Potty Progress

We are not out of the woods yet.  But Jeff and I find it very important to celebrate the small victories.  It's been such a long, painful road.  A journey that I was sure I wouldn't survive.  I already had visions that we would be getting an IEP for Sam when she entered kindergarten next year.  Yes, it was really that bad.  And I could easily see a future where Sam was wearing a pull-up to her prom.  Although, come to think of it, any 'action' that her date was planning on, would surely come to a halt when he reached her princess pull-up.  Maybe not such a bad thing. 

I am delighted to report that Sam has gone one month without any accidents!!  All peeing and pooping has been successfully completed in the toilet.  This is HUGE, people!!  Sam has pooped on average 2 to 3 times a day (big ones at that!!), each and every day.  Let me repeat, ALL SUCCESSFUL ON THE TOILET!!   No stripes, no little tidbits, no chunks of bigger things about to come in her panties.  This bears repeating!!  We have not thrown away one pair of underwear all month!!!

We all needed a moment to reflect and go absolutely crazy, over-the-top excited about the past month and celebrate how well Sam is doing.  So that there would be no pressure on her, Jeff & I came up with a surprise for our little pooper.  We would wake up this past Sunday and tell her she was going to the American Girl Doll Store and could pick out a doll.  Not another Bitty Baby, but the big leagues baby, an American Girl Doll!

Ever since we came back from our annual trip to the American Girl Doll Store for lunch, Sam has been looking at her catalogs and picking out the doll and outfits she wants.  She had no idea as she was looking at this catalog (multiple times a day, every day) that we had this plan in the works.

And so that Ian didn't feel completely left out of the surprise, we told him he could pick out where we went to lunch beforehand.  Of course, Jeff indirectly got Ian to pick where he wanted to go...Olive Garden.  But as long as Ian thinks it was his choice, that would work for us.

Jeff doesn't do well keeping surprises and it was very hard for us to keep the plan under wraps.  I have to admit, I even wanted to tell Sam what we had up our sleeves, but I knew it was important to not put pressure on her to not have an accident.  (Believe me, I know there is going to be times when she does have accidents.  I am so okay with that.)

Here is a picture of us telling Sam about her surprise:

Sam being told what is about to happen after we are done eating.

Picking out the McKenna doll.

Ok, so in the interest of full disclosure, Sam is still on 2 pieces of Ex-lax each and every night. I am not sure what will happen when she comes off of it, but until then I am most excited with the progress we've made. Our next appt. with the GI dr is on October 11th. We will find out next steps because Sam being on ex-lax for an extended amount of time is not a good thing. 

I keep feeling like we take 2 steps forward and 3 steps back.  For some reason Sam went to the bathroom first thing in the morning and didn't go again the rest of the day.  We have no idea why.  We kept insisting she try to go and she kept saying she didn't have to.  Even when we were getting her ready for bed, we pretty much forced her to try to pee.  I have no idea what that is about.  Oy!

But since we were only celebrating NO ACCIDENTS FOR ONE ENTIRE MONTH!, everything about today still applied.  We are so proud of her.  Let's hope the progress continues.