It’s official: Ryan is potty-trained in terms of peeing, and only during the daytime. But considering that this time a mere week ago he was in diapers 24/7, this is a HUGE step for us. Tuesday was the only real “iffy” day; by Wednesday Ryan stayed dry all day long, even while we’ve been out in the car, in restaurants, stores, etc. Every morning he gets up, takes off his diaper (or we take it off for him), goes to the bathroom, then gets a pair of underwear. He goes to the bathroom as-needed throughout the day, and doesn’t need any prompting from us. But since I’m still worried about the occasional accident, especially if we have been out for a bit or if it’s been a while since he has gone to the bathroom, I’ll go ahead and ask him if he needs to go.
Pooping… that’s another issue altogether. So far Ryan has not have a bowel movement in the toilet. Compounding the issue of potty-training him for a bowel movement is that he has a compulsion to hold his bowel movements. I think this goes back to the summer, when he had a bit of a bowel obstruction and some painful fecal impaction. But a week’s worth of hardcore prescription stool softeners & laxatives, combined with daily suppositories, cleared him out, and since then the issue of him not going as he should is behavioral, and not physical.
So — excuse the grossness — we’ve been dealing with “sharts” and very small amounts of poop, but nothing that I would classify as a “standard” bowel movement. It’s only a matter of time, though. He rarely goes beyond four days without having a massive bowel movement. If he doesn’t have one by tomorrow afternoon, I’ll dose him with [prescription] meds and a suppository (needless to say, we keep a ready supply of them on hand).
But still, I am SO proud of Ryan. I never thought he would take to it so quickly. But he has!
As for the title of this entry, today was just one of those days where I was dealing with poop every time I turned around. First, Ryan and I came back after a morning out, to find that Leah had pooped in her crate (which means in her bed, since her bed takes up the majority of the space in her crate). I put her out this morning for about a half hour, but I guess she didn’t have to go then, and couldn’t hold it until we got home. So I gave her a treat, shook the crap out of her bed, then threw it in the washer for a two hour and 56 minute stain wash, complete with pre-wash, post-rinse, and bleach. Yes, bleach, on a colored dog bed. So far it hasn’t removed any of the color, and even if does, at least I know it’ll be clean and disinfected!
Then Ryan went through about seven pairs of underwear (see two paragraphs up). BLECH. I am just SO done with poop today!