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Maya - tell me about nappy free at night. What do you dress her in?
Im not frustrated, just inspired by you all and figure she did so well at getting the day stuff, that maybe i shoudl move to night time...
Its me that is holding her back i reckon, im pretty sure that she only wee's early in the am.
What do you do?
FWIW - I took a photo of her first poo in the potty!!! i think that she was 6mths! She learned to poo in the potty and hold on well before the wee's
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cos it's been warm, I either have her naked under a woven cotten blanket, or with a singlet. Last night was cooler and she was in a long sleeve bodysuit, without the bottom done up, cos I don't have much in the way of normal long tees! I keep it light or she sweats and wakes - we have her under our doona, unless it's warmish, then she has her own blanky to stay under.
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I've never done EC before but I'm considering it, for many reasons. Do you find that it's a lot of trouble? I know I'm lazing about on the internet right now but I feel so busy, constantly behind on housework and feeling I should be doing more etc. I don't know if I'd have the time for EC! I'd like to do it though.
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The only time it takes is the time to be attentive to your child and effort to keep them out of a wet or dirty nappy. The longer I do it, the less I understand how I rationalised keeping DS in wet nappies (no matter how absorbent) and letting him poo in his pants - the more I consider how awful it must feel to sit in your own waste until you don't care anymore (what happens with full-time nappying in babies after a while, and I'm convinced this has something to do with fussy and unsettled babies and babies that wake fussing after a 20-40 min sleep - just coincidence that this is the average length of deep sleep and humans feel the need to eliminate just after a deep sleep cycle when coming into lighter sleep??).
Anyhow, I consider it takes more time out of my day to tend to nappy washing or even nappy disposal (if you're doing the legal thing of taking the poo off the sposie instead of sending it to landfill) than to lovingly hold my baby over a receptacle and then rinse her bum. Because it's an extension of your relationship with the baby, once you start doing it, it doesn't feel like another task, it's just part of your interactions and to consider it taking time would be like considering giving your baby a cuddle taking time out of your day, IYKWIM. It just becomes the thing you do as part of parenting your baby. If all I do during the day is feed, play with and help DD do her wee and poo I feel I've done my work and everything else becomes a nice-to-have-got-done.
My sister said the same thing - she'd like to try it (and her DS was about 9 months old when my DD was starting EC) but she didn't think she'd have the time. I didn't give her a spiel, just said that once I started I never looked back and it doesn't feel like it's a time stealer - the hardest part is just starting when you haven't done it before, because in our culture it's a leap of faith...and I put it off!
I guess most times now I treat it like BFing - it's what we do and there are no options to put a nappy on at night to avoid overnight pottying. Eventually, she'll get through the night without either a BF or pottying. I can do either now without fully waking and we both just drop right off when I lay her down again. And I find night time pottying the easiest to keep on top of - no pressure to be doing something else like continuing a conversation, cooking dinner, putting out washing, gettign somewhere in the car (though I find lately that for shorter trips she waits till we stop to do a wee and on longer trips will fall asleep and wake giving us warning so that we can pull over safely and use an icecream container inside the car, give her a feed again, swish water in the container and fertilise the nature strip
Anyway, obviously people have great relationships with kids when they do nappying, and when my DS was out of nappies I decided that the only thing I'd change about my parenting with the next one was that I'd do EC, because I was really happy with the way I was instinctual in every other way the first time round
So, just give it a go and see what happens in yourself, your baby and with your time.
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Yes, what Mayaness said, EC is just another baby care task, and I think the first few weeks is the most time-stealing (kind of like BF is with a newborn... my DD fed every hour.. for an hour!)
I'm still struggling, I swear DD is pee shy and only pees when I'm not there, so I still can't learn her cues. If you just try it, after your first catch you will be addicted!!
It's so much cleaner and healthier and kinder to your baby!!
