When I first heard about EC I thought it was such an interesting concept. The very idea that tiny babies have the intelligence to know when they need to "go" and that they also have the ability to control those muscles at a very young age flies in the face of basically every modern baby book out there. My husband and I were trying to save money, and this seemed like a great way to do it, since we'd be using fewer expensive diapers. As a newcomer, I found surprisingly little information about it on the web, so I had to make up a lot of it as I went. I hope that my experience can help those of you out there who would like to EC but have no clue how to start.

We ECed my DS from the time he was a few days old. The first concern was how exactly to get his "business" in the proper receptacle. We tried holding him over the sink, our hands supporting his thighs, his back leaning on our chest. This worked as far as DS could relax and go pee pee, or poo poo, but he sprayed the former all over the place, mirror, countertop, etc, which is simply not pleasant to have to deal with, and the latter went in the sink, which was, well, gross. The toilet held the same problem, we could hold him, but the pee went everywhere, no matter how we held him. He was too young to sit unsupported, so a potty seat was out of the question. Some website suggested a "bowl", but I found that to be cumbersome with such a wiggly baby. The best thing we found was a knock off of a Baby Bjorn Little Potty, called the Baby Jou potty from Target. It allowed us to sit him on the potty, with the pee guard shielding our surroundings, and he comfortably reclining on our chest. He simply loved it, and so did we!

Figuring out signals is the key to EC success. Our DS would grunt, or he'd squirm and try to turn his body away from us if he was being held. Every baby has his own unique thing. We had great success with "cueing", which simply means when you hold the baby over the receptacle, you either make a "sss" sound for pee, or a grunting noise for poop. DS responded to these from Day 1. My jaw almost hit the floor when I started making the "sss" sound and he started peeing.

As far as what to put on the baby, here's what we tried and what worked and (what didn't) for us:

1) No onesies. Or overalls. They took forever to snap off, and snap on.

2) Pants or shorts. Much easier to pull off and put back on, period.

3) Cloth diapers with a snappi. This worked somewhat, but our baby just didn't fit well in the cloth diapers, period.

4) Disposable diapers. We liked these out of sheer convenience. Easy to get off and on, and we changed them even if he peed in it a little. We bought the cheapest ones we could find, as they felt wetter when he went. We wanted him to keep awareness of when he went potty in his pants.

We used considerably fewer diapers after only a few days of doing it. I can't describe how nice it is to change so very few poopy diapers. Pee, for us, has always been harder to "catch", but truly the "trick" is just paying attention to your baby. If anything, "misses" have shown us that sometimes you tune your baby out when you don't even realize it. EC is wonderful in how it lets you connect yourself with your baby's needs.

Nighttime EC was non existent for us for the first few months. We just put a sposie on and caught up on sleep, which was best for everyone all around, or so we thought. DS would cry for hours and hours and night, and as we look back, we bet that he had to go pee pee on the potty. We didn't take him because we thought it'd wake him up too much.

ECing a newborn can be both challenging and rewarding, but for us, it was totally worth it!