Adventures in (Night) Potty-Training

You ready for this? It's story time....



I think we have single-handedly kept this company in business over the past 7 years:Okay, so maybe that's an exaggeration, but we seriously should have bought stock with them or something. That's right, I have basically been buying diapers for every single one of my kids for the past SEVEN years. It all started when we potty-trained Laylah about 4 1/2 years ago. She was 2 1/2 and my pediatrician told me that if she wasn't waking up with a dry diaper, I should still be putting diapers or pull-ups on her at night because sometimes kids are ready to be potty-trained, but not night trained. Sometimes it takes a little bit longer for them to be night-trained. Well, the years passed. Yes, I said YEARS. I tried rewards, I tried bribes, I tried everything. Never would Laylah wake with a dry pull-up. EVER. Then Jonah was trained. He had the same problem. Wet in the morning. Always. And then Daphne. Wet, always, in the morning. My kids, who were perfectly potty-trained during the daytime could not seem to wake out of their slumber during the night to get up and go pee in the toilet-where it belonged. I spoke to my pediatrician several times through the years and the only reason I wasn't freaking out about this was because he had told me it was genetic. He asked if me or my husband had been bed-wetters growing up...... I immediately replied "I know I wasn't..." And then it hit me-all those stories I rememeber Andy's mom telling me of the horrible time she had night-training her kids. Of all 7 of them, 5 wet the bed until they were 12. Including.... my husband. Ohhhhhhhh Nooooooo. She tried everything-waking them, rewarding them, disciplining them, teaching them to wash their own sheets and make their own beds, alarms, etc. Nothing worked. They just had to grow out of it. Not to mention several of my siblings were also bed wetters. Apparently it's a pretty common thing, and it's in both mine and Andy's genes.

We were cursed.

Doomed.

Forever having to buy (expensive!!) pull-ups for our POTTY-TRAINED kids.


Well, one day, not too long ago, I'd had it. I told them to all go get ready for bed. They all came back a few minutes later saying the pull-ups were gone (we had a community bag-switching between boy and girl styles to keep everyone happy-it was pretty funny to see Jo wearing princess pull-ups though :) I decided then and there that I was DONE buying pull-ups. It makes me sick to even think about how much money we have spent on them over the years. Not to mention the smell of them when one kid was too lazy to go throw it in the big garbage outside, but try to sneak it into a bathroom trash can and stuff it under a pile of toilet paper. Yuck!

So, we had a little chat. I told them they were going to be wearing their underwear to bed and from here on out, they would wear underwear, forever. No more pull-ups. I told them about all sorts of younger kids (cousins, friends, etc) who wore underwear to bed and kept themsleves dry and got up in the night to potty like a good little girl or boy. They were in awe and excited to give it a go, and I think a little embarrassed. Except Daphne, who is kind of my "lazy" kid and she said "I don't care! I'll wear Baron's diapers! I don't want to wear underwear!" I did what any normal parent would do and threatened to take her beloved blankie away if she didn't get on board with this and quick :) She did a little pout and finally agreed. I explained that Andy or I would be waking them twice a night to take them potty and we would have a potty chart to check off. If the were dry for so long, they would be rewarded. If they wet one night, they'd have to start over on thier chart. They got excited. They could do this! And so it started....

They started out fairly well. Here and there Andy or I would go to take them and they would have already wet the bed. Or they would be dry both times we woke them and then they would wake in the morning wet. Overall though, they were doing famously. I realized I had been part of the problem by not being willing to do this before. The waking and taking potty thing. I thought they had to train themsleves to wake, but I've realized that they are learning to train themselves because of us waking them. Sometimes I'll go wake one of them and they'll say "I already got up and went." And they'll be dry the next morning. Amazing! I'd rather lose sleep than money, so it's been working out great and everyone is very happy about the situation. They've all gone for a week dry on their charts. We told them after a month we would get them a big surprise. They ALL have to go a month though, so I'm hoping this continues to go well. We are planning on a big playground for our backyard. They'll LOVE it.

Part of the reason I wanted to do this post is because it is something I wanted to remember. I have a horrible memory these days and unless it gets written down, it seems to escape my head forever. I am very proud of my kids and I know they have worked really hard for this. The other reason I wanted to do it was for the laughs. Some HILARIOUS things have happened during this experience because, like I said, one of the reasons my kids have a hard time waking is because they are DEEP sleepers. Sometimes in the morning they'll say "You forgot to get me up last night and I stayed dry!" when in fact, I woke them up twice and they just don't even remember. They get it from Andy. He is the freakiest sleeper/sleepwalker/sleeptalker ever. It was quite the adjustment for me (who is a NORMAL sleeper :) after we were married. But that's another story :) Here we go...

-Andy went to get Laylah up one night and she lazily slid out of bed and walked into the laundry room. Andy laughed and said"Uh, you gonna pee in the dryer?" and he guided her to the bathroom. He said she just stood there and he told her to go potty. She looked up at him and yelled "WHERE?!" He said "In that toilet right in front of you!" He finally had to help her get on the toilet and after she peed he handed her some toilet paper and she looked at it, wiped her nose and put it in the toilet and then got up and pulled her pants up. Ehhh, good enough ;)

-I woke Jo one night and guided him to the bathroom where he just stood, dead on his feet. I told him to go potty and finally had to lift the lid and pull his pants down. He still just stood there. I nudged him forward and said "Jo! Go pee!" He quickly turned around and sat in the toilet (remember, the boy pees standing up, so I had lifted the seat and lid..... he fell right in) and then started crying saying "My bum is weeeeeet!!" I lifted him out, dried him off, he finally went pee, and went back to bed. In the morning, he remembered nothing of it. Weirdo.

-I woke up Daphne one night and guided her to the bathroom. I got her on the potty (she was crying/pouting/whimpering) and she peed. I said "wipe Daph" She cried "I caaaaaan't!!" I gave her toilet paper and said "Here, wipe" She stared at it for a minute and dropped it on the floor. I gave her more and she threw it in the toilet (without wiping) finally I just wiped her, pulled her off the toilet and said "pull your pants up" She just started walking out of the bathroom and finally tripped on her pants and fell-and then stayed there. I finally picked her up, pulled her pants up and took her to her bed. She was already fast asleep.

-Andy woke up Laylah one night and I heard him talking to her quietly. Then I heard him laughing really hard and then he came running up the stairs laughing hysterically (the girls' room is in the basement). Laylah followed-and was also laughing hysterically (which-if you've heard her "hysterical" laugh-it is extremely freaky, especially when she's not really even awake!) She followed Andy and started attacking him! I just sat on the couch and watched her punch, kick, and hit her dad while he just laughed and laughed. I said "Uhh, what's going on?" All of the sudden Laylah stopped and just started crying. Andy and I looked at each other like "what the...???" I gently led her to the bathroom where she went potty, I hugged her and sent her back to bed. Andy said he had taken her to the bathroom and told her to go potty and she just got really mad and started yelling and attacking him, so he ran away! Cuckoo!! By the way-she has done this exact thing twice since then. And she never even remembers it.

So, hopefully the worst is over. All of these things happened in the first week or two and the kids are pretty used to getting up now. I'm sure there are more stories, but I really can't remember them right now. Good thing I got these ones down-I thought they were pretty funny :) And to all you parents out there who haven't potty trained your kids yet-all I can say is Good Luck!