The Journey Continues

Here is where we are in our diaper free world. We have made some great progress. Jaxon's signals have changed so much from when we first started our journey. He now gets quite fussy and audible when he needs to pee or poo. He will get very squirmy when being held and not be consolable if he is playing on the floor by himself. It is so nice to understand almost all of his cries and fussiness. I can meet his needs so much quicker which increases our relationship exponentially.

I don't like to focus on catches and misses, but he has been doing exceptionally well the past couple of weeks. We had a rough few weeks during his and my sicknesses. Needless to say, we weren't communicating very well. As he started to get better, our communication picked right back up. He has not had a poo diaper (minus one because I didn't get out of bed in time) in about 2 weeks!! I still probably miss about 30% of his pees. Sometimes those misses are a small tinkle before he makes it to the bathroom.

A few funny things that have happened include:

I wouldn't consider this incident a true "miss", but we didn't quite hit the toilet. He woke up one morning and was quite squirmy. I got him undressed and headed for the bathroom. We got just inside the bathroom door and started to position for the toilet seat when he poo'd all over the bathroom floor. Mind you, he was in my arms...so this was quite a distance from the floor. Yeah, we had high velocity splatter! I don't think I was quick enough on the draw for him that morning.

Another thing is his noticeable excitement for pooing. I make a "psss" noise when he pees and say "poo" when he poos. He has a little grunt for poo, waits for me to say "poo" then smiles and laughs at what he has done. It is really cute and I can't help but laugh.

Our journey is good! We have some upcoming new things like more teething and creeping and crawling have commenced! We will see what new excitement this brings!

Suggested EC Reads

My Little Joey

My first topic of choice is babywearing. Babywearing is the practice of wearing or carrying a child in sling, wrap or other form of carrier. It is a practice that has been done for centuries in cultures around the globe, but has really only become popular in our society more recently. Advocates such as Dr. Sears have brought the practice into everyday living here in America. It is widely popular among attachment parenting folks.

I love babywearing. We started early with traditional babywearing known as kangaroo care. It is named this after, well, kangaroos or marsupials. The little joeys are born "premature", and rely on being carried in their mother's pouch for care and survival.

We continue to babywear with wraps and soft structure carriers. I prefer wraps for the versatility that they provide. Don prefers the soft structure carrier so that he looks more "manly". My next plan is to get a mei tai, though. It promotes an amazing amount of bonding. You can read much more about babywearing here or here. You can also learn how to use many of the wraps here.

Some of the great benefits that I have personally found include: increased breastfeeding on demand, freedom of having both hands to get tasks accomplished, less crying and irritability because I am able to answer needs quicker, ease of communication between Jaxon and I (especially helpful with EC), more mobility and less fret of stairs that comes with having a stroller, increased socialization of Jaxon because he is face to face with everything that I do, strengthened core muscles without having to stress about tummy time, and a good way to keep warm!!

Don't take my word for it. I encourage anyone to spend some time babywearing. I think you will quickly be sold!

What are your babywearing experiences? What are you favorite carrier or wraps? Any pictures?

Point of a Blog

So there are thousands of blogs out on the internet now. There is a blog for just about anything that you can think of. If you want to read something that you are pro, that you are con, that you care nothing about, that slightly interests you or that you feel passionately about...it is out there.

That being said, I am adding to the mix. I am adding to the mix mostly for my own benefit. It gives me something to do. It gives me a place to put my crazy thoughts. If people read it, that is great. If people choose not to read it, that is also fine. This is a virtual public diary. No old book underneath my mattress, no lock and key...just a public site to air my dirty laundry. So I am sort of defining my blog right now (although the definition is subject to change).

I have written about an abundance of things between this blog and our old blog site (that I closed a while back). I have written family updates, my thoughts on parenting, random thoughts about public event and so on.

I have a few blogs that I want to write. These blogs will definitely define my parenting style even more so. My point is not to offend or even tell anyone how to parent (which I really hope you wouldn't listen to me). My point is to talk about some of the things that work for us, why they work, how we do them, and why I like them. I truly welcome feedback, questions and thoughts from anyone whether they be for or against the topic at hand. That being said, I don't appreciate maliciousness (from anyone). I know everyone has a thought on parenting, and we should all be open to listening.

After having many conversations with our pediatrician, fellow colleagues, friends, other mothers and even relatives...I have determined that I am a countercultural mama. I am okay with that definition. There are people far more crunchy than I and people far more mainstream than I. I don't think you are wrong in what you do, hoping that you are doing the best that you can with what you know and what is working for your family. That is all I am trying to do.

All of that being said, my post will be of a more crunchy and natural nature. Some of you may agree, disagree or not give a hoot. The only thing I ask is that it not turn into a malicious debate between anyone!! I do not intent to offend people with my thinking; but it may happen because I can't please all. So stand by (all my crazy "fans" {a very small amount of people, I'm sure}) for upcoming posts that are now clogging my head...

Have You Got It...Have You Got The Fever

Now I am sure that there are many, many Bieber crazed girls out there that are now very disappointed to find out he has a girlfriend. Justin Bieber and Selena Gomez have officially "come out" with their "relationship." This is such a sad moment for his fans who were really hoping that they would be THE ONE!!

Okay, so I don't really have the Bieber Fever as that would be quite creepy, seeing that he is 17. I do remember having another kind of crazy crush when I was much, much younger. It was for New Kids on the Block. Yeah, some of you remember this time. The late 80's and early 90's brought about the NKOTB boy band craze! I have a class picture from school in which I am wearing a NKOTB sweater with the letters written in neon colors! I had tapes and posters and even framed portraits! Yeah, I was in love!!!

That crush got greatly destroyed when NKOTB performed in Time Square for New Year's Eve with Backstreet Boys this past year. So sad.

So NKOTB moved on and I never married Joey, Jordan, Jon, Danny or even Donnie. Oh well!

So what was your big crush growing up?