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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My goal at the end of last month was to catch more poops, as he was consistently pooping in his car seat or as soon as he wakes up from a nap! I am happy to report that we have made some gains in that area, but many of them are still ending up in his diaper. We spent two weeks in early-July at our family's lake cabin. I was hoping that this would be a good chance to focus on catching poops, especially since I knew we wouldn't be using the car much. I also had to switch from cloth to disposable diapers on the trip, as doing a ton of laundry out there is not possible. So, in addition to a supply of disposables, I took along a few large prefold diapers and a diaper belt, intending to use them for "naked time", and if he peed in them, it would be pretty simple to rinse or hand-wash them. Unexpectedly, every time I put Alek in a cloth prefold he would poop in it! p.s. washing poopy cloth in the sink is not fun.

There was one evening where he was being a bit fussy, so I stood him up on the couch beside me, as he likes to play with the blinds and look out the window. The moment I stood him up he did a huge poop in the prefold. Urgh! I suppose the fussiness was a sign, but how can you tell poop fussiness from teething, sleepiness, boredom or another kind of fussiness? 

In Alek's 6th month, something amazing happened. Ok wait, we're talking about a baby here... something amazing is always happening! But seriously people; Alek learned to sign. When he was 4 months old, I began teaching him the sign for potty. Usually when I was holding him on the tophat potty, I would cue him with the "pssss" noise that I use for pee, and then when he started to actually go, I would hold up my right fist and show him the ASL sign for potty, saying something like "pee-pee in the potty". Sometimes I would do the sign in other places while he was peeing but it was generally easiest on the little potty. About two weeks after introducing the sign for potty, I also introduced the sign for "milk" in a similar manner. While he was nursing I would say "milk" while showing him the sign. Sometimes I would ask, would you like some milk? Showing the sign when I said the word milk. On May 27th (I know the date, because we were celebrating my daughter's birthday party), I was in the kitchen preparing supper when I heard Alek begin to shout in the living room. His grandmother was holding him, so I let it continue for a little bit while I finished whatever I was doing. By that time, Alek was nearly frantic. I walked into the living room and he looked me right in the eyes and did something with his fist. I couldn't tell if it was intentional though, and no one else seemed to have noticed. I picked him up from his grandma's arms, sat down on the couch and opened my shirt to nurse, he latched on quickly and then held up his hand, looked at me and started making the sign for "milk". It was one of the most incredible things ever!  

A day or two after that impressive signing at my grandparents, all signing stopped. It was noticeable to me because Alek had gotten into the habit of signing "milk" at every opportunity. Tired? "milk"... Bored? "milk"... Upset? "milk"... you get the picture. So it was quite an abrupt change that there was no more signing at all. That's when I realized that his two front top teeth were coming in. Miraculously about a day after they popped through, the signing started-up as abruptly as it had ended! We had another 2 weeks or so of awesome communication and signing, then bam! About 3 days ago signing stopped and I see the next-to-middle bottom AND top teeth coming in.

Another big change this month has been introducing Alek to food. We are doing baby-led-weaning this time, so basically just sitting him at the table with us and letting him eat whatever we eat (so long as it is not dangerous or unhealthy for him, of course). He is not eating a ton, but is loving meal-times! And his poop has already started to change. Unfortunately we are in the peanut-butter poop phase and it keeps ending up in the diaper. Alek's favourite poop spot is still the car-seat, so this is something I would like to work on changing this month. I think now that school is over for the year and we no longer have to do the twice-daily kindergarten run, it should get much easier to catch poops.

Earlier in the month I gave night pottying a good try. I found it really tough and unpredictable, especially because Alek is very resistant to the potty when he wakes (and is crying!), so the only way to catch a pee is to nurse at the same time. If he is going to pee, it seems to come at the very second that he calms and begins to nurse. No time for adjustments! When I tried this with the top hat potty it was really awkward, I couldn't see well, and pee went everywhere :(  At this moment in time, I am content catching the last pee before bed (which we are having success with again!), and leaving it at that. He wakes quite often in the night and I am way too tired to be alert enough for pottying. Plus, he is nursing quite a bit at night, which means he pees A LOT too. My focus for now will be to reduce night-waking (thereby reducing night feeding), and then I will give night pottying another shot. A friend swears by the Baby Bjorn potty insert for night pottying, so I will have to give that a try!

One final development this month has been that when I potty him in the sink (in front of the bathroom mirror), Alek pees in spurts. Sometimes little pees come out three to eight times before he is done. He looks down at his penis and watches as each squirt comes out, and seems to be controlling them! If I give-up and take him away from the sink too early, he lets me know using the potty sign, and I return him to the sink to finish. 

