​If you have been following our journey for a couple of months, you will know that I have cleaned out A LOT of poopy training pants... the worst! Even the days when we had no misses for pee, we would always have a couple of poops in his underwear. But by the end of May, more and more poops were getting in the potty instead! He also started to really consolidate his poops so that he was only going once per day instead of 3+ times. One day, about a month ago, Alek was bare-bummed (no idea why, he's nearly always wearing underwear), but anyway I was busy doing something and when I walked past his potty in the living room, it was full of poop! He didn't even tell me. MAJOR proud-mama moment!

As for nighttime, again, its too good to be true! Alek has been dry at night for well over a month now. Even more incredibly, about 5 separate nights he called for me around 11pm so that I could take him to the toilet to pee! The first time it happened it was pretty funny. he was wearing a fitted diaper with no waterproof cover and he woke up, calling my name. I picked him up and began singing to him, pacing the room. He fell back asleep, so I laid him in the crib. He woke again a few minutes later, so I tried the same thing. A third time he woke, I sat down to rock him and he peed on me, straight through the diaper! But, since I felt it right away, I got his diaper off immediately, put a new one on, put on a sleep sac and started rocking him again... only to get peed on again! LOL. I knew I should have put him onto the potty after the first time! 

There are still a couple of accidents here and there, usually before bedtime when he is getting really tired, but 99% of the time he's dry and telling me when he needs to go.

Based on my previous potty-training journey with my daughter several years ago, I know that there are some challenges that come with completing it "early". Molars, sleep disturbances, nap dropping, growth spurts, and drinking tons of water from your new play teapot can all cause accidents here and there. So although I think I will end the monthly updates in this series here, I may post updates every so often as we continue working on independence since Alek doesn't have all the skills he needs to master it all on his own yet. Things like removing his own pants/underwear and dressing himself, wiping, and washing his hands - his mastering these elements will be key to his on-going success as he passes through the next stages of toddlerhood.

This was a big month for us as we finally gave up diapers for good! It wasn't always perfect, but it also wasn't potty training. (Spoiler alert: It was way better and more fun!!)

5 1/2 years ago when my daughter was 17 1/2 months old, I decided to stop using diapers. We used a non-coercive potty training method, and it took a couple of weeks. 5 days for her to make any progress at all, and another week or so of practice and a couple of big embarrassing public accidents (but I know better now... or do I?). Potty training wasn't awful, but it was difficult. And scary too, I can remember being totally freaked out about her going diaper-free at nap time. Not to mention leaving the house.

With my son we started EC months earlier than we did with my daughter, and I was a lot more consistent with it. Overall, it went much smoother and I am much better at giving him MORE independence as the months go on, even if we were still having a lot of misses, I always worked on giving him the opportunity to do it himself and reduced my use of diapers at home more and more for the last few months.

It went down like this... April 1st we took our first outing without a diaper back-up. Alek was wearing a cloth training pant (like padded underwear) with a Tiny Ups waterproof shell over, just in case. From that point I tried to use diapers less and less on outings, but would always reach for the Tiny Ups or Wool Pants over padded undies, just in case of a public accident, or one in his car seat. May 2nd we had our first accident-free day - well for pees anyway, since poop misses were a daily, if not twice daily incident! The day after that, I was feeling very brave and we travelled 30 minutes outside of the city to a farm for a family homesteading workshop. As usual, Alek fell asleep on the way there, and when we arrived he was groggy so I did not put him on the potty right away. It was also freezing cold when we arrived, so I started bundling everyone up, only to realize that he was still not wearing a diaper. By the time I tried to potty him, he was already wet and I perceived that in that cold there was just no way to continue with training pants that day. Pulling out a disposable diaper at that moment was one of the best decisions I have ever made!

After a very cold morning outside, we went indoors for lunch. I took him to the bathroom where he peed, and then we sat down to eat. At some point during the meal, Alek pooped but my friend and I who were sitting with him the entire time saw no sign of it and, despite being surrounded by people (or maybe because of it) he did not signal in any way. After we ate, I smelled something in his pants and took him to the bathroom. But what I found was THE MOST EPIC POOP EVER. I had not seen a poop of that size or consistency since he was much younger. It was very, very close to exploding up the back and out the leg cuffs. All I could think of was, thank goodness I switched to a diaper!!! Can you even imagine a poop like that in underwear?!?!

