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newborn signals

post #1 of 7
10/12/10 at 9:40am
Thread Starter 
I'm trying to do EC with my 4-week-old son. We just started yesterday with what I'm calling "naked week"--all week, if we're home, he's either wearing a prefold with no cover or nothing at all on his bum. I'm hoping that, if we do a week of this, I'll catch on to his signals and timing. The trouble is, so far, I can't tell that he's doing anything at all before he pees. I think he's signalling poop by pumping his legs, but he does the same thing for "burp me" and "my diaper is full." Most of the lists of signals to look for that I have read don't make sense for a baby this young. My son *always* has a dreamy, far-away look in his eyes...assuming he'll even open them. He doesn't really know he has hands yet, so he grabs at his diaper only accidentally.

What signs did you see in babies who were still in this "fourth trimester" stage?
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post #2 of 7
10/12/10 at 8:49pm
I started at 5.5 weeks, so I don't know of this will help. My DS was always very content in a sling until he had to go potty. Suddenly he would get a little squirmy or uncomfortable. If I didn't EC, I would have thought it was because he wanted to change positions, had gas, was bored, etc. Almost every time for him, it was potty time.

Also, stick with non-waterproof prefold approach and nakey time you are doing. That helped us. Our DS had different little cues we learned from that. Also, if you are not getting anything definite right now; don't worry. Their cues change as they grow, so it may be easier in a few weeks.

Have fun!
post #3 of 7
10/12/10 at 11:22pm
We started ds Ecing at 6 days old. We never did the no diaper thing though. He always has a diaper on (not always- I give him specific diaper free time but he generally has a diaper on) and we simply give him lots of chances to pee and poop over the toilet, and make the cuing sound. I don't know why many EC;ers also leave their babes diaper free- I guess it is simply a personal choice thing. Ds didn't have cues in the beginning- I just learned that he pees when he wakes up from a nap, and started there- and just generally held him over the toilet many times a day and made the cuing sound, and then praised him when he peed in the toilet. Now at almost 7 months he pees 90% of the time in the toilet. He poops most of the time in the toilet too ( except he is not pooping much these days which is another issue!)
So I suggest to not worry about catching every pee and making sure they never have a diaper on, just give the baby lots of chances to go in the toilet. I know other people have other methods that work for them, but this is what works for us.
post #4 of 7
10/13/10 at 12:00am
One thing that took me a long time to figure out, but my dd did it from very early on, was popping on and off the breast, or looking at the breast really funny like she didn't know what to do with it. I finally made the connection that she needed to pee! There is a list of some common newborn signals on the Tribal Baby website. I don't have the link handy, sorry!

congratulations on your little one!
post #5 of 7
10/14/10 at 12:49am
Mine got very squirmy/uncomfortable when he had to pee, and always tooted when he had to go #2.
post #6 of 7
10/14/10 at 9:40am
Thread Starter 
@Snapdragon, we're just going diaperless so I can see what is going on while I try to learn his cues.
post #7 of 7
10/15/10 at 12:43am
I started my son from the day he was born, and he always got sort of angry (squirmed, kicked legs, etc) the second before he had to pee, and for poops he would just get sort of uncomfortable looking (grunting, knees up sometimes, almost like I was holding him wrong).