Potty Training Breakthrough?

I think I have posted here several times about the battles we've had getting Lauren to poop on the potty. For 3 out of our 4 kids, this has been a challenge, to say the least. Lauren has been peeing on the potty since last August or September. Since girls are supposed to be "easier," I had hoped that the poop would soon follow. It didn't. I have always said she is most like her oldest brother, Joey, and even on this point I am right. He outdid everybody and it took a trip to Florida where he spent a lot of time naked to get him to finally quit dropping deuces in his pants.

After almost 4 years without a visit to Florida, it was rather uncanny that we were going when we were, and I hoped that maybe this was the key to finally being diaper-free for the first time in over 6 years. The day before we left, Lauren did a poop on the potty, at her own initiation and of her free will. Hmmm. But, she has done this a handful of times before and it didn't go anywhere, so we were reserved about it, but made a big fuss for her. It was so funny because she was so proud of herself that she had to go tell our next-door neighbor, MaryAnn, that she had pooped on the potty. LOL! MaryAnn told Lauren that if she got a good report when we came back from our trip, she would get her a princess dishes set. Our neighbors are great ;)

A couple of days went by and Lauren didn't poop in her pants, although she didn't go on the potty, either. She tends to do this, often holding it for a couple of days at a time. I'm not sure why. Finally, knowing she needed to poop, one morning we told her she couldn't go in the pool until she pooped on the potty. She was not happy about this, of course, but we left her alone and finally one of the times I checked on her, she was going! WOOHOO!!! Then a setback and she pooped in her diaper a couple of mornings. I am not putting her in a diaper for naptime anymore, regardless of whether she's pooped that day or not. We believe part of the key here is that she almost never poops in her underwear. She almost always goes when she has a diaper on, either first thing in the morning or after a nap. One of these days, we're just going to have to bite the bullet and try no diaper at night. Since she sometimes still wakes up quite wet, I'm not looking forward to that part.

Since we've been home, she hasn't pooped her pants, but she's only gone on the potty once, I think. It's been a couple of days and I actually have her on the pot as I type this, LOL! She told me she had to go, but then after I put her on the pot, she said she couldn't do it. Needless to say, I'm making her sit there. I know she needs to go. I hope she'll get over this holding it business. But at this point, I'll take what I can get. I REALLY hope this is it!

UPDATE: Houston, we have a poop!