When Norah was potty trained back in January, we wanted her to immediately start having her bowel movements in the potty too. This had been a tough hurdle with Jackson. Well, we failed, spectacularly. Here and there we'd get her to go, but she pretty much saved them for her nighttime pull-up. We offered rewards (bribes?) of candy or chocolate without any impact.
Tired of dealing with poopy pull-ups, I told her a week before her third birthday that as a three year old, she would have to poop in the potty. I stuck to my guns, and on her third birthday (which was on a Tuesday, we did the celebrating the weekend before), she spent half an hour on the potty without a movement.
Over the next few days as she persisted in holding it, we told her that lights out were at 8pm and we would skip story time. She chose to skip story time. After three or four days, it became too much and she would have a movement on the potty. We'd celebrate like mad. And then she'd hold it another 3 or four days, missing all her story times.
After a few weeks and being really fed-up, especially since she wasn't even trying, I remembered she'd brought home some cookies from school that she was really excited about eating. I looked at her and said I would throw them in the trash if she didn't poo by bedtime (~20 minutes away). Screaming, crying, yelling "mean Daddy",...,trying...success!
Now that was about a week ago, and each time it has gotten easier. Friday, she went all on her own without even telling us until it happened, and tonight, she repeated the feat. Fingers crossed that we're past this hurdle...
