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6/10/05: I caught 2 pees so far today. I missed one and I shouldn't have. She has a certain way of breathing sometimes before peeing and I ignored it. Bad mommy. I was thinking at the time that she makes that noise sometimes before a pee, and instead of responding I just kept thinking about it.
I have her in a cloth diaper unpinned while she is awake and then I pin it when she is ready to go to sleep. I don't feel like having to fuss with a cover or plastic pants, so we are going without them. I think I will keep sposies for night and outings though.
Update: I caught a poo a couple hours after I wrote this. I decided pins are a pain so I am just snapping her onsie to hold the clothie on.
6/11/05: We have been ecing for 3 or 4 days now, and I caught 2 poos and one pee so far today. Since we are so new at this, I wonder should I cue with our ssss... when she is given a potty opportunity and then again when she eliminates?
Something neat. I was making a late lunch and baby was laying down and I thought, 'maybe I should pee the baby'. I took her to the kitchen sink and sss... she fussed, so I sat her up more and then she peed. about 5-10 minutes later I thought I should take baby to the potty and she pooed. Wow! I am amazed.
6/15/05: So far missing barely gets the onsie wet and it only gets wet on the front. The diaper is folded over in front and is pretty thick. It catches most of the pee (sometimes all) and if the onsie is damp it keeps the wetness away. I change if it gets soaked. I have caught all the poos up until this point. There is a bit of dribbling, but nothing messy so far.
I don't stress about it. If I have to change the baby's cothes, big deal, and if I had to bathe the baby, myself and a chair or couch, so what? I have done that with sposies and cloth diapers that had plastic pants. Beside it keeps me alert if I want to avoid a clean up.
Weeks 6-8: I was pretty busy and only eced at home. I caught at least once every day. Made sure to give plenty of potty opportunities. Dd peed at my sisters house. This is my first out of the home catch.
6/21/05: I guess I really have EC on the brain. I was shopping at Wal-mart the other day and I saw these mixing bowls. I thought to myself that they would be perfect for EC. The edges are flat, there is a small edge that extends that could be a little handle and there are four sizes. I doubt other shoppers were thinking the same thing as me when looking at those bowls. LOL.
6/28/05: I had thought originally I would do different cues. I have found that using one cue is more practical for us. I figured it just lets her know I am ready for her to let it go.
Week 9: Still trying to see patterns. I've been busy, but slowing down. Still catching daily. She does have a big poo and pee on mornings she wakes with a fairly dry pee in her diaper.
7/03/05: I have come across dd not wanting to potty upon waking sometimes. She will scream and arch her back. I usually just skip potty and feed her, then give her another potty opportunity after she eats. This has worked out well.
2 months old: I think I figured it out. Elena pees after eating on just one or both breasts. Then every 30 minutes. We had about 4 misses. I caught more than I missed. Cloth during day and sposies at night and when on errands. Signals: pops off breast, short cries. Signals not to potty: cries on potty with body straightening, legs straight, lots of movement.
7/11/05: I was taking off dd's diaper for a pee. I guess I was too slow and she peed before I got it off. I decided to go by the golden rules and give her a pottyunity. She tried to pee more and barely got a drop out. I guess we are communicating. Pretty cool. She is only 2 months old.
7/15/05: I have been following the golden rules more and have caught more and been offering less. Pretty cool. These rules were made by someone on my ec group.
GOLDEN POTTY RULES
1) Potty when sudden fussiness strikes
2) Always potty before leaving anywhere
3) Always potty upon arrival anywhere
4) Potty on waking up from sleep
5) Potty after an accident
6) Potty upon getting out of the bath
7) Peenie-weenie = time to potty (boys)
8) Always act on sudden random potty thoughts
7/18/05: I was pinning cloth diapers on dd while we are at home and I get sick of pinning and unpinning. So, I took a leap and we are going with absorbent training pants. So far since I put them on today we have had one miss and three catches. It is so much easier to get off and on. I do get wetter if I miss, but that is the fun of it all.
