The biggest changes on Days 7 & 8:
1. Last night (Day 7), on his last trip to the potty before bed, Sheridan actually tried to pee (and was successful).
Why is this significant? Because all of his successes until that trip were about catching him when he's ready to pee. Meaning, putting him on the potty in regular intervals in hopes that he would have to pee when he was on the potty - or catching him early in an accident (or you think he's about to have an accident) and hoping he would finish on the potty. But he wasn't controlling it. He wasn't holding his pee (it just came when it came) and he couldn't pee on the spot when you wanted him to (again, it just came when it came).
But last night he tried and tried and tried to pee (I actually thought he was going to poop the way he was "pushing"), and all of a sudden he peed. I was so excited, but also a bit disappointed that this breakthrough happened right before bed. So we didn't have time to practice it a little more to try to solidify this new skill. I wasn't sure he would continue it today. But he did... all day!
Look at his Potty Board: 12 pees, 1 poop, and only 6 "Good Trying"
A huge difference from the past few days. In fact, he missed doing his "Good Trying" magnets so much that he wanted to put the pee and poop magnets up :) He peed more often rather than waiting until his bladder was full. So, it was in smaller amounts requiring more opportunities to empty his bladder.
2. Depending on how much liquid he drinks, he's going much longer between pees. Sometimes he has to go every 20-25 minutes (but that only happened a could times), but often he can stretch to 40-45 minutes (and sometimes longer). We do still put him on the potty, but depending on his fluid intake and how much he peed during his last trip we stretched him as long as up to 45 minutes or more before putting him on. But it's still a gamble :)
3. Late this morning Sheridan looked at me and sort of waved at me and said what I thought was "bye bye." But it wasn't his typical wave or way of saying bye bye. And then it dawned on me, "Sheridan, do you need to go to the potty?" He smiled, turned toward the bathroom leading the way, and once we were inside he closed the door (he likes his privacy), and stood in front of the potty waiting for me to help him. Within just a few seconds of sitting on the potty, he peed. I was so incredibly proud of him.
That means that he recognized he had to go (all other trips we just do "Potty Time" and tell him to try to pee), communicated it to me, HELD IT long enough to get to the bathroom and get on the potty, and released it on time. That's HUGE.
It only happened once, but I'll be honest that I didn't expect that to happen until later down the road.
I won't rely on that :) but it's nice to see that he's making those connections.
I know we still have a road ahead of us... I don't for one moment believe that we are accident free forever :) but on Day 8 - to see the difference between earlier this week and today - it's great to see the progress I knew Sheridan was capable of making. I should never doubt the boy :)
Things we are working on:
1. I have him help me pull up his underwear and pants, but I do 99% of the work. So, eventually we need to add greater independence in that area of self-help.
2. Again, I do 99-100% of the undressing, especially because he likes to take his right leg completely out of his underwear and pants. Eventually we'll work on the pulling down, and leaving his clothes on :)
3. Of course, we need to work on him communicating his needs more so we can rely on that. I haven't figured out how to do that yet, so I figure even if he just naturally does it occasionally he'll get the hang of it. And as we increase the amount of time that he goes between trips he'll have to work on that skill.
4. The big one, of course, is consistency. We had a phenomenal day today... I hope it continues (but I'm prepared for accidents). Eventually I would LOVE to be able to leave the house :) I'm fortunate in the sense that I timed this when I had some time off - so I could devote literally 100% of my attention on his bodily functions. I have no idea what I would do with other children, other responsibilities, and a houseful of carpet ;-)