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Getting there - the other night DD went 5 hours without waking and without weeing, then a couple of nights of weeing twice overnight (which is also a feed-wake, so no biggie). She's letting go of wee's on cue and I'm positive now that she's holding on when she can see I'm making efforts to find her a wee spot, till I get her there. I can't help but feel that it's really helping out trust-bond - she trusts me to keep her from soiling herself, and gets upset in the car when I can't pull over for it, so I really try to notice these times and make the cueing sound so that she knows it's ok to do the wee in the nappy and she'll be dry as soon as I can manage to change her.
So far I've managed to keep her dry during funerals, train trips, long drives, short drives, family functions, shopping, nature walks...and counting
How's everyone else going?
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Like you, I wanted to do EC, but wasn't sure if DH and I would have the time and energy to commit to it fully. So we did part-time EC with DD, i.e. we used nappies, but watched for cues and put her on the potty since she was 1 month old. I found it really wothwhile, as even though we still used nappies, we very rarely had to change pooey ones, which made it so much easier.
At the moment (DD is 2 3/4), we still put her in a nappy at night (sometimes I'm not with it enough to make sure she uses the potty in the morning), and if we're going on a long trip, where there may not be readily available toilets. Otherwise she is pretty much toilet trained and in undies during the day. I think the part-time EC was very effective, so even if you don't think you can go fully nappy free from the start, every little bit helps IMHO. I would fully recommend giving it a go.
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Yess everyone should give it a go!!! It's so fun when you catch!
I'm at the stage where DD holds her poos just a little bit, coz she knows I'm about to whisk her on to potty, she gets so pleased when she's pood in it! Wees are just pure luck for us still. I can only get the ones during feeds coz she pops off the boob. Otherwise, she has no obvious cue and I just can't sit around watching her all day. I doubt I'll ever get to be nappy free, but just getting a few catches in every day just makes us both feel good.
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Hi girls! Your all going so wonderfully.....We are still ECing part time...have been catching poos lately, not many wees as I cant seem to work out his cue?
DS1 is nearly out of nappies fulltime and is asking to wee before bed which is a great sign!
Will try to stay updated as I am really tring to make this work and your posts are really encouraging
Hope you all had a nice break xxxx
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Great, Boomba!
We ran out of terry cloths (my 'home nappy'!) cos it's been too wet to put washing out...so we have been playing with nappy-free lots! The thing is that the timing sucks - I'm trying to pack a house to move out of by next week, so I get caught up with packing or keeping DS out of half-packed boxes/climbing on his sister/tearing plants out of the ground/demolishing the bananas etc and miss her wees a lot this week. My wrist has RSI again because of the walking around with DD and holding the chamber pot whilst chasing DS or watching what he's up to...makes packing hard!
Anyway, we had our first pooey nappy since January on Wednesday because I was so tired and out of it that I missed her fussing on the boob...don't miss pooey nappies at all!
Looking forward to being installed at MiL's between selling our house and building our shed-home (this is what we'll live in while we design and build on our farm), so that I can do fun things with DS and tune back into DD
We're still quite variable overnight - some nights it's one waking, most nights it's two and sometimes it's a waking every 2-3 hours, but at least out of these, only 2 will result in a wee.
Better get back to packing now that DD is asleep!
Have fun!
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Hi all, I'm jumping on the bandwagon!
I guess I am part time EC'ing at the moment, just catching what I manage to and using timing rather than cues at the moment... DD is just so brand new I am still trying to decipher her language.
I read about EC with DD1 but never got around to it, I guess it all felt too hard. This time I actually ordered a top hat potty on a whim while pregnant then forgot about it. It took longer than I had anticipated to arrive and then DD2 arrived a little earlier than expected. So, this friday, with DD2 about 10 days old I received the potty in the mail, popped her on it and sure enough - eureka! From then to now I only missed one poo and that was only because I went out today for the first time!! I can't believe how easy this has turned out to be so far and how innate and natural it is!! It seems to obvious now that we actually train our babies to eliminate in a nappy when they are naturally programmed to eliminate in comfort!
