My 3 year old son recently wanted to begin wearing underwear to bed. He has been daytime trained for about 9 months but wore a pullup to sleep at night. He slept anywhere from 10.5 to 12 hours at night, every night. He has been wearing undies to sleep for about 2 weeks now and so far so good, as far as staying dry! So, that is wonderful... BUT he is losing so much sleep! If he wakes to pee (anywhere from 5 to 7 or a little more hours after going to sleep,) he thinks it is time to stay up. There have been times I have gotten him back to bed, but certainly not every night. I MISS THOSE QUIET HOURS, haha. But on top of it, it is necessary that I get him back to sleeping and resting like he was because I also have a one month old son now, and myself getting any rest is a thing of the past for now. I would like my three year old back to his rested (and a little more pleasant) self soon. It hasn't seemed to matter if I limit water after a certain hour, or how many times I have him pee or at least try to, before getting into bed. I would love ideas on how to get him to realize that he hasn't slept the whole night yet and that he needs to just go back to bed when he wakes to use the bathroom. (I don't expect him to hold his bladder for 11-12 hours if he ever gets back to sleeping that long at night again.) Thanks so much.
K.,
What we did for our son was wake him and take him pee about 3 hours after he went to bed, right before we went to sleep. I know those days..... as we had a 6 mo.... It may tke a few tries, but he will get it. My Mom did this for my sis and I as well.
Well, You may want to think about stopping all liquids after a certain hour... like evening meal time. That is what I did to help my kids get through the night. Then as soon as they got up the bathroom was their first activity. If you are already doing that, maybe you could stop the liquid even earlier. Just an idea. (remember--ice cream in the evening is like having a glass of water or milk... turns to liguid on the inside.)
A lot of people I know wake the kids up before bed a good 4 2-4 hours into their sleep so they are more droggy instead of waiting till later.
Our pediatric urologist advised us to take our son potty 2-3 hours after putting him to sleep. Our son is so asleep at this point he doesn't even know we took him. We did this until he was 7.5 years and then found he made it 'through the night'. He's now nearly 10 YO and he asked us to restart taking him after 2-3 hours because he wakes at 6am to go and can't fall back asleep. We are are doing it and he's sleeping an extra 1-2 hours each morning.
I don't know exactly but perhaps simply by example. "Oh! Mommy has to go too..." Finish up..and say now I'm ready to REALLY ready for sleep too..how 'bout you.!" If it means camping in his room for one night ...oh well (if it cures this little glitch)..but perhaps he just doesn't realize its not daylight..if its still dark..point that out. A good book is "Good Night Moon"...for "saying goodnight" to everything. It might help..and its a pretty short book so only takes a few minutes to stumble through in the middle of the night.
Something that helped me and my son out with that issue, was we used a nightlight in the bathroom. It was just bright enough so he could see where he was going and where the potty was at. I tried to keep all lights off and be as quiet as possible. That seemed to help a bit. I just let him know, in a whisper, that it was still bedtime and not time to get up. Not sure if this helps, but hope it does. Good luck! :D
I had a friend once who put stickers on a large, basic dial clock to tell her kids when it was time to do things... sunshine on time to wake up, place setting or food type sticker on meal times, bus sticker on when to go to school, teddy bear for naps, bed or moon sticker on bed time... it worked for her because after a while, her kids learned that they weren't allowed to ask her when they were going to get this or that AND they learned the importance of following a schedule. My suspicion is that since your son is three, you should be able to show him the clock and he can see that the big hand is not close enough to the sunshine (or whatever you use for your "good morning time" sticker) he'll know that he needs to go back to bed. He'll understand that he will get to play during that special time... soon. It worked for her and when my little one is a little older to understand, I will probably use it with him. Good luck!!
You're probably up feeding the new baby around the same time he's getting up to use the bathroom. If not, as a suggestion, when you get up to the feed the new baby, get him up to go to the bathroom. Then put him back to bed while you rock and nurse/feed the new baby in the same room. All of this is a new thing for all of you. The new person in the house is rearranging his sleep schedule as well, and he just wants to be part of any action that might take place. He's the big brother now, he's looking out for the baby.
Same situation...3 year old who has been trained during the day since 2 yrs 2 months, still won't wear underwear at night, although he is ALWAYS clean and dry in the morning (for nearly 6 months). He sleeps for 12 hours, so I am not pushing the underwear...Also have a 5 week old...and I want to sleep!!!
Two ideas.
1. Wake him to go to the bathroom before you go to bed (or when you wake up to feed the baby - if he doesn't fully wake, then he may be fine going back to bed.
2. My son knows his numbers - don't know if your son does or might be able to learn them. We have a digital clock in his room and tell him that he is not allowed out of bed if the first number is not a 6 (or sometimes a 7 if I think he is really tired). He can play his music (which he can turn on by himself) or read a book or play with his animals, but he can't get out of bed...He doesn't have to pee immediately in the morning (a camel or something) so that might not work for your son, but maybe...Also, we got him a digital watch which he thinks is amazing - so he really likes numbers...
Eventually he will sleep. Keep that in mind. My daughter did this kind of thing for 3 weeks. And then crashed. So maybe the end in sight.
But you could maybe help him along by setting some rules about what happens after he wakes up. Tell up you are glad that he has gone pee. After he goes, tell the rule is that he needs to return to his bed and he may only read books--laying down.
You could also get an alarm clock and tell him he can only get out of bed (except for peeing) after the alarm clock goes off. Put the clock facing you son so he can watch it and by watching it he might fall asleep.
I hope some of these suggestions help.
