Never underestimate the persistence of a little boy...

You would think in my seven years knowing him I would have learned never to underestimate Ayden by now.  Yet, sometimes I forget and he has to gently remind his Mommy that he can overcome even the milestones that I don't think he's ready for yet.

For this story...let's skip our second.  Issac will be starting school in the fall and for our part we have shied away from night time potty training.  We like our sleep.  A lot.  And dislike washing wet sheets and beds - also a lot.  It was time though, so after Christmas we went cold turkey on night-time pull ups for Issac.  It took about a month, but we made it through without too many emotional scars.  It wasn't long after this Ayden began asking at night "Underwear?  Underwear?".  Despite being fully aware we would have a pee-pee mess in the morning, we allowed it because he asked, you know, with words.  I mean, after waiting so long to hear his voice he pretty much gets what he requests if it is the first time and done with spoken language.  As expected, we did have a clean up job in the morning.  We tried it one more night (again at his request) and the same thing happened so we started a new rule:  stay dry for one night in a diaper and then you can try underwear again.  His persistence has paid off the past few months where putting a pull up on each night has become a fight with tears.  We tried on and off to a dry night here and there but nothing consistent.   Around the beginning of April the before-bed fights escalated into meltdowns and we changed our "rule" to allowing him to try on weekends and as long as he stayed dry he would be allowed to wear underwear the next night.

That was on April 25 - three weeks ago.  He wore underwear on Friday and woke up dry Saturday.  Then Sunday.  Then Monday.  On Tuesday - we had an accident.  I made a split decision that night to let him try one more night and it paid off.  We made it another 5 days dry at night.  Three weeks later we have a total of three accidents since we started.  He isn't fully trained yet, but he will not be returning to pull ups.

I still cannot wrap my head around how big of an accomplishment this one is - and it is ALL Ayden.  We would not have started so soon with him if he hadn't asked.  If HE hadn't been so persistent we would not have continued.  This is without a doubt one of his biggest accomplishments to me and I am so very proud of him.

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Potty Training Update

Potty Training Update Completed!  *happy dance!*

That's right.  We toughed it out and have a potty-trained little boy!  I am following a couple other Fragile X families going through potty training this summer, and let me just say we are blessed that Ayden did so well.   I hope those others begin to have success like we did soon.

We started on June 16, and by June 26 we had a couple accident-free days.  We successfully went rustic camping for 4 days with only ONE accident and as of yesterday he rode the bus to school, attended school and went while there, and came home accident-free.  Now, I want to add that when I say he's trained, he isn't telling us he needs to go.  We tell him to go potty at specific times of day and he goes.  It's not perfect, but it's not diapers either.   And while he's still in diapers at night time, he makes it through the few naps he has dry as well.

Right now, we're still having some minor issues with bowel movements.  When we were sitting him on the potty quite often with the iPad or watching TV he would go if needed, but now that we're on a schedule he doesn't like to sit on the potty for extended periods of time.  He pees, claps, and is ready to go back and play.  I can't say I blame him, but since he's not having his bowel movements at the same time each day it's difficult for me to "catch".  Luckily, he makes a face when it's happening so if I'm paying attention I can get him there.  I'm sure these will lessen the longer he is diaper free, I know they did with his brother.

So..what did we do special?  Nothing really.  After he figured out how to "go" and what was expected when we sat him on the potty, it became much easier.  You can read how we started in a previous post.  I think that's the most difficult part for a kid anyhow who is learning.  I certainly feel that keeping him in underwear all day played a good part in our success.  He felt when he went, and was not happy most of the time.  I want to add that kid boxer-briefs were much more effective at him not liking the sensation of being wet because it didn't hold the mess in like a diaper does.  He was used to feeling a little wet on his butt, but having it running down his legs was what got him most of the time he had an accident.  It was messier for me to clean, but it was worth it.  The one thing I did to help with the mess was take our crib mattress pad and set that under him wherever he was.  It got washed a lot, but certainly saved my furniture from messes.

So, while I'm no expert -these are the things we did.  I hope that our experience can help someone else out there struggling with potty training too!

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Potty Training - Day 3

My last update on potty training with Ayden took place a year ago.  That isn't to say we haven't been working on and off, but I haven't updated because it's been much of the same thing:  Ayden holding it until we put a diaper back on him either for nap or bed time or until he can't anymore then having a meltdown because he peed everywhere.

Well, Mr Awesome and I decided we would have Ayden out of diapers during the day before he starts kindergarten in the fall.  It is our only focus right now with him.  In a perfect world, we will have him going to the bathroom as he needs but ... this probably isn't going to be the case with him right away.  At the very least, we are going to work on going on a schedule - meaning that he will hold it until his "time" to go.   We know he's capable of this, because he's been demonstrating that he can hold it for months and months.  The key for now is to get him going when we set him on the potty.  The rest will come, but he won't be in diapers.

