Pack 'n Play, Poop and Plumbing

Pack 'n Play, Poop and Plumbing... OH MY, right?!

OH MY is right! I wasn't going to blog about this, but Justin insisted that this is one of those days to remember... and while I can't imagine forgetting it, because let's be real... when it comes to cleaning up poop... we remember! I remember! So for posterity's sake... to read at his high school graduation party, at his rehearsal dinner, or heck... even to one of his little stinkers one day... here goes it... the tale of the Pack 'n Play, the POOP and the Plumbing!!

So, nearly one month ago to the day, we transitioned Caden into his big boy room. He has done exceptionally well and we have been very proud of the transition, so much so that we were affirmed in our decision to go ahead and move him onto the next phase of toddlerhood. That is until last week, before our trip to Arizona, Caden all of the sudden decided that naps weren't his thing. He did not want to stay in his bed and in fact, WOULD NOT stay in his bed. Instead he squirmed out of bed every time I left the room and began playing with his toys. As I mentioned in the last post, he was PUMPED UP about his trip to Arizona with Kk and Albi, so I chalked it up to "Christmas Eve Syndrome" and decided that I wouldn't pick this battle too hard and would see what happened when we got back... it was only two days of no naps after all!

That brings us to Monday (yesterday), our first day back at home after the trip! We had a busy morning at MOPS and he was pretty worn out from our trip still so I KNEW that he was TIRED and I was assured that we'd go right back to our big boy bliss and he'd take a GREAT nap! I mean, of course he would! BUT... just in case he didn't I had already told myself, "Katie, PICK this battle, Caden NEEDS to nap, PUT on your BIG MATERNITY GIRL PANTIES and let's do this thang!"

And turns out... my BIG MATERNITY GIRL PANTIES and I did in fact have to DO some THANGS... Caden was out of that bed before I could ever get to my room and look at the monitor! Little toot! Before I left his room I had laid down the expectations, reminded him of the consequences, made him repeat them back to me just to be sure we were all clear. So I knew I had a challenge on my hands when it took mere seconds for him to escape!

Step #1: Spanking... re-state rules, consequences, repeat back to Mommy and leave the room.

OUT OF THE BED IN SECONDS

Step #2: Spanking... re-state rules, consequences, repeat back to Mommy and leave the room.

OUT OF THE BED IN SECONDS

Step #3: I decided that spanking was getting me no where, so I decided to take it up a notch... so step #3 went something like this: spanking, take away one of his "bed friends", re-state rules, consequences, repeat back to Mommy and leave the room.

OUT OF THE BED IN ABOUT A MINUTE... he teetered on the edge of the bed for a while, as if he was in an intense battle between right and wrong and unfortunately, he chose wrong!

Wash, rinse and repeat two more times... we were down to only a few bed friends and he looked at me and said, "Here Mommy, Lovie... Caden out!" Translated: "Here Mommy you can HAVE Lovie and any other friend you want, I WANT OUT OF THIS BED AND DO NOT WANT TO NAP!"

HMPH! Well, that didn't work!

So I shut the door, ran downstairs (okay so I toddled... not RAN) and crawled back into the TORNADO of a closet where we keep our pack 'n play, ran it back upstairs, opened Caden's door... DID NOT SAY A WORD TO HIM. Set it up, put him in it, with no blanket, no friends, no nothing, turned around the shut the door.

I figured if nothing else was working I had to do something drastic. I thought about putting him back in his crib, but then realized that would only be moving us backwards. If he had to sit in his pack 'n play in clear view of his big boy comfy bed and all of his bed friends then he would realize that this in fact WAS a punishment and he might be smart to obey the rules next time.

And I think it got the point across! After about 45 minutes of fussing, jabbering, yelling, "Mommy, I love you!! Mommy, hold you!!" he finally fell asleep for about an hour. He woke up SUPER grumpy and was a little testy the rest of the afternoon, but I was hoping that my point was made and he would think twice the next time he thought about crawling out of his bed.