It is possible that he has a mild illness that day because honestly, that poop. But also, I have noticed that he almost never poops when we are out-and-about so it was very surprising. Overall though, he was rarely singling for pee or poop and yet, we were getting fewer and fewer accidents each day overall. 

Mother's day weekend, my sister invited us out to her in-laws cabin in the woods. Since things were going well, I decided to make it a diaper-free weekend, but used wool pants and the Tiny Ups just in case. The only diapers used all weekend were 1) At night-time  and 2) On the 1.5 hr. car rides. I was thankful for the car diapers because on both the trip there and back, Alek slept most of the time but woke, upset, with about 20 minutes to go before reaching our destination. Big pees in his diaper both times! The weekend was a huge success otherwise, I don't think there was an accident during the day otherwise. Yeah!!!

About a week before Alek turned 17 months, I realized that we had stopped using diapers at all (daytime). I was still using a waterproof/resistant back-up most of the time, but started relying on those less and less also. In addition, Alek started staying consistently dry in his diapers all night. Wet pants would still happen most days, but pretty much always at home, when I am more distracted. Things are getting better and better and I am excited to share out update next month!

Interested in learning more about EC and early-start potty training? Check-out these great books which are available in my shop.
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Alek is not signalling in general, though there have been a few times that he either indicated to me after he had pooped, or has nodded or shaken his head "no" when I have asked if he needed to go pee. Of course, asking IF a toddler needs to go to the bathroom is generally a no-no, but as long as he is truthful about it, we'll keep it up! ​He is very verbal - imitates almost anything, and can easily say pee and poop, but rarely, if ever, uses them to let us know he needs to go. He has use the sign for potty a couple of times this month.

I have really noticed that Alek is keeping dry when we are out-and-about. Its been about 3 weeks since I have started making a consistent effort to use non diaper back-ups outside of the house and accidents are rare! This is partly due to the fact that I am more conscious of each pottytunity and keeping track of timing, since its quite inconvenient to have an accident at a store or on a walk, than it is in my warm livingroom with all the potty and changes of undies and clothes right there. But I think the main difference is that Alek is SO HAPPY to be out in the world and he rarely puts up a fuss at potty-time. At home its often the pants full of pee (and oftentimes poop!) 2 minutes after getting off the potty. I cannot even tell you how many times I have missed a pee or just given a pottytunity and he sat there quite happily but didn't do anything, and then under 2 minutes later a big poop in his undies. On that note, he still poops 2-3 times per day, and while I am confident that we are catching more poops in the potty than we were 2 months ago, its still disappointing how many I have to clean out of his undies or training pants :(  Stealthy this kid is, I tell you.

Around the middle of March I had again tried night-time pottying, but he wants nothing to do with it. Thankfully towards the end of March Alek started staying dry all night most nights, which was surprising because the month before he had been wet almost every night. Unfortunately towards the end of April Alek started resisting the final pee before he goes to sleep at night, so wet diapers have become more common. 


​We still have a ways to go, but the nearly accident-free days are happening more and more often. The only down-side is that sometimes peed-in undies or diapers are being left for more and more days! Definitely need to look at my washing routine as we have fewer and fewer misses. Its a good problem to have!

How is EC or potty training going for you? Any funny moments to share?

One thing that I am coming to terms with this month is that we are reaching a bit of a critical age for EC. 15 months is when my daughter started her potty pause (read: complete refusal to sit on a potty or pee in any place but a diaper), until we did a full potty-training experience at 17.5 months. So I don't want to mess this up!

A change that I made towards the end of this month is to have Alek in training pants, or occasionally a prefold/diaper belt, almost all of the time when he is at home. I am happy with this change, and yet it is frustrating because 90% of poops and probably 75% of pees (depending on the day, of course) end up in his trainers. WHY is that happening? Mostly, it is on me. Lately I have been feeling tired, burnt-out, stretched too thin. And not because of EC. EC is easy, simple, fun. But between waking up around 5am each morning with Alek (still not sleeping ttn either), homeschooling my daughter, managing our home and trying to keep up with my goals and commitments for this business (oh yeah, and my husband has been doing over time for about 2 months on top of it all), I have become forgetful, distracted.... Something has got to give! 

As an example, this morning I was trying to do some last minute advertising for my upcoming potty-training class. My daughter alerted me that Alek was playing with a pen, and since I didn't want him crying, instead of taking it away, I gave him a piece of paper. I was so focused on my work that it was about about 10 minutes later that I realized I had completely forgotten all about the pen. And then I saw his drawings all over the couch...

