When to begin Night EC...not co-sleeping

[smile02me]

My DS is now 5 months old. I am feeling a little guilty by how wet his disposable is when he wakes in the morning, but he is sleeping 10-12 hours each night. He might wake up briefly, but he is not fussing long enough to wake me. We had to stop nursing at 4 months and DS is sleeping in his own room while I use a monitor. I am not sure about waking him if he is asleep, but when should I start trying harder to EC at night?

Thanks!!!

[hrsmom]

Well, that's up to you! If he's sleeping comfortably and not fussing enough to wake you, I would leave it alone. Otherwise if you're both awake at night, you could offer the potty. Some babies don't like (and by "don't like" I mean "hate") to be pottied at night. If you think he's too wet, can you change him in the middle of the night without waking him? That's something else to consider.

[Sheryl1678]

My DD is 10 mo and will ONLY go on the toilet. I only try to do nighttime EC if I can use a bblp without getting out of bed. Now I have to get up, put her on the toilet and actually lean over and nurse her to get her to go.....Comical yes, but not what I want to be doing at 3am. I lay in bed as long as I possibly can when she is fussy hoping she will go in her diaper (and I am a HUGE EC advocate).

[BirthKathy]

Hi smile02me,

My son is also 5 months. I too, have struggled with when to nighttime EC. But he was waking up once or twice in the night to eat. To decide what to do, I would watch for wakefulness. If he woke enough to eat but did not open his eyes, I would change him and put him back down. If he was dry or opened his eyes, I would take him to the potty. Sometimes he would go, and sometimes he wouldn't. If he didn't go, it was sometimes a real pain to get him back to sleep so I would feel like an idiot for waking a sleeping baby in the middle of the night!

I started to notice over the last month that he was dry more often. This week, I think he has been dry most nights. And now he is starting to sleep longer too. He slept 8 hours the last two nights, which is new for us and wonderful! Both times, I fed him immediately when he woke up, and then when he finished eating he was still dry and we went potty.

Your son might also start waking up dryer and dryer over the next month or two.

[lisavark]

Originally Posted by hrsmom

Some babies don't like (and by "don't like" I mean "hate") to be pottied at night.

That's my baby!

Like pp's have said, of course it's up to you, but I'll be honest...if I had a baby who was sleeping happily all night, there is nothing in the world that would induce me to attempt nighttime EC. And I'm a very hard-core EC'er who has often felt very guilty about NOT EC'ing at night and pretty much always changed DD's diaper all night long. The only reason I never EC'd at night was because she HATED it when I tried and got really upset every time I tried to pee her at night. But she still wakes multiple times per night at 19 months, so I can appreciate how wonderful your baby's sleep habits are! If it ain't broke...

And honestly, just because his diaper is very wet doesn't mean it was wet all night. DD now stays dry all night almost every night (unless she's teething really bad), but she usually pees in the morning before I can wake up enough to take her potty (even though we cosleep). And that morning pee is so big that I have to put her in a pocket diaper with an insert AND a prefold inside, and even then sometimes it leaks through. And yes, I keep her in that big, bulky diaper all night long just to catch that morning pee.

So...if you want advice on this, I would have to pass on the advice my mother gave me, which my grandmother gave her: Never wake a sleeping baby! If he's happy--just enjoy YOUR sleep, and count your blessings!

[ktmama]

If one of your worries is that peeing at night will compromise your progress during the day, please put that to rest. I have found with both my kids that not ECing at night (they both have HATED it!) does/did not impact daytime success. Dd2 was an EC grad at 21 months and ds is doing splendidly at 4.5 months and he wears a DISPOSABLE at night.

If I were you, I would feel so lucky, get lots of sleep and not worry about a thing!

[jenneology]

I could have been the OP asking this question so thanks for asking it and to all those who responded!

I too think that my 4.5 might be dry for long stretches and then pee a big one as I'm waking up in the morning. I'm glad to have that hunch corroborated.

[laurelg]

99% of the time, my DD is dry all night and pees a TON first thing in the morning. Thus, we can theoretically do nighttime EC, but oftentimes the morning is a long series of half-wake-ups and drifting off back to sleep (for both of us) so I am not always perfect at knowing when she's actually awake for good and ready for the potty. Thus, we don't usually do nakey-butt at night, but almost always have a dry diaper. (I even CD at night with a single tri-folded prefold instead of a crazy huge nighttime diaper scheme, and it works out fine because it's so rarely wet.)

OP, in your case, I would try to catch your son as he's first waking up and give him a pottytunity then. Good luck!

[sapphire_chan]

Around 5 months, Lina only peed around 3 times a night. Does he go to bed before you? Say 8pm and you go to bed at midnight? If that sort of thing happens, you might be able to offer a very cuddly pee in arms and not wake him.

Unfortunately, night time signals might be like a tiny grimace. So it can be easier to just assume that because his diaper's full in the morning, he has a full bladder sometime at night.

ETA:
Oh, and note the emphasis on might! I think it's worth trying, but don't worry if it won't happen for you.

[smile02me]

Thanks

Thank you so much ladies. I do feel a little guilty that he sleeps all night, so since he goes to sleep before me, I do give him a bottle right before I go to bed. I used to test his diaper then, he seemed to not like going on his potty, but it was almost always dry. So I have stopped and just give him his bottle and let him go back to sleep. We are a bunch of evening shift workers here, so we sleep pretty late in the morning. He has to be pretty awake before I hear him, or at least I am awake enough to realize that he is up. So he could be going brefore I get up to him.

During the day is getting better. For about 6 weeks I was only catching a couple times a day, and I thought he had forgotten but now we seem to be doing better. Although I have caught all his poops for the last 8-10 weeks. I have really noticed that when he is diaper free, he will cry/fuss and let me know he needs to go. If he has a diaper, there is no signal at all. So I am trying my best to let him go uncovered, I am just very selective of where I let him be during this period.

I am waiting for the day that I feel confident enough to take him somewhere without a diaper!!

Thanks again. After reading all this, I think I will let him chose when to try night ECing!!