doggone it! I missed another one! Can you relate?

[granolalight]

: Earlier today I was nursing DS and typing on MDC. He started tensing his body and making grunting noises. So I took him off the breast and straight to the potty. Too late! Giant poo, in the dipe. I have several problems with this:

First of all, ew. I hate poopy dipes now!

Second, I didn't even know that he had pooped. I had no idea and I feel bad about that. Was he trying to tell me somehow? If so, I am unaware.

Third, I am discouraged that I still don't too much know his signals! For poo or pee. Is the only way to learn them to hover over him and watch him like a scientist in a lab? I don't want to do that!

I love EC. Especially on the good days, of course! How can I get better at catching poos? I really want those poos to go in the toilet. When I catch them now, I feel like it is luck, timing, intuition. Never on cues. Sigh.

[CTH3989]

It's okay! Keep trying, you're doing good.

Today is only my 2nd day of doing EC with my son and yesterday I got frustrated and gave up. Today, I took Eli too the potty when he woke up and didn't do anything and then after he finished nursing I took him and he went. I got my first pee! Then I missed the next 2. Now he is asleep and I am hoping he won't be so I can take him potty when he wakes up.

Good luck with EC! How long have you been doing it?

Chelci

[cmg]

After about a month of EC'ing (about the age your DS is now) we started catching a lot more because DD started using the potty tunities to poop. Hopefully, that will happen for you soon! I, too, have grown to really hate wiping poo off of all those poor baby body parts.

I'm not sure how important it is that there are cues, in the long run - I'm assuming that once DD is a bit older and gets the idea that she can cue, it will happen. Until then, we have good days (yesterday) and bad days (missed 5 pees running this morning - someone was having too much fun playing the I won't pee in the sink game).

[granolalight]

Chelci- I have been ECing for about a month. We catch about 50% of them. My son is Eli too! His full name is Elliot.

Well, I am reading "Diaper Free" by Ingrid Bauer. It is really good and has lots of grreat suggestions, but I get the impression that she (and others) can read their babies signals from birth! I am trying, I really am, but just really don't know what they are yet.

I will be patient and keep watching and learning. The cool thing is, we are learning together, and he is patient with me! He can wait for me to take off his dipe and get him to the potty before he goes. I think that's cool.

cmg- what is your name? I always see your posts here!

[lexmas]

Ah, the stealth nursing poop. I feel your pain.

Nursing really is the time of poop misses for us. If I *know* he has to poop but he refuses to do so when he's not nursing, I'll nurse him on the potty. I don't really like it, I'll be honest, but I recently found a way to make it pretty comfortable, and its better than cleaning poop off his butt. But that's only if I know he has to go.

If he was tensing up and grunting, then that's your signal! Chances are he started it earlier, maybe not as obviously, and built up to what you noticed, and you were just distracted. Or...he may have pooped on the way to the bathroom. I have definately missed poops where I hear him poop and then I look down and realize he's just looking up at me, unlatched...I just wasn't paying attention!

And if you're not getting signals, he just may not be signalling. That's entirely possible. Just keep it up, DS didn't start signalling until we had been ECing for 6-8 weeks or so. And then it was just out of the blue, but entirely obvious.

Oh, and poopy diapers are just too gross now. I am not a fan.

[granolalight]

I have never held a bowl under him while nursing. I just think it's too gross and can't bring myself to do it. And anyway, most of the time he doesn't poop, I don't know when it's coming.

As soon as I noticed the tensing and grunting, I popped him off and brought him to the potty. Maybe he did it on the way, you're right.

I caught a big poo on the toilet instead of on the bblp tonight. Yay. Love just using two squares of tp and flushing it all away!

One thing I have noticed lately, is that after we catch one, he sighs, smiles big, and looks at me in the mirror so gratefully. I think that is so sweet. "Thank you, Mama! I'd rather go here!" : So, obviously, we are working on the communication part in various ways.

[lexmas]

Too cute that he loves his pottying. And if nursing while pottying is too gross, from what I've read that won't be a problem soon anyway, as they stop pooping while eating. And really, I wouldn't nurse while pottying if I didn't know he had to poop either. It's not entirely the best situation, but it works how it has to if that's what you want to do. Luckly, we only have potty issues while nursing with poop, and not that frequently, so its kind of a non-issue most of the time.

Sounds like your communication is going great, and I'm sure you'll be catching it all in no time if he likes it so much!

