EC Chat

[ShannonCC]

Ok, how about some EC chat? (again, just an excuse for me to talk about Owen, LOL!)

I've come to notice that Owen doesn't mind wetting himself but specifically doesn't like *sitting* in pee. If he's wearing his gerber pants or a diaper and pees while crawling around he just keeps playing. However, if he's sitting in the carseat or highchair he will start crying. Whether he was wearing a diaper or nakie or in gerbers or on a prefold, he will cry if he pees and sits in it. For awhile I thought it was a coincidence but now it's obvious if he's sitting and starts crying then whoops! I missed one.

Oh, and if he's nakie and pees on the floor, he gets up and crawls off it, lol! Before he was good at crawling if he peed on the floor he'd sit there and cry (unless it was linoleum then he'd play in it, lol!).

It took me so long to notice this pattern cuz we really *don't* have a lot of misses lately. If we were missing left and right I'm sure I would have noticed the pattern earlier yk?

Last night we drove home 5 miles from a bookstore. On the way back he started crying and couldn't be consoled. I thought I bet he peed. When we got hom I picked him up (he immediately calmed) and I checked and yup, I had missed one! From now on if he starts to suddenly cry for no (apparent!) reason I'm going to check if we missed a pee FIRST. Sometimes he's in the highchair and I think oh, he's crying cuz he wants what I'm eating, here, have more of your food.

Sheesh, sometimes it seems like so much hangs on EC. I *really* wish I had done this with dd. She was such a fussy thing (even with bf on demand, in-arms all day, co-sleeping). I bet at least a small part of it could have been relieved by EC! (she will always be my little spirited gal tho )

[Ahleemah]

IKWYM!

Ds was very colicky... it was nice to have another option in my parenting tool bag of "hmmm what could be wrong?" since so often it was "waaaaah I need to poooooop!" :-)

Blessings!

Ahleemah

[mrzmeg]

Shannon, my ds is exactly the opposite! Once he's peed, he doesn't protest too much...it's when he needs to that he's upset. Whenever he unexpectedly cries, it means he needs to be rushed to the potty.
We're doing OK, not as well as we were. I thought he was teething, but today I decided otherwise...he's about to start crawling! When he's on his belly now, he starts pushing his feet against the floor and trying to inch forward with his forearms. It's normal to have problems when there's a developmental milestone, though, so I'm not too worried.
We're doing better at nighttime. The past week or so, he's been holding his pee for half the night. He usually wakes up once in the middle of the night, and he's been holding it from that nightwaking til we get up in the morning.
Good to hear how y'all are doing. Maybe new EC'er Lunar Forest will join us?

[ShannonCC]

My dd was spirited (Thank goodness not colicy!) but like you said Ahleemah, it would have been nice to have another parenting tool in the bag. I don't think it would have made her mellow or anything, lol! Even with the food issues we've identified she's still a "forceful" child But I bet it would have helped if only a bit.

MElanie, sometimes he cries before he goes too. Hey, your son is almost 5 months old? We started EC at 6 months. From the first time I paid attention, I found he wasn't peeing most of the night! I think it's part of the normal rhythym of some kids, isn't that so cool??? All that time I thought he was peeing all night long since his dipe was soaked when we got up. Turns out his dipe was dry most of the night and then soaked first thing. Actually, right now he's peeing twice a night. Once in the early morning and then once just before (an hour or so?) it's time to get up. And i miss them all, lol! But at least I wake enuf to take the wet dipe off him before I fall back to sleep.

Ok, a funny story. My dh has a REALLY weak stomach. He used to gag at dd's dipes all the time. Well, I left him with Owen on the potty while I started dd's bath. I get back and he tells me Owen pooped in the potty. He wiped him up fine and ds is on the floor playing. Well, DH went to empty it and actually pulled a muscle in his stomach from gagging at the smell, LOL! Come on, it came out of a cute little 9 m/o, how bad can it be? IT'S JUST POOP! : At least he admitted it wasn't as bad as having to clean the poop from all over a baby's butt

[Karen1974]

Shannon: I totally know what you mean. DD HATES sitting in her carseat in a wet diaper (of course, who can blame her?). And she tends to go while in the car, so I've taken to pottying her *right* before leaving with some good results; generally she'll go for me then which helps a lot.

