On Day 4 of ECing

[jenneology]

Four days was the first time I was able to catch a pee, after feeling completely clueless for months. (DD is 3 1/2 months). Since then I've been pretty good at catching both pees and poops. My husband is impressed but at the same thing wondering what I got myself in to. I'm wondering the same thing. She really likes using the potty instead of a diaper. And she's been crankier than usual telling me that she needs the potty (she picked that one up fast!) and when she's got a diaper on.

I feel like I'm committed now. I wanted to use the strategy a little bit each day to figure out if it could work into our lives, but she seems to want it so much that its feeling insensitive to ignore her fusses for the potty and let her pee or poop in her diaper. Now I'm wondering if I should be trying full time with her and at night. That going to require a lot of learning on my part....

[theboysmama]

my dd was the same way. I went into this thinking we could just do it a little bit. I told dh he didn't have to ec if he didn't want to. Well dd makes him so he has no choice. DD is very particular and she was fussy when she was getting hte hang of it but now when she is fussing I know something is up. She is a really mellow baby. Just follow your babies cues. We don't ec at night. If dd wants to hold it she can and i take her first thing in the morning or if she is really pitching a fit i will give it a try but I put her in a sposie at night so she won't feel it and I sleep when I can.
Good luck.

[hrsmom]

That's awesome that it's really clicking and she's letting you know what she wants! Re: night time- you can either just go for it, or follow her cues (if she fusses, take her, if she doesn't then sleep.) I did night time EC from the beginning, because my babe pooped a lot at night. I'm not sure if I would night time EC with a future babe if there wasn't pooping or strong signalling involved!

[jenneology]

For half the night, I kept her diaperfree last night. When she woke up to nurse at 5, the prefolds underneath her were soaked, so I put a diaper on her. She didn't fuss at anytime before that (as far I know since even with children, I'm a heavy sleeper).

I am realizing I have so much learn. But now I have a really good reason to buy the EC books since its no longer just an "interest." She even likes it so much, that she starts fussing when I put a diaper on her.

theboysmama, how did your husband start using EC? I am hoping at some point my husband will just try putting her on the potty. He's actually sensed at least two pees before I did so I ended up getting peed on once, the other one he was right on and I trusted him. So he knows he can do it. Do you think its that he feels foolish putting an infant on a potty? Its also interesting that a baby would be fussier during the introduction period, is that common?

[theboysmama]

dd is my 4th child so I hand her to dh more than I did w/ the first but he had to ec her by dafault. I would be cooking dinner (or something) he would bring her to me and want me to nurse her, I would ask if she was dry and to take her pee first. I think he did feel very foolish bcs babies are supposed to be in diapers. He would take her and she would go and then get happy. So when she fussed he knew if he wanted her to stop fussing he would have to take her pee. After a while he just relaxed about it. He didn't even want other people to know about it but she goes and he knows she is happy so he is ok with it (only bcs it makes her happy) and it keeps her from getting a bad yeasty rash.
As far as fussiness when you first start I am not sure bcs dd was only 8 days when we started but she is definately fussy if we don't take her and when she was in diapers she got very very fussy right before she went and if she was wet.

[riboflavin]

Maybe once your DH tries it and gets a catch or two he will be into it. That is how it worked for my DH. Plus the benefits of less fussing, less laundry (yes he does laundry!), less rashes, and poop cleaning a ton easier were appealing to him. I started giving DS to DH when I absolutely knew he had to pee so he would be guaranteed a catch; that way he would get used to it and feel confident in it.

[hrsmom]

I think I forgot that you can have them sleep on a prefold at that age! That's the best! We did that for some time! Enjoy!

[jenneology]

Originally Posted by riboflavin

Maybe once your DH tries it and gets a catch or two he will be into it. That is how it worked for my DH. Plus the benefits of less fussing, less laundry (yes he does laundry!), less rashes, and poop cleaning a ton easier were appealing to him. I started giving DS to DH when I absolutely knew he had to pee so he would be guaranteed a catch; that way he would get used to it and feel confident in it.

