Real-Life EC: 7th Month

 7 months already! Where has the time gone? This month marked many milestones for us, Alek got 4 new teeth (8 altogether now!), he learned to crawl and to pull himself up on things. Suddenly things have gotten very busy in our household! 

Alek in his diaper belt and prefold combo.

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? 

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Alek on his big potty

With watching timing, I was able to catch a few poops about 20 minutes after waking in the morning, but then the timing changed again. I caught a few others on the grass outside. Because his poop is still pretty runny/creamy I just cleaned the grass off with a papertowel and poured some water on it. Speaking of grass, Alek LOVES to pee in the grass. If I potty him over the grass I will get a pee about 95% of the time. There were many, many instances this month that I suspected he needed to pee but he did not go in the potty or sink, so I took him outdoors and caught a pee in the grass! 
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Signalling by sign-language completely stopped this month. At first I thought it would return as soon as that 8th tooth came through, but he has only signed one time for "potty" since then. I have been noticing some other things, however. Like when he is not wearing a diaper he seems to crawl off the carpet and pee on the hardwood floor (thank-you Alek!). He also looks at you a second before he begins to pee. 

Overall month 6-7 has been full of changes. With eating more solids and teething, his BM's have been inconsistent and there has been a huge variety of consistency from really runny, to runny with chunks of food, to really creamy and difficult to wipe. In addition, I know that more tummy time and crawling can lead to more pee accidents because of all of the additional pressure on the bladder. New teeth, standing, an inconsistent summer schedule... there have been a fair share of misses for sure. But I am not too hard on myself. EC has always been fun for me, and although I try to catch as much as I can every day, I'm not overly serious about it, I just hope that overall we succeed at communication and over the months we are able to increase our success rate.  

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Alek is a really big boy for his age, and weighs more than 20lbs. This month his preferred potty spots have been the sink or over the grass, but I am finding it difficult to hold him in the classic EC pose for a long time. In addition, his creamier poops are difficult to clean from the cloth diaper before putting in the wash, and now must be cleaned from the sink too (exclusively breastfed poops can easily be washed down the sink). So I have tried to introduce the Baby Bjorn Potty Chair as his main potty in the livingroom, as well as an IKEA toilet seat reducer in the main bathroom. Although he sits on both of these very comfortably, he has refused to eliminate on either one. I have managed to catch a few pees in the bowl of the chair potty when placed between my legs like a Top Hat potty but that is all. The Top Hat potties on the other hand, are getting less comfortable to use as he gets larger and heavier. I am phasing out using the one I have at home, but will continue with it as a car/travel potty in my diaper-bag.
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Are you doing EC or interested in starting it with your baby or baby-to-be? It would be great if you wanted to comment below about how it is going, and be sure to join the Go Diaper Free of Edmonton Group on Facebook if you are in the area. If not, find a group in your area at http://godiaperfree.com/find-a-local-group/

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