Monday 25 April 2016

Dry Through the Night.......Almost.

I feel like I have doubted my son. Over the last few months time and time again we've toyed with the idea of taking his pull ups off at night. He's nearly 4, has been potty/toilet trained for well over a year now and I had been wondering when was an appropriate time to take off the pull ups and aim for him to be dry through the night. I've been convinced that he's not ready for some time as everytime he wakes on a morning he is still quite wet. We had come to the conclusion that the reason his pull ups were usually wet on a morning was more him being lazy and just doing his first morning wee in them as they were never overly drenched. I've been worrying that we've gotten into a bit of a viscous cycle because I just kept dismissing trying as I was convinced that it wasn't the right time and we should just wait. It wasn't just me with these thoughts, my husband felt the same although he was more confident that we should just give it a go. You can spend hours on Google trying to find out when is the right time, what to do and how to do it but I think you have to go with your instinct in the end. 


It was my husband that suggested that we give it a go one night. I admit I was a bit dubious, although we'd been talking about it to Alfie for a while I felt we were kind of unprepared.......I mean we had the awful, crackly waterproof sheet that you put underneath the normal sheet, it wasn't that kind of prepared, I think it was more mentally for me that I hadn't fully got it into my head that we might be in for some disrupted nights sleep. However, I did agree to give it a go and we'd just see what the night brought. We got spare sheets, duvet and pj's ready just in case and decided to just crack on. 




We did the normal routine with him and then made sure he had a wee before bed. He went to bed just fine, it was just a normal bedtime to him......so far so good! We had read up alot online beforehand about what we should be doing, how we should be doing it, what we shouldn't do blah blah blah, as with everything when you start reading up for advice it's a minefield of controversy! Put pants on, don't put pants on, wake them up for a wee before you go to bed, don't wake them up before you go to bed, reduce their water intake before bed etc etc etc the list goes on! I think you should just do what suits for you. Anyway, we decided that the wearing no pants in bed made sense, apparently the sensation of wearing pants can feel like pull ups which may cause more accidents so we thought we would err on the side of caution and go with no pants. We also made the decision not to wake him before we go to bed for a couple of reasons. Alfie is such a deep sleeper, I hated the thought of disrupting his sleep and also once he is awake he is a bugger to get back to sleep so in all of our interests we decided just to see how how he got on without us waking him up. It is also suggested (in the million pieces of advice found online) that waking them up to wee can actually then become habit forming and harder for them to go dry through the night so it seemed sensible for us to just leave him be.


So we went to bed as normal on the first night and I really was expecting a disturbed night, I slept terribly thinking I'd be up changing wet sheets in the middle of the night. What I didn't expect is to be woken at 7am to Alfie taking himself off to the loo! I do not give this boy enough credit. What an absolute star, we had a successful first night and we could not be prouder. In fact to this day we have not had any disturbed nights and only 2 accidents in the morning! I am so proud of him for acing it, it's been almost a month now and 2 accidents in my mind is bloody brilliant. I so wish we'd been a bit braver sooner as I do think he was capable of it but never mind, we've achieved another huge milestone and I'm super pleased with how well he has done. Here's hoping it continues! So my advice would be if you think they're ready but you're not too sure just give it go, you might just be surprised. 

How did you get your little one to be dry through the night?  

33 comments:

  1. Well done Alfie, that's amazing! My daughter was dry at night the minute we started potty training, without me mentioning it to her! I know, how lucky was I? I couldn't believe it and kept her in pull ups for a while. Then I thought this is ridiculous I am throwing away a dry one every day. She was 2 1/2 and I just didn't expect her to crack night time straight away x #MarvMondays

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  2. Well done! That must be a huge relief. We're wondering when to train our son overnight I just assumed he'd do it himself and stop weeing, but we will probably have to help him out. I bet you're so pleased how well it's gone fingers crossed for us then! #marvmondays

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  3. Always feels like a real milestone to have kids dry at night. Well done that boy #MarvMondays

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  4. How awesome! Well done, Alfie! They take us by surprise, don't they? I'd never even toyed with potty training when A dragged his potty out, stripped off and weed in it, where the heck did he learnt that! Haha. Thanks for linking up to #MarvMondays. Kaye xo

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  5. Well done! My daughter is 3 and I;m starting to wonder when we should try her #blokpodcomp

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  6. Well done Alfie! Its so funny how much these littles one can surprise you. We pottry trained our little lady at Christmas/New Year and just decided to do the night time at the same time and were pleasantly surprised. Since then we've had a small handful of accidents, but on the whole she has been absolutely fine, waking us up to take her to the toilet in the middle of the night if she needs to go, or waking up dry and then going first thing. Its pretty amazing how quickly they just get it sometimes :-) Emily #bestandworst

