Potty Training Adventures, Cont.

A friend of mine was joking with me the other day about what is and is not appropriate conversation for a public blog, in regards to potty training. My response to her was that when she has kids, she'll understand the need to let people know about what you are going through on a daily basis as a mom -- so they can appreciate it!

All joking aside, I like to not only be open and real on my blog, but I also like to record life as it is happening today, so that someday my kids and I can look back and remember these days. This is the closest thing I keep to a journal, and my kids do not have baby books (I'm just not good at that kind of stuff), so this is what we have to work with.

That's why I have another potty training story to share with you. :) HA!

Most of you know that I do NOT love grocery shopping. Combine that with potty training and a night like this was bound to happen. It was the most insane trip to the grocery store I can remember.

Picture, if you can, a 9-month pregnant woman sprinting from one end of a grocery store to another with an anxious-looking toddler on her hip, pushing one of those massive, semi-license-required-to-operate police car shopping carts with a curly-headed 3-year-old hanging on for dear life inside the cab, and yelling, "Excuse me! Coming through! Emergency! Excuse me!" the whole way.

Now imagine that three times over.

Yes, three times Ruby looked up at me with those big, beautiful blues and pleaded, "Mommy! Poop coming!" So we RACED to the bathroom, only to sit...and sit...and sit...for what seemed like a half hour each time (but was probably really more like 10 minutes each)...for nothing. Nothing. I promised a big treat. Nothing. I tickled her until she could hardly breathe. Nothing. Rae and I sang songs and encouraged her with cheers. Nothing.

Finally, we made it to the check out line. It wasn't until after I had unloaded everything from the cart onto the conveyor belt that the fourth plea came, more earnest than the last few. I looked at the cashier and she just said, "Go -- I've got this."

So off we raced again, leaving all of our groceries on the counter. And again...NOTHING.

When we got back to the line, the cashier was just finishing ringing up and bagging everything for us. There were at least 3 people in line behind me now, all of them looking at me like, "what the heck is up with this lady, and where has she been?" I apologized over and over, and they were all pretty sweet and understanding in their responses.

We made it to the car and I put Ruby right on the potty chair (because yes, I do bring it with us everywhere right now. Today Ruby even sat on it in the waiting room at the doctor's office. So? What? You got a problem? hahaha!) while I unloaded the groceries. Nothing.

I hooked them into their chairs and took off down the road. I called JP back (who had been calling me while we were shopping and I kept on ignoring the call for obvious reasons). We weren't one mile from the store and the 5th plea came, panicky and urgent sounding. I hung up on JP without warning, threw on the hazard lights and pulled over to the side of the road, got Ruby out of her car seat and onto the potty chair, and then..."I did it, Mommy!"

And sure enough, there was Ruby's little turd. Right in the potty where it belonged. All of my efforts were not in vain. Ruby was a champ. Rae was cheering, I was almost crying, Ruby was grinning ear to ear. We celebrated with singing and freshly bought Curious George fruit snacks.

As we drove home we went from dark skies to light rain to a full-on torrential downpour, coupled with a fascinating electrical storm. When we got to our house, I pulled in as close to the garage as I could (but of course, it's too messy right now to actually park inside) and unloaded the girls, the poop-filled potty chair, my bag, and the ice cream. Everything else would have to wait. I plopped the girls in front of VeggieTales and went back out to the garage to try to clear a spot to pull into far enough to unload the groceries. My body started revolting (can't blame it) and I started having contractions, so I stopped.

When I came back in, I found Ruby sitting on the potty chair (which I had cleaned out, thankfully) with a smile and another, "I did it!" Sure enough, she had self-initiated peeing on the potty. What a little champion!


I am very encouraged by Ruby's quick progress (relatively speaking; remember how long we trained Rae?). We still have a ways to go, but she "gets it," for the most part. I'm glad I took this different approach to training her, and I hope it just gets easier with each kid.

I could very well have a full week or two of no diapers...until Rosie joins our world. :)

And quickly, before I close -- I had my 36-week check up today. 36 weeks is the official "full-term" checkpoint. Baby is fully formed and ready to go, even though my due date isn't for another 4 weeks. Everything was healthy, and so far I have gained 22 pounds. Not too bad. They say you gain a pound a week at the end, which will put me just over what I gained with Ruby. As long as I stay under 30 pounds, I have no complaints!