Registered User
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.
Registered User
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.
Registered User
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!!
Registered User
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?
Registered User
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.
Registered User
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.
Registered User
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
Registered User
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!
Registered User
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!
Registered User
Welcome!!
Reply With Quote
Bookmarks