One thing that we constantly worry about even when not travelling is Mika’s constipation. Her poop is always a big deal mainly because of two reasons: (1) She loudly cries whenever she has to go. (2) The poop is big (typically 2-3 days worth). This now sets the context of this entire post which documents Mika’s poop diary.

1. Prior to the day of our departure, Mika didn’t poop. So we expected that she would just go as we were touring around Sydney.

It was around 4pm in the afternoon, in the middle of Darling Harbour. If you were there, you would see in the middle of the walkway, Mika bent over, crying and clinging to Mae. Mae was coaching Mika thru the process, gently saying “1, 2, 3… push! It’s okay, you’re doing great Mika”

There was a cold breeze from the sea. Lots of other tourists were passing by. This entire event lasted for about 10 minutes.

Thankfully there was a mall nearby and the diaper change was normal.

Side Story a: This bit isn’t related to pooping but will be relevant later on. During our walk in the Darling Harbour, I complained to Mae that I was tired of squinting my eyes whenever we were facing the sun. We have actually talked about this many times before…

Mae just said: “Sabi ko dati na bili tayo ng sunglasses, pero ayaw mo dahil sabi mo mawawala mo lang siya. Then sabi ko pwede rin yung glasses na kayang magchange ng color pag maaraw, pero sabi mo masyado mahal. So how do we solve that problem which is J3? Tell me, J3, tell me.”

Her answer was a wake up call, so I just nodded in agreement.

Side Story b: Two days later we came across a gift shop that sold hats. We checked it out and bought three, one for myself, for Mae and for Mika.

The cashier asked if I would like I shopping bag with that, and I just said yes. But as I was getting the bag, I realized that I should have said no as we would be wearing the hats already. Too awkward to bring it back though so we just ended up carrying an empty bag around throughout the day.

2. That same day (when we bought the hats) was also the same day Mika would have her next pooping incident. Admittedly, this one became difficult partly due to our fault. We didn’t notice that the wet wipes in the diaper bag was almost out.

Our itinerary that afternoon involved going to the Sydney Opera House, then into the Royal Botanic Gardens. It was in the gardens that Mika chose her spot.

There weren’t a lot of people in the area. A few joggers would pass by occasionally. There was a couple a few meters away who seemed to be having a picnic/landi-an date. And again Mika bent over crying and clinging to Mae, and Mae giving the same coaching routine.

I looked at Google Maps, the nearest toilet was at least 5 minutes away. So changing in the middle of the garden seemed like the most practical option.

Things started to escalate as we realized: (1) we didn’t have enough wet wipes. (2) Mika’s poop was especially grainy-messy this time. (3) We had no where to throw the diaper and wipes.

We ran out of wipes, but thankfully there was a set of used facial tissues as back-up. The tissues also ran out as the last bit of poop was cleaned out.

All of a sudden our shopping bag (from the purchased hats) now had a use as we could store all of the trash there temporarily.

At this point, I mentioned to Mae that maybe whenever we are viewing the beauty of nature, Mika also gets the call of nature…

3a. Following this pattern of naturing inspiring Mika to release, we assumed that the next time Mika would poop would be on our trip to the Blue Mountains. Maybe it would happen as we were on a viewdeck looking over the mountain ranges and valleys…

But things don’t always go as you expect.

The next spot Mika chose was on the train on the way home from the Blue Mountains. The train carriage we were in had about 80% of the seats filled.

While Mika and Mae got into their routine, I checked to see where the toilet was in our carriage, but it was very inconveniently closed for maintenance.

Add to that the doors between the other train carriages were closed, so you couldn’t transfer from one carriage to the next!

So our only option was: On the next stop, leave the carriage we were on, and immediately transfer to the next one, and hope that they had a functioning toilet.

So we did exactly that and found the toilet all across the other end.

Here’s the scene: Mae was carrying Mika. Mika was crying loudly and had a huge bulge in her pants. All the passengers were staring as we were passing by.

There was even one particular stranger that maybe stared too long, and had eye contact with Mae. And I think Mae’s motherly and protective instinct kicked in and she said, “It’s because she’s constipated”

3b. When we entered the toilet, it was extremely small. Around half the size of a Cebu Pacific toilet. No space to lie Mika down. No space to even take one step.

But somehow all 3 of us fit inside. Mika was standing up while we were changing her. Mae was crouched down beside the smelly toilet while holding up Mika. And I was doing the wiping and cleaning also crouched down beside the toilet.

The change probably just took a few minutes, but all of us were dripping with sweat after.

At this point, I mentioned to Mae that the pattern seemed to just be an increasing level of difficulty.

I feared, what would be the next level of difficulty?

It was rather hard and scary at the same time to think about what would be harder than what we experienced on that train…

4. On the day that we were expecting Mika to poop, she surprisingly did it just after waking up, right at the comfort of our Airbnb. But it was only small, no fuss, no crying.

We thought maybe she was saving the rest for when we got on the large bus tour of the Great Ocean Road.

Well if it would be on the bus, Mae and I agreed we could both handle that, as the bus had a much bigger toilet. So we were pretty confident and prepared as well for whatever happens.

So the tour was going great, Mika was well behaved. The bus was just going from one scenic attraction to the next… Mika was just on Mae’s lap, and I was taking a nap. Everything was a-okay until…

Mae woke me up, hurriedly saying, “J3, plastic, plastic!”. I grabbed the nearest thing in front of me to catch it, but it was too late.

Mika vomited all the bread she had eaten mixed with all the milk she had been drinking. It went all over on Mika and Mae’s clothes, and even on the bus window…

Apparently that was the next level of difficulty. All this time we were expecting poop, but apparently Mika had given us a curve ball.