Wednesday, July 10, 2013

Uh oh - time for nighttime potty training

Why is this not showing paragraph breaks?! Ugh! Sorry :( Maybe it's fixed now...who knows...

 As I've said before, opposites certainly attract with Bridget and her BFF, Abby. They play so well, but man are they different! Where Bridget excels, Abby often falls behind. Abby is so quick to pick up somethings, while it may take B many more weeks to see success. Little people are just like big people, right?? 

 Since Abby has been nighttime potty trained (self-enduced, as is her usual way) for quite some time, while we were all together in Colorado Bridget decided she was ready to stop wearing pull-ups at night and wanted to wear undies like Abby. I told her we'd go cold turkey on nasty pull-ups (how many of us swear we'll NEVER use them...and then we do...but just during sleeping, I swear! Sigh.) as soon as we returned home from vacation. Oh, vacation pics coming someday.

 A great part of me hoped she'd forget that deal, but the first night we were home from CO she scolded me for pulling out a pull-up and forgetting our plan for her next step in becoming a big girl. She was right. I'd promised undies at night, so undies at night it shall be. 

Bless the Lord for having someone create multiple types of mattress protectors! See, my girl has always been an excellent, deep sleeper. Singing praises for that! Sadly, this often goes hand in hand with a lack of that special hormone that tells you to wake up if you need to pee. Girl doesn't even wake up when she's soaked in her own urine! Ugh. 

We're doing pretty well (she's been nap potty trained for a while - with the occasional long nap bringing out a small accident), but man do I assume this process is going to be a long one for us.  

 Here's what we've been trying so far. Limiting liquids at least an hour before bedtime (I've got to get better about giving her dinner earlier! Of course, she requests water with her dinner but if she's not eating til 8pm that's a problem! Oh, the woes of a late-eating family...thanks a lot, Mom and Dad), offering small incentives for multiple dry nights in a row, and me waking her at least once in the night to sit on the potty. 

[one confession: my girl is REALLY stuck on having her "nighttime milk" so it breaks my heart to just take it away all together. We've moved down to about 1/3 c of warm milk before bedtime, but even so she complains that its not enough most of the time. I'm such a softie sometimes.] 

 Any other suggestions? 

With this process in place, at least when she does have an accident at night (we haven't yet gone more than 3 nights without an accident...but she's only been working on it for a week and a half) its a very small one and, thankfully, doesn't spread to her "babies" or her pillow...not that it would matter 'cause our poor, old washer/dryer set about getting a real workout these days anyway! I welcome any other ideas and will try anything! I'm fully aware that some kids just take a longer time to get it. Pretty sure my girl will be one of those. 

Many have said to "just wait until she wakes up with a dry diaper most days - that's the time to try night time training". Ya'll. If I did that, she'd probably be in pull-ups til puberty. We'll go with it! Gives me a reason to buy some new sheets. I don't think 2 sets is going to be enough!  

 Hugs :).

1 comment:

  1. I don't have any suggestions :(, but I do love knowing that B eats supper late, too! The Foxes definitely eat late... very, very late... so far, it hasn't scarred Annabelle. :) Best of luck with the nighttime training!!!!

    p.s. I know B is too young for this now, but if she still has trouble when she's older... other help exists. I babysat for a 7-yr-old boy who had nighttime accidents. Then he started a prescription nosespray before bedtime. It had some special ingredient that stopped his bedwetting. Amazing!! So, you always have a Plan B. :)

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