Help! Can any of you share your story on how you handled getting up in the middle of the night constantly with your children when they wake up and realize they don't want to pee in their pants? In one way, we're ecstatic that we're almost completely potty trained (YEAH!!!) We certainly don't tell the kids to pee in their pull ups! We have even started limited liquids an hour before bed, etc. I know their little bladders just can't hold much at this point, and I just feel they're too young to get up to pee alone? I just thought maybe someone would be able to offer a suggestion I hadn't though of?

-Tired Mommy and Daddy

Yeah! Congrats on getting this far before 3 years old! Unfortunately I don't have any suggestions for making nighttimes better. My kids are 3.5 years, one has been trained for more than a year, and I still get up with them in the middle of the night. Two of them think they need me to give them toilet paper. I swear Sarah would fall asleep on the potty waiting for me if I didn't get up. And when she has trouble sleeping (which is often) she gets up to pee every 15 minutes or so. But we're moving soon, and my bedroom won't be so close to them, so hopefully I won't hear them get up every time. Maybe then they will be forced to take care of the toilet paper problem. Good luck. I think you're on the right track by limiting their liquids in the evening.

Michelle
Ainsley, Sarah, and Reagan, born 3/10/2005 @ 31w/5d

I have one that will still sleep in pull up both of my girls are in panties at night. My little boy will pee in his pull ups all night long and be fine durring the day with unders on. and will just wet at night if he is in unders.

One of my girls can go FOREVER with out peeing. the other day was just crazy and I realized that she hadnt been taken to the bathroom since 7:30 pm the night before (we keep the bathroom doors closed because they will play in there) and it was almost 10:30am talk about a bladder of steel ( I felt so so bad) our other girl is more of with in 30 min of waking up she needs to go potty.

what has worked for us has been no liquids after dinner at 6pm and bedtime is 8pm and they go potty right before bed. I also have a little potty in their room just in case and only once have they used it .

around this age they figure out things that will allow them to stay up so it may not be the need to go potty but if the potty call gets them out of the room they will continue to cry for the potty when the dont really need to go but it will delay bed time or will get mommy or daddy to the bedroom in the middle of the night.

I hope you find somthing that works
Ann
GGB 3y
G 11y G 13y

Thanks! Great advice!!!

sometimes we did similar to the dream feed, but had them take a potty break before we went to bed around 11pm. dd didn't need to be woken (bladder of steel), but it did help our one ds tremendously. and me too for the extra sleep!

limit the liquids more than an hour before if you can (I've noticed a big difference there), and make sure they don't drink the tub water! also, I notice a big difference with one ds if the room is chilly versus warmer. he has to pee more if it's colder.

but their confidence in holding it and staying dry grows along with their bladder. I think we had a good 6 weeks of night wakings when they trained at 2.5. It was exhausting, but well worth it in the end. Hang in there!

Mary

born 12/12/04 33w2d

We did a combination of things:

1. We stopped liquids at dinner time and we limited the drinks at dinner, as well. They could have a cup of water or milk with dinner, but none of the "drink until you float" stuff at dinner time. They could have a tiny drink just before bed -- a couple of swallows -- if they were thirsty.

2. Potty immediately before bed.

3. When I got ready to go to bed, I'd take them and put them on the potty while they were still pretty much asleep -- and leave the lights off and not talk. I used to tell myself that I was doing a "dream wee" instead of a "dream feed." It helped.

4. I set my alarm for early -- roughly the time they woke up on their own. This way, I could go in and get them out of their beds and take them potty first thing. A lot of times, toddlers are wetting right after they wake up and are just a bit groggy. This will help train them to get up and go potty.

5. I continued to use the pull-ups overnight, and didn't bother trying to use regular panties during the nights until it got to a point where I could re-use a pull-up several nights in a row and needed to throw it away because of the "wear" as opposed to it becoming soggy. I always bragged about the dry pull-up each morning.

Good luck! It sounds like you are nearly home on the potty training!

Cat w/3 Kittens
Caidan, Carina and Caeleigh
Born at 31 weeks, 1/8/04.
It is better to have loved and lost, than never to have loved at all. In memory of Carina, who was greatly loved.

http://b3.lilypie.com/bDA

When they were first training, put a little potty in each of the bedrooms and a container of wipes. They peed in the potty and put any used wipes in the potty and I emptied it in the morning. Now, two of them use the regular bathroom during the night but the third is hanging on to her potty. My DS eventually was just too big to be able to sit and pee in a little potty and he got so he preferred to stand and use the hall toilet.

Marsha
mom to Nick, Hannah and Paige born July 15, 2004