the computer.  This could be a huge issue for many families because it could virtually destroy all their data (think about all your pictures!!)  Luckily there are quite a few solutions to data storage.  I personally back my computer up to a remote server as well as an external hard drive that stays here at the house.  The peace of mind I get from this is incredible.  I was all set for this aspect of the earthquake

Day 6 – Healthy Lifestyle

Well this emergency wasn’t an emergency at all for us!  A family member gets very ill from having a bad diet.  We already eat very healthy food because of many food sensitivities and intolerance in our family.  I did differ a bit from the challenge because I don’t believe that eating “low fat” is really very healthy for us.  I was able to share some links and thoughts so maybe someone else in the challenge benefited from some new information.  (Read my nutrition info for more about good eating)

The one “healthy lifestyle” thing I do think I at least need to do more of is getting outside.  The kids tend to spend a lot more time outside than I do.  I need to join them more.

Day 7 – You Need What?!

By Day 7 everyone, including the gals at Food Storage Made Easy, were very tired.  It really was a big challenge!!  So this day was “easier” in that we just had to make a dessert with what we had at home – and no milk, eggs, or butter.

This worked out perfectly for me.  I just picked our oatmeal/pumpkin bar recipe again

Summing it Up

Perhaps what made me the most proud about the Challenge was the part of it that went all 7 days – we couldn’t spend any money for 7 days!  Since the first day of the challenge landed squarely on the day I was supposed to go to the co-op for milk, cheese, and butter it truly was a challenge.

But we made it.  I spent no money at all for 7 days.  It’s amazing to think about just how many small opportunities to spend money come up, or how much I take for granted a run to the market on a given day.  Lots of food for thought.

I came away from the challenge with a long to-do list and a great appreciation for what we have.  I feel good because I’m sure that we could handle it if anything does knock our power out for a few days.  I really like that peace of mind   And I’m so grateful for blessings we have now.

We took a road trip to visit family last month. I offered Galen the potty while we were on the road, though he didn’t use it much. We drove for about 2 days with stops every 2 hours so Galen was in a diaper between stops.

When we actually reached our destination (my parents’ house) I offered Galen to potty in the bathroom here and there but mostly I didn’t worry about it too much. We had so many places to go and so many people to visit the trip felt like a whirlwind. The drive down was much more peaceful than the actual “vacation” lol!

We picked up on potty time pretty much as soon as we got home. Galen was happy to get back to using the potty and we had success with both pees and pooping right away.

One issue we had was with the way Galen crawled. He used sort of a “commando” style crawl to scoot himself along the floor. Since his belly was flat on the floor I think the pressure on his bladder would cause him to pee. That was very frustrating to us because anytime we put him down, he’d go!

Now he’s moved on to a traditional baby crawl and he can sit himself up easily, so he spends much less time on his belly. He’s having far fewer instances of just pee’ing while he’s set down.

Last week I started homeschool lessons with Cassidy, Asher, and Brennan for our school year. I also started the year off with a bad cough and feeling like a train wreck! I decided to keep Galen in diapers while we got into the school schedule and I felt so bad. This week I’ve gone back to trainers and Galen has been doing really well.

I’d like to say that I’m one of those intuitive mamas who just knows when Galen needs to go. This tends to be true for when he needs to poop. But in general I’m still just going by timing with his pees. If it’s been awhile since he’s gone, I offer him the potty. If I’m going to be putting him down on the floor to play with a sibling, I offer the potty first. I offer the potty before and after naps and nighttime. For me just having a general sense of “its been awhile” is what guides me in offering him the potty.

I have greatly enjoyed the warm weather because I can keep Galen in a shirt with just trainers on. I don’t think I’m looking forward to it getting colder and having to go back to pants! We’ll probably use split pants again as we did in his early (cold!) months.

Nighttime has been somewhat of a step backwards. Galen has gotten to where he kicks and wants to be up a lot at night so we’re swaddling him again. That makes pottying harder so I’m using diapers again at night, rather than just the undies and the mat I had under him. Once we’ve gotten good sleeping re-established, and I have time to get some sleep and feel like actually have energy again, I think we’ll try the mat and undies. I really want to encourage Galen to potty at night (or stay dry at night) so I don’t end up with more bedwetting issues.