​Another big change from last month is nighttime. Last month Alek was holding his pee almost all night, and this month he is wet most of the time by 10pm. Some nights I have even changed him into a dry diaper at that point, and he is soaked again in the morning. What gives? 

As I mentioned earlier, I have been missing probably 90% of his poops, which is admittedly a little shameful since he almost always poops around 20 minutes after breakfast, so if I were paying more attention I should catch that one no problem. But he generally poops 2-5 times per day, and the other times are anyone's guess! I do wonder if Alek has more control over where and when he poops than he lets on. He definitely never lets me know when he's going to poop, and yet I cannot remember the last time he pooped in his diaper in a public place. As an example of his stealthiness, the other day at home I was determined to get the after-breakfast poop, so I put him on the potty right after breakfast but he didn't poop on the little potty. Awhile later I tried again, but this time using the classic EC hold over the sink so that I could help him into a really deep squat. He did not poop, and, as it was easy to see in the bathroom mirror, I did not see his sphincter move or anything to indicate that he was trying to push. Since I was pretty sure it was going to come shortly, I decided to leave Alek naked on the bottom and try to be really mindful of him. Less than 5 minutes later I was speaking to my daughter in the kitchen, and Alek walked up to her to try to hand her something, when 2 big logs fell out of his bum! No squatting, no face, nothing but the sound of a plop on the floor. 

A friend of mine was saying a couple weeks ago that people would always tell her that if life was getting tough and stressful, EC should be the first thing to throw out the window. She disagreed and replied (I'm paraphrasing here) that it would be unimaginable, she would not give up ECing her child for convenience, just as she would not give up feeding or clothing them. I had to think about this for a bit, because for me EC is a priority, yet on a daily basis it is the thing I end up dropping. Sometimes just because I am lazy and tired, but mostly because I am so preoccupied working, cooking, planning etc... It is unconscious, I finally remember to prompt him to potty but alas, he is already wet. Again. And oh great, there is a poop in his training pants too. 

So, I need to make some changes. Because I DO value EC. I believe in it, and I know that it works. I have had the times where he and I are in sync and 90% of everything goes into the potty and it is wonderful. Most of the time now when we do catch a pee, he proudly picks up the potty insert, walks it (pee splashing around in there) to the bathroom and dumps it into the toilet. And he has only just turned 14 months. It is incredible! So, I need to do better. To be honest, Alek does not seem bothered most of the time by wet pants or even poop in his undies. Yet there are moments, perhaps only a couple per week, where he has signalled to me somehow and we have caught his elimination in the potty (otherwise, we go by timing). I know that EC is not a race, and I am not aiming to have him 100% potty trained or anything, but I do think that I own him the opportunity to stay dry. The opportunity for him to start caring more because he is more accustomed to peeing/pooping in the potty than in his pants.

So, here we go. month 14-15 is upon us. Can I make it right? 

​How is EC going for you? I would love to hear about your experiences, Please leave a comment below! If you are just EC-curious, read more with the Go Diaper Free book or Andrea Olson's wonderful online master mini-courses. The Disana knit wool leggings above are from Warmth and Weather.

What a difference a month makes! Our little man, Alek, is over a year now and it seems like his development is in overdrive! Suddenly he is imitating words and sounds, sometimes attempting to mount the potty himself, and even having a dry diaper at night-time. What?!?! My EC notebook is chock-full this month, I have so much to report! Also... I finally got around to taking some cute photos of the little guy in some of our back-ups for comparison, so I hope you will enjoy those as well :)

The first week of January was pretty rough. We had a lot of misses, as well as resistance to using the potty, or peeing anywhere for that matter! Our schedule was off after the holidays, and those last two top teeth were still cutting through. But I also suspect that Alek was experimenting as bit as well. It seemed as though he would only pee a little when prompted, and then wait for his diaper or trainers or whatever and promptly finish in there. Poop misses were happening nearly daily as well. Oftentimes I would see a signal (grunting and squatting all alone, typically) - would get him on the potty but he would not poop until his diaper was back on. Or, in a couple of instances, until I left the room and he squatted on the floor. Doh! I have definitely been catching more poops in the potty since that week, but need to remind myself to try pottying him in the "classic EC hold" over the sink or potty when he doesn't "go" after such a clear signal.

