Night Time Potty Training Success

A few months back, I was looking for advice on night time potty training for Alex and Olivia. At the time, they had both been potty trained during the day for well over a year. But night times were different, and Eric and I were stumped. So I posted about it and received lots of great tips. (If you're struggling with the same thing, check out the comments on this Night Time Potty Training post. Lots of great advice there!)

Within a week of reading through all those responses, we made the decision to just put Alex in underwear at bedtime and see what happened from there. We decided we'd focus on him, since he's the older one, then move on to Olivia.

There were many accidents in the beginning. But we kept at it and Alex was committed to success. Soon the only accidents were on those nights when we forgot to wake him up before we went to sleep. And then if those began to fade. We were all very excited!

About a week ago, Eric and I realized that it was time to start the process with Olivia. But just like when she potty trained herself, she beat us to it. As I was getting her dressed for bed, she said she wanted to wear just underwear to bed. I explained to her that if she slept in underwear, it meant she had to get up and go potty when she needed to. She said she would.

I was unsure but hopeful. I should have known better though. After all, this is the girl that went from diapers to underwear in one day all on her own. The night time routine was no different.

She was dry the next morning. She's been dry every morning since then. We don't even have to wake her up before we go to sleep.

So...one child left in diapers. I'm in no hurry, although I do admit it will be nice to not have to buy pull-ups and diapers any more.

Here are the few things I've learned about night time potty training over the past few months.

• The methods that are successful very by child. What works for one will not necessarily work for another.
• No one method is the end all, be all. If you start with pull-ups and nighttime wakings with little success, ditch it! Try something different.
• Most importantly, it will happen when it happens. Don't stress about it!
  

That's it - the extent of my night time potty training knowledge. But if I had known that way back when I used to worry my kids would be going on their honeymoons in pull-ups, I would have saved some sanity for sure.

This post is being linked to:

• Tackle It Tuesday at 5 Minutes For Mom
• Talk About Tuesday at The Lazy Organizer