Potty Training = Hell

The last post that I started said "Well, I can't believe that June is halfway over already!". Oops. Well, now we are at the end of July! Holy moly, where is the time going? I can't believe that I only have 8 weeks left until Baby Cam gets here too. I really need to get my head in the baby zone, but we have hit the potty training pretty hard the past month or so with LF.

She basically woke up when we were staying in Enid with Andy and decided that she should pee on the potty that morning! This was very exciting but I was totally unprepared for it that day. She was ready to do it and I thought, "Great! This is going to be a breeze!". I was a little ahead of myself!

SO, I'll just go ahead and say it, potty training is hell. Really. If you thought your limits had been tested before, then just wait - unless you are one of those unusually lucky parents that their kid just immediately gets on the toilet and starts peeing and pooping with no accidents. In that case, I hope you stub your toe to make up for the misery that the rest of us have to endure.

Here is what is frustrating for us: Princess has had less than 5 peepee accidents since we started. Andy and I can take partial credit for those since it was really the fact that we forgot to remind her to run to the potty when we got home. The problem for us is that she is not recognizing when she needs to have her bowel movements or I guess she is not relaxed enough to do it on the potty . Also, please refer to earlier post about poop and Andy. As you have read and know, my hubby has a very hard time with poop. I will say though, and for the love of God I can't figure out why, Andy has not been sick one time since we started all this. THANK THE LAWD! I might be more proud of him than Princess! I guess it's because it's not just sitting in her diaper marinating for however long. We have set timers, asked every thirty minutes, used positive reinforcement, probably used some negative as well, and tried every trick in the book I can think of and have asked other Mommy's for advice too.

Ok, literally for twenty minutes the other day, she told me she needed to poopoo. We went in, she stripped down, sat on the potty, and BAM - nothing happened. This sequence happened around 5 times. Ok. She then went to her room to play and I am not kidding comes right back out and says "Mommy I poopooed in my panties." And here comes the steam that wants to come out of my ears - and what I really want to say to her is, "Why the hell didn't you shit on the pot 5 minutes ago???!!!" Instead I say, "Well, honey, run in the bathroom and let's try to make some more come out in the toilet." So, we dump the poop from the panties, wipe up, and try some more. If she has an accident, she gets a sad face on her board instead of a Disney Princess sticker, and she still doesn't get her new baby that she picked out at Target. Baby is just staring down at her in the bathroom, waiting to play with her. I felt like we really may have sparked things with her after she picked out that baby because she went poop in the potty that evening! I thought it worked!! Nope. That lasted about two days and the excitement wore off. Maybe I need to take her out of the packaging to get things going? I know she'll get it, and I know she can do it. BUT, potty training is REALLY testing the limits of my patience. I guess I am grateful that we are not dealing with the peepee accidents since that is wet and a pain to clean up. But, I keep praying every day, please Lord, let this child poop in the potty!!

Oh also, not only did I have her poop to clean up the other day, but our Boston Terrier, who I am pretty sure has a chemical imbalance of some sort, shit all in her kennel that night. Awesome. I love waking up to dog shit. And then cleaning up my kid's bowel movements throughout the rest of the day.

We left two weeks ago for the start of a long trip for the Marlette Family Reunion, my mom's side of the Gage-Lancaster Family Reunion, and finally my dad's side of the Bentley Family Reunion. We stayed in Shreveport the first week for my doctor's visit and to spend some time with Andy's mom and sister's family and to hang out with our friends. We then traveled from Shreveport to Lake D'arbonne, back to Shreveport, up to Iron Mountain in Arkansas,  over to Mena, Arkansas, and then back to OKC. The first week was still unsuccessful with LF's pooping in the potty. On the Sunday before we left the Marlette reunion, I decided she should not wear her panties until she pooped in the potty or we were on the road. I knew that she needed to because I could see the signals. She probably came in and tried about three times and FINALLY - SUCCESS!!!! She did it!! Other parents out there - I am sure you can realate to this - but how in the world does that much poop come out of such a tiny human being?! Wowzer! Oh man, I was just so proud of her and excited! She got some M&M's, and I knew she was really proud of herself too. So, if letting her just run around naked is what works, then that is what works. Also, Dada told her if she pooped on the floor, she was going to get a spanking and it was not going to be soft! She really hasn't had many of those but she told me a couple weeks ago to make sure I spank her "really soft Mommy" (I think this was after I threatened her because I thought she was going to suffocate our Boston Terrier when she was trying to "pick" her up), and also to brush her hair "really soft Mommy" (which I tell her over and over if she would quit wiggling it would not hurt!). She told Papa Bear that too. I just about died because he was like "Lila Faye, if I spank you it is NOT going to be soft". Oh the joys of parenting!

Since then, she's had a few more accidents, but it is much better. I think by the time she starts school, she should be pretty good. She finally got to hold that baby that was staring down at her for the past month too!