Hesitantly Triumphant

Izzy has passed her previous record from last summer of 3 dry nights in a row! (Hmmm...apparently I was too busy to post about our attempt last summer. Let's just say that after three nights dry and then several days of lots and lots of washing of sheets/comforters I finally mailed it in and put her back in her pull-ups at night.)

Izzy has now been dry 11 nights out of the last 13. ELEVEN!! I got brave and started putting her in underwear instead of her pull-ups the other night. First night was "oops" #2 (we're giving her a mulligan), but last night she made it through the night with the real undies!

DON'T ASK ME how this has come about. We haven't done anything really different that's we've done for the last two years. We've just been talking to her until we're blue in the face about it. We've "casually" tried getting her to go to the bathroom if she wakes up in the middle of the night (last night was the first night she didn't turn over and roll herself up into an even tighter, little sleepball)--we never forced her. We've been insistent on her using the bathroom before she lays down--even if she just went a half an hour ago. We did promise a bribe of a trip to Build A Bear if she stayed dry for 30 nights. (I know! It's a long time! But we ARE setting up mini-goals: candy every three days; a little stuffed animal at the week's point; she'll get something else small if she makes it to this weekend.... The Build A Bear is the ULTIMATE, YOU NAILED IT Reward. Keith is keeping a tally. I think Izzy is more excited about the tally marks growing than the BAB at the end of it.)

When we saw the pediatrician, she suggested that we not give Izzy any liquids after 6:00. Well, considering that now we don't even eat dinner most nights until almost 6:30, that's not too feasible for us. But she doesn't get anything after dinner. However if she wants a quick drink before bed (or an hour after she's gone to bed), we don't say NO. I mean, it's dry in our house, so isn't it kind of cruel to deny a kid a drink of water? So, we just make sure it's not a LOT--just a couple of drinks.

Other than that--this is all just TIMING. It seems that THIS is the time her body decided to finally cooperate. WHY it took so much longer than with the other two, I don't know. What is finally triggering her, I don't know. Whether or not this will become permanent or an occasional night-time accident for a while longer or a false hope than regression back to pull-ups, I DON'T KNOW.

All I know is, I'm happy that I may be DONE buying pull-ups, hurriedly washing sheets in the middle of the night, and worrying about whether or not she'll still be peeing the bed when she gets to college.

We'll see....