About 2 weeks ago, I had a pretty frustrating and hilarious experience that I hope you will enjoy... Alek still usually naps twice per day, once around 10am and again around 3pm. However, on this day he absolutely refused to go down for his morning nap. So, around 11am he was getting pretty loopy. Happy, but loopy. His diaper was dry when I prompted him to use the potty, but he refused to sit on the potty. I had some time to do naked observation, so I left his diaper off after that while he was playing. About 10 mins after the potty attempt, Alek walked over near the front door, squatted down and started to pee on the floor. I said "pee goes in the potty, Alek", and transported him back over to the floor potty. Again, he would not sit on the potty. So I let him walk away and followed him. He walked right back to the same place (thankfully on that black tile floor in these photos), squatted down, and started to pee again! I said "NO! Pee goes in the potty" and lifted him on to the potty a third time. Again, he wouldn't sit, so when he walked back over to the front entrance, I followed him with the potty and put the potty by the door. He started to squat and pee a little, I picked him up and put him on the potty, he stood up. Again. This time I held him in the "Classic EC hold", with my hands under his thighs and his back resting on my chest, over the floor potty so he could finally finish his pee. He did quite a big pee this time, so I thought he was done. Wrong!!

He then walked back into the living room, squatted down on the floor, and let out a little more pee, so I transported him back to the potty. This happened 2 or 3 more times before I finally got him to sit on the potty and look at some books with me. He peed again there.  As soon as he got off the potty, he squatted and a little more came out onto the floor. How does he have so much pee?!?! At that point, I put him in a prefold diaper with no cover. and the squatting business stopped for a bit. Hunh.

Amazingly this month he would sometimes respond "Yesh" when I asked him if he needed to go potty. And even more amazing, he would actually pee! There were also several times that he climbed onto the potty himself, but the challenge was getting the training pants off him while not discouraging him from trying to mount the potty. 

A note on gear... at this point I am loving using training pants with cotton pants over. They are super-easy to take-off together (leg warmers get in the way with training pants), and hold in 1 full pee fairly well, yet its easy to see and feel as soon as it has happened. What I am not loving is the occasional poop misses in the training pants. Ewwwww! Not fun to clean-up. The funniest poop miss this month though happened while Alek was wearing a diaper-belt and prefold (see photo above), somehow the poop completely bypassed the diaper and landed on the floor! I noticed a big brown blob on the floor and was super-confused since he was still completely covered by the diaper and the diaper was completely clean. What the heck. So beware, diaper belts have their drawbacks. On the other-hand, it is easier to clean poop off the floor then out of training pants... LOL

​I am leery of using the split pants with no back-up (see last photo on this post) since we are still having poop misses fairly frequently. Gotta keep my eyes on him in those pants! No matter which of these back-ups we choose though, as he is a new walker, I feel so good about giving him a lot of time NOT wearing a bulky diaper.

A couple of months ago I mentioned that I had partially night-weaned Alek and that he was gloriously sleeping longer stretches at night, in his own bed. Well, I take it all back. A few weeks after I posted that, I came down with the flu and at the same time, he started cutting 8 teeth all at once (oh yes, he has 16 teeth now). So, back into my bed he came and back to nursing through the night. DOH. Being sleep deprived once again, and dreading being up for long stretches in the night, Alek remains in our bed. So, I have been using this opportunity to finally do some night-time EC. It has been very interesting, and our experiments continue nightly! 

The first night I attempted to potty him was a great success. Alek's diaper was still dry at 3:30am when he woke. After he nursed, he continued to be fussy in the bed, kicking his legs and squirming, so I took off his diaper and carried him down the hall to the bathroom where I attempted to potty him in the sink. He was very fussy and resistant, but after a few moments, he did a huge pee and the went back to sleep very quickly and slept though until 6:30am (he usually wakes for the day at 5 or 5:30am so this was HUGE). 

The next night I tried the same routine and took him to the bathroom at 3:30am after he woke. Again he fussed a lot but finally peed. However on this night, it took over an hour for him to fall back asleep after peeing, and we were still up just after 5am. Urgh.

Overall, I noticed that if he did a big pee right before going to sleep for the night (which he typically does), then his diaper stays dry until some time after 4am. If he does not pee before bed, he will be wet much earlier. like 11pm. I tried pottying him earlier in the night, around 1:30am. He was very resistant to the Top Hat potty or the bathroom sink at that hour and will not pee! It also caused a couple of lengthy unhappy night wakings, so no more of that! 

