O.K. This one is just so that I have it down on record when I need to blackmail Riser with it... and so I don't forget it. It is completely and totally about poop. I'm just warning you so that if you don't like to read about things like that, you can just stop right now and move on to something less gross, because really it is all about poop. That being said... here we go.
As stated in prior post, we're potty training my good friend Riser. The pees went better than I could have hoped for. One day where he peed all over everything, and after that, he was good to go. The poops, they were not that easy. The kid would hold them in until he was completely constipated. One day, after days of "not needing" to go, he woke up from a nap really grumpy. I asked him if he was ready to go potty and he started screaming "NOOOOO!!!!" and ran off. Not wanting to make the whole process awful, I backed off and just let him keep the pull up he was wearing on, and left him alone. He went running downstairs screaming the whole way. After a few minutes I heard him finally have a poop. Sounded like a woman in labor. After that one, I watched him closely and tried as best I could to encourage pooping... told him it would be easier and not hurt if he pooped every day, tried bribing him with smarties, promised him a trip to eat at the jungle (the mayan).... nothing worked. As the days passed, I could see that we were heading for another painful poop. It was becoming a vicious cycle. It needed to be stopped, so I called for a little advice.
First, I called my brother (who's in school to become a Pharmacist) to see what was safe to give the poor stopped up boy... After consulting with him and his wife, miralax was recommended. I then called to chat with my sis-in-law who also recommended miralax. Since her little girl is smaller and about 15 pounds lighter than Rise, I felt safe going with her dose... so, on we went...
a few days passed, quite uneventfully, and then came last Saturday. The morning started with me telling Karl that I was just going to let Riser tell me when he needed to poop. Maybe I was just pressuring him too much. Karl thought this sounded great, and he headed down stairs to work. We had some breakfast and then the fun began.
Riser started running around in circles then she would stop. stomp his feet and say uhhhhhhhhhhhh uhhhhhhhhhh I need...... SOMETHING!!!!! I would say "do you need the potty?" he would yell "NO!!!" and run away, a few times he even took a swipe at my leg... After I while I realized the miralax was really kicking in. There was not a lot he could do, although he was fighting it with all his might (like I said, entirely about poop.. feel free to stop reading if I have grossed you out). After a while Karl came up from his office to see what all the screaming and stomping was about. He asked what had happened to my plan and I told him it was becoming increasingly hard to just let it be. At this point in time he looked at Riser (who was now running around underwearless) and said "is that poop?" I said "yes, he can't hold it in" He said "well this is just silly, Riser come on" (he catches Riser, no small feat I might add, and puts him on the potty. I go down to Karl's office to check my email and be away from the craziness for a while. A few minutes later Riser joins me still trying to control his sobs. I ask "did you poop" he says "yes". We celebrate upstairs with dad, who then returns to work.
I figure, good work boy, we're all done... but... not quite... A few minutes later, the frantic dance is back. I ask "do you need to poop" he says "uhhhhhhh uhhhhhhhh uhhhhh yes" we run for the potty and success!! Riser is even pleased to see that he "made a rhino" in the potty. We yell to dad to join us in another celebration.
This time we must be done right? So I sit down to nurse Kayson in my room. Soon I hear "uhhhhh uhhhhh uhhhh" I say "do you need to poop? get to the potty!" Riser says "no!! I just.... need.... underwear!!" I decide to trust him and tell him to go to his room and get me some. Seconds later I hear wailing from his room. I say "what's wrong Rise, come hear" He says "I pooped!!" I say it's o.k. I clean it up in a minute, come here" He says "I can't I pooped!" The frantic tone made me get up to investigate. The poor boy had exploded... all over his floor. All I could say was "It's o.k. just stay where you are don't move" I ran Kayson down to Karl and ran back up. I quickly cleaned up my sobbing boy and set to work cleaning the carpet. Half a bottle of resolve later, we had made no progress. Karl comes up to see how things are going, and we decide our only hope is to rent a carpet cleaner. So off the boys and I go to rent a cleaner. Somehow Riser makes it through this adventure and a trip to Barnes and Noble to pick up "Everyone Poops" (a fabulous book by the way, Riser is a big fan...) with no accidents... what a trooper... But, The minute we walk through our door, the dance begins again, and continues to happen pretty well on the hour every hour for the rest of the day... Talk about misery! To his credit, he continued on with underwear and went to the potty each time... What a big boy!
Act 2
Sunday came and went and things seemed to be winding down, so Monday I felt confident in running some errands. Kayson had a dr. appointment and I needed to take a trip to Costco... The Dr appointment went great and when we got to Costco, Riser used the potty so I figured we were good to shop. We finished our shopping, headed back out to the car and strapped Kayson in. Riser stayed out to help me load the trunk. As I began, I heard the famous "uhhhhhhhhhhh uhhhhhhhhh!" I said "Do you need to go potty?" He said "uhhhhh! YES!!" I thought to myself, "do I have enough time to finish loading the trunk, unstrap Kayson, go back in and make it all the way to the potty?" Riser's continued "Uhhhhhhh uhhhhhhh!"'s convinced me I didn't... I looked in my trunk and saw that I still had a little plastic potty in there! We're in business! I slapped that puppy down in between my car and the one next to us, and told Riser to have a seat. He looked at me with complete disgust. "Mommy, I do not want to poop in the Road!" I said "Come on now Riser it'll be fine.." I then pull the blanket off Kayson And hold it up in front of Riser. "Look I made you a little potty! Go ahead and go buddy!" It got the better of him and he went. After that I was left with the dilemma of what do I do with it now? I opted to unwrap the pillows and had purchased, and wrap it up in that. I moved all purchases to the front seat and in between the boys and reserved the trunk for Riser's potty. We headed home... Both glad to have that experience behind us.
In closing, I may be jinxing myself by saying this, but out of this horrific weekend, I believe we may have a potty trained child. He now tells me when both the pees and poops are coming on. He even makes it through most nights with a dry pull up. Would I recommend this approach? Probably not... It's a little traumatic for EVERYONE involved, but now that it has come and gone, I am grateful for the results!
