Questions about Starting!

[vintagegyrl]

I am starting to EC my DS - he;s about 2 weeks old. He seems very colicky but now when he fusses I have been EC-ing him and he is very calm afterward!

I have done it partially with 2 of my other kiddos, but never stuck with it all the way. DD was probably the most trained by far and night trained around 12 months on her own. (she hated to be wet)

1. We have caught several pees this morning, and also been diaper less on mounds of pf's, etc. He was getting fussy and so I laid him down on his belly. Seemed comfy so I rubbed his back and he is off to dreamland! However during the night he was very fussy. i would potty him but it seemed to make him even more upset. Could this just be because he has not learned yet? Just need more time with this? I am not getting much sleep because for most of the night, aside from eating, he was grunting and moving around.

2. what do you do when going out?
If you are potting them as newborns every 20 mins. when awake how do you do things like church services, etc. How can I do this discreetly without carrying a bunch of supplies, etc. What does your baby wear? diaper/cover, etc.? clothing?? t-shirt? etc. We are doing wool/fleece & fitteds because of sensitive skin.

3. Do you wear your baby when out? I plan to use the moby wrap but just wondered. It is really hard to wear him around the house because many things I can't do with him strapped to me. LOL

side note:
I am doing this without any wool yet. I have made some tiny fleece soakers when I realized DS could not do PUL or disposables very well. I am sleep deprived and trying to manage my other 4 kiddos (possibly potty training the near 2-yo at the same time but might as well while we are doing our "down time" after the recent birth!

thanks so much!

[SeaChellsRun]

1. Are you burping him after feeds? Sounds like gas.

2. what do you do when going out?
We do a top/dress with wool bottoms.
-I keep a potty seat in the car and when I know it's time I walk out to car. DD learned to hold it until I got to vehicle.
-Give potty opp when you arrive.
-Sit on the toilet and hold your LO between your legs.

3. Do you wear your baby when out?
yes, always. Keep people from poking and taking her.

Night time I'm using a wool gown, makes night time changes easy and pottying too. You can make them from wool sweaters.

[vintagegyrl]

Yes, sometimes he burps 4-6 times after a feeding.. maybe I just need to aim for 6 or until he is calm!

[jessicah]

1. Could be tummy/gas. And some babies are grunters regardless what you do. Relax and dont loose sleep over pottying the baby. For a newborn, after nursing I take the diaper off after nursing and watch. When they get squirmy, I potty them. After they have pottied a few times, they usually fall back to sleep until the next feeding.

2. what do you do when going out? I stay home ALOT the first two months. I go to church on Sunday and hardly any other public outings the first 2 months. I do go to homes,though. EC is not a problem when visiting in someone elses home. But for outings, I generally focus on keeping baby fed,comfy and dry. I offer the potty when I can, but dont stress over it. It gets easier after the first few months.

3. Do you wear your baby when out?
Some babies I did and some I did not. (I had 8!) Usually, when using the carrier I can only comfortably carry a baby for a max. of 30 minutes. A young baby would usually sleep the whole time. If they wake up when taken out, I would probably offer the potty. An older baby who sits up while I am carrying would probably stay awake. But after 30 min or so my back would have enough so I would probably take baby out and potty anyway by then.

BTW, I like the kozy carrier (mei tei) for support but dont like tying those straps. Next I would try the ergo.

Also, my favorite was a pouch sling- all one piece of fabric that is sewn together. So cheap to make and simple to use. I hate rings,long ties/straps and long pieces of fabric like the moby. too much trouble for me.

[vintagegyrl]

It's working. He seems to like it. He seems to be learning already. He'll wait to pee or if he has peed he'll wait to do #2 until i remove the peed-in diaper. I am hoping this helps his tummy issues. Not sure if he has been holding back or just constipated or what, but 2 of my other babies were like this as well!

Jessicah did you homeschool your children while doing EC? We aren't doing much school ut I'm hoping to get on a bit of a schedule soon so that I can manage everyone with lunches & napping, etc. efficiently!

[vintagegyrl]

It's working. He seems to like it. He seems to be learning already. He'll wait to pee or if he has peed he'll wait to do #2 until i remove the peed-in diaper. I am hoping this helps his tummy issues. Not sure if he has been holding back or just constipated or what, but 2 of my other babies were like this as well!

Jessicah did you homeschool your children while doing EC? We aren't doing much school ut I'm hoping to get on a bit of a schedule soon so that I can manage everyone with lunches & napping, etc. efficiently!

[jessicah]

Yes, I did and still do homeschool. My first baby I did EC with was our boy. He was our fifth child and at the time our oldest was 8. Very similar to your kiddos' ages. Somehow we did it and suceeded, b/c he was dry all night around 12 months and graduated from diapers to trainers right after his birthday.

Looking back, I think we spent a lot of time on the floor in the living room doing school work. I would sit on the floor with baby close by on a blanket, my lap or in a bouncy seat. I had a little mixing bowl that I kept close by for when I thought he needed to go. I kept him diaperless a lot to help me get the pottying done quicker and more effiently. But I kept a prefold or something under him in case of a miss. I would send my older two to the table for any writing/worksheets that they could do on their own. My little kids would bring the wet prefolds to the pail for me, fetch me a clean prefold or wipey if needed...and occasionally I trusted them to dump out the mixing bowl for me. When the baby was a little older instead of a mixing bowl, we had a bijorn potty in our living room not far from his toys. I pretty much did the same as when he was non mobile. We had hardwood floors so any misses while he was crawling around were pretty easy to clean up. If I was having one of "those" difficult days I would simply put a diaper on the baby and not worry about misses. I also usually kept him with a diaper when we were very busy, had company, or were out and about.
We also made good use of the littler one's naptimes for school work. I always trained my little ones to keep taking at least one daily nap until they are 5/6.


Make sure that right now, while your kids are all young, that you focus on having them learn to read fluently. Once they are fluent readers, their independent studying really can take off. This gives you more time to take care of the babies immediate needs.

[jessicah]

On a side note, I did potty train our 2 year old while we were doing EC with our fifth baby. She was pretty easy to train...after 3 very difficult big sisters. I really think having the baby use the potty made it easier for her to accept the potty as a good thing.