Elimination Communication With A 1 Year Old

I've been neglecting this blog because there really hasn't been much to report. We're plodding along, content with part-time ECing. We catch almost every poo, and the older she gets the more obvious her poo signals become. We catch all her wee's after she has had a sleep and most of the one's after she's had a feed. Her wee signaling never really returned after she learned to crawl, so we've stuck to the timing catches and little more.

Recently she has decided she prefers not to use the potty and prefers to be held, the way we used to do it when she was a wee baby (no pun intended lol). She really loves having a mirror in front of herself when she's ECing so that she can see our faces too. She finds it much easier to relax when we're smiling at her through a mirror, and also it provides enough distraction so she doesn't get bored. It is a bit of a struggle to kepe her sitting on the potty during her business when she is so on-the-go and interested in the world around her, she doesn't want to sit still when there is so much to do.

We've had a couple more milestone funny moments. Now that she can stand she has done a couple of standing up poos, one when we weren't ready lol. I also had the pleasure of stepping in a number 2 miss the other day, ewwwww.

We will continue with our part-time ECing until she eases into toilet use over the next couple of years. If we get back to our successful cue reading we had in the early days that will be great, but we really don't mind if things stay as they are.

The important thing to us is that the communication remains open and she still has some awareness of her elimination instincts, which has been consistent since she was a newborn. She is familiar with the sensation of eliminating on the potty and other forms of eliminating outside of her pants, so the toilet will never be a terribly new concept to her. Since we've achieved those two things we class ours as an EC success story.

(photo: Mum & Bub ECing shortly after Bub's 1st birthday party).

Offer The Potty

I need a self-reminder! So here goes:

• If she pulls off the breast but I know her to be hungry or tired and still wanting to suckle, offer the potty, not the other breast.

• If she tries to pull off her nappy, looks down at her nappy thoughtfully or is just generally playing with her nappy, offer her the potty.

• If we are lying down to feed and she gets onto her hands and knees and begins to sleepily crawl/stumble away offer the potty.

• If she is "winging" for "no reason" offer the potty.

• If she is suddenly gets herself onto her hands and knees (or hands and one knee), stops, and is silent/concentrating offer the potty QUICKLY!

I think we might be back in the EC game, I think her new post-becoming-mobile cues are becoming clear to me.

EC Temporarily Went To Poo

In the weeks since I last wrote here our ECing went awry, or "to poo", if you will. Our daughter got her first cold and she wasn't much up for communicating while she felt sick, understandably. So we resigned ourselves to full-time nappy reliance.

When she recovered she underwent some massive development and her signals changed. She found her voice and decided she'd prefer to use it when communicating her need to eliminate than her usual very clear body language. For a while there we were feeling back to square one with it all, missing round the clock.

Then once again I caught onto her new cues and realised that when she seems really frustrated, bordering on pissed-off (no pun intended) she is telling us her bladder or bowels are about to explode and please hold her over something to catch!

Those couple of weeks where we couldn't understand her cues were hard. Not so much because of the extra washing, but because we had been having such an easy and positive experience with EC until then. I took pride in being able to support my baby as she eliminated, and watching her soil herself had me feeling neglectful. More than that though, was the sadness I felt that I had somehow lost that great communication with her.

I told myself not to be so hard in my judgments, take it easy, everyone has bad days. Take it one poo or wee at a time LOL. The most important thing about communication is to keep the doors open, keep listening and watching and being open to picking up where we left off or learning something new. And thankfully after a couple of weeks of patiently watching and waiting for the pattern to re-emerge to me, it did.

We are back on track now! And now that our baby has found her voice, she likes to chatter away as she does her business :)

Tinkle

Today something rather cool happened. I was holding my baby in my hands around her little body when I felt a tinkling sensation vibrate from inside her out to my hands! I thought "hmm, I bet that's wee making it's way down." So I held her over her catching tub and eureka, I was right.