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  7. Aw he has done so well!! I think we have a way to go as will need to knock milk on the head before bed! What a star Alfie is!! xx #bestandworst

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  8. That's amazing Helen! We are at a similar point with Monkey at the mo. He has done some dry nights with a pull up on but not consistently and I have wondered about just taking them away. Awesome to hear you did that and that it worked so well! Hmm food for thought! Xx

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  9. I think potty training and all that lark is kinda like magic. You never imagine your child will be ready and the "poof" they just are. I think you were right to follow your instinct and in the end that probably helped. #bestandworst

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  10. Just did a fist pump in the air and a whoop whoop. Well done little guy but well done you. :0) #bestandworst

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  11. That's brilliant!! for all three of mine I didn't put them in pants at night until they were dry when they woke up wearing a nappy, which for all of them wasn't much longer after they were out of nappies in the day time #bestandworst

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  12. BB has been potty trained since two years old by is now nearly five and still not dry and at night. She sleeps so deeply and simply won't get out of bed once she's in it - so I shouldn't complain! #bestandworst

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  13. That's brilliant! My little one is 2 and she's been toilet trained for 4 weeks now she's doing excellent but the night time will be the hardest to crack ! #bestandworst

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  14. Clever boy!! I got mine dry in the day but night took alot longer, probably more down to me being cautious and sticking with pullups just in case. I then used to lift her to the loo on my way to bed and we only ever had a couple of accidents #bestandworst

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  15. This post us very inspiring to me right now because although my daughter has only been dry in the day for a couple of weeks she has been waking up dry too. I spoke to my husband just yesterday and said that we get back from our weekend away in a couple of weeks I am going to buy a plastic bed sheet and try her without a nappy at night. And then she had a wet nappy thus morning. Agggggh lol. But after reading your post I have decided that I am still going to go for it so thanks for sharing this.

    #bestandworst

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  16. That's fab - well done Alfie. I'm about to start the whole potty training and am feeling rather nervous if truth be told!! x #bestandworst

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  17. We'll done Alfie!! What a star! I bet you're so chuffed you just tried it, and maybe by waiting it's also been easier. Thanks for hosting #bestandworst x

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  18. congrats. I think that we may have waited longer than we needed to before making the final leap also. Its so hard to know.

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  19. Well done Alfie! (And mum and dad). I can't remember what age the Tubblet was dry though the night ... Wiped those days from my memory!

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  20. Ah this is brilliant, well done Alfie!! We have recently potty trained Thea and she randomly was dry at night almost straight away, which I wasn't expecting at all. So we just stopped the nappies at night after a few weeks and she was doing brilliantly. But the past week she has had 3 accidents, so I think we were patting ourselves on the back a bit too much. But hopefully it was just a blip... #bestandworst

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  21. Well done Alfie brilliant what a clever boy we should be doing this with girls soon thanks for hosting #bestandworst

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  22. Congrats on your milestone, I can't wait to get out of the pull-ups, well not me obviously! 😂

    Dawn of the Dad

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  23. Congrats on your milestone, I can't wait to get out of the pull-ups, well not me obviously! 😂

    Dawn of the Dad

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  24. Aw that's amazing!! We are the same with Finley and I think it's just about taking the plunge. #bestandworst xx

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  25. Well done Alfie! We are going through this with our daughter at the moment she's dry in the day but it's difficult to know when to take the plunge at night! #blokpodcomp

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  26. That is awesome, it was just time, and you and Dad knew it! Congrats on hitting a major milestone!

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  27. Well done, it's such a huge step and I remember for me I was on holiday, preggers with the 2nd and my eldest said 'no more nappy mummy' when I went to put it on. Brilliant moment!:)

    mainy - myrealfairy

    #bestandworst

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  28. AMAZING! You're right sometimes we just need to go with our gut instinct. #bestandworst

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  29. We had such a terrible run with actual toilet training full stop (went forever), we kind of just launched in to night free wheeling...we have been lucky at nights. But days? Basic toilet training was much worse for us! Totally weird hearing the 'baby' get up to wee at night; corny but true, right??

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  30. Yes, we were in a similar situation with our daughter...one night we just did it and told her if she needed to go pee, she could get out of bed, but she was to get right back in. I think the accidents lasted a month and they were very rare. Congratulations! No more diapers!

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  31. Awww Brilliant - well done to Alfie! I love it when you make a turn in all of this and they get it. I really hope it continues :) x #bestandworst

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  32. Sounds like he's done really well! Still struggling with getting ours interested in potty training at all, let alone nights! #bestandworst

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  33. Yay! Well done, Alfie! Sounds like he did great. We attempted going dry at night really soon after getting dry in the day and on the whole it has been good but we still have the odd accident and he does often wake us to go in the night. Getting there though! :) #bestandworst

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