Something cool. I didn't change any diapers last night and dd woke up dry and then I peed her this morning upon this realization. Yippee! I noticed she is more likely to have only a small pee in her diaper in the morning.
7/30/05: I caught all the pees and 2 poos before I went to my moms. I switched to sposies.
7/31/05: I caught a pee at my moms house, but when she is in sposies I totally stop communicating with dd.
8/1/05: Caught everything since we got out of bed. Used training pants all day. Decided to take potty and undies to my mom�s. I only missed once. I was there for almost 5 hours. Yippee! Pees every half hour in morning. Every 45 afternoon. Every 45 to hour in the evening. Sometimes as long as 1 1/2 to 2 hours in the evening.
8/2/05: I missed only once.
8/3/05: I guess we are what you call diaper free during the day. I am only using training pants on Elena. We have missed once today.
8/4/05: I had no misses today.
8/5/05: I missed about 4 or 5 times today. One was a poo miss, but I took her to the potty as soon as I heard her start going. I decided to go ahead and see if she needed to go anymore. There was a very large plop of poo. I am so glad I let her go more. Earlier in the day I went shopping at Walmart with my sister. I gave Elena a pottytunity before we left, no pee/poo. I gave her another as soon as I got to Walmart, no pee/poo. I waited ten minutes and gave another, no pee/poo. I waited probably 5 minutes and was feeling stressed because she is in only training pants. I decided this wasn't good for either of us. I took her one more time and there was no elimination so I put on a sposie. I put her in the sling and tightened her up and she went to sleep. We were in Walmart like 2 hours. Elena woke when I put her in the car. I took my sister home and then went to get my kids from my mom's house where my neice was watching them. I nursed Elena on one breast and felt her diaper. It was still dry, so I took her to the bathroom sink and she peed. She truly amazes me. I think she waits for a chance to eliminate more and more often. She seems to hold her pee longer now that I am more diligent and using the training pants. She knows that I am not going to potty for only part of the day. She gets pottytunities from when she wakes in the morning until night. I love communicating with her her basic needs.
8/6/05: I took Elena to pee after a nap. My other 2 daughters followed me. Just as I was putting Elena into the potty position I was telling my 5 year old to be quite so she wouldn't distract the baby from peeing. Then she started to pee. I said, " She peed and I didn't signal her." My 9 year old says she said shhh. I guess the baby heard her loud and clear. LOL.
8/18/05: Kids are so smart! I took Elena to the sink to potty today and my 4 year old ds followed to watch. After she pooed, I said oh do you feel better now? She smiled. My ds said, "she is happy because you helped her." He is so smart. LOL!
8/24/05: Improvising. I was out shopping in a store that didn't have a bathroom yesterday. Dd started getting real fussy. She needed to go really bad. I finished my business and took her to the car. We sat in the passengers side of the car, and I pulled out a cloth diaper and folded it thickly. I sat her little bum on it, held her legs in potty position and cued her. She peed right away. Poor thing gave a sigh of relief. This baby is so amazing. I have been daring to go out in public in just training undies. She is 3 1/2 months now.
Elena is back to peeing normal, since being sick for 3 days. She had been peeing infrequently and I was baffled for a bit, until I remembered she had really bad stuffy nose. She peed on me while out at a scout meeting for my ten year old, yesterday. Finally, back to normal. We're doing really great since using training pants.
8/25/05: Elena and I have been ecing for 2 1/2 months now. She has been diaper free during the day for 25 days, and if I get to her right away in the morning she is dry more times than not. I have even been brave enough to take dd out in public and church in training pants for a couple weeks now. This is my first time using ec. I think we are so successful, because I don't worry about making a mess and I am pretty diligent about making sure she gets her pottytunities. She is pretty time-able and we have telepathy working for us too. Sometimes I feel like someone else, especially when I laugh at myself for getting peed on. It is always my own fault. I have only been pooed on twice and that was the first month we started. It has been the one of the best decisions I have ever made. I have gotten closer to her than any other child I have had. She makes me want to start all over or at least have a couple more. LOL!!
