18 hrs Clean!

Just got Julia up to nurse from a nap. We did the "wake-up from sleep" pee and went to say "hi" to Daddy and she cued to go again where she pooped.

So she's gone a stunning 18 hrs in the same diaper today that I can remember...maybe more! ( I can't recall when her last diaper change was yesterday. I can only remember we only had 2 accidents.)

Esp. pleased with the poo cue today. She peeled her tabs off and looked at me. Very clear and unmistakeable.

I misinterpreted one where she was pointing to the potty with her toy cheese earlier this week not realizing she was pointing with the cheese for poo help rather than trying to stick the cheese in the potty.

Paul and I are talking about trusting her out and about without a cover and just in a padded panty. I'm taking ready-made panties for 2T size and adjusting them down to 12 mos and adding a soaker to make Julia size training pants.

Two Diapers Out and Poo

Today we went shopping and if it hadn't been for us forgetting, Julia would have worn the same diaper she wore leaving the house for the whole 5 hours out! Excellent!

We peed her before leaving, peed her at Panera when we stopped for lunch, walked to Carter's and forgot to offer a potty opportunity there so she had an accident, peed her at JoAnn's, peed her at Target, peed her back at home.

She had no trouble going in public restrooms other than wanting to unroll toilet paper when I happened to be in a normal stall instead of being able to get the wheelchair stall where there baby changing tables usually are. When we have more space in the larger stall she's not enticed by toilet paper. When we are crowded together into a little stall, she notices it more.

But she did really well out and about. Hooray.

Last night we had a poo accident because nobody was available and she did the usual "strip off my diaper because it is soiled" thing inside the crib. Paul was asleep and I was eating dinner.

I heard this horrible cry and ran to the nursery to find her sobbing because she'd pooped. I hollered for Paul and he came running to help.

I took care of the diaper and crib mess while he consoled and cleaned her up.

Julia had pooped and was trying to take her diaper off AND fling poo out of the crib to get it away from herself. Only she discovered that poo sticks to your hand if you pick it up. She's smeared it on her head, the crib sheets, the crib shield...

Thankfully not a lot because she alerted us promptly and she didn't get too far along with the striptease. Her diaper was still half on because she got distracted by the "poo in my hand-- ack!" problem. Paul found the tiny poo that she'd flung out of the crib before realizing she had poo residue on her hand.

She was so sad... crying and yelling and flapping her little hand around as if to say, "Help! Help! Get it off me! Help! It won't wipe off! It won't shake off! Help! Aaaaaaaaahhh!"

I was wondering when the first poo streaking episode was going to happen. There you have it. At 12.5 mos old.

Telling Us About Poo, Lemonade

Moving right along.

Just now Julia came to where I was sitting. hit me on the leg and said, "Aaaah!" Took me a moment to realize she was trying to tell me about poo so by the time I got her diaper undone and on the potty she was done with the poo part of it but we got the pee part in the potty. A case of letting me know almost too late.

Yesterday for poo she kept taking off her diaper, sitting on the potty and wandering off. A case of letting us know too early.

So her timing on the poo front is coming along. It was like this with the pee too as she worked out how soon was too soon and how late was to late to either take herself or let someone know.

She's getting to be a pro at pee... the steps involved.

Yesterday she took her diaper off, located a "potty", sat on it, peed in it, then got up and went to find me to get her dressed again.

The only trouble is that she used a box of canned lemonade as the potty. I suppose to her it looked like one -- a receptacle at her sitting level with a hole in the middle. What else is it if not a potty?

Up! Up!

Very good on the pee front today -- went in public spaces with no performance anxieties at all -- church, restaurant, book store. Stayed reasonably dry -- we missed one because the car trip took longer than we thought but otherwise an all dry day. Booyah! She's holding it and cueing, and we're checking and responding so it all works out smoothly.

A grandmother was int eh bathroom at the restaurant waiting for her grandkid to come out and said to me "Oh, I think we have the stall you need.. it's got the changing table there... we'll try to hurry...."

I said, "Oh, not a problem W'ell just use this potty here," and I got the kid naked and hovering over it, cued her, peed her, dressed her, washed up and we were out of there in no time at all.

We're definitely enjoying the rewards of infant potty training efforts!

Made me laugh today in the evening. We took a nap woke up, went to pee, and got ready to nurse. Julia nursed for a little bit then suddenly looked right at me and started saying, "Up! Up! UUUUUuuuupppp!"

"Are you trying to tell me you need to go potty again? You want to potty?"

Julia grabs her diaper tabs and starts yanking and answers "Upup! Up! Uuuuppppp!!" She sits up and starts getting out of bed clamboring over me.

Talk about an OBVIOUS cue to poo!

So we go to the green bathroom. Get the diaper off. Step on the stool. Sit on the toddler ring.

I say "Ssssssss!" to start cuing her and nothing happens. Julai starts to hop off. I get her to sit.

"Wait a minute. This is not pee pee. This is poo poo. Try longer."

She sits a bit and gets restless. I offer her a bath toy to look at. She starts examining her toy and suddenly blanks out into a spaced out look, starts pooping, and goes "Unnh."

