Anyone doing EC from birth?

[havsulen]

I am planning on putting a bit more effort into ECing this time. Last time we did not start until dd2 was 6 months old (I did not understand the concept before). Last time, we mainly started by pottying her in the morning when she had just woken up, because that is when she was likely to go. Even though she wore cloth diapers all the time, it worked well and she was diaper free at night from she was 1 and during the day before she was 2 without us "training her" at all - we just followed her.This time, we plan to start offering pottytunities from birth. We plan to use our cloth diapers as well, because being a WAHM with two older kids as well will prevent me from being able to listen to the baby for cues at all times.

Anyway, anyone joining from birth?

I have read two books about EC, Infant Potty Training by Laurie Boucke and Diaper Free: The Gentle Wisdom of Natural Infant Hygiene by Ingrid Bauer.Still have not really found a way to arrange it during the nights, but I am hoping that we'll find a way that suits us all when the baby arrives and we get to know each other.

[IdentityCrisisMama]

I had considered it but now that the baby is here I have decided to put it off for a while.  She's just so small and I can't even begin to go about it for a variety of reasons.  I'm thinking I'll start maybe when she has some neck control and when our family manages to accomplish a few menial tasks around the house...and maybe when my breasts stop leaking all over the place.  ;-)   

[acdmama]

I would like to start early, but not sure about from birth.  I'm thinking the first few days I'll have enough just adjusting to a newborn and nursing, etc.  I'd love to hear how it's going for you, though!  We'll be using CDs as well (waiting until after meconium, though)...you may inspire me to start EC earlier than planned!  Good luck!

[hannybanany]

I plan on starting around 2 months old. That's when I started with DD1 and it worked very well.

[havsulen]

Originally Posted by hannybanany 

I plan on starting around 2 months old. That's when I started with DD1 and it worked very well.

Encouraging to hear! Do you mind sharing a bit about how you did it? Did you do it during the night too?

I must admit I am used to just rolling over and nursing while half asleep, and I am sort of dreading waking up more to use the potty.

[Adasmommy]

I also planned to, but it hasn't happened yet (ds is a week old).  I started with my dd when she was 5 days old and it was so easy and we caught pees right away and it was so rewarding to have the physical proof of our ability to communicate on the subject at such a tender age!  When she was newborn I held her over the bathroom sink.  When she got heavy I switched to the BBLP.

We did night times too.  I hadn't mastered nursing lying down yet, so I sat up in bed every time she woke to nurse and I just kept a Baby Bjorn Little Potty on the bed at the foot of the bed.  She'd want to nurse first, then I'd put her on the potty and she almost always peed, then nurse for another few minutes if she needed to get sleepy again, then put her down.  It was not a hassle at all, since I was up anyway.   If I was sleep-nursing, I'm not sure it would have been worth waking up for that.  It really depends on how rested everyone is and what works best to keep all your family members happy.  Happy beats efficient every time!

This time finding the time to walk to the bathroom to try to potty the baby has just been impossible.  If I was just responsible for nursing, it would be a fulltime job between the newborn and the one year old.  Then I also have to entertain the one year old and the six year old, feed them, keep them safe, etc.  I'm going cuckoo!  Oh, and the one year old potties, which means when she tells me she has to go, and I'm nursing, I have to try to take her pants off, while continuing to nurse, get the six year old to bring the potty, aim dd on it so she doesn't miss when she sits down, get a wipe and wipe her afterwards, empty it before someone kicks it over, etc.  Whew! 

I do hope I find a way to start with ds soon, though.  I have started cueing him when I know he's peeing or has just peed, so technically it's a start and even if I do nothing else, I think this communication is very worthwhile.  And I haven't detected a pattern yet, so I'm paying attention for one, even if I don't have time to act on it yet!

[nadia105]

We'll be starting soon here, I think.  Ds is 4 days old and I did start his early with my other boys, but we're dealing with jaundice this time, and I'm not going to throw anything else on top of dealing with the bili bed and everything.  I think we'll start early next week. 

[havsulen]

How are you getting on?

Babygirl is 9 days old now, and I really enjoy ECing with her. We caught 4 meconium passings, which was a huge inspiration, and after that we have focused on catching poos. Peeing happens so often, and often during sleep, so I am just letting that be for the moment. But we have been quite succesfull at communicating about poos. Yesterday for instance, four catches - and none in her diaper.

I am not stressing with it. What we catch we catch, the rest we just clean off as soon as we can. I think she enjoys it, she often looks wide eyed at me while I hold her in position.

Would love to hear from other ECers!

[yamilee21]

I started with my older son at 6 weeks, and with my daughter at 9 days, because she was going through too many diapers and her signals were so obvious. EC has not resulted in kids who are potty-learned early in our family, quite the contrary in fact; mostly it has just decreased our diaper laundry. So I have been on the fence about whether I should even bother with it for my new little boy. However, he is going through even more diapers than his sister did, and has obvious signals too, so we've been doing a bit of EC since his fourth day.

[puddle]

I started with DD at 2 months and it worked great.  I started at that age because that's when she stopped peeing every time I took off her diaper--so I realized she was learning that her diaper was the place to go.  I had planned to start pretty early with this one, but he pees like 90 times a day right now.  What I'm doing for now is just making the cueing sounds every time I see him going.  I'll start with the actual pottying part whenever I get around to it.