One night I was jaded and too tired to potty him in the night. When he woke at 5am I noticed he was still dry, he had nursed already but wouldn't settle back to sleep and I didn't want to try the potty since I thought it would wake him up for the day. Instead, I prompted him to pee in his diaper saying "Its ok.... just go pee-pee in your diaper... psssssss". I was AMAZED when he actually stood up in bed, and held onto my husbands side while he squatted down and (I assume) peed in his diaper!. He then laid right back down and fell asleep for over an hour. I am still so shocked and amazed by that!

Another EC fail... one morning he woke a 5:30am or so with a dry diaper, and was fully awake for the day. I didn't turn on the lights, and tried pottying him in the Top Hat potty that I have been keeping on my nightstand. He was either peeing so much, or I had the potty at a bad angle, but it started pouring all over the floor and my feet as I as holding him over it. It was awful! Next time I will turn on the nightlight so I can see what is going on.

Overall it seems that if I can potty him around 3:30am it's the most successful time, but only if he either wakes fully or if I have already tried nursing but he is unsettled. Otherwise, I end up with an angry, awake kid in the bed who still wakes-up wet around 5am! If I do not potty him at all, he is often still dry in the morning, or has only peed one time, about an hour before wake-up. My hope is that he will be more willing to use the potty at night once he has a little more experience with that. Or, better yet, he just holds it until 6:30am most mornings. Fingers crossed.

Let me know how things are going or went for you! What are your favourite back-ups for EC? Did you find that pottying during the night helped or hindered your families sleep situation?

​Alek went from timidly walking to running in the last month. And climbing. He is so tall now that it seems nothing is out of reach. With walking has come a huge surge in his ability to communicate; he chatters all the time and gets better every day at telling us (with pointing and little noises) exactly what he wants. In terms of EC, there was a turning point about a week before his birthday. That Friday, I had a very busy day out of the house with both kids, including a trip to the doctor, a couple of car rides, a bus and LRT ride, lunch while out, shopping and a trip to the museum. The only miss was on the way to the doctor's office. Our success that day was unexpected and totally surprising! The next several days were more of the same, very busy days, even parties in the evening, and only a couple of wet diapers for the entire day. It felt like we were in a really good groove. He still wasn't signalling for the most part, (perhaps a lazy attempt at the potty sign a couple times), but he was certainly holding his pee, knowing that I would take him to the potty in due time. 

This month felt like a big deal to me for some reason. I think its because I know that some ECers transition out of diapers around this age, but we are SO not there. And I am ok with that! Especially with it being winter now. Thankfully its still pretty mild out there, but the second I have to layer pants with snowpants, wool booties with Stonz outer boots, pottying is just not going to happen once we're all dressed up! I'm actually quite sure that going forward I am going to use disposable diapers as a back-up when I know we'll be all layered-up so that Alek will stay comfortable in a dry-ish feeling diaper, plus I hope they will fit better under his snow pants! ​

We have had a lot of ups and downs this month as far as EC is concerned. While the month started out pretty successfully, by mid-November I was seeing a lot of wet diapers all day long! Alek started to refuse peeing on his (ex) favourite little green potty, and frequently refused to pee in the sink as well. In those cases it can be really difficult to know whether he really needed to pee but was refusing, or whether the timing was off. Whenever I strongly suspect that he needs to pee but is acting like he doesn't need to go, I change it up, trying a different environment, receptacle, position or cue. If he refuses the potty in the livingroom, I'll take him to the sink in the bathroom, if he still doesn't pee, I will try the bathtub or the toilet. I might try holding him over the toilet or sometimes with the toilet seat reducer (which I would LOVE for him to begin using more often!). For the last few days I have been catching most of the pees, and lots of success in the sink and toilet but zero on that little green potty!

I have to say that now at 10 months in, I am surprised that Alek still isn't signing for the potty! After a nearly miraculous start to our signing journey when he was only 5 months old, at 10 months he still doesn't purposefully sign for the potty. Nor does he show any other purposeful signs that I have seen 10 month olds exhibit, such as crawling to the potty or the bathroom, banging on the toilet lid etc... On the other hand, he loves to wave for "hi" and "bye" and even tries to say the words most of the time. The other signs I have been consistently trying to teach are "all done", "more" and "milk". He does not do any of these, although he has developed his own sign when he is reeeeeaaaalllyyyy hungry (he ululates using the back of his hand in front of his mouth and moving his fingers - its adorable). 

