I'd say don't put too much pressure on her or yourself. I have found that having a pretty relaxed approach makes ECing much better. Sometimes it seems like such a slow, slow process with little success and then all of a sudden there are spurts of progress and in hindsight you can see that EC is really working. I also think each babe is different and each babe/mommy pair is different too. My DS is 21 mos old and we've seen huge progress in the last five months. He doesn't always tell us he has to go. I take him potty alot and he's just used to it. He'll still have misses and I just go "oh...where does potty go?? Show mamma where peepee/poop goes." ...and he'll show me to the potty. I change him right away, potty him even if he's just gone and move forward. It sounds like you are doing exactly what EC is.... you are in tune to your babe's patterns and are making attempts to move forward with EC. Keep in mind that from what I have experienced and from what I've read from many posters here at MDC that EC is alot of one step ahead and a few steps back. But usually you are always moving ahead even if it does seem very slow. Good luck to you guys. I'm sure you will see you've come along way once you look back.