EC’ing always has its challenges but then, so do poopy diapers. So all in all even though I don’t feel a supermom with an intuition that senses every trickle, I’m very happy with how EC’ing Galen has gone thus far and I’m looking forward to continuing. Since I do use timing for most pees I expect that our set school year routine will help us have even more “successful catch” days – especially since Galen is now crawling and able to get himself into sitting position!

Mark Sloan is a pediatrician and writes about birth and newborns from a unique perspective not often seen in the world of pregnancy and birth books. Sloan has meticulously researched the book.

Birth

You’ll be pulled in immediately as Sloan recounts his own introduction to birth during medical school. From there Birth Day tackles how our own vaginal birth process differs from that of the higher primates – and give possible reasons for why we developed such a complex process of birthing. I differ in opinion from Sloan on some of these issues; however his arguments are well-reasoned and interesting to read. Sloan also discusses the history of vaginal birth and positions used during birth in this chapter.

The second chapter moves into a description of that almost-imperceptible transition babies go through – moving from a fetus living in the water-world of the womb to a newborn snuggled in the airy world of his or her mother’s arms. You’ll find this chapter fascinating. Again, Sloan will keep you turning pages as he weaves the stories of two babies into the factual information.

In the third chapter Sloan discusses cesarean birth. This chapter is really well done. Sloan presents lots of information on the history of cesarean then moves into what the surgery looks like in modern times. The book does a great job of explaining how and why cesarean birth may be necessary for some women and babies – while also acknowledging and speculating on just why the cesarean rate is currently so high.

Pain Relief – Past and Present

Chapter 4 is titled “B.E. (Before Epidurals)” and it’s a fascinating chapter! Sloan has done a good job researching the use of pain medications during childbirth. It’s very interesting to look back at where we’ve come from – and the book moves right into where we are now in Chapter 5. Sloan continues to explore childbirth pain relief from a modern perspective. You may be surprised to learn that in our epidural-dominated world there are other options – including options available outside the US that well, you just can’t get here.

I believe in natural childbirth, but even I have to wonder why some of these relatively effective and possibly less detrimental options are not really available to more women. As Sloan states, ours is a culture of epidurals.

Birth Day does take time to discuss five non-drug methods of pain relief during childbirth. It does a fair job with this, even discussing water for labor pain relief. Sloan does not bring up the issue of water birth (where the baby is actually born underwater) – in fact, he never comments on other birthing alternatives like birth center or home births and how they may affect labor pain or the perception of it.

Doulas are discussed – in a fair amount of detail. Sloan is a fan of doulas, and for good reason. He spells those reasons, all supported by research, out in Birth Day. He also discusses the history of birth attendants.

On Daddies and Babies

There’s a chapter devoted just to Daddies. My husband greatly enjoyed it. We both found it really interesting that new dads (and dads to be) actually go through hormonal changes during their mates’ pregnancies.

The final section of the book covers the cuddly result of pregnancy – the babies. Sloan covers much of the research done on what babies can and can’t perceive with their sense while in the womb, and in the newborn and infant period. It’s interesting reading, though a little drier than earlier chapters of the book!

A chapter covering the “baby worth rearing” is included here. I greatly enjoyed this chapter, which discusses how the current infant “rating” system – the APGAR – came to be. I also found the peek into modern-day pediatrics with its newborn procedure flow-charts to be fascinating.

The last chapter in the book does an inch-by-inch guided tour of the newborn. This chapter has become a favorite “inside joke” of my husband and me because it discusses possible reasons for babies to be pretty generic (Sloan theorizes it’s probably so a man would continue to raise a baby that may not have biologically been his own). Accusations of our own “generic baby” (who with flaming red hair is not exactly “generic”) fly regularly through the house (along with laughter).

But the chapter in itself is a great ending to the book, providing the now expected fascinating tidbits of information on why babies may look like they do, why your science teachers got some things wrong, and other interesting facts.

Sloan does use this chapter to address circumcision. He does a great job tackling this extremely controversial subject. He gives a lot of historical information, good references, and a balanced discussion.

A Real Page-Turner

All in all Birth Day is an excellent read. There were a few parts of it I found myself feeling may be over the top – my views and Sloan’s do differ. But as I stated early in the review, it all gives food for thought.

The entire book is well-written in a consistent and engaging style. Birth Day keeps you turning pages! Because it does discuss some heavier pregnancy and newborn issues you may want to avoid reading it in your third trimester. But otherwise pick it up for an enjoyable and really fascinating read!