Those Magical First Catches!

In the morning I wake up to a hungry squirming baby. I get up and reach for the potty which is next to the bed for convenience. I pull off her nappy to discover she has had a wee while I was still asleep, but see if she has more to do. I hold her thighs in my hands, her back and head leaning back against my chest and stomach as I sit on our bed. Nothing. She's finished her morning wee already and she is not happy about being held like this while she's hungry for booba!

We lie back down together and she feasts on me as we both drift back to sleep. Later in the morning I wake again to exactly the same situation, try again with the exact same outcome. This time we decide to start our day and get up out of bed.

Again we leave her nappy free for most of the day. When she naps in her hug-a-bub and ergo with her mum and dad we put a nappy on her.

After her nap in the ergo with her Dad I hold her over the potty again. Her nappy is dry so I'm confident she needs to wee, but I'm worried that she's stressed out by this new strange practice, she's certainly not keen on being held in the EC position. As I hold her I'm saying "Wee sssss", and to my surprise I hear drops hitting the bottom of the potty! Our first catch! It is thrilling!

Having made a catch I become more enthusiastic about the process, this ECing is fun! She then went back to a feed and a little while later I noticed a small orange stain on the towel beneath her - the famed colour of breastfed baby poo, I guess it came out with a silent fart? Anyway, I held her over the potty again, and this time I say "pooze" and make a fart sound with my lips and tounge, more commonly known as "blowing a raspberry" two or three times. And BANG! The big poo comes and I catch it!

I have a few more misses and realise that my reaction to her misses is detrimental to the process. I have a mini panic about the mess and usually say something stressful like "Oh! Oh! Oh!" It's just healthy baby poo and wee! Their wee is basically water! I don't want her associating her non-nappy elimination as something that causes drama. I challenge myself to chill out about the misses.

From now on if I notice her starting to wee or poo and the potty is not near I let her do it where she is and I calmly make "ssss" sounds or blow raspberries as she releases. I make sure to make eye contact with her as she does it and to smile.

Later in the day she has a sleep in the hug-a-bub on me, and after a couple of hours she starts to get restless, so I take her out of the wrap and she wakes. I offer her the potty but she is not interested, she is in the process of waking up and she's HUNGRY! I realise I've got to get my priorities straight. When she wakes up and makes those desperate hungry cries I should feed her rather than trying to get her to wee first.

She latches onto my breast and I put the potty between my legs beneath her. She has a fast and furious feed and then she starts to slow down, still attached, still all about the boob, but she has a poo. I had forgotten about poo, I'd been all about the "ssss" when I'd offered her the potty before. The potty is in perfect position and catches the poo while I'm still feeding her. This time her poo was just one spurt. When she comes off the boob I hold her over the potty again but she doesn't do anything.

Not long after that she's feeding again and she pees on me. I'm wondering about timing between poo and wee, and how I always wee when I go to the toilet for poo, is it similiar for her? Can I expect a wee not long after pooze? And what do I do if that is the case? It's too long between the poo and wee to keep holding her over the potty.

Later on we are lying in bed together and she's feeding. Sometimes she pulls off for no apparent reason, and until we started ECing I thought she was just struggling to attach or getting ready to vomit. She pulls off another time and when she's back on feeding she wees on the bed. This isn't unusual, most of the time when she pees on me without warning she is feeding, her Dad suggests it's because she is relaxed while feeding.

She has a sleep in the hug-a-bub on her Dad for an hour and then starts to squirm. I suggest he take her out of the wrap and try ECing for himself. He holds her over the potty and makes the wee sound, it feels like a long time that he is holding her over the potty and his legs are getting sore from squatting behind the potty on the floor, a feeling I know well by now. But she does end up weeing into the potty! Dad gets his first catch!

It's time for another feed. After the feed she lies in my arms and has a squirm and then she poos. I blow a few raspberries, lift her slightly so she doesn't get the poo on herself. I sense there's more to come so I keep doing this and sure enough she has another poo and she wees with it so I say "ssss" as well.

The night is young but we have had 5 catches and countless misses. But on the wise advice of the tribal baby website we are only counting the catches :)