Understanding Her Language

We have had such good communication today! So far we've only missed one, which I knew was going to happen because I recognised her signals, but she was in the wrap, almost asleep, and I was dashing down the street, so I let it go and changed her when we got a chance.

What was really amazing about today was how clearly I could understand what she was telling me. When we got home she needed to wee. She was tensing her legs, arching her back so she was like a stiff little board and she was making frustrated little moans at me. I held her over her EC tub and caught a wee, then wiped her and lied her down in front of me for a play. As I lied her down she moaned at me in a way that was so obvious it was as if she had opened her mouth and said "I'm not done Mama" in plain English! So I picked her up again and held her over her tub and bang caught another one. This happened a few more times. This afternoon she's been doing lots of little wees every ten or fifteen minutes.

She will still go when she needs to if I don't respond quickly enough to her communication these days, but she prefers to be held over her tub, or a sink or bowl or toilet. She will tense and squeal (she has a squeal she does with her mouth shut that general means "EC time!") and as soon as we hold her in position over her tub she relaxes and goes (and usually has a little chat to us while she is going, cute little baby sounds that mean "aaah that's better." and "I doin'k a wee".

And we have replaced our old catching bowl with the tupperwear at home as well as when we are on the go. But I plan to give our review of the catching items a post of its own later.

All Ploping Into Place

Since the weekend (which were days 15 and 16 on our EC journey) we have been feeling like an ECing family, rather than a family who is trying to EC. Since my detailed note taking we are confident in recognising her elimination cues; tensing muscles, stretching and kicking legs, and general restlessness, which could be misconstrued as "grumpiness".

We don't feel the need to keep note of every little elimination detail now, we're able to go with the flow these days. We don't have many misses, and the misses that we do have are quickly forgotten. The misses that we do have usually happen during the "ungodly hours" of the day, when we are so deeply asleep we either don't wake to her squirms, or we wake too slowly. The other misses can be attributed to misunderstanding her (thinking she is tired or needs to vomit instead of eliminate), or being distracted and therefore not recognising her cues in time (that's why I find we have more misses on the days when we go out or have visitors).

I am confident enough with the process now that I am happy to make catches in public and at other people's houses. At first we only tried to catch at home and would let our bub soil herself while we were out and change her nappy after the fact. But since then I have taken her into the toilet at my Aunt's house, and made a couple of outdoors catches.

Our bub seems to be enjoying the process. Sometimes it seems as if she holds on until we have her over her bowl and then she relaxes and does her business. Before we started to practice EC she would scream her little face red while we changed her nappy, so she much prefers the catching system. She also seems less upset by the sensations of needing to wee or poo than she used to be, and we think this is because she realises that we are listening to her now, so she doesn't need to cry and thrash herself about to get our attention. Instead, she stiffens and stretches her legs and has a quiet winge, and when we hold her over her bowl she quietly eliminates, whereas she used to cry throughout. She also takes less time to relax and let herself go once we are holding her over her bowl than she used to.

We are still using cloth nappies like underwear. She wears them under her clothes and we take them off when she needs to go to the toilet. And, obviously, if we miss a catch the cloth nappies make it less of a big deal because wee or poo doesn't go everywhere, and sometimes won't soak through her clothes (and her carriers when we're wearing her). I have noticed that we are using far less nappies these days than when we started ECing. Sunday we only went through two nappies, and may I remind readers that our daughter is nine weeks old!

So, in looking back on day 19 of our EC journey I realise that it only took two weeks to find our feet with learning our baby's cues and catching her wees and poos.

Our Little Master of Communications

I was wearing bub in a pouch yesterday and worrying that she wouldn't be able to let me know when she needed to eliminate because she's so snug (ie she couldn't push her legs out as she does). I decided to put aside my worry and if we missed a catch so be it, we were all happy having her in her pouch for the moment. Of course she had no trouble letting me know when it was time to get out of the pouch and over the catching bowl. When she couldn't kick her legs out she squirmed as much as she could and cried at me until I got the message (which wasn't very long!). I took her out of the pouch, held her over the bowl and immediately she did a wee in the bowl. Beautiful work, team.

