Careful What You Wish For!

We have had mild, but on-going concerns regarding Molly's bowel movements.  For quite a while now she has been going less and less frequently, and finally within the last month reached a maximum of two bm's a week.  Maybe not a big deal, but having watched the amount of food she consumes we couldn't figure out where the heck it was all going if it wasn't coming out the other end.  So, as any caring and attentive mother would do I made note of all my questions and saved them up for Molly's 18-month well baby check last Thursday.

All went well at the check-up and when I described Molly's bm dilemma to the doctor he suggested that she was probably filling up on milk and then not actually eating enough "bulk".   Of course!  Time to stop offering her an 8oz sippy cup of milk before breakfast, after all her bottle and boob days are long gone.  In other words it was time for me to stop lolly-gagging, realize my baby is a toddler and feed her appropriately.  (Okay, so I felt a tiny pang of guilt with a side of "shit-now-the-doctor-thinks-I'm-overacting" about too little poop! Who does that?  Too little poop means less diaper changes!)  With advice in hand we set out Friday morning with our revised diet plan.  Molly ate breakfast, then I offered her milk and wouldn't you know it she only drank about 4oz instead of guzzling back an entire tall-boy of 3%.

Molly's revised diet worked so well that on Friday she had a bm at the babysitter's - her third for the week.  Then on Saturday when we were out visiting she had an unexpected bm.  So unexpected in fact that we didn't even have a diaper!  We have become so use to her infrequent diapering needs that we only had one diaper in the diaper bag and we had used it for a wet one earlier in the afternoon.  Oops!  Right then and there we should have know that we had wised for too much!  (Again, who does that?  Who wishes for a more regular pooper?)  Thankfully we found an old, smaller sized diaper in Grandma's cupboard and squeezed Molly's thick thighs and big-girl tummy into it.

Sunday was a lovely poop free day, but looking back this was perhaps the calm before the storm.  Today Molly's revised diet not only brought us two bm's, but the ever special tub-poop.  And I'm not talking your regular run of the mill tub-poop, but the full-out hiding-under-the-thick-and-luxurious-bubbles-tub-poop.  Disgusting and irritating on so many levels.  Thank goodness J.D. was home sleeping for the night shift and able to do the "dirty work", but I don't think he was very happy that I woke him two hours earlier than usual to scoop.  But what can I say a tub-poop is way beyond my mothering abilities!  (Kudos to Moms out there who can handle this one!)  While Daddy scooped, Molly screamed for her beautiful draining-away bubbles,  and I tried my best not to gag I realized what more regular bm's really means.  More diapers.  More wiping.  More tub-poops!  Ughhh!

Long story short I am of course happy that Molly seems to be more regular and that her little tummy is looking less distended, but at the same time the lesson is learned!  Be careful what you wish for - especially the week before Christmas when your kids are home from the babysitter's!  ;-)  Tomorrow's wish?  For potty training to begin!