Dirty pants are no fun for anyone

Baby sister getting a bath at Nana's house

A strange new change has happened in the last few days around here. My toddler who never ever has accidents in her panties, has ... wait for it.... started having accidents in her panties! It's so terrible! She will be fine and then all of a sudden run (or waddle) up to us saying that we need to change her "pew-pews." It's always a bit concerning when we point out that she's not in a diaper, so why did she have an accident.

     So, we're doing a lot more laundry and having a lot more showers and baths lately. My only hope is that she is getting very very close to being fully potty trained and this is her last push. I'm hoping; because I have very little interest in cleaning soiled panties and pants for much longer.

Yuck.

Back to normal!

Just a quick note today to say that Lactulose syrup really does work! It has successfully regulated my little baby so she is back to normal. Nothing too outlandish, and sure beats all the other home remedies and medical suppositories that were suggested. I'll take pouring a bit of syrup in her applesauce once a day over it all.

     And thankfully it isn't too expensive, and smells like coconuts. It doesn't appear to have much taste (yes, I tasted a bit of her food once I'd mixed in the syrup) although it might sweeten things up a bit. Not too bad. Oh, but it is a little green/blue tinged, so that does make the applesauce a somewhat interesting color. Oh well, I don't mind if she doesn't!

Double it up

One great piece of advice that someone told me before having my first was - double it up! This was in reference to sheets on the crib (or bed, for that matter), and I agree. There is nothing worse than having some sort of accident in the middle of the night that requires a changing of the sheets. You are most likely already dealing with a mess, having to make a crib in addition just makes it worse.

     So, double it up. When making the crib in the first place, I put down a plastic waterproof mattress cover. I do this despite the fact that the mattress is waterproof itself. Why? Because I really don't want to have to scrub the mattress to get whatever spilled off of it. It's much easier to throw the waterproof mattress cover into the washing machine.

     Alright, so I have the waterproof sheet down. Then I put the pretty crib sheet over that. Now normally this would be the end of making the crib bed, right? Wrong! Next I put another waterproof mattress cover on, followed by a final sheet. So essentially, I have just made the crib mattress twice. Why?

     Because now whenever there needs to be a quick change of the sheets, all I have to do is.... pull one set of regular sheet and waterproof sheet off, and presto! The bed is still made underneath. For the middle of the night, this is an amazing time saver. And then I can go back the next day to add on the 2nd layer again, when I have more than a few brain cells firing and feel a little less like a zombie. I highly recommend this trick; you and your REM cycle will appreciate it.

Stay tuned for Plan B

Well, unfortunately it seems that my daughter is not the one who takes the pediatrician's advice to heart and decides she is big enough to use the potty instead of asking for a diaper before going #2. Too bad. It would have been so cool if that's all it took.

     So, now onto plan B. Unfortunately, the suggested plan B was to take the dirtied diaper, and flush the contents into the toilet while letting my daughter watch and flush the toilet herself. This is all in an attempt to demystify the process, and get her to realize how normal and cool (to some) it is.

     We are going to try this. Well, I am going to try this; I'm not sure my husband is quite up for it. Although in all reality, I'm not sure I'm quite up for it either. Especially since at the moment her schedule is such that often she's asking for a diaper around dinnertime. This plan B stuff doesn't sound like something you really want to do on a full stomach.

     Come to think of it, I'm not sure I want to do it right before a meal either. So when I find a time that isn't right before or right after eating, then we'll try this. Hmm... in a house where everyone loves to eat, this might be tricky to schedule. Stay tuned, it might be a while before we do this.

Mommy's helper

To the normal person, changing a baby's diapers is a necessary evil but certainly not something that you jump at the chance of doing. In fact, I know several adults who work actively to avoid it unless they absolutely have to. 

     Well, apparently my toddler does not share this feeling. Instead, she is eager to help me change her sister's diapers, and gets rather frustrated if she's not invited to participate. Just recently I started to change the baby's diaper when my toddler came screaming into the room. I had not announced to her that I was going to change a diaper, and she felt rather frustrated that I was trying to keep this event from her. 

     When I had already taken off and disposed of the old diaper, a huge tantrum ensued. She demanded that I take the dirty diaper out of the diaper pail and reattach it to her sister. As I wasn't about to do this, we had to endure the wrath of the 2-year old for several minutes. 

     Eventually she calmed down, so I let her do the velcro points on the fresh clean diaper, and also allowed her to help snap the snaps on the baby's onesie. All was well with the world. 

     Now if only we could somehow bottle this enthusiasm and energy and give it to adults...

Get up and go syrup

My little 9-month old is still having trouble in the dirty diaper department. She has pureed prunes mixed in with every meal, and yet still seems to be creating diamonds down there. Not to go into too much gruesome detail, but the pediatrician suggests that they be more the consistency of mashed potatoes than of coal.

     His advice? In addition to prunes, completely remove baby cereal from her diet. Also stay away from bananas and other starchy foods and focus more of veggies and fruits. And on top of all of that, he's given her a prescription for some tasteless syrup that I'm to add into everything she eats (he said I could add it to her bottles, too) and it should clear her out after a few days.

