Potty Progress

We last saw Olivia’s developmental pediatrician back in May of 2011. We’re not scheduled to go back and see her again until May 2013.

During that last appointment, one of my biggest questions was concerning potty training. At that time, Olivia was four and a half and she was kinda, sorta potty trained. As in, sometimes she’d sometimes tell us when she had to pee, sometimes not. The pooping issue was something we were working on with minimal success.

O’s doctor had some good advice. She suggested that whenever Olivia did actually tell us she had to pee, we should remind her to clench her muscles to keep the pee from coming out until we were in the bathroom.

So each time Olivia mentioned having to go potty, I’d say, “Don’t come out, Livie’s pee pee, don’t come out yet.”

And what do you know? It worked. Last summer my mom, Tom and I all had great success with Olivia and peeing on the potty. Again, we were waiting to get the peeing under control before tackling the messiness that is poop.

Last fall, with the start of preschool, I sent her to the three hours of preschool in Pull-Ups because I wasn’t sure how well she’d do with teachers she didn’t know.

But by the time January rolled around I realized that Pull-Ups are from the devil and that they in no way help with potty training. Olivia had figured out that it was much easier to just pee in the Pull-Up than to actually talk to her teachers.

So January brought the no Pull-Ups during the day rule. She still wears them at night but that’s mostly because bedwetting runs in both sides of her gene pool and why set the kid up for a wet bed every single night? And, because let’s be honest here, I just don’t want to have to change the sheets on the bed every night. Once a week is plenty often as far as I’m concerned. And those of you who do it more often, please don’t tell me it’s because some scientific test found that it’s more hygienic to do so more often. Why? Because I don’t care.

So it went. Along with the telling of Olivia’s pee pee not to come out until she was on the toilet, I also got into the habit of saying, “Come on out, Livie’s pee pee, come on out.” This was said once she was actually sitting on the toilet. And again, it worked. It was her signal to relax and let urination happen.

After going Pull-Up free at school, Olivia did have a few accidents but not nearly as many as I’d feared.

These days, she can go pee all by herself, though she prefers company. She can take down her pants, climb onto the toilet, go, wipe and pull up her pants. She can flush and wash her hands. It’s amazing and wonderful and a relief.

And so we move on to pooping. I know, gross, and yet so very much a part of daily life (for most if us.) And yet, ewww.

Olivia HATES having to be cleaned up after pooping in her pants. And every single time she whines as I’m cleaning her butt, I remind her, “I don’t enjoy this any more than you do. If you’d poop on the potty, this wouldn’t take nearly as long or be as unpleasant.”

Yes, I’m a ray of sunshine as I clean my poor child’s butt. Whatever.

All this preamble is to say…the last four (4!!) times Olivia has gone poop, it has done directly into the toilet. Not because I’d dumped the contents of her underwear into the toilet but because the darling girl has been SITTING on the toilet at the time of the bowel movement. This is such a huge accomplishment that I want to dance in the streets, singing out, “My daughter pooped on the toilet!”

She has come to me, before pooping commenced and said, “I think I will try to poo.”

And off we go to the bathroom where she places her cushy tushy on the toilet, grabs the most recently purchased US magazine (or sometimes Star, she’s not picky about the trash she reads) and away she goes.

You guys, seriously, this is such a wonderful development. I realize that most don’t think a five and a half year old pooping, voluntarily, on the toilet is that big, but those with kids with 5p- or other developmental challenges will get it. They will understand my joy, my elation, my pride in my daughter as she accomplishes this feat.

And get this…it only takes one wet-wipe to clean her up when she goes directly into the toilet. As compared to five or six when the nasty stuff is mashed into her skin if she happens to poo in her pants.

This is not to say our days of poopy pants are over. Like the pee issue, this will take time. But I will say I think we’re on the right track. She’ll get there, I have no doubt.

Like every other kid out there, though, she’s on her own timetable and this had to happen when she was ready, not when I was ready, because damn, cleaning up smashed poop out of underwear and off butts is not one of my favorite pastimes.