5 Month Update

EC Update

* Age of EC tot: 5 months

* We started at...1.5 weeks, cueing from birth

* Generally speaking we are doing...very well. The ECing is becoming much more natural for me - I don't have to think about it so much to be miss-free (or close to it). I've gotten much better with poops since last month and rarely miss a poop now. He's only pooping twice a day now, which helps a lot!

* How do you know your baby has to go / when do you offer baby a wee?

timing: Just after waking up (poop-wise, he generally poops within an hour of waking in the morning and again within an hour of waking from his afternoon nap); he usually can pee about every 30 minutes in the morning and every hour or so in the afternoon if I try even without the signs below. I also pee him whenever I go pee (I sit him in front of me on the toilet) and after bath.

signs: Tightened tummy muscles; Completely calm - kind of looking into space; Legs shifting a bit (I only notice this when he's in the wrap); Squirming; Fussing; Crying (if we don't catch the other signs); Sometimes gas for poops; gumming the nipples when nursing; clearly not wanting to nurse when he's tired and would otherwise nurse to sleep - he'll kind of twist his head away from me. He has also started making verbal signals, but I don't know them well enough to verbalize yet. He's also started saying "mm mm" as he pees/poops sometimes.

* Is there a difference for poos and pees? For poops, we sometimes get gas and he is often very calm and stares into my eyes just before pooping. I can also feel the tightening of the tummy muscles more pre-poop. The gumming of the nipples is also more common and intense as a poop cue. And general unhappiness/fussiness when he needs to poop.

* What cues do you use?

I say psshhh for both pee and poop.

* Which positions/receptacles do you use?

Insert for Baby Bjorn potty (with my hand in front to help catch the pee); sitting on the Baby Bjorn insert on the regular toilet with me holding him under his arms and squatting in front of him; sink or tub (with hand in front). For out of the house: holding over a toilet with hand over penis, peeing into a prefold or disposable; the great outdoors!

* Nappies, training pants or other?

During the day: Poquito Pants, Little Beetle training pants, Gerber or Under the Nile training pants or diaper-free.
Night: Motherease diaper without cover or naked. I keep him naked some at night when I'm too lazy to put a diaper on him, but if I miss, it's a bummer b/c he doesn't really stay on his lambskin blanket anymore.

* What are you doing away from home?

Training pants - Poquito Pants or Little Beetle. I only use diapers when out if I'll be embarrassed to offer him a potty (like when looking at apartments recently)

* What are you doing at night?

Gerber or UTN training undies or naked (I use the undies because they're easiest to slip on/off). Now I'm using the lambskin blanket and don't bother with the prefolds usually anymore, since he moves around so much. Elie wakes up a bit and shifts around when he needs to pee and/or nurse, which generally wakes me up. I keep the BB insert in the corner of the bed and then dump the pee into a bowl on the floor when I'm done. Sometimes Elie actually pees without nursing - I put him down when I dump the potty and he either falls immediately back to sleep or he keeps squirming if he wants to nurse. I seem to have some miss-free nights or maybe one miss and other nights with all misses based on how tired I am, I presume.

* Who takes baby to the toilet?

Mostly me. Jeremy does it some.

* Catches or Misses - how many and what times are especially interesting?

The poop catches are going really smoothly. Seems like if I give him enough time on the potty soon after waking in the morning and again after nap, he'll poop.

* What's your next EC goal?

Want to improve my out-of-home ECing. I find it particularly hard to get back on track once I have a miss, since a miss is never a full emptying of the bladder, so there's another pee coming 5-10 mins later and usually another 5-10 mins after that, which is really hard to manage when I'm out and about.

* A tip for this age/stage?

Diaper-free or training pants instead of diapers helps to tune in.