Progress

I am so happy to report (I cannot even say HOW happy...) that Justin is making potty progress.  I decided not to give up.  (It was a hard decision.)  He has been wearing underwear for most of the past week except at night (although he has woken dry several mornings) and while there still has been laundry, there has been less cleaning of floors.  And we are down to only one bath a day, the nightly variety.  I had a little breakdown at church last week and I think the prayers that have come from that have made a huge difference!

Justin has been telling me he has to go to the bathroom, which is huge!  The phrase I was drilling into him was "Mama, potty!"  That's what I wanted him to tell me.  It wasn't until about the fourth or fifth time of him saying, "Mommy, dry!"  that I realized that he was telling me he had to go potty when he said that.  It was like he was saying, "I am dry now, but I won't be if I wait much longer!"  So I had to sacrifice my phrase for the one he chose.  If that's what it took, I was okay!  He earned his Larry Boy toy, which he loves, and we have listened to Silly Songs with Larry so often that they are playing constantly in my head.  Justin chooses the one he wants to hear, since we are limiting him to three for each time he tells me he has to go.  Can you believe that he always chooses the same ones?  "Barbara Manatee, You are the one for me!"  That's entertainment!!

We are still struggling to get the second part under control.  After last weekend I had to cut back on the medicine he was taking, but now he is back to not going every day.  So I had to increase it again.  I think what I have decided is that whatever works will only work for a short time and then I need to change something.  Maybe not everything, but something.  He was down to one packet every other day, but I had to up it to one every day, supplemented with prune juice and his other digestive enzymes.  It is a huge power struggle to get him to drink the medicine and I hate that part of our mornings.  If I try to push him too much, he throws it up and if I leave him alone he will pour it out so he won't have to drink it.  (It went in his cereal one day.  It was all I could do not to pour it all back in his cup and make him drink it.  Grrr!)  So I have to sit with him and do a little at a time. The whole process is difficult with his thyroid medicine because we have to wait 30 minutes after he takes it before he can have breakfast and we have to be out the door as early as 7:45 some mornings.  I can't forget to give him the thyroid medicine as soon as he gets up so we can start the countdown for breakfast. 

After not going for two days he managed to get some out today, and in the potty even.  I am hoping that we have emphasized how good it is to go in the potty that he wants to try for more.  And today it probably helped that he went potty with Pop, who is Justin's favorite playmate in the world, who he seeks to please to no end.

Too cute!