"Look at that! You put poopoo in the potty. That's where it goes, " I tell her.

Julia claps.

"That's right. Very good. You make poo poo in the potty. Let's wait some more."

We examine a hari brush and she spaces out again and goes "Mmmm."

"Look at that. You made more poo poo in the potty. Right where it goes."

We sat there for a little bit with her pooping, me sitting on the tub watching her and telling her when she's pooping so she can focus on what pooping feels like in the actual moment of making a poo.

She's done well on the pee part pf potty training but until now the poo part has been hit or miss. So I've been trying to be extra available in the eveing when she typically has to go so I can tell her when she's pooping so she learns to recognize how it feels different than the need to pee and that it might take longer to finish making than it takes her to pee.

Obvious to me at the age of 29, but still hot news to her at the age of 1.

Paul walked by and sees us in the bathroom waving goodbye to the poo as it got flushed away and he left cracking up.

Hey, I'm willing to wave goodbye to poo if it means I don't have to wash it out of a diaper!

new cues -- fuss and seek

Paul's not as attentive as I am on the potty front because he's on a slower learning curve. Julia's cues change pretty often now and he doesn't always know what the new signal is. She's not peeling tabs as a cue as often any more. Now she's doing some fussing (loud) or potty seeking (silent) instead.

With the fussing, you can misinterpret it and not realize it is because of potty business. With the potty seeking... she can wander off without your knowing it as she searches the house for the potty.

Other times, I just know. Either because I feel it's time or because I have to go myself or some other subtle cue. We were at the bookstore and I took over watching her in the children's area where she was playing so Paul could browse. When he left I stuck a finger in her diaper and thought "Yup. Damp. Dad missed a cue somewhere." Then I thought... "Wait... she's still got more coming..."

So I picked her up and said, "Let's go potty. We'll make some pee pee."

She looked at me and whispered "Peeeeeee."

"That's right. Are you telling me you need to go potty?"

"Peepeepee" she whispered while bouncing in my arms.

So I got her in the ladies room and stripped her down and held her over a toilet, said "Sssss...." and we both watched her pee into the toilet. I set her on the ground and looked around for TP and junk.

Julia clapped and seemed to expect a flush because she just stood there looking into the toilet and wasn't willing to put clothes back on til I flushed it.

Later at home when I joined Paul in the home office I asked him if she was naked because she peed her diaper. He seemed surprised beause he hadn't notice. (Did he not hear the crunchy sound of the Aplix being undone? It was cover and diaper. That's four tabs!) When I checked the discarded diaper it was damp.

Good that baby can deal with taking away her own diaper, bad on Daddy for not being more mindful.

I didn't say anything and just took her to get a fresh one but I do need to talk to him about being more mindful of her potty needs when he's supposed to be "watching the baby."

I sat down to do some email and after a while I quit hearing her turn pages in her board book so I looked up to see her wandering out the door.

"Julia, where are you going?"

She stops to look at me and pats her diaper and starts to feel the tab.

"Are you going to the potty? Do you want to make pee pee?"

She looks at me and rips the tab open and starts to wander off down the hall again.

"I'm coming behind you. Where is the potty?"

She heads to the green bathroom and pauses to beat the stainless steel trash can lid while I arrange the step stool in front of the toilet.

I pat the stool. She comes over and climbs on it and holds out her arms for me to undo the rest of the diaper. I help her up on the toilet, say "Sssss." and she pees. She grabs my hands, hops off and turns to look at the toilet.

"Look at that! You put pee pee in the potty. That's where pee pee goes. Ok, flush now. "I flush the toilet while she looks inside.

"Bye bye, pee-pee!" I say.

She waves at it leaving. Cracks me up.

This is getting easier and easier with her....

It really makes me angry when I skim parenting books at the bookstore and I see so many of the books telling people not to bother toilet training until later because it "isn't possible." That's such crap.

If parent is not ready to teach it early that is one thing. Not everyone can teach easily at all ages. But to just dismiss it because it is "not possible" means parents are misled and they miss a good opportunity.

An opportunity to learn to coomunicate with their child before the child has verbal skills and understand them better and a chance to get the child housebroken without struggle.

Toddler training -- I see other moms doing it and to me it looks soooo much harder as it becomes a contest of wills. With Julia still being in the "will comply cheerfully, albeit easily distracted" stage my only problems are 1) bringing Paul up-to-date on the latest potty signal and 2) watching the kid when she gives the signal and providing verbal prompts as needed so she stays on task and doesn't forget where she is going if the potty is far away.

Partial Poo

I was sewing and Julia was bottomless playing on the couch near me when she hopped off, came to stand beside me and just looked perplexed. I didn't notice her at my elbow until I caught a whiff of poo and I led her to the potty where she finished making her poop and a pee.

So she knows enough not to poop on the furniture and to come and get me, but not enough to tap me on the leg or vocalize somehow if I don't notice her right away.

Good on the potty front for pee though -- took herself alone once today and went after I prompted her to go.