     So off to the pharmacy we go... and I'm a little scared about what's going to happen in the next few days. Granted I don't want her all backed up to a point where it could be harmful to her, so I'll update y'all in a few days, but we may significantly increase our diaper usage around here soon. Watch out!

Follow up on prunes plan

I had mentioned previously that I was going to start adding prunes into my baby's diet and see if that helped fix her stopped up issues. Well, I was surprised at how long it took for them to take effect. After adding a bit of pureed prunes into each meal, it still took her about 3 days before she was going again. And even then, it wasn't like she went from one extreme to the other.

     Sorry for such a poo focused post, but I just wanted to follow up and report on the results. We are definitely going to continue adding prunes to everything. For one thing, she seems to like their added sweetness to all her food. Also, they do seem to be helping. I guess I was just expecting that they would give her that get-up-and-go feeling, but they seem to have just brought her back to "normal" instead.

     And I'm very much hoping that getting her digestive system back on a normal course will help in the sleeping department as well. Although I've been operating on 2hr increments of sleep for months and months now, I'd be very happy to extend those sleep stretches out to 3 or 4... even 6 hours at a time? Wow, I think I might just feel like Wonder Woman if I got 6 hours of uninterrupted sleep.

Doctor experiment

With my toddler turning 3, that meant a trip to the pediatrician for the yearly checkup. Sadly, this is something that I look forward to, but my daughter not so much. At least this time she didn't have to get any shots, so perhaps next time she won't be dreading it as much.

     Anyways, when the doctor asked how potty training was going, I mentioned her unwillingness to go #2 in the potty and our fun with the diapers. He smiled and talked about his 2 sons and the troubles they had getting fully potty trained. And he had some suggestions.

     First, during her examination, he kept saying that he was checking her out to see if she was big enough for the big girl potty. And lo and behold, she was! So high fives all around, he told her that he approves her using the big girl potty. To me, he said that this trick works about once a year for him, so who knows... maybe she'll be the one! I'm not holding my breath, but will certainly try to remind her of it tonight and see if it works (I'll let y'all know, too).

     His second suggestion was that after she finishes doing her business in her diaper, to take the soiled diaper and put the contents into the potty (with her in attendance) and have her watch and participate by flushing. Perhaps after watching how it works and see that it isn't scary or weird, maybe it'll click and she'll get there. If his first trick doesn't work, you can be sure I'll try out the 2nd one soon. Stay tuned.

Beware the bananas

So while my toddler is having trouble pooping in the potty, my younger daughter seems to be having trouble pooping at all. The poor little one has been pretty stopped up ever since we started her on solid foods.

     At about 5 months old, we started giving her pureed bananas, and her diapers were never the same. In fact, for several days they weren't dirty at all. I had no idea how much bananas could affect one's digestive health. And I would have guessed that they were like other fruits and could cause diarrhea if over indulged, but apparently they have so much starch in them that they cause the opposite affect.

     At first we considered suppositories, but instead have found that the home remedy of a dab of Vaseline on a Q-tip inserted just barely into her bum fixed things. And since then we've worked hard to vary her diet and mostly avoid things like bananas and cereal that we know will stop things up. Turns out she is a big fan of beets and other veggies, so it hasn't been too hard to avoid bananas and rice cereal.

     Then recently a friend suggested that we add prunes to her food. My friend uses a small bit of prunes in all of her son's baby food and it keeps him regular without any other actions. This is my new plan... with a bit of prunes at each meal, I hope she will be free and clear without discomfort.

First 1, then 2... please?

My older daughter is 3, and for the most part I would say that she is fully potty trained. She does still use a diaper/pull-up at night, but it's often dry or just barely wet, so we've been discussing the idea of moving her to panties overnight very soon. And during the day she wears panties exclusively.

     Well, almost. She hasn't quite mastered the art of going #2 in the potty. I'm not sure if it's a fear issue or a comfort thing or what, but she refuses to poo in the potty. Instead, she comes to me or my husband or any other adult around, and asks for a pull-up. That's our sign that she needs to go #2.

     I guess we should be happy that she doesn't go in her panties. In fact she has had very few accidents ever (not including wet panties, mind you). And there was a short time where she did go #2 in the potty, so we know she can... We're not sure why she won't. I've asked other parents, and so far I haven't had any success finding what the secret is to getting her out of diapers when it comes to #2. They just say to wait it out.

     So until she is ready, we have to endure the requests for pull-ups. At least when we put the pull-up on, she runs into the bathroom and shuts the door. It's a lot better than her hiding under the table while we're eating or just squatting in the room, but it is a big aggravating that she seems so close to that final step, yet unable to take it.

Always go before you go

Previously I've mentioned my toddler's fascination and obsession with Daniel Tiger's Neighborhood. Well, one of the situations in the potty episode is when Daniel Tiger is headed out with his dad, and he learns that he needs to try and go potty before leaving the house. I never thought that this was an issue that warranted a huge percentage of the episode until we hit that stage ourselves. Apparently it isn't common sense to a toddler that you should go potty before getting in the car, since you don't know where the next potty will be. It's certainly not common sense to my toddler anyway.

