Potty training tales: Emma's turn

Let March 15, 2016 be forever remembered as a very important day...twas the first day Emma ever pooped and pee'd on the potty. Why is this such a momentous occasion?  Well, I would argue that any parent going through potty training with their child would be pretty excited about the first time they actually go on the potty, but for Emma this has been a long time in the making.  A really.long.time.

We've been working with her (very casually mind you) for several months now to get her comfortable sitting on the potty.  She typically had no problem agreeing to sit on the potty, but she never went.  She would sit, sometimes for several minutes on end, and still nothing.  At Thanksgiving, there was one moment where she said she had to pee (and in fact was already doing so in her diaper), yet we rushed her onto the potty and she had a few drips come out.  We celebrated that, but that was a fluke.

I decided that while we were on vacation this month, we would really focus on potty training since we'd have the time to do so.  I know she's ready because she can get her own pants on and off, she can tell us when she has to go (or rather is already going), and as the first few days of "hardcore training" down here have shown me, she can also hold it in really well!

It seems she has a fear of letting her potty out while on the toilet.  No, it's not a fear of herself falling into the toilet, for we have a small potty seat on the toilet that she sits on securely and when she isn't in need of having to "go", she sits on the potty and sings, talks to you, whatever.  But the moment she gets the sensation of needing to "go" she starts crying and holds it in.  Some times she would say she needs a "pull up" diaper, because that's clearly what she is most comfortable going in.  But the moment you deny her that, she cries and just holds it in.  She even told me she was scared of her wee coming out of her.  So for the first few days, she didn't ever go on the toilet and as a result had a few accidents, although some were pretty minor (where she'd start to pee, but stop herself, run to the toilet and then just sit there for nothing) and then eventually when it was nap time or bedtime we'd put her in a pull up and that's when she'd finally go....wasting a clean diaper nearly the moment we put it on her.

We tried a lot of different things with her during all of these moments of her sitting on the potty to no avail.  We ran water from the tap, we gave her hugs, rubbed her legs, held her hand, and sang songs like "Let it Go" to which I sometimes changed the words to be "Let it go, let it go, don't hold it in anymore...".  :)  All of these things were hopefully to relax her, but still none did the trick.

However, on this momentous day she finally didn't hold it in anymore.  Sure, she cried pretty hard for quite awhile, both just before and during the deed, but she did it all.  First a poo, then a pee.  It was glorious!  We rewarded her with a special candy (a caramello koala to be precise, for which she thanked Evan for bringing it to her...such a sweetie!) and we all praised her.  She did seem awfully proud of herself afterward.  My hope was that this first experience might open the flood gates to better experiences thereafter.  While that has not entirely been the case, I do see improvements.

She did have a little poop accident a few hours later and then when she went potty after her nap she cried about it a bit before finally letting it go.  But, it's getting there.  And about that poop accident...it went something like this:

Nanna: "Is that a poop on the floor, or is that a date?"  (In her defense we did have dates in the house and had been snacking on them)

Nanna then proceeds to use a tissue to pick it up and show it to the kids and to me.  "I think that looks more like a poo!"

Me: "Yes it does, let me check Emma's pants."  I do not see any poop her in pants, but granted her shorts were rather loose and flowy and so a poo could have just dropped right out of them.  I proceed to then check her bottom, which is indeed poopy.

Me: "Yep, she pooped."

Lessons learned--beware of anything that looks even slightly like poop when you're in the middle of potty training! If it looks like poop, it probably is! :O