Trouble with mastering the poop

Day 24 and sadly, no news means just that. There have been no new Baby #2 developments to report, dear readers. Pregnancy is the same old, same old. (Well, other than contracting a nice head cold from B over the weekend, I suppose. Fuzzy, congested sinuses, stuffed up nose and pleghmy throat and not a thing I can take to get rid of it. Lovely.) Another appointment scheduled for April Fool's Day to see where we are at. Still have 9 days till due date.

Cold aside, we have been adamant lately about sticking with B's potty-training. Having realized shortly after she turned two years old, that she was already showing an interest in the toliet (it helped that her twin cousins were well underway with their own potty-training at the time) and was waking up from naps dry (and sometimes even in the morning), we decided to start putting her on the pot. For months we did it halfheartedly, still using pull-ups at daycare (although we often used underpants at home), getting her to sit down on the pot about 15 minutes after she had had anything to drink and just trying to encourage her that using the toliet is what big girls do.

Two weeks ago, we decided to give it a more concentrated effort. I went out and bought her an assortment of colourful, princess and cupcake-themed Big Girl Unders (her name for underwear), asked our daycare worker, Maggie, to follow suit with the training, and even got B Smarties as a reward for when she does the job well. As a result, she has gone pull-ups free during the day for two full weeks now. She has been pretty successful with pee. She goes whenever we put her on the pot, sometimes even announces to us that she has to go and has even held it in for a few minutes while her cousin Grace was busy doing her own business in the bathroom this past weekend. Poop, however, has been a whole other challenge.

For some reason, B always goes in her pants and then announces it shortly afterwards, asking to be changed and saying how it hurts. Of course, we get annoyed with this, as dealing with fecal matter is far more unpleasant than wet underwear. (Sunday was especially trying, as she clearly had eaten something that had not agreed with her and took three consecutive poops in her pants within two hours. Ugh.) We repeat the same litany each time. How she has to tell Mommy and Daddy (or as she reminds us, Maggie or Auntie Jackie or Grandmaman....) when she has to go BEFORE she lets the poop come out. How it's yucky and is a big mess. How yes, it hurts the bum because it needs to be in the toliet, not in her unders. How she is a big girl now, not a baby, who wears a diaper. But, still the poop....

After a few weeks of this, I began to wonder if she was just too young to be able to 'feel' the need to go and communicate the need to us. After all, she is still just two and a half, and maybe it was just too soon to get the message through.

This morning, as we do every morning, I brought her to the washroom to do her morning's business. No problem. A tinkle in the toliet and some praise. B insisted that Bunny also needed to go. (Months ago I had placed a doll potty beside her own for this express purpose.) She placed Bunny on the pot before her own business and went to get him after she had washed her hands.

"Ew! Big caca." She announced for Bunny, laying him on the ground, face-down. "Not good." She shook her finger at him. "Not happy. Didn't tell Mommy or Daddy. Now yucky. Got to clean you." She went to the wipes container I keep in the bathoom, pulled out a wipe and proceeded to wipe his 'bum.'

"Garbage now," she threw the wipe in the trash bin and went to collect Bunny. "Not good, Baby Bunny." She gave him a snuggle and came to me, laughing for a hug. "Got to tell your parents."

At first, I was a little upset by this scene, wondering if we have been too harsh in our condemnation of the poop situation and her inability to do it in the toliet. I even repeated the scene to Hubby while he was getting dressed this morning. B was bouncing on the bed, laughing as I told it, thinking it a great game that Bunny went caca.

Hubby looked a little taken aback, too. "Really? Not good, eh? But, you still love Bunny, right?" he asked her.

"Yes!" she laughed, grabbing up the grey-pink doll and giving it another snuggle, then jumping into her daddy's arms for a well-deserved hug. Well, at least she understands the potty message--and luckily, understands that Mommy and Daddy will love her no matter how long it takes her (and Baby Bunny!) to learn how to poop on the pot!