I decided earlier this week to bite the bullet and put Clara in panties during naptime and nightime just to see what happened. You wanna know what's happened? Laundry, that's what.
She's yet to wake up from nap or night dry. The first night, I went in to check on her around midnight and she was soaked all the way up her back and on her pillow. She woke wet again around 3 and was wet when she got up in the morning. The next night I never checked on her. She only woke wet once and was wet upon waking. Last night I checked on her around 3:00 (after a LOST marathon), and to my surprise, she was still dry. I woke her up to go potty which was the saddest thing ever. She was wimpering and couldn't even sit up straight she was so sleepy. She did go eventually, and woke up slightly damp in the morning.
So, my question is, how long do I do this before I put her back in a pull up? One week, one month, 6 months? I'm not frustrated at all right now, so my plan is to just do it until I am. How do you successfully night train a kid? Get up in the middle of the night and make them go? Check on them all throughout the night to figure out if they're going at the same time every night? And then wake them up according to your findings?
So far, here's what I'm doing. I put on a waterproof mattress cover, a waterproof pad from when she was a baby and then a sheet. I then put on a second layer of each. The waterproof pads have worked great. Clara doesn't move around in bed too much, so most times, I just have to pull off the pad and throw on another sheet instead of having a wet mattress pad to wash. I also have a waterproof cover on her pillow.
I put a folded towel on the floor next to her bed and her potty (or chamber pot if you will) on top, telling her to go on the potty if she wakes up. When I have to change the sheets during the night, I take off her clothes over the towel and have her sit on the potty. I just throw her wet panties and pjs on the towel and collect them all the next morning for the wash. So far my system seems to be working well. I'm being really, really anal about making sure there is no trace of urine every day. I do not want her room to reek. And she's really into copying me right now, so she loves to get in the shower with me in the morning. Works out great!
Anything else I should be doing to help things along or make things easier?
Saturday, June 14, 2008
Nightime Fun!
Posted by Kelsey at 11:02 PM
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5 comments:
Looks like she is going to follow in the footsteps of her auntie. You may be buying pull-ups until she is in elementary school. :)
I never woke up when I peed all over you, so don't scold her if she does become a bed wetter because she can't control it. :)
linsey
Hey Kelsey! Now I have another blog I can read!!! Your daughter is so cute!
Well ... since you asked :-)
With our boys the night time and nap time training came on its own, in time, without much prompting on our part. Little ones just can't be held responsible for what they do in their sleep. We continued to use training pants at sleep time (no such thing as pull-ups back then) and soon after they were daytime trained, they started holding all night. We never woke them in the middle of the night, although, if it helps, maybe waking them to go when you go to bed isn't a bad idea. Most important, just take it in stride without any pressure on either you or Clara. I'd be inclined to go with pull-ups until she starts having occasional dry nights; then training pants until she has mostly dry nights; and finally just her panties and/or jammies.
But each child is different, and you know Clara best. So ... whatever works for you :-)
Hi Kelsey!
I'm so glad you got in touch with us! Here is my 2-cents worth. Try to limit her drinking a couple of hours before bedtime. Then like Linda said, when she starts to have more dry nights in pull-ups, then I would try panties. That's probably because I can't keep up with my laundry as it is! Every now and then Elena will keep her pull-up dry during the night, but I have to remember to get her out of it quickly in the morning, or we will both get lazy and just end up with a wet pull-up. Clara is adorable! Glad to "talk" to you again!
I've heard of parents putting on panties, and then a diaper over that. Just explain that she should try not to peepee her panties.... By the way, I have one potty trained (number 1 and 2!!!)! But it's worth it to me to just let her wear a diaper at night. I figure she can do that until she asks not to (she doesn't want one at nap, and doesn't have any accidents). Go on and buy more diapers. She'll be out of them before she gets married, right?
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