Hi Stanislava, finding a slightly warmer spot (75-80F) for your starter to dwell during the creation process can help speed things up a bit, although once your starter is fully developed it should function quite well at 70F. You might want to try boiling some water on the stove and then pouring that into a pyrex cup and placing it in your microwave,  along with your starter. This will provide a nice warm spot for your starter to begin fermenting, and if need be you can change out the hot water now and then. 

In addition, be sure that your feeding routine involves the equivalent of equal parts by weight, if you choose to measure the ingredients by cups. A typical feeding for our starter routine looks like this: 1/2 cup (113g) starter + 1/2 cup (113g) water + 1 scant cup (113g) unbleached all-purpose flour. Some folks make the mistake of feeding equal parts by volume (cups), which will result in a much more liquidy consistency that isn't likely to be able to show the same type of doubling behavior that you're looking for with our starter. Also note that at this point you may be ready to start feeding twice daily, instead of just once a day. If your starter still isn't rising after you've adjusted the temperature and varified that you're feeding correctly, then it's okay to wait until the starter begins rising before you switch to twice a day feedings. Once the starter begins to rise, however, it's important to feed twice a day, which will help keep the yeast active and vigorous. 

Unlike bread, pancakes don't need a whole lot of rising power, which is probably why your pancake experiement worked, even without baking soda. It does sound like your starter is becoming more acidic since it reacted so actively with baking soda, and this is actually a good sign that your starter is progressing towards rising. 

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