EC Notes

I learned from our local diaper free baby group that it was helpful to have a signal for "done" which we
are now introducing with our baby. I also started using the toilet
sign for go potty and he's shaking his hand at us now, within hours
really, so that's cool.

For me it was easiest to start with the morning BM as he was really
obvious about needing to go. He's also pretty easy going in the
morning, and even overnight if he has to go, so bringing him to the
potty then has been the easiest time in the early weeks.

I've been sitting on the toilet backwards with the baby in my arms
and that's been working pretty well -- though we have an elongated
toilet upstairs which is much easier to sit on than a standard round
seat.

People also mentioned that through observing they could see that the
baby could pee every 20 minutes -- which if you are still using
diapers and being attentive to changes you notice as well sometimes.
This helped me realize that I could actually offer more regularly
and that might help us out.

I started out by just announcing his movements at diaper changes for
about 4 weeks -- "oh, you had a poo poo" or "did Jonah just go pee
pee?" so he was more aware of what was going on. I now can offer him
by asking him if he "wants to go poo poo in the potty" and he will
smile if he wants to try. I try to keep it very low pressure. My
little one is just 11 weeks now and we've been doing this in a low
key manner, building up our confidence, for about the past month. My
goal right now is to have it stay an enjoyable experience for him,
and to reduce the number of prefold cloth diapers (diaper service)
we are using each week as a measure of success.

Fibroids and Endometriosis?

In response to Deb's question about endometriosis testing on my post about infant potty training, no, I haven't specifically had tests for endo. But I did have two HSGs and have been opened up twice -- once for my myo and once for the c-section and nothing was mentioned -- not even on my medical records. Some of my other online fibroid sisters have had endo and fibroids though -- so it is a possibility. In the book The Infertility Cure both conditions are dealt with in the same chapter -- so similar can their causes be.

I've had painful ovulations before, the first one that I recall was back in 1996 when I was just about doubled over in pain at work -- a stressful computer start-up -- and I ended up going to the emergency room just to make sure I didn't have appendicitis. Wanna know where that pain was? The same location as my fibroid showed up years later. I had an ultrasound at the time and it came back clean. After all the acupuncture I've had done I think that partially the pain comes from some form of blood stagnation in that area -- and too much stress will divert the blood flow from your reproductive organs so it it possible that its all related.

Since my c-section I've occassionally felt a few jabs of pain in that area -- which is where Twyla, my new big fibroid is located. It's not too bad so I'm hopeful that she's not going to be an issue.

Lately I've thought, as people respond in surprise when my partner and I mention that we're planning on starting to TTC again later this year, that another factor besides it taking so long and the miscarriages, that also the fibroids I have are another consideration. One good thing for the moment now though is that breastfeeding suppresses estrogen production so it is possible that my fibroids will shrink substantially until my period shows up again. The reduction in estrogen also causes me to have dry skin, so dry I have hives on my upper arms, and it also dries out the girly bits so that sex is a bit uncomfortable. There's no winning.