Poop signals for a newborn?

[wendytthomas]

Hi everyone. I've got a five week old that I'm ECing. Pee while we're at home is going very well. I've had two misses while we were home today (9:30 to 2:45, then again from about 3:45 until now at 7 pm.) and the rest were catches. I even successfully peed her while we were out today for the second time. I'm starting to think that some split pants and trainers are in my future.

However, here's my problem with that. While she responds well to my pee signal, and cues me when she needs to go (and she can hold it briefly, or attempt to stop it mid stream if I take half a second too long), she has NO signal for poop. She'll wake up with a smear on her diaper (whereas she'll wake to pee). Today she surprised me and has pooped three times in the potty. Which is great! I'm thrilled! But I have no way to predict it's about to happen, I can't offer her a signal to learn for it because I have no idea she's doing it until I see she's done already. Will she just poop often for a while and I should use a diaper/trainer and take a spare with me to potty her in case it's dirty (today I just folded the tiny poop smear into the part of her diaper that gets folded and doesn't touch her skin after she peed in the sink at my elder's school). Are there signals that I'm completely missing? For pee she'll fuss and kick her legs, and calm down if I ask if she needs to pee, though it may take four offers before she voids (is that normal?). If she farts she sometimes poops. She may just make no sounds or no movement and I'm surprised by poop when I potty her. What should I be looking for? What did your kids do? I've looked at other threads, but most people don't seem to be doing EC with newborns, so the signals they mention are all for older babies.

Also, are there favorite split pants and trainers? I've been so encouraged by the past couple of days. I'd rather not have to deal with wraps and prefolds while she's waiting to go, or with taking off her pants (I've got her in nightgowns now, but it's chilly out, so I'd like something on her legs too). Maybe baby legs or something rather than pants? What do people like? I didn't EC with my elder, so this is new to me.

Thanks!

Wendy

[theboysmama]

in my experience newborns don't cue a whole lot. Most poops can be caught through timing. A great trainer will help avoid any pooptastrophies. I wish that I had switched to trainers sooner. I bought mine at www.sassycloth.com and she will make them in any size. They are reasonably priced and are great w/ night gowns or dresses and baby legs. They also work fine w/ pants bcs they pull up and down and you can just pull them up and down with the pants. No need to unwrap everything.
Sounds like things are going great. Have fun.

[hrsmom]

I think there might have been slightly more/different squirming for poop, but for the most part, same as what the PP said. We only part time EC'ed at that age, but did catch more than half the poops. (But had missed poops, too! Especially the afternoon poop, because I had it in my head that she didn't poop in the afternoon. So I missed that one every day! )

[Michigan Mama]

i'm still having this problem with my 11 wk old. Sometiems I just can't tell he's gonna poop until it's already happening. I just cue him anyway and look forward to the days when he doesn't poop so often! I'm still usually using a cloth dipe, but it is indeed a hassle. Let us know what you find that works for you!

[lisavark]

I caught poops by timing. However, my DD wasn't that much older than yours when she started definitely holding poop until I took her. I would take her to pee (which she didn't cue for either; that was timing as well), and she would surprise me with a poop. I definitely remember by two months she was pretty much only pooping in the potty, even though I never noticed poop signals.

Don't sweat it--you're doing fabulous! EC is a long journey, with lots of ups and downs. You and your LO will figure out the poops soon.

My favorite trainers are the EC store favorite EC trainers. They're more expensive than sassycloth, and I haven't used the sassycloth ones so I can't compare. But they are AWESOME. They hold one pee very well with no leaks, and you can get them with snaps on the side so they're easy to take off for poos. They're very handy. I definitely recommend switching to trainers if you're planning on EC'ing full time forever and always changing after every pee! Depending on how big your LO is, you might even be able to go straight to the medium size, which would then pretty much definitely fit through graduation. My DD is tiny--the smalls still fit her pretty perfectly--but she can wear the mediums and the larges from the EC store.

Another really great trainer is the ecapants! They have a belt that stays on and a velcro part that flips down. They're at ecawarebaby.com. However, you can't pull those up and down, so I only like them in the summer under dresses--they're harder to use under pants.

Have fun!