So, Saturday morning we took off his diaper and put him in underwear.  We decided as well that this time Dad was going to be the one to start off.  Ayden has always responded better to his Dad, so I did not expect any exceptions when it came to potty training.

I've read a lot of articles on training kids with Fragile X.  I sent a bunch to Mr Awesome.  We are determined to make this time work out.  So, we're starting with the basic "sit your kid on the potty until they go then cheer them on" concept.  And hoping he doesn't hold it all day.

Day 1 - We had a decent amount of accidents.  The first was at lunch time.  Then a few more in the afternoon.  Then FINALLY in the evening he peed.  We made a really big deal.  We had him dump/flush (we're using the kiddie stool).  We cheered some more.  Then about 30 minutes later he did it again.   If we could have kept him up longer to keep him going we definitely would have, but it was bed time and after skipping nap he certainly was in need of some sleep.

Day 2 - We now moved to putting him on the potty seat for 15-30 minutes with 30 minutes in between each try.  We set the timer as he gets up for 30 minutes, then put him back on.  We had a few accidents in the morning where he started to go enough to dampen his underwear but not go down his leg.  We did a morning bath, so he probably relieved himself then too.  The afternoon was much better.  He leaked just once and went in the potty multiple times.

Day 3 - Only ONE accident all day, and it happened at the very end of the day.  We also had some poo, instead of just pees!!  Sitting on the potty every 30 minutes slowly lessening the time he is actually sitting on the potty to about 5-10 minutes (or until he goes or says he is done).  By the end of the day I increased the time between sitting on the potty to 45 minute intervals.

Three days in, and we're not doing terrible.  I think only time will tell if we're just happening to catch him going.  My guess is its' a little of both right now, but really any progress is great!  I'll keep updating how we're doing as we progress.

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An Early Summer Update

I've been so busy with having two kids home and just life in general, that I really haven't been posting much about Ayden.  Since the focus of this IS about him...well, here's my update for the summer thus far.

Summer-time Adjustments - Ayden has been out of school a few weeks now, and is starting to adjust a bit.  The first week was pretty terrible with a lot of whining and crying.  I wish we had time for him to grasp social stories a little before school was out so I could have helped him in that aspect; however, we can only work with what we have.  We have the usual problems between him and Issac amplified which really just amounts to more fighting and in Ayden's case, pushing.  We are very consistent with discipline when Ayden pushes Issac, but nothing is starting to click.  I am hoping that it will just fall into place one day but until then we keep on doing what we're doing and avoiding letting them anywhere near steps/stairs/drop-offs etc. I am extremely thankful that this pushing does not extend to anyone else.

PECS - We have consistently had Ayden at Phase II of PECS for a few weeks, and will be starting to implement Phase III this coming week.  I'm so excited about this as we really get into the "meat" in Phase III where he now should be able to distinguish between the different cards.   I am hoping to be through Phase III by August - so by the time school starts we will have been working in Phase IV for at least a month.

Eating: -  Always a tough spot with Ayden.  He loves eating, but is pretty picky about what and how he eats.  He still pretty much refuses to use silverware, which does make our life a bit more difficult.  He can use it, but not very well, which is why I think he prefers not to.  Right now, his hands are much more efficient at stuffing food into his mouth.  We have introduced two new meals in the past week for lunch times, which is very exciting in our house! I started out by trying mac&cheese with hot dogs, and it was a huge hit.  I was very surprised Ayden ate it, he's never really touched it when I've tried before.  The other meal I successfully introduced was Spaghettios.  Ayden rarely eats anything with tomatoes, so the fact he chowed this stuff down was a pretty big deal.  We've had each meal twice since our first introduction, and each time has been a success.  Of course, we are still continuing to have the kids eating the same thing as us for dinner, but the addition of two new meals to their normal waffles/pancakes/sandwiches for their lunches make my life a lot easier.

Potty Training - I think this is my own personal nightmare with Ayden.  We are trying again this week, and it has been a failure so far (we are only on day 2).  He is showing interest since little brother is now potty trained, but he is very adamant about not going on the potty to the point where I put him on there, ask him if he can go pee and he vehemently shakes his head no.  He drank three cups of liquid and held it for about 5 hours until I put his diaper on for nap time.  I'll keep working this week, and see where we are then.  If he just isn't getting it, we'll be putting it on pause until after our camping trip in mid-July.  I would really like to see him potty trained by the time school starts, but realize that it may not be possible.

Traveling - We have done a fair amount of traveling already this summer, and thankfully Ayden has handled it well.  It's always a bit disorienting for him at first, but he is doing much better than he did last summer.  Over the coming weeks we will have multiple out-of-town trips, including one to a place he has never been with a decent amount of people he doesn't know.  It should be interesting to see how he handles it; though I will be doing my best to help explain to him what is happening - it is just the type of situation he normally melts down in. 

Well, that is everything for now.  I will be doing my best to keep updating over the next few weeks even with our vacations and such.  We will have the iPad sometime this week - so it may be a little easier for me to update away from home!

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