Yeah, I'm that Mom...

OK.... let me preface this with saying I hate diapers. Yeah, yeah, who likes them, right? Well, I've heard of this thing called elimination communication. I've done a bit (like a spec) of research on it enough to understand that the point is to try to get your little one to tell you when they need to use the restroom. Well, I've figured it out with poop (she's a grunter...) but not with pee.

I need to preface this story with a couple other tales... last week, Nick had a few late days at the office. He wasn't able to be home for the bath, so I said I'd do it. Can't be that hard, right? So, normally after her dinner, he goes and draws the bath while I go into her room with her and strip her down. Well, wasn't going to leave the water running so I went and stripped her down, took her into the bathroom and started the water. As I did... I was talking to her and... what's that? Ah!!! She's peeing, all over me, all over the bathroom floor. OK. I'm now soaked in pee. I grabbed a towel, threw it on the floor and went to our bedroom to change. I stripped down and put on a bath robe. When we got back to the bathroom, I realized I needed to pee... ugh, so, I'm holding Jenna, while in my bathrobe and I peed. Nick rounds the corner as I'm holding J, trying to wipe and the water's still running on her bath. Needless to say, we all laughed.... I'm sure it was quite a sight.

So, fast forward to Friday. Nick is up with his Dad and brother fishing and I'm left to fend for myself for bath time once again (dude, Nancy, I know you're going to laugh at all this, I'm clearly not cut out for running the bed time alone). This time I stripped her down, let her play in her room while I went to start the bath. She had a pretty bad diaper rash so this was round 2 of naked tushy time to help clear it. I started the bath and went back to get her and.... a big wet spot. My darling child peed on the carpet. I grabbed one of the 48 burp rags in my possession (thanks to reflux!) and got it up, then took her into her bath. Oy...

Next up? Sunday night. Nick's still fishing... OK, I can do this. The water starting is clearly what's triggering her to pee. So, I went and got her little infant seat out, put it on the floor of the bathroom and stripped her down, sat her on the potty and started the water. No pee. She was more interested in the clacking of the seat on the tiles. I put the potty on one of our kneeling pads (for bath time... kneeling on tile = ouch!) to stop the clacking and was making the psssssss sound that I want her to be able to associate with peeing. Nope, still nothing... So, this is where my college education came in handy. I looked over at the bath, being filled with warm water, grabbed one of her toys that happens to be a cup, filled it with water and stuck her hand in and started saying pssssssss ... this is what I found.....

Yes, I cheated my baby girl into peeing on the potty. I'm sure I've ruined her for life. And, yes, I took a picture of the potty with pee in it. I really am that Mom (hey! in my defense, Nick missed it! I wanted to share with him and show him I'm not nuts!)

As for elimination communication, I'm currently reading a book on it. We'll see what I get out of it (if anything). I figure it can't hurt, right?