The Joy of Motherhood: A story full of poop

There are those few events in a child's life that warrant shouts of joy: their birth, the first steps, a first word, and pooping on the potty. The latter can really overshadow the former depending on how long you've waited on it to happen. Whether a child becomes potty trained at 18 months or 4 1/2 years old it is still a monumental event and in our house today was that day!

Katie Jo told me on Sunday, June 15th that she was done wearing diapers. Starting on that Monday she did just that and wore underwear. She told me when she needed to pee and we went. At rest time and naps she still wore a diaper but it always came off dry. All night and no wetting! When she decides to do something she does it 100%.

During this time things were not going so well in the pooping dept. For about two of those weeks she continued to poop in her underwear. It was a trying time as I did not want to punish her by not letting her wear undies but at the same time if I found one more dirty in there I thought I was going to scream. I kept explaining to her if she would just tell me when she needed to go I would put a diaper on and that would be ok. Finally, it sunk in and she started telling me when she needed a diaper. She'd poop in it. And we move on. For two months now this has been our routine. If I didn't stay at home I don't know how we would have done it. And let me just say that yes we did continue to ask her if she wanted to poop on the potty and it has been an emphatic "No" every time. I choose my battles and I knew she would eventually come around.

So a couple of days ago I noticed she only had four diapers left. I pointed this out and she and I decided when we used the last one it would be time to poop on the potty. Yesterday was the last diaper and after she had used it I asked her what this meant. She said, "Tomorrow I poop on the potty." And she did. Today I put her in her room for rest time and after about 5 minutes she came to the door and called for me. She told me she needed to poop. We went and she did. Since then she has called me three more times and has successfully pooped every time. I don't hesitate to say we are finished with diapers. She is so proud of herself that it was worth the wait.

Katherine Joanna is three years, three months, and ten days old and she is officially potty trained!!!