Dec. EC babes - how's it going?

[mariposita]

i think there are at lasy 4-5 of us. how's it all going for you? we're doing okay, i'm being pretty relaxed about it all. i just really enjoy the communication between the two of us and am not uptight about it at all. we EC about 1/2 the time, but i'd like to increase that to more full time.

we use a homemade prefold belt and a prefold during days (so nice to just pull out the front end and EC him, and tuck it back in without getting it wet!). our laundry use has decreased to 1 load a day rather than 2 with cloth diapers. we use fuzzibunz at night and aren't doing it at night, but plan on getting there eventually.

his signals aren't as obvious anymore. for pees i mostly rely on timing and fussiness and a change in the shape of his penis. since he's only pooping once every 4-8 days i just hear him start to do it, then take him in to finish.

what has your experience been? successes? problems? i would love to hear how it's going for all of you!

[Taedareth]

I guess I'm not as dedicated as you. I keep DS in pinned prefolds and a Bummis cover rather than letting him go bare-bum or just in a prefold. So I just try to change him once an hour and every time we have a diaper change I give him a chance to "go." This works pretty well. Oh and I always take him to the bathroom immediately after he wakes up from a nap.

I have never figured out any clue for when he's about to pee, but I seriously think he holds his BMs until I'm holding him over the sink. Because his wet diaper will be poop-free and then when I hold him over the sink he bears down and has a major blowout. He rarely soils his diapers anymore. Makes me happy - less poopy diapers to rinse out! And he pees in the sink sometimes as well, since he basically has to pee all the time, lol.

[spiralmg]

We are also doing one load of laundry per day - mostly prefolds. Whenever I think we are doing really well, then I notice how many diapers are in teh bucket! But we are still doing really well, I think. Our misses happen mostly when I am preoccupied or when she is playing on the floor or when someone else is holding her.

I am still just totally amazed by how participatory she is in this whole thing. She really gets excited about doing a pee or poo when our timing is right. And, she gets really upset sometimes when she tries to tell me and I miss it and she gets wet. That really makes her mad.

The part I hate is when I am not very tuned in and then keep double-guessing myself. She gets mad when I try to potty her when she is not ready.

And today, we had a super embarrassing EC moment. I was at yoga but having a really kind of out of it kind of day. Long story short, we had a miss and due to my shoddy diapering (left the belt at home), pee went all over the floor in front of my teacher and another student. Afterwards, the teacher tried to tell me that maybe I should go easy on this EC thing, understandably, since it "obviously" wasn't working out so well. Isn't that just how things go sometimes,though? In private all is dandy, in public you really fall on your face.

That aside, I am really proud of how well we are doing even though we are nowhere near perfect. I feel like my communication with her far exceeds what I had at this point with my firstborn - and we had/have a great connection too.

[starparticle]

spiral - love your yoga story, we had a simlar moment today...basically Leif hasn't had a poopy diaper in around 2 months (he goes poop whenever you hold him in potty position, he waits till then...they are so smart!!) so I only use these mini little premie prefolds as liners in his clothes (when we are out). Anyways, we drove 3 hours today for a wedding shower (each way....eek) and he had a poop in the car. I seriously didn't know what to do! Poop is gross, and I'm not used to having to touch it. I think it was the third poopy diaper I have ever changed. His clothes were a mess, and I wasn't at all prepared (no wipes or change of clothes). And this is before the shower...ugh.

Anyways, at home we go nakey butt for play time, and then when I pop him in the sling I use a little liner just in case. We are catching around 10+ pees a day and all the poops, I don't even bother counting the misses (just discouraging I think!). I do about one small load of diapers every day, sometimes every other day.

DH is obsessed with the potty time though, which is really a surprising twist. I think that because he can be involved so closely with the process he really loves it.

[lizajane30]

Haven't been on this forum in a while, but saw this and wanted to add my two cents.

Morgan, at eight weeks, is pretty good at signalling, but his mama and papa sometimes just don't get it! We are very relaxed about EC for now, offering the potty at every (very frequent) diaper change. We also don't change many poopy dipes, which as a former nanny I have to say is a great thing for me. I've wiped enough poop out of enough crevices to last a lifetime! We're getting better at reading his signals and he's better at holding it longer, so some days we only use a few diapers (and of course other days we go through a dozen).

Here's my public EC debacle: we went to (of all places!) our EC play-group for the first time since M's birth, and in two hours went through no fewer than seven diapers. What a setting for a series of misses! At least none were poops. And for what it's worth, he also went in the potty several times. Never knew a body so small could produce so much pee.

A non-ECing friend of mine recently told me a story about how her 15mo DS woke early one day and wouldn't go back to sleep. When he started grunting she realized he was awake because he needed to poop. At that point in the story, I thought, Oh, so she took him to the potty and then they went back to bed. No big deal. But then she finished up by saying she had to hang out in the living room for 20 minutes while he played and pooped in his diaper. I was amazed at how readily I imagined her simply pottying him; I don't think of diapers as toilets any more! This is a big step for someone who's spent half her life changing diapers. Anyhoo, I'm just rambling now...