Overall, we're doing our usual mixed results. We're also struggling with poor sleep, so that's something in the mix that we're working on (working on the NCSS right now).

I definitely do better when I'm more relaxed about it. (Ahleema, I'm saying "Ooooohhhhmmmm!! hehe). I've stopped counting misses and catches entirely so I don't have those numbers to stress myself with.

I'm not sure what's up with DD's poops. She used to poop every morning, afternoon, and evening, so I was at least catching 1 or 2 of them, but here the last few weeks she hasn't had much consistency to her timing (though she still goes 1-3 times a day). Add to that the fact that she doesn't signal (that I'm seeing) much before she goes (grunts a bit AS she goes) and the result is changing a lot more poopy diapers. I caught a poopie last week and it was the first I'd caught in several weeks. Oh well...

I almost hate to post this now, because it sounds like I'm complaining or not good at it or not enjoying it or something. I'm more aware that folks who read this thread may misinterpret what I write, but I guess that's true of any message I post no matter the topic.

But to be clear, I love EC. I love knowing that this fussiness means tiredness, but that one means she needs to pee. It further reinforces my belief that *every* cry or fuss from my DD means *something* and not just that she's "fussy" or that she fusses for no reason. I'm constantly amazed at just how much she can communicate even without words or signs.

[pamelamama]

Well, I want to join in the EC chat! Eli is officially 3 mos old today and we're groovin' with the EC. And when I say that, I mean we are communicating a WHOLE darn lot about diapers, changing them constantly and peeing on our little baby bjorn potty. I do NOT mean that we're actually catching so many pees and poops!

There's no going back now, but I wish the boy would pee it all out when he pees!! Five minutes later he's wetting again. Any tips for getting baby to pee it allllllll out? My laundry pile is huge.

Went over to my mom's house today and gave the whole family, including cousins, a big show what with the constant diaper changes and the infant sitting on a potty. They think I'm nuts.

Perhaps I am!

[MammaMel]

Going good here...

We are doing pretty good here, Sebastian is 4 months old today!
Sebastian doesn't really fuss, wet or dry so it is hard and I rely alot on timing and "mommy instincts".
Poor dh never has much luck, he was just now in the bathroom with him holding him over the potty going "pssss psssss psssss psssss psssssssss pssssss pssssssss..." hehe he sure does try!
Melanie, I LOVE the pants & the hat is ADORABLE. put them on backwards the first time.
Pamela, I share a birthday with Eli! November 23 is a GREAT day

[mrzmeg]

Oh, good good good! I was wondering what you thought of them

[Ahleemah]

Peeing 5 min later...

My ds would do this. It's pretty common.... when we were using dipes, he would usually save some for the new dipe, so if I would put cover and clothing back on him, I wasn't aware he was sitting in fresh pee... :-(

But it seemed to be that once we really got in the groove together, he knew that I was giving him the chance to really empty his bladder, and he would. Not to say that he still might have to pee frequently, but I could see him concentrating and making the effort to pee it all out.

Sometimes he would get distracted while peeing too, and shut the fire hose off, only to pee again once the distraction ended!

You're not nuts.... constant diaper changes only lasts for a little while... honestly! You will get better at learning his signals, and he will respond to your in-tuneness....

Blessings!

Ahleemah

[HeatherSanders]

I started peeing Kenny yesterday and sneezed . . . he promptly turned off the hose to giggle at me. So I cued him again with the Psssss and he never released.

We put a prefold under his bum and set him in the swing next to me here at the computer . . . and he pees a fountain up and then down on my feet (good boy . . . missed the swing chair entirely . . . clean up being easier).

That's the 2nd time in 2 days my feet have been sterilized! HA!

[ShannonCC]

Heather, lol!

Pamela, I think with age? We didn't start til 6 m/o so I'm not sure about tiny babies. Even now he will sometimes pee and then pee again five minutes later but that's usually in the morning. Or if he pees and poops then he has to pee again but then *I* do that too (TMI? LOL!).

