Nighttime EC - keeping warm? Minimal mess?

[thursday2]

DD is only 5 weeks, but a lot of her night wakings are pee-related, I'm pretty sure, so I'd like to start leaving her diaperless.  I have an old wool sweater I sewed into a mattress cover and lanolized, but I'm not sure how to fix her up for nights without a puddle-fest, keeping her warm, etc.  It's been CRAZY hot in LA since she was born, and she's been fussy, so she's been sleeping in nothing but a diaper and a receiving blanket and cosleeping next to me.  (We have a sidecarred crib, but she gets so fussy that she's been sleeping in our bed every night.)  I'm thinking of putting her on top of the wool sweater and prefolds and wearing nothing but a shirt and babylegs, but I feel like leaving nothing covering her nethers will be 1) cold and 2) messy - when we leave her diaperless during the day, it always runs off into her leg creases, up her back, etc.  She kicks and twists in her sleep, so I can't just lay a prefold on top because it'll fall off in 10 seconds...  Thoughts?  Maybe just wrap her in the wool sweater?  But then it will get poop on it...

[HappyHappyMommy]

I'm bumping up your post for attention. Anyone have experience to share?
 

[flyrabbitfly]

We co-slept and night-EC'd our little guy as well. I was always concerned that he would be cold, but even if he was naked he would kick the covers off so I think maybe we are more concerned about this than they are. Baby's solution to being cold at night is to snuggle closer to mama...

So we had DS sleeping on a wool puddle pad (when he got older this turned into a pair of wool blankets under the sheet). In warm weather, he just slept naked. During the winter I got a wool long sleeved shirt (this one from Nova Naturals: http://www.novanatural.com/woolens/wool-long-sleeve-shirt)- the wool wouldn't feel cold or even really wet if it got sprayed some. I think they may have really long ones at Continuum Family online for cheaper (http://continuum-family.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=11_26&products_id=335)... Then if it was REALLY cold, he also wore wool terry chaps (from the EC store online, but I don't think the terry is avail anymore) with a prefold tucked in, or with ECA pants over. Again the wool wouldn't feel cold or yucky if it got wet, and the terry was not too hot or cold. The prefold is easy to change out and easy to drop down to potty. Same with ECA pants (when your little girl gets bigger and starts rolling, and practicing rolling all night, the prefold won't stay put, around 4 mo, which is when we invested in 8 pr ECA pants, 4 non-waterproof for day, and 4 waterproof for night)  I also sometimes did just a prefold tucked into a wool diaper belt (avail on EC store  or CF as well), with some of my old wool socks with the feet cut off for leggings. This was probably the cheapest option and worked great while DS was still little. Probably since the wool terry pants aren't avail anymore, I'd get the long CF wool shirt, and use wool sock leggings... I'd offer you DS's old terry chaps, since he doesn't use them any more, but they probably wouldn't fit till next winter- DS was fat!

We peed little man into the tub when he would get restless but as he got older we started to use a deep quart yogurt container by the bed (DH's job to empty) so he didn't wake as fully. Not sure if that would work with a girl, but worth a try maybe. My sister pottied her son into a big rubbermaid container by the bed- lol- whatever works!

There was a period around 8 mo when DS's first teeth came in that he was having such a hard time sleeping that getting up to pee as well was more than he wanted, so for a few months we used ECA pants with lots of inserts to keep him and us as dry as we could. Gradually we got back into nighttime pottying. Like most things parenting, there is no formula that works all the time, except maybe "be flexible".

In the end I definitely think it was worth it to night EC- if we tried to avoid the potty we would all be awake for a couple of hours of restless baby until he finally wet himself- much easier and quicker and everyone back to sleep faster just to potty and get it over with. DS is 28 months now, and has been a grad for about 10, I still potty him once at night and we rarely have a wet bed. These days, if we do, with the wool under the sheets the bed never gets wet, so we just put a towel over the wet bit and continue on! Change it in the morning:)

Good luck!

[seraf]

We use diaper belt and a flat or prefold, partly because that's the easiest thing to get on and off one handed when I'm half asleep and partly just because that's what we do during the day. Currently the boys sleep inside a wool sweater with the sleeves cut and sewed a bit smaller. The bed stays dry, the boy stays warm.

Here's a picture of our youngest in his warmie. His bottom half sleeps under blankets with us. We have easy access to change or potty him. 

For now you could wrap a receiving blanket around her lower half, that wouldn't be knocked off as easily as a prefold.