Tuesday, April 20, 2010

Let's Talk About Poop

A comment from the other day had me thinking that I should update about our potty training woes. Of course this involves poop. (Doesn't my life always involve poop?)

As of today, Joshua is mostly dry during the day with an occasional accident. Last week he wet his pants twice in one day. But he is capable of staying dry during the day. He's probably reacting to the changes in his life right now. He still wets the bed almost every night but this isn't a surprise since we have a history of that with the boys on both sides of our family. Matthew started staying dry overnight around age 4 I think.
Leila is pretty much the same as Joshua. She can stay dry all day but sometimes waits too long and has an accident. Sometimes it's just a minor problem and sometimes it necessitates a wardrobe change. She's been potty trained for 18 months now. She still wets the bed at night, despite her best attempts at staying dry.Sarah? Oh, sweet Sarah. That girl is a mess. She is struggling with the changes and stress in our life, I'm sure. She wets her pants daily, often several times. However, she will not have an accident when we're out. Obviously she's capable of using the potty all the time. But she doesn't. We can be running errands all day and she'll go on the potty and not have a single accident. At home she makes no effort to go on the potty. She has asked me to put her in diapers but then she won't keep them on when the other kids tease her.

Sarah is the Poop Master. This is her theme song:


Poop is my worst enemy with Sarah. She has never wanted to poop in the potty. Now she's entered a stage of hiding the poopy panties and smearing feces in inappropriate places. I know it's a result of missing Daddy so I try to be understanding. It's frustrating and I want to lock her in a bathroom for a few weeks sometimes, but she just needs love from me right now. Ironically, Sarah hasn't wet the bed at night in months.
Nathan has recently taken an interest in the potty. He toddled over to it the other day saying "potty, potty" and then sat on it and promptly peed. There was much excitement and he was so proud!

Not to be outdone, Leila and Sarah both immediately produced in the potty as well. I may be onto something here...
I told Jason last year that my goal was to have everyone out of diapers before he gets home from Iraq. I have all summer to work on it. And, so help me, I'm going to do it. At the very least, I'll have everyone out of diapers during the day. I've had 5 kids in diapers/training pants for 19 months now. And we only use cloth, so I've probably washed a lifetime's worth of diapers by now. I'm ready to be done.

(Until we have another baby.)
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