Nighttime EC 'stuff' questions

[twead]

We started ecing our ds2 about 2 months ago, he is almost 7months now.  We are super casual about it.  He does really great during the day and we have few wet diapers.  We started trying to catch the morning poo a couple weeks ago.  Now, he seems to want to be taken to the potty for every pee all night.  He gives a very sharp kinda growl-y cry with no warm-up fussing. 

I'm just not understanding how to do nighttime ecing though.   Right now we co-sleep with his crib side car-ed.  So getting out of bed is kinda a pain, scooting all the way to the foot.  DH is a terribly light sleeper, so every movement out of DS or me wakes him.  Then go to the bathroom and unsnap his sleeper, then unsnap his fuzzibunz. I hold him over the toilet and he pees and/or poops consistently.  Is there an easier way to do this?

Last night he probably did the screaming thing at least 8 times waking all of us up.  I pottied him about 4 times and the remaining times I was able to rock him back to sleep.  Tonight he has already roused 4 times, 2 of which we pottied, the other 2 I just nursed him back to sleep.  I just can't get up so many times with him, both dh and I need to sleep

[nstewart]

I don't really EC DS at night unless he wakes up and is squirmy.  So some other mammas might have better ideas than me, but FWIW...

Do you have a little potty you could put at the end of the bed or within reach of the bed?  What does DS sleep in?  Could you buy/make some long night shirts that don't need to be unsnapped but can just be lifted up?  Does DS sleep in a sleep sac?  I would put him in something that is "easy access" like a zipping sleep sack (that you can just open at the bottom and lift up without actually taking it off) with a night shirt underneath and potty him just beside the bed which I have read of others doing.  If you notice that he is dry otherwise over night when you potty him every time he signals, maybe try a few nights without a diaper and with something like a thick wool blanket or sheep skin underneath?  Then it would save you the Fuzzibunz hassle too.

He's going to wake up whether you potty him or not, and that's going to wake you up too.  But maybe if you start pottying him he'll go longer stretches over time between wake-ups?  Also, if you have to nurse him back down when he really just wants to pee you're just setting yourself up for him to wake up again because his bladder will fill up again I think.  But I would say how great it is that he's so "aware" of his body that he wakes up to pee and signals you!!  DS mostly doesn't signal pees at all, we have to use timing.

I'm struggling with what to do at night right now too.  I usually only have to take DS once at night because he doesn't signal the need to pee every time he wakes up to nurse (even though he wets his diaper) but I'm wondering if I should take my own advice and start offering the potty when he does wake up.  Night times are challenging!

[kdhfly]

We keep a little potty at the end of the bed (we have a siderail and DD2 is either sleeping in bed with us or in the pack n play near our bed).  I don't empty it in the night; I just empty it in the morning.  If she wakes up and I think she needs to go, then I put her on the potty.  Sometimes she's fussy on the potty, and if I nurse her then she'll go ahead and go.  At times I get really tired because it's harder than just nursing back to sleep, but I'm so glad she is maintaining her night awareness and days are hit-or-miss for us, so I like the consistency of nights. We actually have dry diapers most nights (except during teething and major milestones - right now she's about to walk).  

ETA: I forgot to add, we often have her wear separates (shirt and pants) so that it's easier to just pull her pants down and unsnap the diaper instead of multiple snaps.

[Momasauras]

My DD is 12 months and we have been struggling with nighttime throughout our journey as well.  We started out well, she would wake up, I would take her to the bathroom to pee, she would nurse back to sleep.  I think this was pretty early on (and by early, we started EC at 6 months, so probably around 7-8 months).

Then she was super fussy and would stiffen each time we tried to go the potty, so I started using a disposable overnight and she would typically would still fuss, but I found it easier for all of us to just let her go in her diaper.

Recently, I decided to start attempting the overnight pee again.  Some nights are better than others and we have had several dry nights with 2-3 pees per night (and typically nursing back to sleep).  EC Clothing helps with this... for a while we did Baby Legs, but they stopped staying up overnight - she is too wiggly!  So just recently I made some crotchless pants and put the diaper on OVER the pants.  They were VERY easy to make.  Here is a picture:

Yes, the nursing back to sleep leads to more peeing, I think -- but I typically can't get her back to sleep any other way.  I try to nurse less than she wants with mixed success.

I would say experiment and see what works best... you can just change a diaper and nurse each time he wakes and see if he's okay with that.  And sometimes I have found that I can get her back to sleep when she wakes after a quick nurse, but other times, I have to nurse then pee her, then nurse again!

Good luck!

[hrsmom]

Sometimes night time is less fun with EC. I would try potty near bed, definitely with easy access clothing. A quick diaper change may also work well. Hang in there! Before you know it they will hold it at night.

[lisavark]

I really couldn't get the hang of nighttime EC till I quit using diapers at night. I put a fleece or wool blanket on the bed with a towel on top of it, and I would usually dress DD in split crotch pants or fleece/cotton pants that were easy to pull off. If/when DD peed on the bed, I'd just take the wet towel and pants, drop them on the floor, and replace them with fresh ones from a stack I kept nearby. 

And yes, little potty in the bedroom, SO much easier. Our bed is on the floor so I just put the potty on the floor at the foot of the bed and pee DD in it...I find I wake up a lot less if I can pee her without getting out of bed. We do this now and she's almost three.