13 month update

13 months old on Saturday the 1^st March.

• We started at...

birth

• Generally speaking we are doing...

Great! Although on balance we are having a lot of learning misses atm. (Squatting pees) We have also had two pee-fountain events, which have strangely helped him with his signalling (though I wouldn’t recommend it as a strategy! Our pee fountain events are related to wheat overload)

• How do you know your baby has to go?

Various signs – pickle tugging is pretty clear, general behaviour change to fussy, grizzly, speedy, climbing off bed, lap, etc. Overt signals are things like approaching me and calling, making his ‘ghrrrr’ sound, (sometimes pshhh) tugging at his ear. It is SO exciting these are becoming more common now, after consistently practising them for him for months. Sometimes he’ll hit the toilet lid, bring me the bowl, that sort of thing. I feel like my intuition is also improving – but I do think that is a combination of timing and subtle sign awareness a lot of the time- for me.

• Is there a difference for poos and pees?

Not really, hasn’t ever been. Just the farts and a certain increase in activity level prior to a poopsie. Being aware of his timing, and a strange ‘poop radar’ I have helps me. We’ve had some poop accidents related to timing changes – again I am working hard to keep the morning constitutional regularity – hanging out until its done! He helps a lot – eye contact, sort of whacking at his bum, yanking his pickle OFF, the usual signs in abundance.

• Which positions/receptacles do you use?

In-arms classic position, various makeshift positions! We are doing daily ‘potty modelling’ since he turned about 1 – so he sees the behaviour at least once per day. No pressure for him though. He’ll watch, come over and pee with us, though he is still too little to get on the potty, so we don’t put him on it. I still hate the loud clunky potty.

• Do you use diapers or training pants?

Nappies? What are those? One wet undies or knickers. Nakey bottom at home (easier to clean the floor than change his pants and perhaps piss him off with a miss) Plus easier to spot signs nakey after 6 mo. (when peeing frequency reduces somewhat)

• How are you doing away from home?

Onewets for wandering, nakey in sling, or in knickers. We are experimenting with knicker use when out atm – I arrive somewhere with him in knickers, so long as he peed on arrival, I leave him in his knickers for a half hour, sometimes he’ll signal (in small groups of people). If he doesn’t have a pee, I then put his undies on and casually observe for signs and signals to give myself a break, changing quickly if a miss occurs. In big groups (playgroup) he is in undies(onewets) and usual observation, as just as often as he signals, he also pees in excitement/ distraction.

• What are you doing at night?

Naked baby sleeps between us, rouses to dream feed, sleep-pee at 9pm and 4.30am atm. We had a phase of frequent peeing on moving into new home, then down to 3 pees overnight, back to 2 again now. He feeds more than he pees – I wondered if that would EVER happen, 6 months ago – It DOES!

• Who takes baby to the toilet?

Me, dh

• Accidents - how many do you have and what times are especially accident-prone?

Not really anymore – used to be mornings, perhaps late afternoons when he is more tired? Usually related to my level of distraction or if we’re having a pee-fountain event. Atm, gee, 4-8 a day? (sounds a lot, but many are squmble pees or a few drops later finished in bowl) Thank goodness for flannels!

• Other new insights:

-Sign language (in return) has ramped up this month. Understanding of places and things also. I say ‘toilet?" he gets up and charges to the room. Sometimes this is because he needed to pee, other times showing his skills.

• I’ve noticed his overt signalling is more common in the mornings.
• On the signing, at first he overtly signs, but not to ME – he signs to himself or perhaps to the universe – if I miss it, he may pee. A subtle distinction and stage of the game.
• We have the ‘squatting tumble pee’ now – he is learning to squat, and out pours the pee. I’d thought this would take 6-8 weeks to improve, but already (2 weeks) he’ll go ‘ghrrrr’, a few drops come out and then he’ll have a pee in his bowl/ sink or the loo. He’ll squat, go ‘ghrr’ and look at me to help him. If I miss this, the next time he says "ghrrr", he pees a bit, or perhaps all of it, depending.
• Another interesting development is that he will for example squat, have a tumble pee while we are eating dinner on the lounge, then he’ll go and get a flannel, and drop it on the spot on the rug! Or he’ll help to wipe it on the floor if there is a cloth nearby. (Now I leave one here and there) The other interesting thing about this is that I tend to verbally ignore misses, beyond saying ‘pss sss’ if I see them happening, even to wiping them when he isn’t looking, yet he is still imitating. SO cool – the "behaviour sponge" stage is truly upon us!

• What do you like most about ecing at the moment?

The ease, the normality of it. Nights of course with a soft baby.

• Do you ever wish you'd have never heard about it?

Of course not!

• A tip for this age/stage?

- Reinforcing and offering MANY ways for baby to communicate their need to wee. Maven does many of them, experimenting, he has many to remember / try out at different times as he practises communicating with us. When he adopted HOT as his ‘sign de jour’ he used it for everything. I’ll see him se several of them at once, that is a pretty good indication. Atm is the ‘ghrrr’ signal – every elicitation of that gets him a pee break and appropriate other choices for sounds. It is fun, but exasperating at times if he does it each time he squats! I wrote this page to reflect this stage: EC Changes: Adapt!