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When our son Michael was around five weeks old, my husband Scott came home from work and shared with me a story he had seen earlier that day on an Internet news show. It was about something called EC. He told me that he wanted to try this new thing with Michael and assured me that Michael would pee and poop into a sink or potty on cue. He had to be joking. Wasn't Scott there at the birth? Michael was only in the outside world for 5 weeks. It takes some adults a lifetime to master their bodily functions. And here Scott was suggesting that this new baby was about to pee on command!?!

As you might imagine, I had just barely begun to feel somewhat human again. After a long intense labor and birth that changed the way I look at my capacity to handle challenge, I was looking forward to a bit of rest. Not to mention the fact that I was just beginning to dreamily settle in to my state of constantly being tired due to nursing every 2-3 hours around the clock. And so, this new suggestion of adding another process during which I was going to try and catch this new baby's pee (which seemed to flow freely with no schedule) and poop (which was known to torpedo out of his little body at unheard-of speeds) was not at the top of my list.

My first response was "We cannot potty train a baby!" But hubby persisted and explained'this is not potty training. I promise we will not be hurting our child. This is away to listen to him and really hear what her need.' Well, how could I argue with that? So he laid Michael down on the bed, took off the tiny newborn diaper and cradled Michael against his chest in a seated position with Michael facing out towards the sink. Those meaty little baby thighs were supported by his daddy's hands. Next, Scott began making the common EC sound psssss, pssssss, psssss' (which I would continue to hear in my sleep in the coming months). We both stared at our son's penis with anticipation. About 4-5 seconds later, a stream of golden success!

I couldn't believe what I was seeing. "This has to be a fluke,." I said. "It's probably just the cool air on his skin." And so we continued like this over the next few days. I was fighting it all the way, worrying that we were stressing our new baby by potty training him so early. I could just hear the voices of family and friends, "What are you doing?", "I can't believe you are potty training a baby?" I was tired, and way too worried about what others would think.

One evening during that first week of ECing, Scott stayed

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