Potty Breakthrough

So, lots has gone on this week and I have not blogged.  Those my not be mutually exclusive... I might get a post or two up this weekend.  Hopefully. 

*This is a post about poop.  And a shower.  If you are a visual person, this is probably not for you...

Last Sunday we had a breakthrough of sorts on the potty front.  Abby had been a week since pooping.  Again.

We had been pushing blueberries into her like water starting on Friday as soon as she got home from school.  I don't know if it is the same for every child, but blueberries are a go-to for us.  They work to move things along in her little system, and they taste great!  We are still using blueberries from last summers Farmer's Market that have been in the freezer, by the way.  The only downside of frozen blueberries is that it make her lips look like she has been making out with Cookie Monster and her fingers look like she voted in an Afghan election.

So anyway, we could tell that Abby was finally going to explode give in and poop, so we decided to take the opportunity to make sure it all ended up in the potty.  She is still pooping in her underwear of late - when she poops, that is.  She was doing a little dance and could not sit down any more.

I want to break in here and tell you that I am not an abusive father.  It pains me to know that she is not passing her poo,  and I am looking forward to your comments about things that help "move" your children along.  This has only been a problem since switching from diapers to the potty, which she has embraced.  Except the pooping part.  I read a post about a child who finally gave in when he heard the word "suppository" and it was explained what that meant.  I don't want to get that point.

Typically on Sunday morning either Anny or I will bring Abby into the shower with us to get a really good cleaning that does not happen in the tub and to wash her hair.  Again, great father, right?  Oh well.  I got her into the shower with me with a guarantee that we would spend some time playing before washing her hair.  This convinced her to come in, and then she got really uncomfortable on the poop front.  She was not playing in the water because she was focused on holding everything in.

And then something clicked in her head.  She asked for the potty.  She wanted to poop - in the potty!  This, my friends, is progress in a major way.  Part of it was setting her up, but sometimes that is all it takes.  She could not hide in her room if she can't get out of the shower. 


Anny brought the potty into the kid-potty into the bathroom, but Abby didn't want to get out of the shower because she was wet and knew she would be cold.  We did the only logical thing...  We brought her potty into the shower for her to take a dump.  Abby got special permission to poop IN the shower.  Lucky kid.

So we reminded her about her "friend" Prudence from Once Upon a Potty who had to sit.  And sit.  And sit and sit and sit and sit.... And sit Abby did.  For ten minutes. 

But it worked.  She pooped in the potty, and only in the potty.  VICTORY! 

As a reward she got to wear her new Sleeping Beauty Princess Dress, which is better than chocolate as a reward for my child.  She wore her dress to church and got to tell everyone why she got to wear such a special dress - because she had pooped on the potty.  She was fawned over, even more than usual, and got congrats and cheers and high fives for the whole day. 

Maybe that will have been enough to make the "click" of using the potty stick. 

Maybe she will think about all of the attention the next time she starts to poop in her pants and she will get our attention rather than get quiet and hide it.

Maybe, just maybe, my daughter will have to go to a local college so that she can come home once a week to take a poop in the shower.

I'm hoping for one of the first two choices above - you can guess which two.

*As an "update" to a not-yet-posted-post, it is Friday morning and Abby has not yet pooped since the victory I just wrote about.  Two nights this week we have even given her medicinal help in the form of "Little Phillips" for toddler tummies.  This child has a stubborn stomach I tell you.  We will begin the blueberry regimen tonight, I guess.