Talking after bath & Earth Mothers

When Maddie was about 7 weeks old, bathtime stopped being scary for her. She started to enjoy baths at that time, and so did I. After her bath, I grab her hooded towel from the dryer and wrap her up before lotion time. She always acts so cute when she gets in that warm towel!

A friend and I were discussing being "Earth Mothers" on Facebook today. I think that growing up in the Pacific NW kind of makes people gravitate more towards crunchy, granola-y attitudes about child-rearing. We're hippies like that. I hope to successfully breastfeed Maddie until she's a year old. If I can make it to 8-10 months, that'll still be a huge accomplishment. I want to make her baby food when she starts solids, like Aaron's sister-in-law did for our nephew. I sometimes use prefolds and cloth inserts for Maddie's diapers (mainly to offset the cost of the eco-friendly gDipes).

My latest hippie adventure: EC'ing. EC stands for "elimination communication," also known as Natural Infant Hygiene, or Infant Pottying. You basically learn your baby's cues for when they pee or poo. I'm not potty training her, just offering the potty to her when she gets that funny look before she poops or starts squirming with a full bladder. We've all seen it: the baby whose face contorts all funny right before they have a blowout in their diaper. If she could tell us, "Oh weird, I think something's going to happen down below," she'd say it, but instead she gives us the doofy expression.

Before you start shaking your heads in disbelief and thinking I've totally gone nuts, I want you to know that I only do it once in a while, not at every pee and poop. Part-time EC. The primary goal isn't to get her potty trained at all, the goal is to learn how my baby communicates basic needs to me. If I give her a "pottytunity" and she doesn't need it, then she lets me know I've got it all wrong. If we get it right, then we've tuned in to each other and saved a diaper together. I have a feeling people are going to either leave a slew of comments, or send me lots of emails about this, so I'll just stop there. Go watch the video again and forget I even mentioned this.

Awww...cute baby!