I haven’t updated how EC’ing has been going in a couple of months because we’ve been so incredibly busy.
We took a road trip to visit family last month. I offered Galen the potty while we were on the road, though he didn’t use it much. We drove for about 2 days with stops every 2 hours so Galen was in a diaper between stops.
When we actually reached our destination (my parents’ house) I offered Galen to potty in the bathroom here and there but mostly I didn’t worry about it too much. We had so many places to go and so many people to visit the trip felt like a whirlwind. The drive down was much more peaceful than the actual “vacation” lol!
We picked up on potty time pretty much as soon as we got home. Galen was happy to get back to using the potty and we had success with both pees and pooping right away.
One issue we had was with the way Galen crawled. He used sort of a “commando” style crawl to scoot himself along the floor. Since his belly was flat on the floor I think the pressure on his bladder would cause him to pee. That was very frustrating to us because anytime we put him down, he’d go!
Now he’s moved on to a traditional baby crawl and he can sit himself up easily, so he spends much less time on his belly. He’s having far fewer instances of just pee’ing while he’s set down.
Last week I started homeschool lessons with Cassidy, Asher, and Brennan for our school year. I also started the year off with a bad cough and feeling like a train wreck! I decided to keep Galen in diapers while we got into the school schedule and I felt so bad. This week I’ve gone back to trainers and Galen has been doing really well.
I’d like to say that I’m one of those intuitive mamas who just knows when Galen needs to go. This tends to be true for when he needs to poop. But in general I’m still just going by timing with his pees. If it’s been awhile since he’s gone, I offer him the potty. If I’m going to be putting him down on the floor to play with a sibling, I offer the potty first. I offer the potty before and after naps and nighttime. For me just having a general sense of “its been awhile” is what guides me in offering him the potty.
I have greatly enjoyed the warm weather because I can keep Galen in a shirt with just trainers on. I don’t think I’m looking forward to it getting colder and having to go back to pants! We’ll probably use split pants again as we did in his early (cold!) months.
Nighttime has been somewhat of a step backwards. Galen has gotten to where he kicks and wants to be up a lot at night so we’re swaddling him again. That makes pottying harder so I’m using diapers again at night, rather than just the undies and the mat I had under him. Once we’ve gotten good sleeping re-established, and I have time to get some sleep and feel like actually have energy again, I think we’ll try the mat and undies. I really want to encourage Galen to potty at night (or stay dry at night) so I don’t end up with more bedwetting issues.
EC’ing always has its challenges but then, so do poopy diapers. So all in all even though I don’t feel a supermom with an intuition that senses every trickle, I’m very happy with how EC’ing Galen has gone thus far and I’m looking forward to continuing. Since I do use timing for most pees I expect that our set school year routine will help us have even more “successful catch” days – especially since Galen is now crawling and able to get himself into sitting position!