You totally gave me an idea...if my husband is insisting on keeping her in diapers, when she has a poopy diaper, he'll get to clean it up. This means I'll have many fewer times of wiping a poop smeared bum and he'll remember how much he hates doing that. If he watches me sit her on the potty, and then wipe the little bit that's left, but he's having to do the whole wipe down, he may come around.

What I don't get about my husband is that even he knows when she needs to be put on the potty. He just refuses to do it.

I think he'll be like theboysmama's husband and not want to tell anyone that he does it. (Although I'm still keeping it to myself except on the internet, my husband and my mom). I think, though, that my neighbors might have seen me holding her on the potty today. No one has mentioned anything yet.

[jenneology]

Originally Posted by hrsmom

I think I forgot that you can have them sleep on a prefold at that age! That's the best! We did that for some time! Enjoy!

That's what I've started doing for the first part of the night (her first stretch of sleep is usually 5-6 hours). How is that supposed to work out over the long term? In time, she'll wet in her sleep less?

[BirthKathy]

My husband was the one who heard of EC, and then I was the one who researched and now does most of it. But he is still very supportive and proud of the baby.

I think your husband will be more into it if any of his friends hear about it. All of my husband's friends are fascinated by it. And wish they did it themselves! I was nervous about telling people at first, but I've had all great reactions! I guess all guys hate poopy diapers.

So yeah, the poopy diapers are definitely the deterrent. :-)

[hrsmom]

Originally Posted by jenneology

That's what I've started doing for the first part of the night (her first stretch of sleep is usually 5-6 hours). How is that supposed to work out over the long term? In time, she'll wet in her sleep less?

Some babies are dry at night very early on. My babe had long dry stretches in the early months, then ended up peeing a lot at night. Now she's almost always dry again, and it's lovely!

[sgmom]

Originally Posted by hrsmom

Some babies are dry at night very early on. My babe had long dry stretches in the early months, then ended up peeing a lot at night. Now she's almost always dry again, and it's lovely!

This sounds like my daughter. She would wake up completely dry (12+ hours) from about 2 months until 9 or 10 months (she's 12m now). Just in the last couple weeks she's been waking up with a very light diaper, instead of the rock she used to wake up with.

I think in her case, she would stir to crawl (developmental), pee, then go back to sleep. Teething didn't help her either.

I MISS letting her sleep diaperless (although I still do it with naps, on occasion).

[pixiepunk]

my DH thought it was weird at first too, but now i find him telling random people at parties and stuff he came home from work one time and told me he was telling a bunch of people about it at lunch!

he was not as into it with our first (who i didn't start with till 9 months), but he sure was glad when she stopped pooping in a diaper and was out of diapers in some cases *years* before some of her little friends. once when we were visiting friends who have a DS who is 9 months older than our DD1, he pulled me aside to express how grossed out he was by watching them change his poopy diaper (he was like 3.5 yo at this point and PT'ing was a total nightmare for them). if he wasn't totally sold on EC before then, he certainly was after

[InMediasRes]

We started at 4 weeks, but DD is a lot like yours. She hated being diapered when we first started. It goes in waves now. Sometimes we are dead on, and sometimes she is going through something else and isn't paying attention to her elimination as much.


At first she would just pee in her sleep and then wake up to be changed. Now she wakes up more to pee at night. She will stir and kick and wiggle for a looooooong time before she actually wets her diaper. That said, I am a very heavy sleeper and I still have nights that I miss a lot. And lately she has been waking up to poop every night too, and I can't figure that out at all.

DH was a little weirded out by the whole process at first, and he really didn't have any success with it until about 3 months or so, but now he loves it. Yesterday he brought the camera down to take pictures of DD on her potty.

Sounds like it's going great. Just have fun with it!