Potty Training: Two Steps Forward and One Step Back (The Airplane Blowout)

The day had started well! We had packed the night before and only needed to gather a few last minute things like toothbrushes and makeup. We had selected a great time for our flight to Victoria so that we didn't have to rush. On top of that, we were actually leaving the house looking pretty clean, so we could even look forward to returning home! I was walking around our apartment with a little extra bounce in my step. "Family vacation hasn't gone this smoothly since. . .well. . .I don't think it's ever gone this smoothly" I thought. I smiled as I remembered the flat tire we got on the way back from California and ended up sleeping in the car between semi's at a rest stop in Nevada because we couldn't find a hotel. . .that we were willing to pay for. Or the time that we woke up late, were out of gas and had to find a gas station which turned out to be way off the beaten path, ran through the airport as our names were being paged over the intercom, making it to our gate as they were closing it, relieved that the TSA employee who found a butter knife in Robby's backpack let us through. . . But this vacation was going to go great because we were off to a nice start!

Here are the girls the day before we left for vacation

Robby's mom dropped us off at the airport and we leisurely walked in, knowing we had plenty of time. I handed Leila a muffin to fill her tummy and keep her occupied. After Robby had checked himself and Leila in at the kiosk, my "perfect-vacation-bubble" popped--Leila vomited all over her shirt, pants, and the stroller! Luckily we had our luggage still, so Robby whisked the Leila-stroller package off to the bathroom, changed, her rinsed the umbrella stroller in the sink, threw out the pants that were too small for her anyway, bagged the pukey shirt and returned to my side as I was checking our bags. OK, a minor hiccup on the outset of our trip, but we glided through that just fine! This was going to be a good day still! We made it to our layover airport in Seattle, a little tired of occupying two busy girls, but nothing unusual for a day in the life of a parent.

After having some trouble finding our new gate, Leila said she had pooped in her diaper. I asked Robby to take Leila to the bathroom and change her diaper. He went into the men's bathroom, but there was no changing table (what is up with that by the way?) So he looked all over for a family bathroom. When that was fruitless, he settled on changing her diaper on the counter in the men's bathroom. A little flustered by now, he opened her diaper to find. . . no poop. He returned feeling spent. I, not picking up on this and learning of her poop-free diaper, asked Robby if he would take her to the potty so she could go poop before our next flight.

Aside: As an update on the potty-training adventure, Leila had been doing awesome--keeping her pull-up clean all day except for when she napped or slept at night. And even then, she sometimes woke up "clean and dry".

Since this picture, she has learned how to
wear underwear correctly :)

Robby brought her to the toilet, not at all thrilled by this point.
"OK. Go potty." This came off as too much of a command for Leila as this little threenager doesn't take orders from anybody!
"No!" she resisted.
"Well, if you don't try now, you're not going to get to go on the plane. It's now or not at all!"
"That's OK! I don't need to go" she said.
"Alright! If you need to go on the plane you'll just have to go in your pull-up!"
Leila agreed and they came back to the gate to await our plane's arrival.

It was a small plane--about the size of a greyhound bus--two seats on either side of the aisle. As fate would have it, I ended up sitting next to Leila. Robby sat with Heidi on the other side of the aisle. We were seated smack dab in the middle of the plane--perfect--not too close to the stinky bathroom at the front, not so close to the back that we'll be the last off the plane! It wasn't long after we sat down that Leila insisted that she needed to go potty--of course.

"Nope. She's not going potty. She agreed that if she didn't go potty before she would just have to go in her pull-up. She said that was fine. She's not going potty" Robby insisted.
I stared at him hard. I understand following through, but the urge to go potty sometimes comes later than sooner. . .but I could tell he was resolute, so I backed him up.
"No Leila, you didn't go potty before. It's too late."
"But it's poop! I have to go poop!"
I turned to Robby to see if that new snippet of information would help him to let up. Nope.
"Sorry Leila. You'll just have to go in your pull-up. Your pull-up will catch it."
. . .or would it?. . .
Leila started to cry. The plane hasn't even left yet; It would be so much easier to take her to the potty. But my husband and I are a united front, so there we stayed. The plane took off and the poor girl was upset.
"It's coming out!"
I tried to comfort her, but it was in vain since I wouldn't be helping to relieve her discomfort.
"She had pooped in her diaper a thousand times before. I guess it wouldn't hurt if it was one more time?" I thought, trying to reason with myself.
"It's coming OOOOOUT!" she said, more loudly this time and with more anxiety in her voice.
"I know honey. . ."
"Noooo!" She cut me off. "It's coming out of my DIIIIIAPER!!!" she shrieked.
OH NO! I lifted her shirt.
"It's all over my shirt!" It sure was! liquid poop oozing out all over her pants and pouring onto the leather seat.
"Oooh! I'm sorry honey! It's OK!" I told her.
I threw a glare at Robby.

I scrambled and found the wipes in my diaper bag. I swept up the stinky mess with a wipe. The stench was surely filling the small plane from front to back. Maybe our centrally located seating arrangement wasn't so ideal after all. After scooping up the mess, I laid the wipes on the inside of a clean diaper so I could wrap it up when I was through. To what end was I wiping this up, I didn't know. There was still a poopy mess that couldn't be remedied without a washing machine and a shower, but I had to so something. Leila just cried and clung to my legs, burying her head in my lap. Within minutes, she fell asleep. There was mess, there was stink, but now there was relative calm with her passed out. That was Heidi's cue. Our plane started descending and she started to scream. Her ears must be popping! My plan had been to nurse her as we descended (the best way to help a baby who's ears are popping, because it encourages them to swallow). But now my hands were disgusting! I couldn't hold that girl! I definitely didn't want to pass the germs on to my baby. Irritated at the spot I found myself in, I turned my back to Robby as if to say "this is the mess you get to deal with!"

The flight ended and all the over-stimulated passengers vacated the airplane. We avoided eye contact with them and remained until the last passenger had left. Robby told a flight attendant that we had a poop accident. Bless her heart, you would have thought he had said we had dropped some pretzels with how calmly she reacted. "No problem! We'll send someone to clean it up!" Her calm reaction made me less anxious. Then a male employee entered the plane. The flight attendant asked him to call for a clean up.
"What kind of a clean up?" he asked, looking puzzled.
"poop" she said matter-of-factly.
"POOP?! You mean like. . .POOP?! What, is it like, SMEARED all over the seat or something?!"
--Two strikes for males in the poop department today--
She calmly explained the incident and brought out some sanitary wipes and Delta imprinted grocery bags to help out.
We woke Leila up to an empty plane, stripped her down completely and wiped her off. We put her poopy clothes in a bag to bring with us and wash. . .which we accidentally left on the plane. This time we didn't have a change of clothes for her so after putting a new pull-up on her, she donned Robby's purple hoody.  It went clear down to her ankles.

She looked like a hobo child. I know, because that's what a stranger said as we were walking through the Victoria airport.

Leila had diarrhea for the first few days of our vacation. That mixed with the with the changes in setting and schedule that vacations inevitably present, Leila was set back a couple of weeks on potty-training. We got back two weeks ago yesterday and we're just now getting back to the stage we were at before we left--she's doing great! And I'm glad to say that adventure in potty training is over. . .and at least we got to return to home to a clean apartment :)

This was the flight home. #Both kids sleeping. #Dream come true. #God's tender mercies.