ECing from birth tips...

[flowmom]

So I'm ECing from birth for the second time. In some ways it feels pretty familiar, but I also feel a lot of the lack of confidence that I experienced the first time around. Every baby is different, but for what it's worth here are my tips - your milage may vary:

* you can observe your baby while keeping her in arms - it's not necessary to put her down

* my babies typically didn't like being held in the pottying position for the first couple of days - don't worry, they usually start to like it afterwards

* keeping baby in non-waterproof diapers is working well for us - we use prefolds (with a Snappi or fleece prefold belt) or Poquito Pants (thanks Laureen!) which are fab...we notice pees/poops immediately and diaper changes and pottying are very easy

* to prevent the non-waterproof diapers from soaking clothes, our baby doesn't wear pants, sleepers, or onesies - instead we use BabyLegs (the EC Store) and a shirt...this makes diaper changes/pottying very easy too

* consider using a bathroom sink as a receptacle - easy to clean and easy on the parent's back (holding in the classic squatting position) and you can then hold the baby with one arm and swish her bum with warm water instead of having to use wipes

* newborn pee signals for us have been crying, pauses in nursing, "far away" look (sometime no signal too)

* when baby wakes up, try pottying

* even if you have a pee or poop miss, try pottying right away: often there is more pee or poop coming (I get lots of "half catches" this way ;-) ) and you can save a diaper

* when pottying baby in the squatting-with-her-back-against-your-tummy-position, try leaning her back a bit during the session - this releases the urinary sphincter and it may help her to release her pee

* take your time with pottying - poops usually happen in a couple of squirts with my babies

* at night, if you use backup diapers make sure you use a simple diapering system and set up a station beside the bed so you can change the baby in bed with little or no light (assuming cosleeping)

* for ease at night, use coverless diapers and lie baby on a fleece blanket or wool pad to prevent dampness from wetting sheets - prefolds with a fleece prefold belt (the EC Store) work great

* when your baby wakes at night, deal with the diaper first and change if wet before nursing (it might have been the pee that woke them up, not a need to nurse) or try pottying if the diaper is dry then nurse

* don't stress if you have a zillion misses and a huge diaper laundry

* if you use a gentle and environmentally friendly laundry powder (like Nature Clean), you can wash diapers with other clothes - presoaking and second rinses aren't necessary if you have a decent washer unless your baby is exceptionally sensitive

* fathers should get involved as much as possible - mothers are recovering and focusing on breastfeeding in the early days and don't necessarily have EC as their primary focus

* enjoy your tiny newborn!

[L'lee]

Great tips! I agree with much of what you have said! Especially these ones:

Originally Posted by Ksenia

* when baby wakes up, try pottying

* even if you have a pee or poop miss, try pottying right away: often there is more pee or poop coming (I get lots of "half catches" this way ;-) ) and you can save a diaper

* when your baby wakes at night, deal with the diaper first and change if wet before nursing (it might have been the pee that woke them up, not a need to nurse) or try pottying if the diaper is dry then nurse

* don't stress if you have a zillion misses and a huge diaper laundry

* fathers should get involved as much as possible - mothers are recovering and focusing on breastfeeding in the early days and don't necessarily have EC as their primary focus

The sink is great, though I think ours may be losing some of the shiny covering so we need to rinse it better! We have an old wipes container of those wimpy, cheapo baby washclothes by the sink and we use those for wiping.

We've been using kissaluvs for nighttime, they are also pretty good in terms of letting us know ASAP when he's peed (or poo'd since it's so wet so far!) For daytime, we put him on top of a prefold (not attached to him or anything) and wrap him in a recieving blanket, and when we're going out, we put him in a onesie with an insert from a pocket diaper inside a prowrap or other diaper cover. We have had a load of baby laundry each day so far, but I'm sure that will decrease as we catch more. Often our nighttime diaper changes are because he has sweated so much on the diaper that it's wet, and it's not soiled - either that or he just had a wet fart so we decided to change the diaper anyways.

My DS let us hold him in "the position" right from the first time we tried it, no problem. He REALLY disliked "going" in the diaper or sitting in a soiled diaper, makes the whole ECing thing a LOT easier! Today, we went on a 2 hour outing, and on the way home I could tell he had to go, so I told him, "if you can just wait for 5 more minutes, you can go at home instead of in your pants, and I know you will like that much better!" and he managed to wait!

Have you found much of a difference now that you're ECing a girl after ECing a boy?

[flowmom]

Originally Posted by L'lee

Have you found much of a difference now that you're ECing a girl after ECing a boy?

Not really, it just looks funny when the pee comes out because I'm so used to boy parts now.

[alexisyael]

These are good tips!

I've been too busy recovering (from my hemotoma, which was a REAL pain!) to EC from birth. But we are changing him everytime he pees or poops (so he doesn't sit in the pee or poop). So far, I'm not really able to catch any clues (which is odd, b/c I have caught cues from other people's babies before!). He mostly likes to pee while he's nursing, it seems like. And poops, well, he does get fussy before a poop explosion, but he gets fussy if he isn't on the boob, either, sometimes, so I can't quite tell the difference yet.

All I can say is THANK G-D for my DH, who is doing the laundry every day (And yeah, we're washing everything together with no problem whatsoever).

Anyway, one of these days I'll make my first catch and then I'll be ECing for reals

[Peppamint]

I was thinking about this last night, I think I'm starting to pick up a couple of her cues but haven't tried to catch any pees or poos yet. If I wasn't the solo parent of three kids from the time they wake up until 8-9pm most nights I would probably do better. Thanks for the reminder!