As for poops, I am having less success than I would like but at the same time I think I have been learning a lot, the biggest lesson being "never ignore the grunt!". As long as Alek is within earshot, he makes an unmistakable grunt right before or as he begins to poop. Its usually just one grunt and then its too late, so you have to be on alert! There were several times this month that I was too "in my brain" and as I heard the grunt I thought to myself "was that a grunt?" or I would look at him in the eye "are you pooping?" but decide that he couldn't possibly be (because he had already gone that morning or because it didn't look like he was etc...) but in actuality he was pooping every. single. time. What is most insane about poops though is that he is also exhibiting privacy behaviour much of the time, and sometimes retreats to a place where he can stand in a deep squat to poop. Under a dining chair, or the dining table are popular spots, as well as just retreating to the living room when the rest of the family is in the kitchen, etc... It does make it a little trickier to catch, but now that I have recognized the behaviour I will be acting on it!
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In my parenting life, I am the main ECer. My husband thinks it is totally amazing and is supportive of it, but he does not really participate in it unless directly asked. He is actually pretty horrible at remembering to change diapers at all and will often be holding a crying Alek "I don't know what's wrong!". I will change A's soaking diaper and SURPRISE he's happy again! Anyway... lately my husband does seem to have a 6th sense as far as poops are concerned and seems to catch more than I do! I think that this makes him feel quite proud, and it is lovely to see the way that poop (?!?!) can be a bonding experience between him and his son. 

Clothing-wise nothing has changed this month except that my diaper belt is missing!!! I have also switched from "infant" to "baby" size prefolds because the infant ones are in horrible condition after years of use. I now have only 12 baby size prefolds, 4 Flapawrap inserts and 5 fitted diapers (mostly used at night) and wash every 3 to 4 days. Oh! And for nighttime I finally got a wool cover. Its been WONDERFUL. I highly recommend it. I went from regularly resorting to disposables, being sick of nighttime leaks, to absolutely no issues whatsoever. He is wearing a size large Disana cover and it is perfect for nights.

Looking for EC or potty training gear or books? Please take a look at my store and let me know if I can help.

I think that the key to a successful EC relationship is not to stress. Sometimes I have days when I'm tired (no, he doesn't sleep though the night, LOL), cranky or stressed and don't put the effort in for EC. On those days, there are A LOT more misses. And I am ok with that! No matter what, I almost always offer before sleep times and at diaper changes, and it gets us through the day, even if I have to do diaper laundry a day earlier. ​

One thing that Andrea Olson talks about in her book, Go Diaper Free, is that no matter what you do, you should always be consistent. To me, this doesn't mean that you aim to maintain your 90% catch-rate, no matter the circumstance, but rather that you aim to do some EC every day, as much as you (and your child) want to. And always be consistent with your communication. So if you decide not to potty because you're tired or you are not in a good location or you're not comfortable at that time, then let your baby know. And change their diaper as soon as you are able. I look at EC in a longer time frame, like I look at feeding. Did your child end up eating mainly bread and pasta today, despite being offered some veggies. Don't fret! Consider what he ate all week and you'll see that on a whole, his diet is more well-rounded than you thought. In terms of EC, maybe you missed two poops today and had a whole whack of wet diapers, oh well.... consider the whole last week. And in either case, if you are not happy with the outcome, consider how you can do better next week. 

I would say that for most of this past month I was extremely happy with how EC was going, and soiled diapers (poop) seemed like a distant memory. Until one day, when Alek stealthily pooped in his diaper. And the next day when I had two half-misses for poop, and the next when he pooped in the car. And the next when he pooped right on the floor since he had a bare bum. What the heck! Looking at our 9 months of EC so far, there have been many ups and downs and I am trusting that this is another one. ​

A big change this month has been the weather! The end of August turned cool and grey and the sky and air was filled with smoke most days. Following that, early frosts and a few snow storms. Say it ain't so! This has gotten me thinking about the changes that I am going to need to make to keep EC going all winter. Last winter, I dressed Alek in leg-warmers most days, they stayed up fine and were as long as his entire legs. This year however, I can rarely keep them over his knees as his constant climbing and crawling causes them to slouch. Instead, I purchased myself a pair of split-pants and gave them a go. I always assumed that these would only work over a bare bum, but then I tried pairing them with a Flaparap and the combo worked surprisingly well! With the Flaparap on, the pant fabric stays open and the diaper shows. With a naked bum, the split-pants were designed with overlapping flaps to be a little discreet. It works OK, but maybe not when company is around because as soon as your child squats or sits, they expose everything! The nice part though, is that if you are using these pants during naked time at home and you have a miss, the pants tend to stay dry because of the way they open. I think that the combination of split-pants and Flaparap is going to be a favourite this fall and winter. ​