Gear that we are using this month:
Still using the top hat potty at home and when out, its still seems a bit small but does the trick.
Pottying in nature is working great! Just pee on a tree :) This will be trickier now that I should start thinking about cleaning up after him if he poops.
The little green IKEA potty (pictured above). This is the perfect size for my chunky guy!
I'm using a small Peapod Mat as an on-the-go change pad and the larger sizes as waterproofing anywhere and everywhere! 
As a reference, the Go Diaper Free book is the best resource around for EC. ​
​For clothing I have been lazy and have not changed a thing.

Note: This post contains affiliate links. If you click on the links above and make a purchase, I will receive a small commission, at no extra cost to you. Thank you so much for your support. ​​

I do not think that the most frustrating thing was realizing that I had missed a pee and his diaper was wet, it was the consistent misses as I was removing his diaper, or less than 5 minutes after offering him the potty. For example,  at the beginning of the month Alek and I met up with some friends for coffee. He had nursed right before leaving the house, then went into the car seat and fell asleep there on the way to the café. I transferred him into the carrier upon arriving, and he slept for nearly an hour there. When he woke I waited several minutes before taking him to the bathroom. And when I opened his diaper it was dry – so I was confident that it was indeed “potty time”. The café had private washrooms, so I held him over the sink and cued him. I waited quite a while but no pee came, so I put his diaper back on. After I used the toilet, I thought I would try pottying him again (less than 2 minutes after the first try), but his diaper was already soaked. 
​

Many other times this month, I would take him to the sink or offer the tophat potty with no luck but then he would pee just a few minutes later. For about 3 weeks our unfortunate routine was the following: I would offer the potty (no pee/poop), then lay him down naked on a waterproof mat. He would very quickly roll on to his belly, and within minutes would be lying in a big wet spot of pee. Alternatively, I would offer the potty (no pee/poo), replace his diaper or training pants and then put him in his bouncy chair. Again, within a few minutes he would pee or very commonly, poop. Signals were pretty much non-existent. Often he would be in my lap or my arms and would pee (in training pants), the wetness being the only clue that it had happened.
 
It did occur to me during all this that I could possibly improve my catch-success by offering the potty once and then again 5 minutes later (if there was no pee yet), but this was often hard to do since I was typically making a meal or helping my older child with something and would miss the chance. Also, unless I knew that a pee was imminent, I did not want to get into the habit of over-offering, and possibly creating resistance to pottying (this is definitely a concern as children get older).  Another thing that I realized is that Alek’s timing is changing and he is also peeing less frequently than he used to - especially during this heat wave that we are having.

After quite a lot of observation, I am at a loss for discovering with any accuracy a certain timing for pees after eating and/or sleeping. Sometimes he pees almost immediately after the event, and other times needs ten minutes or more before he pees. In the morning, I have noticed that he pees quite frequently. In the evening, however, he pees much less often, and I can no longer catch a pee right before his nighttime sleep, which had been our habit for so many months. Because of these inconsistencies I am realizing that it is time for me to “get out of my head” and rely less on timing, hopefully becoming more in-tune with whatever subtle signals that Alek might be giving out.

For the last 5 weeks Alek and I were fortunate enough to be able to participate in an infant massage course from Pure Love Infant Massage. The course was excellent. I learned a lot and enjoyed the chance to spend some quiet, focused one-on-one time with Alek. In terms of EC, the course, and practicing at home too, helped me to hone-in on the more subtle and physical aspects of Alek's cues. For example, while practicing the tummy massage one afternoon, Alek became quite fussy, attempting to roll over while I was massaging him. Then I felt his tummy flex right before he began to pee! Because I usually massage him while he's naked, I am hyper-aware of any signals, and of course pottying a naked baby is super-easy! While in the past I have not enjoyed "passive" naked observation time so much, I think that more "active" observation, while massaging or bathing, or playing with him is very worthwhile and enjoyable.

As a more positive end to this month, we are getting back on track with EC! This past week we caught a lot more pees in the potty and I have discovered that Alek likes to pee outdoors. I think my catch rate is around 100% when I am squatting, holding him in the classic EC pose, over grass. At this point, even if he poops a little in the grass, I am just covering it up with some grass or leaves, or even dumping a bit of water on it - as his bowel movements are still liquid and completely water soluble. I have also introduced the American Sign Language sign for "Toilet", generally when we actually catch something (whether in the potty, grass, sink or wherever he is going) in the hopes that soon he will begin signing to let me know that it is potty-time. My hope is to introduce a few other signs next month as well.