The potty

I will just cut to the chase and announce the important milestone that has been achieved today. Natalie went poop and pee in the potty for the first time today.

Yes, cheers and hallelujahs are going up at the home of The Happy Ones.  Tom was called at work to receive the surprising information.

The only thing that might put a damper on my enthusiasm is if I hear that Natalie's preschool teacher has forgotten to tell me that she's gone potty at school already...but that would only be a slight dampening...this is the first time she's done it at home, and I really doubt the teacher has forgotten to tell me.

Here's how it happened.

We've been tinkering with food to help keep Natalie regular.  Non-RTS families may not be aware that 99.999% of people with RTS have a problem staying regular.  We've given Natalie a lot of things over her three years to keep her regular, the latest being a puree of cooked prunes, raisins and dates...sort of like a jam.

Natalie does not particularly like the jam, but since it's necessary to help her go poop, we've kept up with it.  She lately has started to like yogurt more, so I decided to switch and see if a yogurt a day would work instead of the prune jam.  She's been using yogurt for a little over a week, and it seems to work, sort of...and she likes it better than the jam.

Then today, it looked like she was in a little pain, and she had a very small ball in her diaper, so I gave her a suppository to help her go.  I put the diaper back on and let her walk around, since it takes about 10 minutes for the suppository to work.  Ten seconds later, she walked to the kids' bathroom and lifted up the potty lid.  All of this, without my suggestion.

I asked her if she wanted to go potty, she signed "yes" and said "yeeee".  I set her up on the potty with a book and she happily chatted to herself while reading the book.  After a few minutes I thought I'd check the pot to make sure the suppository hadn't come out.

There was pee!

Big celebration!  Natalie smiles, not completely knowing what all the fuss is about, but maybe knowing a little bit.

So I sat her back down, and a minute later the scent wafted out that told us she had also done number 2.  

Another big celebration!

Today Natalie's school was not in session, when it would normally be.  It is a testament to my surprise that I am not even prepared with the appropriate treats for this significant occasion.  The best I could do was raisins.  Next trip to the store will include a big bag of M&Ms.  

We are thrilled.  We don't have huge expectations that she will be potty trained in the near future, but it is a skill that comes in steps, and today Natalie took a step.