Back At It

After getting out of the habit and having house guests for a long time we are starting to get back in to the natural infant hygiene. I thought about just waiting until the potty chair that we ordered to come to start again but had a few opportunities so I went for it.

It has mostly just been cueing him to go when I'm already changing his diaper. Between the cold air and timing of the event I can usually get him to go about half the time on the changing table in to a wash cloth. (I did try to discretely cue him to urinate on his grandma when she was changing him but didn't have any luck. I thought it would be funny but I guess he wasn't in to my joke.)

Today he was squirming around and fussing a little when he seemed tired. He would wake up and suck on a pacifier and kick and then fall asleep for a couple minutes. He threw some minor crying in to the mix a couple times.



I started going through the list in my head... Hungry? No tried that. Need to burp? No, good there too. Tired? Seems like it, why won't he fall asleep? Oh! He needs to go to the bathroom!

Off we went to the bathroom. I put him on the changing area and took off his already quite wet diaper. There was only a little poop. I put the cloth over his spout and started cleaning him a little. He seemed much more relaxed on the table with his diaper off than on his bedding.

He almost immediately pooped. A lot. He kicked a little but was looking around smiling and seemed relaxed and content. He also wet the cloth. Great! I made the cue sound and told him that he pooped and wet so we can associate those words and sounds.

He pooped again! I was a little surprised because he seemed so relaxed about it. I am now wondering if I can avoid much of the squirming wake up / fall back asleep fussy process we can avoid just by letting him go in the bathroom rather than leaving him in his bed and diaper to just let him finish there.

After we cleaned up and got his clean diaper on I mentioned how good it felt to be clean. I never say "good boy" for going potty in the right place. I might say good job but mostly I just tell him that he wet or pooped, make the cue sound, tell him how it feels good to be clean and then carry on with life.

Then we tried this whole nap thing again. He hadn't slept for more than twenty minutes consecutively all day but has been asleep for over an hour now that he is all clean and has eliminated

Maybe I am exaggerating the importance of it but I really think being clean and going to the bathroom plays a much larger role in infant contentment than most people believe.