On a related tangent, I tried to potty DS at the doctors office today into a prefold and he just looked up at me like, "Silly Mommy, this isn't a potty!" and decided to hold it until we got home. Just think of all the poops people who aren't ECing are cleaning up, and you'll feel better about the few that you have to!

[Margarita26]

I used to never ever catch poos. but we just kept and it and eventually we got to the point where we hardly every miss them. and i still get happy every time we get one in thepotty!

just keep at it i think, and try not to get too discouraged. (i know its hard because i used to get totally aggravated and defeated every time i missed a poo.) but it the long run, the misses dont matter.

it will click eventually!

[FelixMom]

Hey there, GranolaLight,

Your baby's still young, 3-4 months old, right? The beauty of starting with small babes is that they pee and poop sooo much, you're bound to catch SOMETHING and thus boost your confidence!

Misses are part of the game, just don't worry yourself silly over it. What matters is that you're making the effort to give baby a chance not to soil himself while pee/pooping.

I had flashbacks of those stealth poos while reading this thread. Eventually, DD would be able to hold off dumping everything into her dipe, and let me rush over to the toilet once the "warning shot" had been fired. Now, she consistently does all poops and over 50% of pees in her potty.

My DD doesn't signal to me. I just know her rhythm. It doesn't feel like mommy-baby ESP. Sometimes, it boils down to giving her a pottytunity every hour or when I feel her squirmy for a #2.

Good luck and with continued effort you'll eventually have fewer misses!

[EdnaMarie]

Can I ever relate! It does slowly get easier, two steps forward, one step back, though... you're doing great. Our babies are still learning how their bodies work so of course there will be misses. Chin up!

[GradysMom]

Wow - I really needed to see this thread this morning. I've been so disheartned with ECing my ds. For me the frustration is couple with really unpleasant diaperings. He just squirms and screams.
After talking to a friend I am beginning to realized that he must be hating his diapers with snappi for a reason. (maybe a new thread question for another place)

Just wanted to chime in 'cause I can relate about the poo warning shot. That is the phase we are in. He really doesn't seem to have consistent signals. We've been at it for 6 weeks now and I'm working at getting more consistent.

Good to know I'm not the only one in that place mentally.

[tbone]

I haven't caught a single pee in 2 days. :

And yesterday when I tried to catch his poo, he started to go, so I rushed him to the bathroom and then he wouldn't relax and go. It was really frustrating, hope this is not TIA but I could see it in his booty he was just holding on to it.

I ordered the EC belt and I'm hoping it will be easier to take him to the potty without having to unfasten and redo.

Anyway, reading these EC threads always helps me through the not so EZ EC days.

[granolalight]

Originally Posted by tbone

Anyway, reading these EC threads always helps me through the not so EZ EC days.

Absolutely!!

[cmg]

Originally Posted by granolalight

cmg- what is your name? I always see your posts here!

Cindy - it's common in academics to use initials as logins. Back when there were so few of us with email accounts that we could get away with it!

On the pooping while nursing thing - we had our first poop while nursing in a long time on the plane yesterday - big time mess. Usually I notice her wriggling around and take her to poop (we use to have to alternate nursing and poop tries a couple times) but what with her fussing because of everything else... One thing that helped us establish a nurse-to-poop timing was having the potty right next to where I was sitting, and her on a pre-fold. (At the time I didn't have a belt, so I just kinda tried to hold it in place - belt is much safer.) That way I could do the poop check really quickly. After a couple weeks I got much better at timing when to pop her off, and now she's learned to wait as well, up to 5 minutes. (We did catch a second really big poo later in the flight this way - nothing like poop clean-up for motivation )

And yes, while learning how to get the timing right we had poop on me, on her, on the couch, on the floor, on my feet, on the diaper... but not on the boppy pillow! I think it's the only thing she missed...

[gillibean]

It's so nice to know that others are in the same boat. I've never had so much pee on me as I have in the past 4 months, well, except for when I was a baby. I just repeat to myself, "urine is sterile". Some days are great, others aren't.

I miss a lot of poops. The best was just last week when DD pooped on the taxes I was just finishing up. Fortunately, the prefold she was on got most of it.

Sometimes she'll fuss and I'm completely out to lunch. Then when she goes in her diaper, I'm like duh! However, we do have our good days so that sort of keeps us going.

[granolalight]

Originally Posted by gillibean

Sometimes she'll fuss and I'm completely out to lunch. Then when she goes in her diaper, I'm like duh! However, we do have our good days so that sort of keeps us going.