SacMomsClub.com

My son, who will be 6yrs old soon (and has been day potty trained since just before his 3^rd birthday), just had his first dry night!

 It was no small achievement.  And, I think this belated milestone is due more to my laziness than anything else.  I am finally bracing myself and doing what it takes to night train him.

 My girls were so easy.  One was day trained before him and one right after.  Both of them were staying night dry on their own after about two weeks of being day dry.  For them, my strategy was to keep them in pull-ups at night until they had 7 dry nights in a row.  One gets up to potty at night on her own, as needed.  The other never gets up and has never had a wet bed.

 So, I just kept buying pull-ups for my son and waiting to start the 7-day dry countdown with him too.  But that first night never happened.  At the 4yr check-up, the pediatrician was unconcerned.  At the 5yr check-up, he was still unconcerned. I was told “everyone develops differently”.  And “boys are usually late at this”.  Well these things I know.  But at almost 6?  NEVER dry at night? Really? 

 When your child can come to you and say, “Mommy, there are only two pull-ups left.  You need to buy more before Tuesday”, I think this is a sign to stop waiting around for him to do it on his own. So we decided that this summer, we were going to try to encourage him to stay dry and start actively night training.  I was worried; imagining loads of sheets in the laundry everyday (still could happen).  But my pediatrician retired this year.  And the new pediatrician emailed me a guide for night training.

 So I ‘forgot’ to buy pull-ups at the store after our trip.  Last night he was frantic about not having pull-ups.  I said, “Oh no!  I forgot! What are we going to do?  Go put on your PJs with just your undies – I’ll think of a strategy.”  Heh, heh, heh.

 I told him that I would wake him up when I went to bed at 10PM and he would go potty then. I explained that both Daddy and I get up in the night to use the potty when our body tells us. We practiced it (fake snore and all!) just like the guide said.  I was so proud of him at bedtime. He was nervous, but went along with my plan. I drank an extra glass of water before bed to make sure I woke up to potty in the night.  When I woke up at 2 AM, I went and got him up too.  I checked him when I woke up at 5:30 – one more trip to the potty and still dry.

 It seems my son is a very deep sleeper.  It was very hard to get him awake enough to the point of walking on his own to the potty (walking on their own to the potty is a key point in night training).  And, apparently, his bladder is too small to make it all night. So, this will be my task for the next week(s) or so – getting my son up when I get up in the night.  But hopefully, this will train his body to actually wake up to its cues. Or create a habit for him of waking up in the night (isn't that ironic?  After all that time training my baby to sleep through the night - now I'm waking him up!). 

But, I am so happy that this first night was a success.  He is off to a great start!

Wish us luck!