After the catch I explained to her Dad that I had had nothing to fear, she was perfectly capable of letting me know it was time for the potty. And his response cracked me up. He said to bub:

"Nine weeks old and you're already a better communicator than your father!"

Big Catcher: EC Reality TV

It's been a lazy wee catching kind of a day at our place. I managed to catch an ECing moment on my camera phone this afternoon. Didn't film the catch itself, since my camera only films 15 seconds of footage at a time. But I did manage to film what she was doing beforehand, and then again a second after the catch so you can see how we hold her and what we've been using to catch :)

You can see in the above footage that mere seconds before she eliminates she pulls off from her feed and is very restless. She is also tensing her muscles and stretching her stiffened legs out, off camera. After she came off my breast I handed her to her Dad who had the catching bowl ready and then filmed this:

In this footage you can see her Dad holding her in the classic ECing position, which is the most supportive position for newborns. Her back and head are leaning backwards against his body, and he is nursing the weight of her body on her thighs in the palms of his hands. This position helps her work out her elimination, giving her room to stretch and kick her legs out forwards and rock the rest of her body backwards. In this footage she looks pretty chilled out because she has finished her business. Just before she eliminated she was crying, kicking, and tensing her muscles. She also had an up-chuck, so Dad caught that too LOL.

Wee & Poothropologist

For the last seventy-two hours I've been making elimination notes :) Every time our bub poos or wees I jot down what time it is and what she was doing just before she went. I decided upon this note taking approach the other day when I was feeling done about not feeling connected enough to her, and feeling like we were making very little progress in improving our communication.

It was the best idea I ever had. Within about twenty four hours I was fairly confident I recognised her elimination cues, and after forty eight hours I realised I had reached the point where I only missed catching a wee if I was asleep. And even though counting catches and misses in not the point of ECing, keeping track of them has helped me realise that we are developing well. The whole note taking experience has filled me with confidence and made ECing a lot more enjoyable.

Here are what my notes look like:

Elimination Record

April 16 Wednesday

13:50 WEE immediately after coming of the wrap after a sleep in it (about an hours sleep) (caught)

After 14:00 WEE while cuddling (missed)

Between 14:00 and 15:30 WEE while feeding (missed)

Before 15:30 POO (missed)

Before 16:30 and after 15:30 WEE while sleeping (missed)

16:30 WEE while feeding (missed)

16:45 POO while feeding frustration, crying, spurt, stopped feeding, boob still un mouth looking up at me concerned, second spurt, calm, Back to feeding, (caught)

16:53 POO was feeding, pulls off, squirming, concerned look, hold over potty third spurt (caught)

Before 18:25 WEE either while sleeping or waking. There was some squirming in her sleep (missed)

18:35 WEE fussing, winging, but her on boob, she was fine for a few minutes then upset, more fussing, offered her the potty. After a few minutes she wee’d (caught)

18:57 WEE fussing, winging, crying, put her on the boob, didn’t make her happy, she was making her body go stiff, tensing all her muscles and then she wee’d (missed)

Sometime before 20:30 and after 19:00 WEE while she was asleep. There was some fussing while she slept, searching for boob, but she always got back on the boob and fed happily so I didn’t notice when it happened (missed)

20:45 POO she was lying on me, suddenly did a wet sounding fart so I held her over the potty (caught)

between 21:15 and 22:00 WEE while in the wrap, she did squirm occasionally while sleeping in the wrap (missed)

22:01 WEE after coming out of the wrap (Dad caught)

22:54 WEE I think this one took her by surprise too, she coughed and it squirted out (missed)

Sometime between 23:00 and 23:30 WEE while she was crying (missed)

