Original Blog Post: October 27, 2010- The Wonder Of Poop

When Caedmon was still an echo in my tummy (as big brother calls it), one of the things we were informed of was that Caedmon would have difficulty with bladder and bowel function.  The nerves that serve this area of the body were definitely affected by the spinal opening they could see even then.  They could not tell us what extent things would or would not work but they could tell us there would be trouble.  For some reason, this was really scary to me, almost on par with his possible need for a shunt in his brain.

So far, we have never had to catheterize Caedmon.  He has been able to empty his bladder.  Because of the lack of muscle control in this area, we believe that eventually he/we will have to start cathing but I am thankful for not having to do it yet.

The excitement in our house, though, has been that over the past month Caedmon has consistently told us when he needs to poop, BEFORE it happens!  This means that he has feeling, that he can sense that there is poop ready to come out!  What a blessed, wonderful thing!  It's just another little thing that I never spent time thinking of or marvelling about; how our bodies are created in such an amazing way, how everything complexly works together to perform even the tiniest function, and how difficult life can be when these things do not work properly.

Today, we are celebrating poop!