I think we may be making some progress with Oliver in terms of nighttime potty training. He's been dry during the day, and even naps, since just before Emmeline was born. It was great timing, and once he started wearing underwear, he pretty rarely had an accident. (He came home from daycare in different shorts one day last week, and when I asked how he had an accident, it was revealed: he had tried to pee in the toilet standing up. Evidently, he's been studying Wes in the bathroom.) Nighttime was a different story though. He was always wet in the morning, usually having pooped as well as peed in the pull-up. I didn't know what to do about it. When I talked to our pediatrician about it at his three-year well-child visit, she pretty much said it was developmental, and like daytime potty-training, some kids did it earlier than others. So I let it go.
But then one week we had to wash the sheets several times because the pull-up was so overwhelmed with pee that it leaked. Not fun. We kept telling Ollie that he could get up at night and go pee in the toilet if he needed to, or at least in the morning when he woke up, but he never did (even though he would do it at nap time). He's a really active kid, so I'm not keen on cutting him off from drinking. He gets either watered down juice or plain water, so it's not like he's chugging down milk or something else. I figure if he's drinking, he's thirsty.
Last week, I decided to try something new. Oliver usually goes to bed between 7 and 8pm. Wes and I usually go to bed between 10 and 11pm. So now, just before we go to bed, one of us goes up, picks him up out of bed, and sits him on the toilet. Most night he pees (and not a little). The first night we did this, he woke up with a slightly damp pull-up. The last two nights, though, he's been completely dry. He doesn't always seem to remember even getting up at night, so he's really proud of himself for being dry.
So imagine our excitement when this morning, around 6:45, Wes and I heard him leave his room and get on the toilet to pee. We actually high-fived each other in bed, and then went up to make a big fuss about what a good job he did getting up to pee in the toilet.
I think my plan right now is to give this a try for several weeks. If we get into a spell of dry pull-ups, we can try to drop the late-night potty trip to see if he learns to get up himself when he needs to go. I'm not starting him in underwear until we've had a solid run of dry nights, but I'm hoping we can get there by summer. Costco will be disappointed to hear we're close to being done, but I, for one, will not!
