As far as potty training, I think it is more correct to say that she trained us 
Differently from Joha, I had no clue about EC till much later, when people start saying, “oh, you are doing Elimination Communication…”, that is when I checked about it on line. Ec is a very neat concept. Mothering.com has a very good discussion forum on EC. But we have not really practiced its training aspect, since we have not trained per se. But communication aspect of it, – definitely, it was all about communication.
When my daughter was born, she was extremely alert. I had natural non-medicated water birth. Starting from Day 2 or 3, she waited till we would be changing her diaper and will go exactly then. So every time she fussed as she needs her diaper changed, we would open up her diaper, it would be dry and she would go right then. It happened again and again, too regularly to be a coincidence. So after a week we decided to get her a potty to see if that would work better. It took us another few days to actually find a little potty ( it was not easy to find something that would work for a newborn). And the next time she fussed to be changed we took off her diaper and put her on the potty, she went immediately, and that was the first time she did not cry during her changing. The same day our friends invited us out to the restaurant ( it was for the first time after the baby was born we went out), we took potty with us, she used it in the restaurant’s restroom, in the car and then later in the park, when we went for a walk. We had to support her sitting on it, and she really was the happiest little baby sitting on her potty. It was a hit, and she continued with it. There was no gradual learning, it was as if she knew all about it, we could not believe it 
Much less all the people that we talked to.
We filmed the first time she used the potty and a few times after that…
For the first month or so we kept a chart of her potty times as well. Then we stopped. According to the chart, she would have an “accident” once out of 21-25 times, and that would usually be when we were driving when she asked to go, and it took us a while to get off the freeway or a couple of times when we forgot that she might be asking, so we were just trying to change activities, wondering why she is fussy. However most of the times she would hold. At night she would wake up about 2-3 times nowadays, but she goes right back to sleep after we put her on the potty.
She was very expressive as a newborn, and it was very clear when she was asking to go potty, and when she would be hungry ( she would make certain sound with her mouth). Now she started using her own sign that she invented to sign for a potty. We have not started baby signing yet, so she came up with this one on her own, and I think we will just leave it this way, as she signs for the potty may be 3 times out of 5, which is neat.
An interesting observation, she would wait to get an eye contact in most situations before showing that she needs to go ( unless she is in the car and we can not see her, then she would make little cough-like sounds.) I guess she figured out, that this way she does not need to waste time keep on asking while her parents are talking or busy. It was very cute. We were visiting our midwife, and as we were talking, Evangeline realized that she needed to use potty, she would get an eye contact with someone in the room and started signing “potty”, she did not realize that daddy saw that and went to the car to get her potty, so she was getting pretty desperate. So she “upped” her efforts, she would smile at different people in the room, and the moment they will notice her, she would start signing “potty”. It turned out to be quite a show, ha
This is in reply to the question how it all started.
As far as EC or early potty training, I am definitely not an expert in training aspect of it. I am sure others will have much better council, ideas and tips. I would not know where to start 
One thing that our midwife mentioned is that potty training is basically “un-training†baby to go in his or her diapers ( which we train baby to do after birth), so similarly to any other habit, the shorter the time certain action is practiced, the easier it is to “re-trainâ€, “re-learn†or “un-train†, so I agree with Kyles Mom, that the earlier you start the better, it simply makes sense.
In this sense, it seem to make sense that it does take a bit more work with training the baby who used diapers for a few months, then communicating with the one who does not know that going into diapers is an option. Communication is secret in both cases, I think, however in first case, it is not just communication but also training, and showing that it will feel better to use potty vs diapers, persuasion, getting child interested; while in the second case, it is more about communication.
So octaviorca, I think it is worth a try (from birth), and Joha, I do not think it is “too late”. Look at the society at large, most parents wait till 2,3 years to start, the habit is more established then, you are w-a-ay ahead in that respect. I think it is worth giving it a try, but not feeling pressured. It is not about accomplushment after all, but about communication and happier baby And also each baby is different ( I wonder what will my next one be like :biggrin: )
Joha, it definitely was not more work to be diaper-free for us, then using diapers. It actually was much easier, because there was no cleaning after each pee or pooh, no diaper rush, no diapers to wash. I only washed her up a couple of times a day with a warm cloth, since she likes it, but even that was not really necessary. It also helped us to establish a real line of communication with her at early age. She seem to be very secure, that she can communicate with us. It manifests in her interactions with strangers, her bed-time habits, independent play time. I think the fact that she feels she can express her need and we are able to meet it, based on her request makes her want to communicate more. So lately she would be very clear about her music preference, or preference between two outfits, or showing what is bothering her ( she was teething lately, and would point where she wanted us to put teething gel).
As far as connection between this and early learning… I do not know what to make of it. Because we have not started early learning activities with her ( like reading and math) till she was 3.5 months. We did some other activities, but really, none of them would be related as her using potty happened instantly after birth… We did quite a bit of pre-natal communication ( playing music, talking, singing, rhythm, initiating contact via touch), and I definitely would say that showed right after birth. But I would have a hard time connecting that with her EC…
Will be very interesting to hear everyone’s experiences. Momtomany, your comment is very interesting!
I have to be honest with you I’m in awe of how well you daughter communicates with you. That is awesome! :yes: We did a lot of prenatal estimulation and our daughter has been very alert since day one too, but unfortunatly being wet doesn’t bother her a bit :nowink: I have to be constantly checking her diaper because she would never complain because of it. So far we have been able to know when she is hungry by using signing language. When we make the sign for milk, cereal and eat she will smile at us if she is hungry otherwise she will look away.