16 September 2008

Memo to Maddie

I realize that you are very proud of your newfound skills on the potty, but please, PLEASE don't wake up screaming in the night, "Mama! MAMA! MAAAAAAMAAAAA! I WANNA SIT ON THE BIG GIRL POTTY!" 

(Or do I really have to do the nighttime potty training now, too?)

18 comments:

Anonymous said...

Ughhh! She pees every 14 minutes... I can't imagine a night where you actually have to go in to her repeatedly. Do you think she'd take it to the extreme? I fear you should probably roll with the punches on this one and see if she'll train at night if you help her out... but what a pain!

Astrogirl426 said...

Hmm, now might be the time to move her into a bed that she an get out of on her own, and teach her to go to the bathroom on her own when she gets the urge (if she's not already in a big girl bed).

Of course, the downside is she will be able to get out of the bed. On her own.

Good luck!

Anonymous said...

Mine's still working on controlling the nighttime accidents. Many a night I throw a beach towel over the offending wet patch, tell him to get the wet pajamas off and throw whatever I can find on him. Lately he's been too lazy to go #2 and we've been making him clean out his own undies and all that fun stuff. Needless to say the lazy accidents have subsided. But isn't it great to consider a life w/o diapers?! And now you need to know the exact location of every toilet in the area. So that when she has to go NOW, it won't be a huge nightmare.

Anonymous said...

Oh Dear. That is part of it, my friend.

I remember those days with the daughter, until like astro said, she was put in a big girl bed. Soon after that, I'd hear hear her get up about once a night to go.

The son was a different story.
I remember having to train myself to get up in the middle of the night to guide him to the potty. This after a couple of times of catching him half asleep, standing in the hall, dreaming he was standing in front of the potty...and you can guess the rest. yea. After figuring out what time it was he was usually getting up, I was in there waking him just before, and pretty soon, he followed in his sister's footsteps of being master potty goer.

Anonymous said...

I agree, she might be ready for a big girl bed too :) But, like other readers have suggested...she will be able to get out whenever she wants...not sure how that will affect Riley either. Good luck. Limit the liquids before bed if you can as well. It is still great that she is ready for all this!!!
SEC

Anonymous said...

Ouch! Just when you started having good night sleep! I'd do it! My trick was: potty before bed and no drinks after dinner.
At least she's saving you time on laundry!

Anonymous said...

I would limit drinks after dinner...make them pee, put on a pull up for night. After they practice and perfect peeing in the day; night time control comes naturally.

You will feel suddenly rich when you don't have to go to COSCO each month for diapers!

Alice

Cyndy said...

Long time lurker..first time commenter...

Everything you have described with Maddie is what we experienced with our little girl.

She was really the one who determined when it was time to potty train, and since her decision, she's had a total of 6 accidents.

Leda was in regular undies during the day, pullups at night for about a month after she decided to start using the potty. After the first two weeks of pullups during the night, she started yelling out to us in the middle of the night to go potty. She woke up with dry pullup each night from then on - due to the fact that one of us was getting up with her in the middle of the night (mostly me!)

She's in a big girl bed, but never left the bed unless told she could, thus the reason she yelled for us. I didn't mind it so much, it kept me from worrying too much about her roaming the house at night. After the first month of pullups, she didn't want to wear them anymore...so they went away...2 of the 6 accidents were nighttime accidents...in 9 months! The rest were due to her just being "too busy" playing with friends and she forgets to go.

And after about three months or so, she did start getting up at night by herself - but that happens fairly rarely these days...she tends to make it through the night without accidents or going potty.

Leda is Three years (and 4 months) old. Your experiences with Maddie sound SO familiar.

Good luck! Believe me, after a month or two of not buying (or changing) diapers, you won't mind being awoken in the middle of the night for a potty break! (Besides, and maybe it's my old age, I can't seem to make it through the night myself anymore!...I think that might have been TMI!) ;-)

Jen said...

oh hell.. sleeping is over-rated. i say you roll with it and see if she's actually waking each time she has to pee. if that's the case, then it might be time for an abridged version of what others are saying.. big girl bed.. getting up to potty on her own.. although i'm overprotective and might take a different approach. i'm terrified of toddlers getting into the bathroom by themselves.. i'd go for bring a kids potty chair into your room and having her come to your room to potty.

she's so proper to start with that i think she'd do just fine and while you would wake up, it would be minimal effort and you wouldn't need to worry about her venturing around the house at night. of course this opens up two issues.. #1.. opening the kids door means that it's open for riley too.. and #2.. you'd have to find a way to block off the kitchen.. i think that your gate to the living room would do just fine there and then you could close the bathroom door.. but that leaves the kitchen readily available for a wanderer.

wow.. i hadn't really thought about this. i'm up like 3 times a night to pee.. i don't see why ben would be any different given the weight of his diaper each morning.. yikes!

i had already decided that when we get him into a big boy bed we're going to block him from the kitchen, bathroom, living room so that he can come get us if he needs to. my guess is that we'll end up with a gate at his door..

yikes..

go maddie!

Menita said...

Oh, how I feel your pain. Jack was up every half hour or so last night asking to go pee pee again.
AAAAAAAAARGH

Jen @ Rolling Through Looneyville said...

Oh, this stage is delightful. Right up there with using potty time as a naptime stall.

But it passes, and quickly. It's the same idea as when they're little. Make it as little fun as possible, and they'll probably quit.

That being said, it's rather counter intuative to having her learn to stay dry.

*sigh* really, what do I know? Every single kid is different.

Terri said...

When our boy was asking to go pee we thought being in his own bed would help. Nope. He still would not get out of his bed unless we came to get him. He did this till he was almost four. *rolleyes*

This too shall pass and she'll be a pottying pro...!

Arwen said...

I'd get a big girl bed and either let her go to the potty on her own OR put a little potty in her room so she can go without roaming the whole house.

Honestly, I'm amazed they stay in their cribs.

Candice said...

Dear god, you poor, poor thing! ;o)

Potty training Anna was a nightmare. Granted, Mama was falling apart at the same time so take your pick who was making the situation seem so bad: Anna or me. But good good, that period of time was especially maddening as a parent and widow.

Best of luck to you. May your potty training experience be nothing like ours was. ;)

~Candice

Ian Newbold said...

Like CCW ^^^^ I disliked this stage like no other.

It really is a big pile of steaming poo!

Max has night time nappies, I went through trying to train him in the night, we even had about a fortnight dry. But when we had one too many lapses, I decided he'll do this bit when he's ready.

Good luck

Soralis said...

Oh my! Bed, potty by bed by chance? (Mess for mom possibly though)

Good luck!

The Broken Man said...

Oh no! definitely time to put a potty (or a chamber pot) in the bedroom - or is that asking for trouble?!

The Broken Man

Snoopyfan said...

Roll with it! My 5 year old still isn't dry at night. :(