Mayaness, I think you hit the nail on the head with this:
So, nice to join the thread here - I am looking forward to the EC journey and sharing your journeys with you all!I didn't give her a spiel, just said that once I started I never looked back and it doesn't feel like it's a time stealer - the hardest part is just starting when you haven't done it before, because in our culture it's a leap of faith...and I put it off!
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Welcome!!
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Welcome Jackrose!
Thought some of you might want to know that Nurture Nappies has Ecapants on sale - they're the nappy/undies cross that flips open for potty time. I'm pondering getting some but she's in about three layers of clothes at the moment for the cold, so not sure if they would make much difference in getting to the potty on time! I'm just resigned to only catching poos in winter, I think
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Thanks for the heads up Jess, I hear you on the challenges of this cold weather! I'm with you, resigned to catching poos mainly!
Even though it has turned much colder and we have many layers of clothes on here, we have been doing well here. So far in 4 weeks I have only missed the one poo!Plus I am converting people - or should I say 'we' are converting people without even trying!
I have had a few visitors recently who have been blown away by the magic of EC, watching a squirmy babe in arms, fuss and fidget while being changed then visibly relax when placed on the potty! For some reason my DD always seems to have the urge for a motion when we have company, (I think she wants to be the poster girl for EC
Now if only she could inspire her 2 1/2 year old older sister the joys of avoiding the nappy
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Hi all. Subscribing as I'd like to start EC soon after bub is born.
Can I ask, how many nappies would you use while ECing? I don't know yet how successful we'll be but I am currently sourcing cloth nappies and it's doing my head in with all the different varieties. What do you think is the best start with a newborn? prefolds, fitteds, AIOs? We have 100 newborn disposables, but I'd rather avoid using them if we can. Should I wait until bub arrives before buying cloth? I was thinking of just getting some standard terry flats anyway, as they could be useful for so many purposes.
I've looked at the Ecapants and they look like a great idea.
How early did people start with EC? From the reading I've been doing, it doesn't seem like you can start too early, assuming everything else is going well.
Thanks
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hey, just subscribing again after the data loss.
Having great fun, i think i get more excited when dd goes on the toilet than she does.
I am trying this part time as I've just jated toilet training ds (3yo) he almost has wee down during the day, but poo will be a whole other matter.
EC going well, as soon as I sort my priorities out and get her to the toilet at the right time I think we'll be set. she seems to respond well to a cue, I just need to up the consistency so she starts to hold it!
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I wish I'd started EC as soon as DD was born; it seems that's the way to get the best results. I stared at 3months, and was catching a daily poo, then I stopped for some reason, and have started again in the last month (DD is 9mo now) and we really only catch one poo a week and never any wees. It's frustrating. I think she knows to try to poo when I put her on the potty, but I just never get her on there at the perfect time. She always wees as soon as I take her off, and tends to poo about 15mins after. She just doesn't seem to have a set time for these things.
I tend to waste so much time sittin around holding her on her potty, but I just want her to start pooing on it more often!
Definitely when it gets a bit warmer (and when she starts walking) I'm going to give her lots and lots of nappy free time.
Has anyone else started EC late with any success? I think I need some tips or just encouragement.
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Dammit, the two week post loss means my update was lost!
ECing still, but with uni and some other life stresses (sickness etc) using nappies as a back up at night. Going to bed at 2pm is not conducive to being very responsive overnight
Drove 3 hours yesterday to get to my parents' for a few days and got to the other end with a dry nappy
Starting to use the potty a bit more, still using the vintage chamber pot overnight, though, because it has a handle and fits neatly between my thighs for her to sit on, sleepily.
Mainly catching her poo once in the morning, for a poo-less rest of the day.
She's resisting me during the day for most wees and will ark up before relaxing to do it. It's like I've interrupted something very important! So, I hold her flexibly and firmly - not so that she's forced into a position, but so that she's still bent and supported.
I think starting at any time is good and it just feels frustrating because both of you are relearning
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