I went to Babies r Us today to purchase my Baby Bjorn Little Potty.  My excuse for not starting ECing in earnest was that I had no vessel for my son to use.  I did try holding him over my big toilet when I was expecting a poop once, but he cried and wiggled.  It didn’t work well for either of us.  Up until now I have been letting him go diaperless some evenings while playing on the floor.  Sometimes I catch the pee with a prefold… sometimes he sprays himself.  Pee is sterile… 

Today was my big day.  I have been reading The Diaper Free Baby.  I was stoked.  Everything this book says makes perfect sense to me.  Babies have the instinct to not sit in their own filth.  Learn to read the signs, and you can communicate with your child enough to let them be diaper free.  It is not an all or nothing thing.  Many experienced ECers still have what they call “misses”.  My first day could be described as a BIG miss.

Once we were home I was ready to pull out my little potty and and let my baby experience a little freedom.  I sat and played with him on the floor for probably 45 minutes.  He didn’t once tinkle.  He did begin passing some gas.  I knew he had to have a BM today since it had been 3 days since his last.  The gas was a clear sign he needed to go.  I kept holding him over the potty, however he would not bend his legs to where I could sit him on it.  This was rather annoying.

Once it came to nap time I put a prefold underneath him and pulled it up on top of his penis in case he had an accident while sleeping.  When he woke up I put a diaper on him to give myself a break from “potty watch”.  About an hour later I laid him on the ground to play with him and removed his diaper again.  He passed gas again.  Let’s hold him over the potty.  Nothing.  He wouldn’t sit down.  We kept playing in very close proximity to the potty.  

He cued me to nurse so I put a prefold between his pee pee and myself while I breastfed him on the floor.  Once done, I had him standing in front of me, keeping an eye for any signs he needed to pee.  Guess what sign I got?  Pee!!!  He peed on my jeans, I turned him toward the potty but of course he was finished already.  Wam bam Thank ya Ma’am.  I had read, and expereinced, that babies often pee once, and pee again in quick succesion.  I had him facing the potty and watching closely for more pee, or signs of more pee.  This is just what he had planned.  

While I am fiercely concentrating on his face and penis… he decides to poop, while standing up, right next to my foot.  I honestly didn’t even see it coming.  He made no grunt, no face, no bathroom sounds, nothing.  I didn’t even realize he had gone until my foot moved half an inch and I felt a squishy, wet, warm  sensation.

I swiftly moved him toward the potty.  Of course he won’t sit, but it didn’t matter since he had already done what he needed to do.  It was on the blanket, on my foot, and some made it on the carpet.

Here is what I learned from today’s big miss.  

1.  My son does not sit on a potty.  He never used a bumbo, or wants to sit now, so why did I expect him to sit on a potty?  I believe I will wait to try EC for poops until he is more comfortable with sitting.

2.  Always have a blanket all the way under the potty and you.  My blanket ended next to the potty.  Hence… poop on the carpet.  

3.  My child does a lot of gas passing before he poops.  But HOURS before.  His actual poop comes as a sneak attack.  I have noticed this when he is in diapers but my suspicions have been confirmed.  This is going to make my life a little harder.

4.  The world didn’t end because my son pooped and peed on me.  It sounds gross, and it was, but I washed up, gave him a bath, and went about my day.  Immediately after that, he spit up on me.  Par for the course.   

Hopefully, some of you had a good laugh at my day!