Which brings us to today... the glorious Tuesday afternoon!! Caden had MDO this morning and typically does not nap great at school. He usually sleeps for about 45 minutes, so I have been putting him back down once we get home and get settled and he has been sleeping anywhere from an hour to 1.5 hours.

So today I was ready... I reminded him of what happened yesterday and the lead up of consequences that would land him in the same spot. We talked about it, he repeated them back to me and we were set. AND he did REALLY, REALLY well for about 20 minutes... he stayed in his bed and was actually laying down, playing with his bed friends. THEN... I was talking to KK on the phone when all of the sudden I noticed he had escaped... I heard the clanging of his toys through the monitor and I said... "Gotta go KK!"

So off I went... upstairs to start my battle! We went through the process again... spankings and friend removal and then after giving that a go he ended up right back in the pack 'n play. At this point I was only going to leave him in there for about 30 minutes seeing as it was already 3:30 in the afternoon and he wasn't really acting like a TRUE nap was going to happen.

So I came back downstairs and carried on with things, hearing him fuss and cry through the monitor some and then jabbering others. When the clock hit 4:00 I went back upstairs to get him... I opened the door... and I smelled...

You guessed it... a poopy diaper! Not totally unusual... especially on school days when he doesn't get in his normal morning poop. He has a tendency to poop during his afternoon naps on schools days... I was almost expecting it. So I walk in a little further and notice something on the ground...

The wheels in my head begin to TURN... and I think to myself, "SURELY not... NO way that that is poop... right?! NO!!"

So I get closer, kneel down on the ground, touch it, smell it... YEP... definitely a little poop turd laying on the carpet...

WHEELS keep turning...

I look over at Caden and notice BROWN streaks all down the front of his shirt... and then to his hands which are COVERED and CRUSTED with poop!

I take a deep breath and calmly say, "Caden, there is poop on the floor! Where else is the poop?"

And he said, "On hands, pummy (tummy) and bed!"

What? BED?! I hadn't even noticed... sure enough... smeared on the mesh of the pack 'n play and on the mattress and a bit on the side rails was POOP... LOVELY!

So like any SMART Mommy would do I went to start his bath in his bathroom. As I walked over to the tub I happened to step on the bath mat and heard, "SQUISH!!!" and water ran out on the floor. I looked down and around and noticed that water had soaked through the bath mat and our bath rug and was lying in pools or rivers in the grout lines around the toilet!

I thought to myself, "I cannot deal with this right now... I have a kid with poop ALL over him and I have NO IDEA whether or not his hands have made it to his mouth or not BUT they could and I have to DO SOMETHING STAT!"

So I ran to my bathroom, got that tub started, stripped Caden down, wiped him down with wipes and then SCRUBBED him with brand new bar of DIAL antibacterial soap...

Once, I was assured that he was clean from head to toe we went back into his room got him dressed and went downstairs to start the REST of our afternoon. This is of course after he was punished for PLAYING IN HIS POOP. Which he has done before and KNOWS he is NOT supposed to do! ICK!!

Then I called Justin...

No answer...

So I texted... "If you are in a meeting don't worry about calling me, but if you can please do, I think our bathroom is flooded!"

A few minutes later he calls... the bathroom is what?!!

He convinces me that I need to go back up there and check things out and tells me how to turn the water off. The leak does not stop completely but we feel confident enough that it will do until we can get a plumber out here tomorrow.

Okay...crisis averted...

For now...

So the moral of this story... God DOES work things out for good... if Caden hadn't played in his poop I would have never gone into his bathroom until this evening and in that span of 3-4 hours the leak would have only gotten worse and the floors would only would have received more of a beating... and maybe it would have been bad enough to come through the ceiling... YIKES!

While I am CERTAINLY not hoping that Caden decides to play in his poop again tomorrow, I AM remarkably confident that if he does do it again or something even worse, EVENTUALLY it will work out for the good... whether I will ever see it or not!

It has to right?! Or else... why in the heck to we waste our time with all of this stuff... the pack 'n plays... the poop... the plumbing... why work to fix it if there isn't some worth in the fixing process?!

It's worth it!! It HAS to be! :)