Everybody Poops!

If you haven't been following my Facebook posts then you may not be aware that Leah had her first poop in the potty on March 6. It was more about the timing than the intent. We've been putting her on the potty in the morning. Usually she pees if we sit there long enough - and we read her books to keep her there. But that day she said she needed to poop - and she did! We made a big deal about it, clapping and praising. And we started a star chart. Leah still gets a butterfly tattoo when she pees on the potty. And now she gets a star on the chart when she poops on the potty. After 10 stars she will get to pick out a toy at the toy store.

She seems to be excited about the prospect of peeing and pooping in the potty regularly - so for additional incentive we also bought "big girl panties." We had an exciting trip to K-Mart on Monday - where we bought some training pants, some waterproof pants, and some Elmo and Dora undies. I also picked up some Pull-Ups today. Lots of carrots to dangle now - and it seems to be working.

As she was finishing lunch today, Leah made a bit of a grunting sound - I asked her what she was doing - and it seemed to strike a chord - she said, "Mommy, I want to poop on the potty." I quickly wiped her hands and face and rushed her to the bathroom. We pulled the pants down and the diaper off and got her onto the toilet - as she likes to call it, "the big potty" - using a seat that fits on top of the regular seat. She asked me to read a book and I read "Have you seen my potty?" - twice. Turns out we didn't need to rush. It took a few minutes to get things moving, but she was right - she needed to poop. And while she was there she peed too.

Once again I made a really big deal about it. She got a butterfly tattoo on her hand and a star on the chart. Next time we're going to be home for a little while without plans to rush off to a class or meet friends or something - we're going to try out some training pants - we'll see if the wetness will help Leah pay more attention to when she needs to pee too. And for my sake we'll be putting the waterproof pants on top of them!