[spyiispy]

Hi guys! We are definitely getting better at this intuition thing. Last night.....I thought "she's gotta poop!" and we got to the potty and just as I opened her diaper, she let loose. Then later....she did the same thing when she had to pee. We just need a bit of fine tuning.....and I know it'll come with time. We are night-eliminating too. I just had to make the commitment to get my lazy butt outta bed and put her on the potty, after night nursings..... She usually rewards my efforts with a big ole poop. I'm only changing a poopy diaper once every couple days. Peeing is taking a bit longer and her pattern is kinda random.

I love this, though.......and I've had several friends over for dinner that think its the coolest thing. Maybe I've scored some converts??!! Heather....I am finding that the more I get Esme to relax, the easier it becomes for her to eliminate. She's going 99% in her Baby Bjorn potty now and I try to warm it up a bit by sitting on it, before Esme has to sit down. Hey, no one likes a cold toilet seat, right??

Lisa

[Almamiel]

Ok......so Mieke and I have been trying this e.c. thing.....and it's WORKING!!! We've always been interested in it and practiced it periodically, but have unable to do the hanging out diaperless thing. It is COLD in our house. We're in Ohio and in a drafty old house with only wood heat. We know it's time to load the stove with wood when we can see our breath (note: I would imagine that cultures practicing e.c. lived in relatively warm climes ) Anyway, we just decided the other day to try to seriously start catching some pees....and the results have been dramatic. Mieke is a little over five months and I swear she's holding her pee until we're over the sink. I mean, we're talking about 2 misses during the day, more in the evening - we're not talking nighttime yet. (Though Mieke has always been "ootchy" in the early a.m. and I have previously respended by just latching her on to quite her - this am we got up and changed the dipe - Mieke nursed and fell back asleep - about 45 minutes later got ootchy again - so we got up and peed over the sink). I have to say I'm really surprised at how well this is working and how Mieke is responding to it. We'll see how it goes!

[HeatherSanders]

Originally posted by spyiispy
She's going 99% in her Baby Bjorn potty now and I try to warm it up a bit by sitting on it, before Esme has to sit down. Hey, no one likes a cold toilet seat, right??

Your butt must be MUCH smaller than mine. I might be able to slide my right thigh across the BB Little Potty, but that's about it! :LOL

We're doing great with Kenny . . . though we had doctor's appointments today and I was less attentive to him while trying to be more attentive to my 6 year old. NOW THAT is a balance I'm trying to learn!

[ShannonCC]

Hey, congrats Sarah and Lisa! Isn't it cool???

I have a hard time at night : I mean, it's sort of working, but not exactly. I put him in a dipe and then, sometime early am, he fusses and pees. I don't seem to wake up in time for this, but I wake up as he's peeing, or when it's still warm. So without waking him, I unsnap and remove the dipe and set it aside. Then I stuff a prefold against him (he's usually a side sleeper) and we go back to sleep. Then, a few hours later, he wets the prefold. Same thing, I wake when he's fussing and peeing, or just after (the pee is always warm when I find it, so I think it's him fussing that wakes me just a tad too late). So I remove that prefold and replace it with another. The third time is usually when it's time to get up and we go potty

The problem is timing! He does the fuss, nurse to sleep, fuss nurse to sleep thing over and over before he pees. BUT if I try to pee him on the first or second fuss, he cries cuz I woke him. Wait too long and he pees.

I guess it's working "our way". It's not like he has to sleep in a wet diaper all night. But the few times I have managed to pee him, he ended up sleeping more solidly which was lovely Not that I'm complaining cuz he's an awesome sleeper but the more the better right?

