Showing my Wounds

Some will probably wonder how someone like myself could write different things on blogs while in the midst of horrible experiences in life. I don't write with selfish intentions. I write to hopefully spread some kind of wisdom to other mothers who are in my same shoes. I read blogs to get the same that I am looking for. So, I write to you about something that is very personal and very delicate. I pray that this never happens to you, but I know that God is working it all out for our good and he is preparing us for another level in him.
About one month ago, I left home early in the morning to be a model in a hair show/demonstration. My husband took care of the baby while I was gone. I returned in the early afternoon very exhausted. My baby was sleeping, so my husband suggested that I take a nap. I took his suggestion. I woke when he left for work and took the baby down to his high chair to feed him. After a while, I noticed that he was not playing with his right arm. I called his pediatrician and she instructed me to take him to the emergency department at the children's hospital. Long story short, my precious baby had a fracture in his forearm. My husband went over and over the details of their day and he did not notice the baby behaving strangely or being cranky. He did not drop the baby or remember any instance when the baby fell. Israel was a very happy baby who did not cry much. We anticipated his needs and it has worked out in our favor. I noticed the baby's arm was warm to the touch, which indicated that the fracture was hours old. It did not happen while the baby was with me. We were crushed and emotions filled the room in the ED. The Department of Children and Family Services got involved and it resulted in our baby being removed from our home for 4 days. For 4 days, we did not eat. For 2 days, I could not pray or worship. I was not mad at God. I was not asking God, "Why?" My mouth was shut up and I was experiencing deep depression. After many people interceding for us and after I heard my baby on the phone, I got off the bed and began to cry out to the Lord for help. I did not blame my husband or accuse him of intentionally hurting our baby because I knew that he did not. Everything that he told the investigators that happened, they said that it could not have resulted in the injury. Everything that I told the investigators that happened while my baby was with me, they said could not have resulted in the injury. Our baby was returned to us after 4 days, but not the way that we sent him. He came back to us minus a few pounds, smelling like a dirty house, and wearing very bad looking clothes. What in the world? We were just so happy to see and hold our baby again that we just kept our mouths shut and did not complain.
Now we are dealing with the police department investigating us and trying to get me to incriminate my husband. First of all, if I thought that my husband would do something bad to our baby, I would have thrown him to the wolves, even though I love him dearly. You cannot mess with my children and think that I am going to cover for you. If I thought that my husband was covering up an accident, I would have encouraged him to come clean with it. It would have been easier to deal with an accident than to deal with the reality of not knowing what happened to your baby. And that is our reality. We just don't know how the injury occurred and that is very bad. While that is bad, we have submitted our all to God and we trust that he is going to work this situation out for his glory. We have prayed and fasted and have had every person that we know who prays to pray with and for us.
We are very cautious now, but we refuse to walk in fear. The enemy is trying hard to keep us from our destiny, but he is a defeated foe. We have the victory in this case and no devil in hell is going to tear our family apart again. Thank you for reading. God bless you.

Elimination Communication

Today I want to talk about elimination communication. This is also referred to as IPT or infant potty training. I took interest in it because I was looking for ways to cut costs and was just curious. Really, there would be no savings because we use cloth diapers. I am a partially green mom, in that my concern is more about my home environment. At any rate, I was shocked by what I found on the topic. When I Googled the topic I went to the first website and basically stayed there. That website is http://www.naturalfamilyonline.com/.
I learned a few things. It is best to implement the IPT in the first window, which is 5-6 months. After which, there are other windows at 8-12 months, 18 months, and 24 months. My baby is 8 months, so I read on. What you have to do is notice the elimination time patterns in relation to meals and awaking from sleep. Your baby must wear a cloth diaper with no plastic pants, or go commando!!! So, my first question to that was, will my house smell like urine? Once you figure out these patterns and study the baby's response to wetting and pooping, then you anticipate these movements and sit the baby on the potty. I even read that the parents sit on the toilet and sit the baby on their lap. That grossed me out. You have to be prepared to clean up urine and poop off of the floor and furniture or bedding at any time. You can also use baby signing to teach the baby how to communicate with you when he or she is wet or needs to use the toilet.
One thing that I read that I could appreciate was about our response to the smells of poop and pee. I agree that we should not make a big deal about how bad things smell around the baby because the child could notice it and become stubborn or use it against you in some way. I stand corrected because my little one has us making wretching noises and strange faces with some of the stuff he is off loading in his diaper. We will work hard to do better. Elimination will be a natural thing in our household.
There was a whole lot of things mentioned about the potty training process that I will not mention. I have decided that we will go with the flow and not push early training with our baby. It is just too much work. It would be okay if I had a maid doing all of the cooking and the cleaning. But, I don't. I feel that this IPT would consume all of my time because I would have to study the baby and look for signs that he is getting ready to pee or poop. I am trying to run a home-based business and I do dedicate a few hours a day to it. Our baby will let us know when he is ready to be trained. What do you think about IPT?