ECing is great! 7 months, 1 week, 5 days

Cole's had his little potty for about a month and a half now, and I've got to say, while he really seems to like being able to go on the potty instead of in his dipe, I LOVE it! OK, it's an extra step. Instead of remove dipe, spray and wipe, put new dipe on, we take dipe off, sit on potty, wipe (if needed), put new dipe on, or same dipe if it's still dry!

And the spray and wipe part is SO much easier. Yes you have to dump and wipe out the potty - but it doesn't wiggle nearly as much as a baby! Cleaning up after poop is especially easier - it doesn't get all over baby's bum!

Yes, there are misses, but more often the dipe is dry or just barely damp, which is pretty awesome. When we first started, Cole started waking more often at night, and I quickly realized that he woke because he needed to pee! Once we figured that out, I decided to start pottying at night, too, and now he goes most nights completely dry. At first he was waking ever 2 hours or so (OUCH!), but now he's back to sleeping well - he sleeps from about 8-3, and wakes up to pee and eat, goes back to sleep until about 6:30, pees, and we're up for the day! Since he hasn't gone 7 hours straight since he was about 3 months old, this is pretty awesome for us :) I'm already looking for tiny undies, which are really hard to find in the US unfortunately. I may just make my own, with a little extra absorbency just in case.. :)

In case you've gotten this far and you're still wondering WTF is "ECing?!" - elimination communication. Basically, just like you know the cries when he's hungry, or tired, you listen and pay attention to the cries that tell you he needs to pee, too. It's best to use cloth diapers so that baby can feel when he's wet so he doesn't lose that recognition (and since you have dry dipes, you can put a dipe back on instead of trashing a dry disposable!).. Babies don't want to pee or poop in their diapers naturally, they actually are born wanting to stay dry and clean. By putting diapers on them and only changing them once they've wet or dirtied themselves, we teach them that the place they should go is in the diaper. So instead of "diaper-training", we're teaching Cole that he can go in the potty. By doing this now, we won't have to actually "potty-train". Ever. Now I listen, and undress him, and hold him on the potty, but when he gets bigger he'll be able to do this, and he won't be resistant to the potty, as many "diaper-trained" babies are!