6/17 catches

11 misses

April 17 Thursday

1:39 STILL DRY. Mum went to bed too

4:something STILL DRY

7:15 WET ALREADY Woke up and she was wet, changed nappy, held her over potty, she got distressed and cried so I put another nappy on and we went back to sleep having a feed (missed)

8:20 WET ALREADY Woke up to her crying, she was hungry and very wet (missed)

8:50 WEE after squirming and falling off booba a couple of times (caught)

11:30 WET ALREADY we got up and she was wet. She had been squirming but she’d stayed asleep, or went back to sleep super fast (missed)

12:06 WEE, while we were playing, didn’t notice any cues (missed)

12:27 WEE, she had seemed tired and frustrated. Hadn’t settled into her usual calm self again after the last wee. She was showing me cues for so long that I stopped believing it was about elimination and thought she was just tired (missed)

12:30 – 13:00 WEE, while I was on the toilet and she was rocking in he bouncer. She was quiet, starting up at me (missed)

13:58 POO, after she’d woken up, caught it, offered it because she’d woken up, she seemed to be telling me something was going on, can’t remember how (caught)

14: 00 WEE, still holding her over potty, unfortunately didn’t realise she was weeing and didn’t have it lined up properly (still counts as a catch!)

14:15 WEE, she was lying down happily then winged, I thought she just wanted a cuddle and not to lie down anymore, turned out she wanted to wee (missed)

Lay her down again, kicking around, she seemed unhappy about lying down again so I picked her up (she was stiffening her legs and going bug eyed)

14:18 POO having a cuddle and she was restless, had a little wingey cry, stiffened legs, I wondered if there was more wee to come so held her over the potty (caught)

14:25 WEE We were having a lie down feed and she was coming off the breast to have a little cry, that I call a winge, I thought she was just tired, but she weed (missed)

14:35 WEE She was winging while we had a cuddle and as I was asking her what the matter was she wee’d (missed)

15:49 WEE she woke up from an hour nap, squirming, grunting a little , held her over the potty and she wee’d almost immediately (caught)

17:00 WEE, woke up happy and very relaxed, took a few minutes to wake up and then she started winging and tensing her legs (missed)

17:20 POO, had been happily feeding, getting sleepy, then she started falling off the boob and moving her legs around a lot, then she did a wet sounding fart. Held her over the potty for a few minutes and finally she pood. (caught)

Observation: common pre-elimination behaviour includes; winging, frustration, tensing muscles or “going stiff”

Before 18: 24 WEE she woke up squirming and wingy so I held over the potty (caught)

18:24 POO she hadn’t settled since her wee, squirmy, avoiding eye contact, kicking and then wingy cry so I held her over the potty (caught)

18:53 WEE tensing muscles going stiff restless then wee all over me (missed)

18:55 POO didn’t settle since the wee, more wingy crying and squirming then I heard a wet fart, held her over the potty and caught a poo (caught)

19:04 WEE. Crying, squirming I thought she was tired or hungry so I laid her down for a feed, she cried and pulled off and weed (missed)

20:43 WEE and POO, woke herself squirming so I offered her the potty (caught)

21:06 WEE didn’t settle, cried, tensed, fussed, so I held her over the potty and she weed after a few minutes (caught)

21:08 POO didn’t settle, so I kept holding her over the potty and eventually she pood (caught)

21:17 WEE still fussing, tensing, winging and then she weed on me (missed)

21:48 WEE fussing, lots of crying and helpless little quiet squeals. More crying when I offered her the potty, but she did wee (caught)

22:10 WEE she was making herself stiff and stretching and making grunting sounds. I held her over the potty expecting poo, but caught a wee instead (caught)

23:20 WEE woke up after squirming a little bit in the wrap (caught)

15/28 catches

13 misses

April 18 Friday

00:42 WEE after coming off boob, she sounded like she was grunting and panting (missed)

00:52 WEE and fart after tensing and panting (caught)

