My March toddler has started living on the potty. Is this a phase? How can I help her end this phase? I'm pretty sure this is not a potty training issue (she's had been potty trained since 14 months) or an issue of illness/constipation/etc. I'm pretty sure this is a behavioral issue of some kind.

When it's time to go to bed at night or have naptime/quiet time, she'll sit on the potty for like 2 hours! When we try to get her off the potty, she'll cry and claim she has to poop- but for a variety of reasons and long experience, we are pretty sure this is not the case. She'll sit there for 2 hours sometimes, just doing nothing. Not even with a book on the potty.

Typing this out, I'm actually thinking maybe it's more of an "avoid bed/bedtime" issue instead of any kind of potty issue- she just happens to be viewing the potty as the alternative to bed. We do the same bedtime routine every night and she has almost always been great about going to bed... I'm at a loss!

Last night, out of desperation, my husband went and laid in bed with her and talked to her for about ten minutes and she finally fell asleep.

Suggestions?