week 33 & 34..

These last two weeks have been challenging. Therapy went great; school has been going well, but Emmett has had some struggles at home. :( He has been regressing with potty training. I always had a feeling potty training him was going to be hard, but not this hard or frustrating. Matt and I have been pushing Emmett harder to try going #2 on the potty. It's getting to the point where changing his diaper is such a pain; we practically flip a coin to decide "who's turn it is". Unfortunately, we pushed too hard for him and he has been too scared to tell us when he needs to go. He has been peeing and pooping in his pants multiple times a day. When it happens he feels very ashamed. At first, Matt and I were so frustrated because we feel he is way too old to be having accidents. We were raising our voices at him, which just made him feel even more scared. We took a step back to reassess the situation and now realize his fear of toileting is worse than we thought. It breaks my heart knowing how scared he is to do something so necessary. I guess our version of baby steps are too big for Emmett to keep up with. 

So we eliminated the new plan and have gone back to just going pee on the toilet with tons of praise. We can tell he is so much less stressed and by looking into his eyes, he's saying, "thank you for understanding." We have added one baby step; when Emmett needs a diaper to go #2, we bring him into the bathroom with a toy and have him go in there. He has been very cooperative with this and is doing great with the new rule. I think I need to consider that progress. :)

Next week we will be having Emmett's first school conference and I am a bit nervous. We will be revising his IEP and going over any progress or lack of progress he's had.