     Recently, we had to go to Costco; all of us together. Usually I try and avoid taking both girls with me when going on errands like this, but we just got home after being in Portland for 2 weeks, so we had no food. Well, we did have some food in the fridge, but its edibility is debatable. So off to Costco we go!

     And of course my daughter strongly stated that she did not have to use the potty as we left (perhaps this was because she was busy trying to wrestle her sister to the ground). So off we went. And no sooner had we pulled away from the house and headed down the block than she yelled, "I have to go potty!!"

     But can you guess what my toddler started saying the minute we got the groceries and ourselves back in the car to go home? Yes. I guess it's just an "I have to go potty!" kind of day.

A little help from friends

My toddler is pretty obsessed with Daniel tiger. She throws tantrums that rival an addicts withdrawal from heroine when it's time to turn off the iPad and stop watching Daniel Tiger's Neighborhood. And for the most part I'm ok with this obsession. Why? Because she learns some excellent lessons from the show. They deal with several social issues that a 2 - 4 year old might encounter - everything from sharing toys, having babysitters, going to preschool, etc.

     One of my favorite is all about using the potty. The episode covers several situations where the characters don't want to take time out of whatever they are doing to use the potty, and why it is important to go potty anyway. There's even a song - "if you have to go potty, stop and go right away. Flush and wash and be on your way." My daughter isn't the only child I've heard singing the song; it's actually incredibly catchy. I'm sure you can find it on youtube if you look.

     So now I'd say that Daniel Tiger, and specifically his potty song, have been added to the list of songs my child will grow up thinking of with nostalgia. Right in there with Raffi's "Brush your Teeth" song, and "The Itsy Bitsy Spider" will be "If You Have to go Potty." Awesome.

Accidental success!

In her Xmas Jammies

Last night, an amazing thing happened... completely by accident. Addison stayed dry all night long!

     Apparently both my husband and I were distracted, exhausted, something... because our toddler ended up spending the entire night in panties instead of a diaper. We didn't realize this until the morning when shortly after waking up she ran into the bathroom to use the potty.

     We both noticed that she was wearing panties about the same time, and after confirming that neither had put her in them this morning, we realized that she'd been in them all night.

     And they were dry. DRY! I was so amazed and impressed. I'm not sure when this feat will be repeated, but it was exciting to know that our negligent (of the diaper) didn't result in middle-of-the-night sheets and jammies changes. And that she really might be getting to a point where she could go all night without needing a diaper. Wow. That would be great.

Happy day!

Not quite to nighttime

Well we tried an experiment last night. A friend of mine (also happens to be my next door neighbor and a mother with girls the same age) suggested trying to put panties on my toddler and then a diaper over them for sleep times. Since she has never had much trouble staying dry for nap times, we did it last night to see how it would go overnight. 

     The novelty of the experience seemed to appeal to her, so it wasn't difficult to get her to keep her panties on and then put a diaper over them. Next time I'm going to use a pull-up, since with panties on she tried to use the potty a few times before bed and getting the diaper on and off was a bit tricky. Anyways, it seemed to be going really well last night.

     Unfortunately, this morning when we all got up, her panties and diaper were soaking wet. Oh well, I guess it was successful in the sense that we didn't have to change her clothes and her bed, but wasn't successful in the sense that she still peed overnight. I guess she's not quite ready, although I'm hopeful that she's close.

     Then again, I'd be even more excited if she were to figure out how to poop in the potty. That would make my day even more than staying dry overnight.

In search of the Perfect Potty Solution

I've been trying to keep a running blog for several years now, and I haven't been very successful. I think part of the reason is that I haven't had a theme that I could stick with. I'm not going to delve into what that says about the direction or focus of my life as a whole, but it does make blogging a bit tricky.

     Also, I don't want to compete with all those mommy-bloggers out there; I know that I don't have enough witty perspectives on my life and enough interesting tidbits to share. Besides, there are zillions upon zillions out there already, so why do what everyone else is doing? The whole point of a blog is to share your unique thoughts and perspectives, right? So, I've tried to do a photo blog (where the theme was, "look at the pictures of our week/day/life") and a recipe themed blog, and neither really stuck. So we're trying again.... but this time I'm using a different angle. 

     Instead of trying to blog weekly about our daily life - which at times is hilarious, terrifying, busy, or boring and mundane.... I'm going to try and have each entry somehow related to the trials and tribulations of having a toddler and baby who are still in diapers. Well, one is in diapers (almost 9months) and the other is in the midst of the potty training adventure (she'll be 3 in a matter of days). And who doesn't like to talk about poop? So welcome to the potty blog.

     And here are my inspirations - the wonderful girls that I'm so happy to call mine.... even if they mean a lot of diaper changes and time spent sitting on the floor of the bathroom next to the pink singing potty.

     One more thing - If you have tips or suggestions that you think I should try, feel free to tell me. I'm always looking for advice from other parents, ideas to try, and all around curious about how others are solving the conundrum that is parenting, especially as it relates to the multitudes of diapers that a 2-diaper wearing household produces. And if your ideas seem interesting and worth a try, I just might test them out and let you know if they are successful for us.