It’s sometimes hard to find a balance between living life and offering the potty.  For me the thing that has always worked the best is timing.  Just getting to know about how often my baby goes potty.

This past week I picked a day and jotted down when Galen went to the bathroom so I could get a feel for how often I should be offering potty opportunities.

He’s not peeing nearly as often as he did when he was a tiny baby   And since he’s crawling (and cruising!) he’s not on his belly, which seemed to cause him to pee very frequently.

Now I’m able to offer him the potty with longer stretches in between and he stays dry.  I usually still offer based on timing, or if he goes for one of his potties.  Even if he seems to only want to play with it, I still put him on it!

The most frustrating thing for me thus far has been mealtimes.  Even if I offer right before a meal he always seems to wet his undies while he’s in his highchair.  I need to teach him not to do that! :p

I mentioned last month that I wasn’t sure how to deal with the cold, EC’ing, and an older baby.  Well this month I’ve got it a bit more figured out.  Galen has one pair of wool split pants.  These pants are great – I slip those on him and they keep his legs cozy warm.  Then I pull on a pair of undies/trainers over them and he’s covered.  The wool wicks any moisture if we have a miss, and I notice misses right away so there’s never much chance at them getting wet.  If you’ve ever used a wool diaper cover or longies you know how this works.  I think I’ll probably get at least one more pair so if I need wash and air dry one pair I’ll have a backup pair.

So that system is working well, and timing things is working well.

Galen also shows a classic Cassidy sign that he needs to poop.  Cassidy, my oldest child, was also my first elimination communication baby.  I could always tell when she needed to poop because she’d get very still and her eyes would get red-rimmed.  Galen does the exact same thing.  He’s also pretty vocal and “grunt-y.”  I miss a poop every once in awhile but not often.

We’re still using diapers at night right now, and some days I still have Galen in diapers, though I offer the potty.  I’d like to have him out of diapers, soon, though, so I’ve been making a big effort the past couple of weeks to keep him in undies and offer the potty a lot.  Hopefully once he starts toddling he’ll be able to learn to sit on the potty himself, too.  He’s already super coordinated so I don’t see it being much trouble for him

I began by laying a waterproof mat out on the bed, underneath where Galen and I sleep.  I put a light baby blanket over the mat because the mat’s material is kind of scratchy.  Then I put Galen in his little trainers.  I want him to have something on so our sheets don’t get wet

It’s just been recently that Galen has been sleeping without being swaddled.  I don’t think he sleeps as well at night without swaddling, but the weather is warm (most nights) and I just think it’s too warm for him to be swaddled.  I also felt it was too warm to be bundling him into a bulky diaper, which is what prompted going diaper free at night.

Most nights Galen will stay dry through the night.  I offer to potty him when we take him upstairs for the night (he sleeps downstairs near us until we go to bed).  Then he’ll often stay dry the rest of the night, but he pees almost immediately upon waking.  So if I don’t catch him quickly enough, he’ll wet.  Sometimes he wets in the night and I’ll just change him and our mat when that wakes me up.  I haven’t yet held him over the potty when that happens but I probably should, so he will come to understand that he can go potty at night too.

All-in-all it’s going well.  We’re using the same setup at naptime and he’s dry through naps

In other elimination communication news things are going very well.  Galen’s little “potty strike” appears to be over in that he’s pooping on the pot again.  He’s going several days between poops right now, though, which makes me a little nervous.  He’s working on getting solids in, nursing tons, and peeing a lot though, so I’m trying to assure myself that maybe he’s just using so many nutrients right now there’s not a lot coming out!

When I’m holding Galen I still catch almost all of his pees.  However, when he goes down on the floor I get a lot of misses.  I’ve noticed that putting Galen on his belly is generally the perfect way to get wet trainers!  If I put him on his back, he rolls to his belly and pees!  It’s a little frustrating but I really think it’s the pressure on his bladder.  He’s not crawling yet – just getting up on his knees and rocking.  I’m hoping when he actually gets crawling down and spends less time on his belly maybe he’ll wet less when he’s on the floor. If not, though, I don’t mind too much because I can easily change his little trainers.

He’s in trainers pretty exclusively at home now, and still diapered when we go out – though I have started taking walks with the children with Galen just in trainers.

All in all EC’ing is still going well, and still pleasing all around.  I feel more confident this month than I did last month.  It’s really an enjoyable thing to know that I’m helping Galen maintain awareness, and that I can cut down on our laundry and diaper use