Ok, lol at warming up the BB Yeah, I could fit one thigh on it too. Tho I do sit on the toilet insert to warm it for him each morning! I pee first cuz, sadly, my 9 m/o can happily hold it longer than I can first thing in the AM,

[emma00]

I have been reading all these threads on EC and thought I'd try and get my baby to poop in the potty - as I usually know when she's about to poop. So far we've been sucessful most mornings. Pees seemed infinately more difficult to 'catch' so I haven't really bothered; however, I have been reading the various EC threads abouth babies sitting in wet diapers (however briefly) and started to think a bit about how often *I* change my dd's diaper - usually every couple hours, but I will admit it sometimes is longer. So today I wanted to try an experiment to see just how often she pees. Well I knew it was fairly frequent - but she easily peed every 20 minutes! There is no way I can change her often enough to keep her dry (my toddler was somewhat tolerant of my experiment - but it was definately cramping his style) and carry on my 'normal' life.

So here's my question - Do you put your babies on the potty that often or do they learn to hold it for longer? If they learn to hold it for longer intervals is that a result of EC 'training' or a result of the maturing process? My dd is 7 months. THanks.

[ShannonCC]

emma00 I also find pees harder, but some people find poops harder! Congrats on getting poops I'll tell you something, when we started at 6 m/o my only thought was that it would be cool if we got his one daily poop in the pot. We've done far better than that, but I'm still thrilled we've only had 2 poopie dipes in 3 months

To answer your question *I* think it's cuz of age and your own baby's body temperment, but some think it's from the EC. The reason I think it's age is because from the first day we started EC, I noticed my son was peeing a lot in the morning, going sometimes hours w/o peeing in the evening and going up to 9 hours dry at night! (I think he went 11 hours one night but that was a rare one!). A lot of people start EC and find their kid is peeing more than they thought, but I found my kid was peeing less He's not dehydrated either, he's chubby and healthy and usually he pees a lot when he goes. I guess it's just *him*, yk?

Anyway, yes, she will pee less as she gets older. She won't be 15 and still going every 20 minutes, lol! You can try timing (see my other thread!). Just try getting her after nap pee, her first morning pee, stuff like that.

I do offer the potty every hour even if he doesn't signal. IMO tho, even if you get the poops and never anything else, that's still way cool

[Karen1974]

I'm no expert, Emma, but from what I've read, they do hold it for longer periods of time. I'd imagine that's a combination of the maturing process as well as the EC experience, since they know they'll have potty opportunities. Someone else correct me if I'm wrong!

My DD pees more often in the mornings after she wakes, and then her frequency tapers off some throughout the afternoon, and into the evening. Aparently there's a hormone that your body uses that makes you produce less urine during nighttime hours.

DD still pees pretty frequently, but she can certainly hold it for the few minutes it takes to get her undressed (if she's dressed), walk her into the bathroom, and get the diaper off and her into position (and me giving the cueing sound) before she lets go). That's not including the minute or so it sometimes takes me to pick up on her signal that she has to pee (It doesn't usually take me that long, but I have my moments!).

Shannon: I haven't had much success at night either. Last night was the first time I had something approximating it, and it wasn't in the middle of the night or anything. DD had awakened around 10 and I was nursing her back to sleep and she started to do the latch/pull off/latch/pull off thing, so I pottied her thinking she had to pee (thanks to someone else's idea, I actually held her over the diaper pail, cause she hates being carried into the bathroom at night and we don't yet have a potty...) She actually pooped, which surprised me, and she didn't pee at all. That's the closest I've come to nighttime EC success; any other time she's protested mightily! :LOL So I stopped trying. DH is supposed to pick us up a BB potty here soon, so maybe that will help...

[emma00]

Thanks for your replies. I'm not sure if I'm committed to this or not - but it certainly is interesting. I 'caught' a pee post nap - but missed the big bm because she was playing on the floor and I didn't notice the tell-tale pre-poop grunting. I was kinda bummed as the potty is way easier to clean up than a messy dipe. But my babe pretty much could care less

[ShannonCC]

Emma00, yeah, it's interesting isn't it It is easier to start when the baby is still in arms 24/7 which is one of the reasons you usually hear the window of 0-4 months. When they're in your arms (or sling) all day long it's easier to pick up cues.

I certainly don't mean to discourage you! We started at 6 months, and others have started later with success! But also keep in mind it's something you have to learn, no matter when you start!

Anyway, have fun with it! It certainly won't hurt to try and you might even save some dipes