Elena pees 3 times every � hour before going back to sleep. If she doesn�t she will wake up wet and pee upon taking her to the potty. She either signals to poo or goes when I take her for a pee. Then she pees about 15 minutes later or when she cues me, whichever comes first.
8/26/05: I found that I totally tune out if dd is in a sposie. I do better with cloth, but found it annoyed me to pin and unpin, so we had more misses. I have been doing nothing but training pants for 26 days now. We are doing so much better. I was really much more able to figure out her schedule, cues, and we have very few misses nowadays. I guess it forced me to concentrate on dd if I didn't want to get peed on. Getting peed on is more of an inconvenience than something to freak out about in my home, thankfully. We have also enjoyed quite a few no-miss days. Yippee!!
8/28/05: Dd refuses to use potty insert for 3-4 days now. She only uses the sinks.
8/30/05: Dd is having a potty pause. She complains every time I potty her and then pees on my lap 5 minutes later. Even while nursing, which she never does. I am only catching pees once or twice a day. I am still catching all the poos. and sometimes the regular toilet. I am at a loss as to why this is coming about at the age of 4 months. From what I heard they usually come later.
8/31/05: Dd talks and coos at me in the mirror when taking her to potty, but no pees. She absolutely refuses. I have tried different potty places to no avail. Her timing is totally off. I am curious if it has to do with stuff going on with me and her. I am starting a business and I was concentrating on that, but I was still taking her to the potty. She was getting less attention though. She seems to be teething. Having a nursing spurt. Plus she is starting to learn how to make sounds.
9/1/05: Dd peed on me twice in a row while standing. The first time I had gotten a random potty thought and told myself I had five more minutes. Nope. I had just gotten use to her refusal that I didn�t want to keep taking her and get no results. I was afraid I was annoying her by taking her too much.
9/2/05: Dd peed on me twice so far today. It�s 4 pm. I caught a partial pee in the kitchen, a pee at my mom�s and 2 at home. I am lengthening her potty in between time to 35-40 minutes. It has worked once so far. Oh, and I just caught a poo. She started fussing a lot and passing stinky gas, so I took her to my bathroom. She pooed in the toilet. I hope this phase doesn't last too long. I guess we are back to learning cues and timing.
9/5/05: Elena is 4 months old today. I think we are getting back to her regular elimination patterns. She still isn't using the potty insert. I think it is too small for her. We are using the toilet every other time I take her to potty. This should help her to feel more comfortable using the potties when we are out. I hope. When she doesn't want to use the toilet I try her over the sink. Sometimes a change of place helps her to eliminate. It is funny to think someone so little has a preference for potties. It makes sense though. Babies prefer sleeping, eating and being rocked to sleep in different ways. Why not pottying too? They are smarter than we think.
2/3/06: Wow it has been a long time since I wrote about ec. We have been steadily doing as I have wrote before. We have good days and sidetracked days. I have taken on more responsibilities, which has contributed to the misses. I started putting a cloth diaper in her training pants, because I missed so often. I think I finally got my head on straight and I am getting better able to handle getting her to the potty and dealing with the added stress of running a simple after school care here at home. That is when most of the misses have occurred. At one point I thought we were in a potty strike just a couple weeks ago. I figured out that I was just too busy and she was realizing this also. I just had to get back on track and slow down.
We use the toilet mostly now. Her poos are a lot more solid; not so easily to rinse down the sink. We are starting solids now that she is nine months old. She has been snacking on cheerios and small amounts of food from my plate for the past month. She is so cute picking up green peas off my plate and greedily shoving them into her mouth. Unfortunately, the introduction of foods has made her poos more often and stinky. Oh, well. Such is life.