Yeah for Hallie!

It is offical! Hallie is potty trained! What a huge accomplishment this is for her and I am so proud of her! For a child whose bowels work randomly and when they are working right, she has very loose bowel movements, this has been a challenge we have been working on for over a year. She decided one day a few weeks ago that she wanted to wear underwear-- made me VERY nervous. She had a few wet accidents, but did pretty good otherwise. Then she went in for surgery and I was afraid we would have major setbacks-- story of her life. She was in a diaper in the hospital because it hurt her too much to be moved. A volunteer asked her what the worst part about being in the hospital was and she told them that she had to go potty in a diaper. As soon as her pain was well controlled by pain meds, we made the switch back to underwear and other than a few random accidents, she has done fabulously! She still has to wear diapers at night because she pees non-stop when hooked up to her feeding tube, but this is such a huge step for her and we couldn't be happier!

Yesterday we helped some friends move and they gave us a twin size bed for Hallie. Derrick sanded it down last night and we need to get a mattress for it after it is painted. She is so excited for a big girl bed. She's been in a toddler bed for about 2 years and can't wait to move into her big girl bed!

All in all, my baby girl is growing up. These are milestones that I wondered at times if we would ever reach. We are going to start the process to get her declared disabled. She has a life full of medical problems ahead of her and especially, where her overall condition is not a common one, she seems to slide through the cracks of what help is available for her. I need to meet with the principal at the school and see how they want to deal with her when she is kindergarten age in 2 years. We need to decide whether to attach her to the special ed department but keep her mainstreamed in order to make sure that she has access to the medical care that she will need while in school. There is a possibility that she could qualify for the preschool there, which would be great because I don't feel comfortable sending her to preschool anywhere else. This way, she would have nurses in the classroom with her. Although, she would be exposed to a lot of germs she wouldn't otherwise be exposed to. It's a hard decision.

We have a lot of big decisions to make for her in the next little while that are pretty overwhelming. It is so nice to be able to celebrate this milestones in the process and enjoy each small little step forward that she is able to take.