Happy ECing, everyone!

[MamaTaraX]

Can a Jan. mama play? Our DDC board is kinda ghost townish these days So I saw this thread and thought mayeb I could chine in (since I hang out here so much anyway )

My 5-weeker is just beginning his EC journey. I had high hopes of starting EC when he was 1 week. Well, the day he hit 1 week I was recovering from a stomache flu (let me again NOT recommend getting a stomache flu when one is 6 days out from giving birth!) So I said we'd try when he hit 2 weeks. That day came and went. So we started at just about 4 weeks. So it hasn't been for very long. He's fairly easy to EC in that he is very obvious about when he has to pee or poop. Unfortunately, he gets REALLY upset about it. He gets upset because he needs to pee. Then he's upset because he's going pee. THen he's upset because he went pee. I don't mean that he's acting like he's in pain, he just seems agitated at the occurance. Whether its catching it in a diaper, sink or potty, it matters not, just so long as it disappears from his body ASAP We still use diapers a lot, but I change them as soon as he goes or if I know its coming, we take the diaper off. Sometimes he has this expression like "Why'd you take that off of me? Oh yeah...so I can pee! Oh no...now I have to pee don't I?" It's kind of funny. I'm not the world's best ECer; I wasn't with my 2nd son either (started at 3.5 mos) I'm not 100% consistant and I honestly can't sit around watching his lingham all day to see if he has to pee. I have other kids to watch (and they are destructive!) I feel bad about that but I'm just happy to do what little ECing we can. I think it makes it harder on him right now though because he knows he needs to pee and occasionally I can't get to it right away (this is really rough when we're out, which is incredibly rare -- he's only been out 3 times since he was born? maybe 5) Anyway, I'm rambling, just thought I'd jump in here and say 'ello

Namaste, Tara

[mariposita]

oops, double post!

[mariposita]

it's so exciting to hear all of your stories! i don't have an embarassing public ec story yet cause we haven't been out a whole lot yet, but i'm sure it's coming!

i am still having problems catching signals - they seemed to have gone away - but we have this crazy *psychic* type of connection. i just look into his eyes and know he needs to go.

i can't wait for my "diaper-free" book to come!!! i think that will give me lots of ideas and motivation to make this a full-time deal.

isn't it funny how they get upset when you try and pee them when they don't want to go? they are so communicative!

keep up the great work everyone!

[spiralmg]

Oh my gosh it is good to know that other people are having funny stories too!

Lizajane, i know what you mean about surprising amounts of pee in short periods. Sometimes DD does not do a single pee all night - and then, later in the day, she will do about seven BIG pees in a row. Where is all the pee the rest of the time? Where is she keeping it hidden?!

Tara, it is always great to see you around here!

Andrea, my DD also gets SUPER upset when I take her to pee and she doesn't want to go.

Kali has been really good about signalling lately. She makes a little tiny sound and kind of waits for us to catch on. I've been getting bummed about missing night pees though. Some nights she won't pee at all. Others she goes five times - and barely signals until after the pee. Even then she doesn't cry, just kicks a lot! DS always made a big fuss - she is so much calmer about everything.

I'm struggling with keeping her warm while going barebottom or prefold only. Sometimes it's too cold this time of year for nothing, and the babylegs get too tight on her fat thighs. We got some crotchless wool pants from theecstore.com, but they seem kind of itchy. Sometimes I wrap her in a little wool blanket. But there is no perfect solution. Also shirts are driving me crazy as they ride up all the time (esp. when DH is holding her ) and onesies are out of the question.

[mariposita]

checking in again. hows it been going? i'm feeling like i'm not being responsive enough. reed knows what to do when i hold him over the sink and he loves it. but he doesn't signal for pees at all (which i know is normal for some). the only ones i catch are because of intuition or looking at his penis (changes shape). we definitely have a communication going on, but i feel like i've just been ignoring him somehow. i catch maybe 3-4 a day.

current system: lays on prefolds during day (not attached to him in any way, just lays on it) and i change him immediately. nights are fuzzibunz and no ec. i'd like to get to fulltime ec - day and night.

i'm totally relaxed about the whole thing, perhaps too relaxed though. i just feel like i'm not tuning into him as i should. i think i get distracted by other stuff like housework, cooking or my other son.

any advice?

other than that, how has it been for all of you this last month?

[mariposita]

oh, and what have you all been doing for clothing? we don't use anything with snap crotches. reed wears long sleeved shirts and either the split crotch fleece pants or knitted pants i made for him. but i'm realizing that all the hand-me-downs from carter probably won't work! i need separates!!!