Last week, I got the bright idea to start nighttime potty-training our 4-year-old. She's been completely potty-trained since the age of 2 (except for nighttime pull-ups), and I don't know if it's the fact that we'll have a new baby here in 2-ish months, or the fact that we move into our new house in 10 days, but I just thought, "Now is the time".
Well, now is not the time.
Last month, Linna told me that she didn't want to wear pull-ups to bed anymore, and last week I found a waterproof sheet to fit our bed ON CLEARANCE! I took both of these instances as signs. I figured that kids should be able to go through the night without having an accident by the age of 4. So, on Friday night, I decided to just go for it. I completely ignored the fact that...
A. My kid JUST turned 4, and rarely wakes up with a dry pull-up in the morning.
B. She sleeps a lot longer than most kids (12-13 hours at night).
We tried 3 nights of nighttime potty-training, and I'm over it. This was a solo-mission, as Papa Saigh is working in Singapore for the next few weeks. Linna would go to bed at 7 p.m., and I'd wake her up to pee before I went to be around 10 p.m. Waking her up to take her to the toilet is like waking the dead. She would pee on the toilet, but I had to wake her from a dead sleep to get her there. Carrying a 35 lb. kid while 30 weeks pregnant is fab. During the first two nights, she woke up at at about midnight with wet undies and a wet towel underneath her. The first night, she walked to the toilet on her own, and then cried to me about her "accident" when I went in there. The second night, she woke me up to tell me that she had wet the bed. Last night, I decided to wake her up a little later to use the toilet (about 11:30 p.m.), and she was completely dry when I checked her this morning at around 6 a.m. But then, she woke up at about 7:30 p.m. all wet.
Bummer.
I did the whole "no liquids" an hour before bed, had her pee right before she went to bed, etc. But the truth is that I just don't think she's ready. And to be honest, I'm not ready to continue interrupting her fantastic sleep pattern. She sleeps hard, wakes up with a great attitude, and is generally an amazingly well-behaved child. Why the hell would I mess with this?! Call me lazy for giving up too easily, but I don't think Linna is harming herself or anyone else by wearing a pull-up to bed. In all honesty, if it was acceptable and wasn't frowned upon by Papa Saigh, I'd probably wear a pull-up to bed... ESPECIALLY while pregnant. Waking up to pee is straight up inconvenient.
So there you have it. I am a proud mama of a pull-up-at-night wearing, pacifier-at-night using 4-year-old. Remember THAT when you cast your vote for "Mom of the Year".
Good to try, and good to know when to put it off for another time. She'll be ready at some point, but it may be in a year or two. Don't sweat it; she'll get there. Cheers! Carolyn
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