Lola and the Potty
Lola has had modest success using the potty over the past months. When I say modest success, I mean we harass her constantly to go use the potty and need to sit in the bathroom with her for large amounts of time. This time is spent trying to encourage the magic moment which is usually an anti-climatic brief spray of urine that is all in all ineffective at emptying her bladder. Lola fared a bit better at day care, but her daily reports were a mixed bag of success as well.
So as you can imagine, Krystal and I were a bit skeptical when day care decided that it was time to switch Lola to underwear full time at day care (other than a pull up for nap time). We took lot of pants and underwears in preparation for an explosion of laundry. I dreaded those first few batches of mystery clothing filled plastic bags that were oddly heavy for their size - never knowing when a poopy mess was going to assault your fingers. Ultimately I was confident that the experiment would be an unmitigated disaster and day care would roll back their decision.
Well the first few days resulted in numerous pants coming home, and it was a struggle to keep her cubby stocked. To day care's credit, it has clearly been an effective strategy as in a few short weeks she progressed from "modest success" to peeing exclusively on the potty with essentially no accidents. So yea! So we are all set with the "modest" exception of . . . feces.
We simply assumed at first that day care was taking care of any needed number 2 incidents. While no surprises were appearing in the bags of mystery, we knew Lola was wearing a pull up at quiet time, so that could easily account for it. But nearing the end of the week, aided by some awkward interrogation of the day care workers, the horrifying truth was revealed: Lola hadn't pooped all week. Lola had never pooped on the potty before, and had shown little interest in it, so we knew that was going to be the largest challenge. We naturally figured that she would take advantage of pull up times at first (over night and at nap). We didn't imagine that she would just . . . stop.
Obviously this wasn't sustainable. We encouraged her to poop all day saturday on the potty and even adjusted our schedule to ensure we were around the house for it. Finally, Lola announced the solution, "I need a pull up". Our attempts to convince here that what she really needed was the potty were futile, so we eventually gave in. She put on her pull up and rapidly took care of her business.
So that is pretty much how it has been for the past week. "I need a pull up" is synonymous with "I need to poop". Tonight, when she requested her pull up, we asked her to sit on the potty while wearing a diaper per suggestions on the internets. (Apparently this is some kind of bridge) She refused and chose to stand next to the dining room table where her mom and dad were working (which has been a common configuration for mom and dad lately, but that is a different story). Presumably holding onto the side of the table with a slight lean over provided her optimum positioning. She grunted with effort as she tried to expunge 3 days worth of material. Krystal asked if she was done pooping and the response was "no" followed by a cute and shy slink just below the table ledge. Krystal and I giggled a bit with as much restraint as we could muster in response because someone a long time ago taught humanity that watching someone boldly pass feces in front of you is funny. Lola responded in an oddly aware (for her) fashion "Don't laugh at me". Which of course made it even harder to contain our giggles. Oh well, at least she got it done.
Anywho. Potty training is hard. I wouldn't trade current state for any time from earlier, but it will be very nice when we fully transitioned.
So as you can imagine, Krystal and I were a bit skeptical when day care decided that it was time to switch Lola to underwear full time at day care (other than a pull up for nap time). We took lot of pants and underwears in preparation for an explosion of laundry. I dreaded those first few batches of mystery clothing filled plastic bags that were oddly heavy for their size - never knowing when a poopy mess was going to assault your fingers. Ultimately I was confident that the experiment would be an unmitigated disaster and day care would roll back their decision.
Well the first few days resulted in numerous pants coming home, and it was a struggle to keep her cubby stocked. To day care's credit, it has clearly been an effective strategy as in a few short weeks she progressed from "modest success" to peeing exclusively on the potty with essentially no accidents. So yea! So we are all set with the "modest" exception of . . . feces.
We simply assumed at first that day care was taking care of any needed number 2 incidents. While no surprises were appearing in the bags of mystery, we knew Lola was wearing a pull up at quiet time, so that could easily account for it. But nearing the end of the week, aided by some awkward interrogation of the day care workers, the horrifying truth was revealed: Lola hadn't pooped all week. Lola had never pooped on the potty before, and had shown little interest in it, so we knew that was going to be the largest challenge. We naturally figured that she would take advantage of pull up times at first (over night and at nap). We didn't imagine that she would just . . . stop.
Obviously this wasn't sustainable. We encouraged her to poop all day saturday on the potty and even adjusted our schedule to ensure we were around the house for it. Finally, Lola announced the solution, "I need a pull up". Our attempts to convince here that what she really needed was the potty were futile, so we eventually gave in. She put on her pull up and rapidly took care of her business.
So that is pretty much how it has been for the past week. "I need a pull up" is synonymous with "I need to poop". Tonight, when she requested her pull up, we asked her to sit on the potty while wearing a diaper per suggestions on the internets. (Apparently this is some kind of bridge) She refused and chose to stand next to the dining room table where her mom and dad were working (which has been a common configuration for mom and dad lately, but that is a different story). Presumably holding onto the side of the table with a slight lean over provided her optimum positioning. She grunted with effort as she tried to expunge 3 days worth of material. Krystal asked if she was done pooping and the response was "no" followed by a cute and shy slink just below the table ledge. Krystal and I giggled a bit with as much restraint as we could muster in response because someone a long time ago taught humanity that watching someone boldly pass feces in front of you is funny. Lola responded in an oddly aware (for her) fashion "Don't laugh at me". Which of course made it even harder to contain our giggles. Oh well, at least she got it done.
Anywho. Potty training is hard. I wouldn't trade current state for any time from earlier, but it will be very nice when we fully transitioned.
Comments