The Grand Experiment (or Biting the Bullet, Letting Go, and Having Faith)

I'm sure you've all been hanging on the edges of your seats, awaiting an update on Samantha's progress with staying dry in the mornings.  I stopped counting the consecutive dry days a while back, and there have been some misses in between, but I think that she's been dry for the last solid week or so.  And as far as staying dry in the daytime, she hasn't had an accident in months.  I feel badly, as she has been pretty much in a diaper 24-7 (other than the few hours at her public school each day) since she has been born.  Amazingly, she has never had any significant bouts of diaper rash or anything, but I'd like to give her bum a chance to actually breathe a bit!  Time for Mommy and Daddy to let go... 

On Monday, Sammi wore panties during the day.  When it came time for her nap, Steve kept her in them, but had her sleep on one of those waterproof blue disposable sheets (we had a few left from Sammi's surgery 5 years ago, and kept them tucked away in case we happened to ever need them), just in case.  And she woke up dry.  Actually, she woke up very proud and dry.  On Monday night I invited Samantha to sleep in just panties.  She politely declined.  She's more than happy to wear panties during the day, but I think she was just a bit worried, and felt more comfortable to be wearing a pull-up while sleeping.  So I obliged, and told her we'd do it when she's ready. 

Yesterday I sent her in panties to school.  I usually keep her in a pull-up for her private preschool, because they still nap and I didn't want them to have to deal with a mess (or to embarrass her) if she woke up wet.  At naptime, she told her teacher she wanted to sleep in a pull-up, so she did.  Lastnight she finally agreed to sleep in panties, after no small amount of convincing on our part.  When she went into her room to go to bed, she looked at her closet and said, "Blue!"  Steve said, "Balloon?  What balloon?"  "No, blue!  In the closet." she said.  Steve opened her closet door, not sure what she was talking about, and lo and behold, there was the blue plastic sheet.  Brilliant, or what?  This child seriously gets it.  She's got that little bit of concern that she may not be able to do it, but we keep giving her our absolute confidence that she can, without pressure.  We put her to bed lying on that sheet, and this morning, when she woke up, we heard, "Daddy!  I'm dry!" on the monitor. 

*happy sigh* 

I am sure there will be the occasional accident, but I am pretty sure we're kissing those pesky pull-ups goodbye forever!