One step forward, two steps back

It's another poop blog. It seems as though a fair portion of my life consists of it so I share in case I'm not alone.
Emily is in a regression with her pooping. I was hoping it was a one time incident a week ago but unfortunately I'm seeing a trend. Rather than dwell on the negative, I'm just going to find the humor in it and do what I have to do to get her back on track.

First off I am going to say this as I've said it before. When a bowel movement is in the potty or in a pamper, it's poop. When it is in panties and on other surfaces and items, it becomes shit in my book.

This morning Emily woke up early. I heard her in the bathroom and called up to check on her. She said she was pooping. I asked her if she wiped and she said yes. She has been doing this independently for less than a year. She will be 11 next week. She has been using toilet paper instead of my towels and washcloths(which she puts back under the sink dirty when she is done) for about 4 months. Much progress has been made in her independent pooping. Well I didn't go up to check right then since I was putting contacts in Anna Grace and straightening her hair while trying to get breakfast on the table. She came down and I got her dressed as usual. Before we left I did go up to glance under the sink to make sure there were no shitty towels in there. Not a one so I assumed toilet paper had been used. We took the other two kids to school and returned home to wait until it was time for her to go. As a precaution before I took her to school I decided to check to make sure she wiped good. I will be damned if when she pulled her pants down she didn't reach around with her hand and touch her hiney. That was my first indication it was bad! Poop on finger. I then looked down and saw a pile of shit in her panties. I instructed her to take her pants off which she did but stepped in the poopy panties while doing so. This was not a job a couple of wipes could clean so I put her in the tub. With less than 30 minutes to get to school and an empty tank of gas I ran upstairs to get more clothes after tossing the poopy panties in the trash. I walked in her room and nearly fainted. There was shit in her bed and on her precious Penny the Pig Scentsy Buddy. Apparently she had not wiped with anything and had gotten back into bed using the sheets as toilet paper.

The sadness lies in the fact that progress had been made. She was doing so well in this very important skill. This is the third time in recent weeks she has been content to have poop in her panties without saying a word to me. She doesn't poop often and it's always been a huge part of her struggles when and if she goes. I will just have to work with her more to regain the skills she just had. One step forward and two steps back sometimes but we persevere.

The humor in this is that it is not typical. It's not something you wake up on a Monday morning and think...Yippee I'm going to clean poop today. In hindsight I'm almost glad I don't see these things coming. So today I laugh in the face of autism and say I can handle any shit that comes my way. Bring it.

Thanks for reading~
Jessica