1:07 WEE, she had been crying (caught)

5:34 STILL DRY

7:20 ALREDY WET woke to squirming. Gave her a feed and she went back to sleep but it was very squirmy sleep, so I got her up and offered her the potty (missed)

7:58 POO (small) and WEE she was kicking and cried a little (caught)

8:02 WEE general uncomfortableness, kicking, dad held her over potty (Dad caught)

8:26 WEE she never really settled after the last wee. Tensing legs, making herself stiff and grumbling, offered her the potty (caught)

10:40 ALREADY WET. Woke up, she was still asleep but squirming slightly (missed)

11:35 POO. She had been tensing and farted, offered her the potty and it too quite some time but she eventually pood after a few more farts. It was only a tiny poo so I took her away from the potty for a while, she tensed some more, cried a little, so I offered it again and this time she had a proper poo (caught)

12:05 WEE. Slight squirming on the breast, and coming off (missed)

12:19 WEE. Stretching legs, slight annoyed tone to her gurgles (caught)

12:30 WEE Slight annoyance on boob, kicking legs, so I offered her the potty (caught)

14:30 POO she woke up and I offered the potty, she pood (caught)

14:33 WEE and POO she still seemed unsettled, so I kept holding her over the potty (caught)

14:50 POO tensing, stretching legs while on the boob. I took her off and offered the potty but she cried a lot, so I put her back on the boob and she was happy feeding but tensing and kicking again so I took her off again and offered her the potty, she squealed a little squeal but did do some poo once she relaxed (caught)

16:40 WEE Slight stirring in sleep, waking slightly, but wanting booba, gave her some booba, she came off, squirming slightly, offered her the potty (caught)

16:50 WEE, making herself stiff, tensing, stretching legs, offered her the potty, she cried and squirmed but did eventually wee (caught)

18:00 WEE she woke up squirmy (caught)

18:31 WEE stayed slightly squirmy and tense, so I offered the potty again (caught)

18:43 WEE going stiff crying a little (caught)

18:50 WEE making legs tense, some grunting (caught)

19:00 WEE coming off boob, crying, tensing (Dad caught)

20:15 WEE going stiff, and squirming a little bit, very quiet winging (Dad caught)

20:48 WEE kicking legs (caught)

22:15 WEE woke up, squirming and stretching and tensing legs (Dad caught)

22:50 WEE stretching, some slight crying (caught)

23:08 WEE crying, stretching legs, tensing legs (Dad caught)

23/27 catches

Only 4 misses!

April 19 Saturday

00:10 WEE tensing legs, kicking, grunting noises (Dad caught)

5:49 STILL DRY. WEE woke to her squirming offered potty (caught)

8:53 FELT DRY but I think we probably missed a wee and slept through a squirm

9:53 ALREADY WET, I think I remember dreaming about her squirming but was too tired to wake myself up. (missed)

10:10 WEE after some squirming and a fart (caught)

10:29 WEE kicking legs, grizzling and some grunting noises (caught)

13:18 WEE after she woke up she farted, she had been occasionally squirming in her sleep, and we're fairly sure we missed a wee while she was asleep (Dad caught)

15:11 ALREADY WET woke up after a big sleep (missed)

15:22 POO two spurts and a WEE, she came off the boob, hadn’t settled since waking (caught)

15:45 WEE she had been squirming, fussing at the boob and pulling off (Dad caught)

15:55 WEE kicking, still unsettled since the last wee (caught)

16:11 WEE kicking legs, slightly unsettled, but less tense than usual (missed)

16:15 WEE tensing, crying, not interested in boob so I held her over the potty (caught)

16:34 WEE lots of crying, frustration, tensing, she was in the wrap pushing her legs down, so Dad took her out and held her over the potty and bam (caught)

11/14 caught

Only 3 misses!

Sherplop Holmes: Being an EC Detective

We've been ECing for two weeks tomorrow, so I feel it is a good time to take a look back at previous entries to collate a list of actions our baby did before eliminating, and try to spot any patterns.

