EC or elimination communication is such a great thing and so much easier than people think it is…
I started with Colin when he was about 4 weeks old, and started with Khéna when he was born…
(Khéna 7 weeks)
With both we did it with diaper backup and didn’t do it at night because honestly I am a lazy parent at night and even I thought that it would be more work, but with Wilhelmina I wanted to do it completely and I am so happy that we are. It is so much easer than even I thought it was going to be!
(Wilhelmina 2 days old)
Wilhelmina is 2 weeks old today and things are going so well. Though I am not ready to go protection free just yet, I also don’t diaper completely. I found the happy medium between both by using a prefold diaper with a belt so that it is easy to take off and potty her, but if we have a miss I feel it right away and I am able to change her quickly. For large portions of the day and night she stays in the same prefold giving clear signs such as a cry or whimper or arching her back to let us know that she has to go. Then she has other periods that she pees every 5 min and though we always get a pee when we offer the potty, she has already has had one in the cloth also… but the great thing is that though she has short periods like that, she has never stayed wet for longer than a few minutes. I do wonder though that if we just went diaper-free completely during those moments (or at all times) if I would catch more of the pees that we seem to miss…
(Wilhelmina, today… 2 weeks old)
Poos are a different story… The first few days it was harder to catch her poos since she wasn’t signalling as much for them but once she caught on that they too were to go in the potty, she now signals very clearly and in more than a week and a half we have only had to clean up one small poo and even then, Simon brought her over the sink and she let go of the rest, clearly waiting for us to catch on to what she was trying to communicate. Even if it were just for poos, EC would be worth it.
What has surprised me the most though is doing it at nighttime.
In the past, we would have them in a diaper and if they woke up wet, Simon would bring them to the bathroom and offer the potty/sink and they would go but there were other times that we just changed the diaper and that was it. Somehow I thought that consistently ECing at night was more work than that, but it is so much less. We have a great routine going at the moment. Our nights start out with me laying in bed with her, she nurses and pees a bit more often in the late evening, so she nurses and pees and burps in a cycle for about an hour and then finally falls asleep. She then wakes up about 3 to 3 1/2 hours later and I just hear her move or do a little whimper and without getting up I just get the potty off my side table, lean it against me, take her pre-fold off and put her on it. She pees without really waking up, I put the pre-fold back on her because it is still dry, nurse her and fall asleep again… then the cycle begins again until the morning.
A funny thing that we found is that besides using the potty at night, she rather be over the sink, so that though I put her over the potty in the day she will sometimes hold it in and will clearly communicate that he needs to go but won’t let go until I bring her into the washroom over the sink. She really knows what she wants!
So besides the small period she has in the evening that she seems to pee every 5 minutes, she has a very predictable pattern of needing to go when she wakes up and when she is tired and wants to go to sleep. People that visit are surprised and in awe of how I am able to read her signals but after having done EC with two babies, I can’t imagine ignoring the signals anymore.
What I love about EC is not just the elimination part it is the communication part, like when she is hungry or tired, elimination is just another need that she has that she is able to communicate and I am able to respond to. It adds to our relationship, to our connection together. Even if there are misses, it isn’t a problem, it sometimes centres me to be more attentive if I am distracted at the moment, or we just move on…
I ECd Linnea part-time (meaning always in diapers but offered the potty) since birth and do the same with Xsenia. I love it. I find that it’s easy when they are infants, and gets a bit harder when they are around ten months old and want to explore all the time (no time to sit and pee, too much to do!) But it’s still doable, and like you I like the communication part.
Wow. I’m dying to try this with number three in a few months 🙂
I love EC too! I am currently practicing it for the 3rd time with my 3rd baby!
And Wilhelmina is soooo gorgeous!
You make it sound so wonderful. And I’m certain it is. Wish I knew about it when my 4 were babies. My mom introduced the idea to me vaguely through a book by someone on Salt Spring Island, BC, who did it with her babies, but it sounded so foreign, so impossible, so out of this world that I didn’t even consider it. Reading this and other people’s accounts over the last year or so, it makes so much sense. In fact, not doing it seems to make no sense at all! Ah well, something I just have to mourn (and get over) not having the opportunity/nerve to try myself. I’m glad you get to! She’s looking absolutely charming in these photos, way to go, mama! 🙂
oh my goodness she is so cute and she is changing so much!!! (and the ECing is great too 😉 )
I found out about EC only recently and so wish I had known sooner. But I did try it and my much older baby manages beautifully now. The best part is that our relationship is stronger for it. Boo to conventional methods:)
Thanks for sharing.
Natalie
I’m on EC baby number 3. She’s my second to EC from birth. I’ve been much more laid back this time. My 2nd baby was completely diaperless pretty much all the time. This time around I went with, not diapers, but cotton-hemp fleece training pants as backup about half the time (I highly recommend the Fuzzy Fleece EC Undies at The EC Store). At 16 months, I catch all her nighttime pees. She sleeps diaperless and comfy in the bed and is well on her way to potty independence during the day.
Bea… I agree completely, at about 10 months both Colin and Khéna went through a tough period with EC and it kind of went to the side a bit, but both didn’t lose what they had learned and still went on the potty, just not as often and were out of diapers quite earlier than most.
Krista… I had the same reaction when I heard about it for the first time when Xavier was a baby… but when Colin was so unhappy every time he peed in his diaper I couldn’t not try it and I am so glad that I did…
Sara… thanks for the recommendation I will check those out!
Great post, and beautiful photos too! I loved EC’ing my babies and found the newborn stage the easiest in many ways. Now we are at the tricky 13-month-old stage but it is still so worth it…! 🙂
Hi – thanks for sharing your experiences with Wilhelmina – those pictures are adorable. I have been EC’ing my second since birth (she’s 7 months now) and find nighttime pees a breeze compared to daytime when she is distracted and often not signalling at all when she needs to go. But, like you say, I find it impossible to give up now that we have started.
Really inspiring! I leave my 11 month old nappy free a lot but we’re not having much luck with the potty! So lots of mainly puddles to clean up. Nevertheless I’m happy he’s happy to crawl around bare bottomed and wearing some stockings I made out of old tights. Bring on the warm weather! The potty’s out and he’s becoming accustomed to it.Even better when he can just water the garden like nature intended.
I’m interested in all the natural parenting ways and have been so inspired by becoming a mother I’ve been writing about my experiences in my wee blog.
Well done to all mums out there.
Fran