Potty-Wise

Okay, so we've been working on potty training Olivia for over a year. Last fall, we went through a period where she seemed to be completely trained. Well, except for needing help with every element of going pee/poop.

We could take her anywhere, the grocery store, gymnastics class, to a party, anywhere, and she'd hold it and/or tell us when she had to go. We were pretty much out of Pull-Ups except for at night. (At this point, I'm not sure we'll EVER be out of Pull-Ups at night, for either of them, ugh!!)

But then winter and spring we took a major hit and she back slid to the point that she was back in Pull-Ups almost full time. It wasn't pretty.

My mom was getting so frustrated. She understands that this isn't something we can punish Olivia for. We have no idea how her muscles work, how she feels when she has to go, how much is actually in her control.

But since my nephew, who is a full year younger than Olivia has been trained for about six months, my mom was just about tired of Pull-Ups and cleaning a butt that had poop squished in a Pull-Up for even five minutes.

Hey, I get it. I'm tired of it too. It's gross. And Olivia hates it. She despises having to lay down so we can clean her up after an especially big poop has been squished into a Pull-Up and her butt.

Thankfully, I can report that the last couple of months have been good. She's been doing really well at telling us when she has to pee. When she has a Daddy Day (Tom cares for the girls one week-day each week so my mom gets a break from all kids, all the time.) he takes her to the bathroom every half hour on the dot. My mom and I don't like this method so much because we don't want Olivia to rely on the clock. We want her to learn her own body, to know how it feels when she has to go.

Today...she pooped on the potty. She tried to hide under the table and when I saw her under there, I knew what she was doing. She declared that she had to go and I put her on the toilet. Thank goodness I had an outdated Star Magazine for her to peruse while she did her business (she's a toilet reader, I have no idea where she gets it*) and when she was done she called me in to clean her up.

The clean up is just so much better this way. It just is.

We're learning her signs (you'd think, after four and a half years, we'd have them down, but she's good at changing things the minutes we think we have her figured out) and she's learning her body. Last weekend, she TOLD me when she had to poop. She didn't try to hide, she didn't just go off by herself, she came to me and said, "I have to poop."

Wow.

Now that we have a step-stool in the bathroom as well as her Cushy-Tushy on which to sit, she might be well on the way to being independent as far as her bathroom needs go.

Yes, I know that fall and winter are coming and we may hit another road block but we're getting there. And the older she gets, the stronger and more aware she gets. She's getting there and I couldn't be prouder.

I know, it's sort of sick that I'm so proud of poop in the toilet, isn't it? But when doctors tell you that your child might never be completely toilet trained, it's one of the nicer things to prove wrong. Just saying.

*I SO know where she gets this, but I'm not telling.