• Frustration*
• Fussiness*
• Struggling to stay on the breast*
• Avoiding eye contact
• Tensing muscles*
• Bracing feet against me and pushing herself up and away (this has stopped doing this so much in the last couple of days)
  
• Look of concentration
• Bug eyed look
• Wingey cry, cry of discomfort* rather than hunger or tiredness (not always easy to tell the difference though)
  
• Farts
  

* = also cue for vomit

I guess the hardest thing is that while all those things could be cues, she can also do them just because she's feeling a bit sad or tired or uncomfortable. Or she could just feel frustrated, fussy, or need to fart.

So how do I tell when she is doing those actions to communicate her need to eliminate? It is not elementary, dear Watson, not yet anyway.

Dada Read Her Cues!

On Friday I caught 2 big poos and 3 wees and when Dada got home he caught a poo after they were having a cuddle and she farted. He said he was wondering if she needed to go to the toilet because she was squirming around a lot and then when she farted he was sure. Yey for Dada getting it!

She had such a big poo that Huz said he didn't know if it would ever be safe to stop holding her over the potty. But she let us know when she'd had enough potty time by tensing her muscles, kicking and beginning to cry.

During the day she was lying on the bed happily kicking around, then she started to look concerned and whimper, I usually think this means she's had enough of kicking around and wants to be picked up for a cuddle but I discovered that this time it meant I'm going to pee (on you LOL).

Yesterday I caught three wee's, a poo, Dad caught a couple of wee's but missed a poo while she was in the ergo.

I also took her away from the potty because she was starting to cry and got her wee right down my leg and onto the kitchen floor. But I didn't even blink at it! Last week I would have been squealing, but I just said "sssss, wees" and got wet :D Happened on lino, so I was pretty happy about that!

Today I've caught two wee's and she hasn't poo'd yet...

Woops. Wrong End!

Home again today, but we've both been catching up on sleep. I was so exhausted after little sleep on Wed night and a big adventure all day Thurs that I chose to sleep rather than get up and EC when I felt her squirm this morning.

In the last 24 hours I haven't caught a wee, but I've caught quite a few big vomits LOL Yep, lots of mistaking up-chuck cues for elimination cues.

The bub is being tricksy, lots of farts but no poo to follow. So there's been quite a lot of unnecessary holding her over the potty today. I did manage to catch one biiiig poo, no fart cue, just some squirming as we played on the bed together. She was engaged in my singing and then she wasn't, so I held her over the potty. It took some time but then a massive two spurts of poo exploded. I felt sorry for her, there were some big chunks in there that can't have been fun for her little body...wonder if it was something I ate?

Getting Familiar With Her Poo Cues

By 9:30 this morning I had caught two poos and one wee! Today was the third day in a row that I caught a poo at around 6:30am. Again she was squirming, slowly waking up, bracing her feet against me and pushing herself upward from her feet. Didn't have to wait long for her to go once I held her over the potty and cued. She had already wee'd in her nappy.

Woke up again just after 9 to her squirming and waking again, this time she also farted, so I had a feeling more poo was coming. I was right, and she had a wee.

Her poo signals are clearer to me than her wee signals. I often think she's going to wee when she's not, she's just restless.

Caught 2 more wee's in the afternoon.

Have mainly stuck to the timing method of holding her over the potty and cueing after she's woken up.

100% Poo Catching Rate Today

Couldn't do much today because we had an old friend's birthday party to go to over the other side of the city. Didn't catch any wee, but caught two poos in the morning before we left, while I was still half asleep at that! Timing method.

Got home and fed her nappy free, she started squirming, bracing her feet against me and pushing herself by her feet, then she farted, all possible poo cues. Got the potty and caught a third poo! That's 100% poo catch rate today!

We plan to give her nappy free time til we go to bed, see if we can catch some wee.

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 :)