Finally, I did a little experiment this month since I have been really curious about the amount that babies pee and couldn't find this information anywhere. I wish I had started collecting it sooner though, because it would be cool to compare. If you want to start measuring your babies output, please post the results in the comments or send me an e-mail! Anyhow, I very unscientifically started measuring how much pee I would catch in the potty. Very surprisingly, the amount of pee was consistently 1 3/4 Oz. to 2 Oz - I measured 8 different times, sometimes before a nap sometimes right after, and any time of day. The largest pee I caught (and the only one over 2 Oz) was after a morning nap where he peed 3 Oz into the potty! 

Here's hoping that we have at least one more month before all our EC babies will be wearing snow suits and pottying becomes a whole lot more complicated.

This month's progress has been super-interesting to me, because I began doing EC with my daughter when she was this age.  The contrast between starting at 7 months with her and starting at 4 days old with my son has been huge. For my son, this month brought about an increased ability to hold-in urine and to release it at will. Signalling by signing is quite rare, however we are still managing to catch a lot of pee and I am finding that I can go up to 4 days between washes of my cloth diapers (not sure how good that is for the diapers though?!?!). In contrast, starting at 7 months with my daughter I found naked observation time a real trial as she would sometimes pee every 10 to 15 minutes, especially in the morning. I never did find any signals or timing that made sense and she never caught on to the ASL sign for potty. Eventually we did have a successful EC experience, but no where near the catch-rate I am achieving with my son.

After last month's poop roller-coaster, this month has brought about new changes and we are catching almost all the poops now. His bowel movements are now about every two days and since they are much thicker now, it is very obvious when he needs to "go". All of the classic signs are there, the grunting, a serious or red face etc... And catches in the toilet have been a dream; little to no clean-up! We were doing so well in fact that one day Alek began to grunt in the car. I knew right-away that it was a poop, but I hoped it wasn't! I considered pulling the car over, but with two car seats in the back and a trunk full of groceries and a stroller, I was worried about the logistics of it all. So I continued on. Well... upon arriving home, I was met with a stinky, sticky mess in his diaper which is especially bad in cloth when you have to scrape it all off and rinse (for the record all poop in disposables is supposed to be dumped into the toilet too).
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I cannot imagine NOT trying to catch all the poops in the potty.... EC makes my life sooooooo much better. 

Two weekends ago the four of us attended Folk Fest and I brought my top hat potty (the Tiny Baby Potty) along. I chose to use disposable diapers at the event, just to minimize what I needed to lug around, and to keep the little guy comfortable and dry-feeling in case I could not change diapers as often as usual. My plan was to pour any pee into my wet-bag, lined with a cloth or a used disposable diaper inside to absorb the wetness. It would have worked well... we tried, but we didn't catch any pees while out and about that day :(

For anyone reading this blog post who is interested in doing EC but has not started yet, just go for it! You have nothing to lose. As long as you always approach pottying with love and respect for your baby, you cannot go wrong. And if you are looking for help or support, check out the Go Diaper Free of Edmonton group on Facebook! 
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So... what are we wearing for EC this month? At home I am loving being "diaper-free" more and more. That doesn't mean naked, most of the time it means having Alek in a diaper without a cover. Easy to change, easy to potty and easy to see/feel when he is wet. The diaper belt/prefold is becoming a favourite for its ease but we seem to have the most success at staying dry in the fitted cloth diapers for some reason.
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​The photo on the left shows my super-mobile 7-month old climbing the stairs in his wool Flaparap. Up until now I did not like the way these EC diapers fit, and found changing them to be a real challenge. At 7 months and over 20 lbs I do find them a bit better but for at-home use I still prefer the simpler (and much cheaper) diaper-belt solution. Part of the challenge of these is the way that you install the pad, you kind of scoop it in from behind - which is ideal for a crawling baby, but not so simple on a non-mobile back-laying baby. I do think that Flaparaps will come in handy for trips out of the house when Alek is wearing pants, since the cover is waterproof and yet really easy to open for pottytunities wherever you are. I'll have to give that a go soon!

Curious about EC and early potty learning? Check out these books and get started today!
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