We're doing it!!

[rzberrymom]

This is really easy!?! I had no idea!! I posted about a week ago about how to help my 10-week old to release her pee during the night--at the time, I didn't plan to EC full time but just a little bit to try to get her used to the cues, with the hope that I could then cue her to go at night.

But, I kind of got hooked on it! The patterns were so easy to see, even after just the first couple of days. Even my 4 year old is picking up on the patterns and gets exasperated with me and says "mama, you KNOW she won't pee on the potty until she nurses from both sides!" We even figured out that her notorious nighttime "fussy time" was COMPLETELY about having to pee before she drifted off to sleep--now that I cue her on the potty, we don't have any fussy time before bed!?!

We've been at it for about 10 days, and I'm catching the majority of pees and all the poops. I switched to cloth diapers because the eco-disposables couldn't handle the multiple on and off that I was doing and were getting all torn. I made a bunch of my own EC pants from a pattern here.

But, today was the kicker for me. I'm at the bookstore with my 4 year old and my 10-week old. She wakes up and wants to nurse, and then I knew she would get fussy and have to go. We headed to the public bathroom where there's no changing table, I held her over the toilet in her EC pants and she just went with no problem! No more frantically looking for changing tables!!! I mean, that right there is worth a day of sitting around watching to see when your baby pees!!

She's more relaxed, we have barely any fussy time at ALL, I swear she makes a sigh of relief when I cue her and she goes. Wow wow wow...

Only problem is, I still haven't been able to get her to go during the night. She just won't release for some reason, but I'll keep at it.

I just had to share...my older kiddo doesn't get what the big deal is.

[hrsmom]

That is so cool!! There are so many plusses with doing EC!

[hrsmom]

I wanted to add that it is so cool to figure out that fussiness is elmination-related, and you can do something about it!

[zoebird]

isn't it funny?

yeah, i like EC a lot.

[gretchikin]

we're in a similar boat i have an 11 week old girl and a 3 year old girl-she picks up on cues too!
couple questions...did you do nakey time? when/how long at a time/is it cold there? do you use the EC pants without anything else? what fabric did you use? I made some too--love 'em! i used fleece.

[rzberrymom]

Originally Posted by gretchikin

couple questions...did you do nakey time? when/how long at a time/is it cold there? do you use the EC pants without anything else? what fabric did you use? I made some too--love 'em! i used fleece.

I used fleece too, but I've also been planning to felt an old wool maternity sweater and give that a try.

I've been catching most of them by pattern--I just kept offering the potty over and over until I noticed when she took me up on it (i.e. never right after a nap, always right away after nursing both sides, several times in a row after a being awake for a while, etc.) The only cue she seems to give me is fussiness--I haven't noticed any other consistent signs so far. The evenings did have me completely stumped, so I spent a couple of evenings with her diaperless but sitting in my lap on a towel with the EC pants--that was enough to figure out the pre-bedtime pattern and what the fussiness was about.

It is cold here, so if I do diaper-free time it's always with the EC pants or babylegs. Most of the day, I have a cloth diaper over the EC pants and I'm able to take that off fast enough most of the time (I have about 2 pee misses/day)

[BirthKathy]

Originally Posted by rzberrymom

Only problem is, I still haven't been able to get her to go during the night. She just won't release for some reason, but I'll keep at it.

Congrats! It's fun, isn't it? Not releasing at night is one way that I can tell my son is ready to go to sleep. He won't pee when he's too tired.

[gretchikin]

we just had an almost completely diaper-free day (with fleece-y pants, but no diaper under it--cold for nakey) I had 2 pair of EC pants ready to go. We started at 8am I think, and there was not a miss until 5ish!! I'm pretty sure her only signs are fussy also. Oo! I DID have a "chi pee" today--felt the warmth and wetness while holding her, but she was dry so I took her and she went! a lot. (and the miss was when DH was holding her while I was cooking dinner.. lol) I didn't even really have very many no-gos either.. quite exciting!