It's now been a week that Annika has gone without Pull-Ups at night, and I'm not sure exactly what our next step should be. She's had one night when she stayed dry all on her own, and one night when she stayed dry with a little help from me. That night I took her pee before we went to bed, and then again around 2:00am when I heard her wake up crying (she wasn't wet though - I think maybe it was a bad dream or something because she was almost back to sleep when I went to check on her, but I figured since I was up, I'd take her to the bathroom anyways).
The past few nights I've been waking her up to go to the bathroom before I go to bed (around 10:00), which I'm not sure is the right course of action, but I figured we'd give it a try. I know that some think of this as "parent-training" rather than "potty-training", but I did find some research and support for it when I was Googling info on night-time dryness the other day (of course, you can find support for just about anything on the web :P). One of my reasons for wanting to try it is that I was hoping that perhaps with this "scheduled" bathroom break, she might be able to stay dry for the rest of the night, and that having some successes would encourage her and make her feel good about herself. Like I said in my previous post, she's been a champ about the whole thing so far, and it's even been her decision to keep going with it. I'm not sure that I would want to continuously wake up in a wet bed, but she is sticking with it. Yesterday she even told me that she wasn't going to wear Pull-Ups again. And when we put the last disposable bed mat on her bed today, she said "I guess I'll have to get up and use the potty from now on, because that's the last mat!" (I do have washable mats that I plan to use from now on, though).
I love her enthusiasm and positive attitude, however, it also brings me a bit of concern. She doesn't want to wear the Pull-Ups any more, and while that's great - what if she just keeps on wetting the bed each night? I'm finding it quite tiring, physically, being woken up every night. Some nights it takes me quite a while to fall back to sleep and then I'm exhausted in the morning. Nevermind the pile of stinky laundry, once we switch to the washable mats. :P How long do we keep this up?
In terms of laundry, I have to say that Annika is thoughtful in that regard - she figured out pretty early on if she slept in just her jammie shirt then there wouldn't be wet underwear or shorts, so that's at least few less items in the laundry. Or maybe she just likes the comfort of going commando. No wonder she doesn't want to go back to wearing Pull-Ups. ;)
Anyways, that's where we're at. I guess for now we'll just keep at it, as long as Annika wants to, and I'll just have to start using the BIG coffee mug each morning. :)
4 comments:
was she waking up dry in the pull-ups? can't remember. I personally for my own sanity would put her back in pull-ups or the goodnights. I would say if you go awhile with your pull ups dry then we'll try again. Even you waking her up to pee is interrupting her REM sleep. But that is just my opinion.
She was wet most of the time in the pull-ups, but she would have the occasional dry night. Just before we started this she had 2 dry nights in a row, which is sort of what prompted this whole thing.
Good for you for sticking to it. I think I would have given up after two nights of wet bedding. If you think it's worth all the effort then I'd say keep going, especially since Annika seems to be so on board with it and feeling positive. If it's starting to wear on you physically then it's always good to look at whether the benifit outweighs the effort. But, you are her mom (and a good one!) and I'm sure you will all get thought this just fine :) Hopefully sooner than later.
I wish I had some advice for you, but I don't!
My opinion though, if you're getting so exhausted from all of the night-time interruptions is to put her back in pull-ups until she is ready to stay dry all night on her own. Some kids just take longer than others before their bodies figure it out.
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