She won't wear nappies at night - I don't think she's ready...

[Enid]

My 3 year old dd has decided that she doesn't want to wear a nappy at night any more. She is quite adamant about it. Trouble is, we haven't had a dry night yet (started 6 nights ago). What shall I do? Persevere, or put her back into nappies (I'd really hate that as she is very strong willed and it would be one hell of a battle). She's such a heavy sleeper that I just can't imagine her waking and weeing in the potty. She wakes immediately that she's done a wee and comes in and tells me.

So my 16 week old baby is sleeping from 7pm to 6am-ish but its the 3 year old thats waking me in the night now! Grrrr! Any advice please?

What time does she wee? Have you tried lifting her onto a potty before then? We did this with dd1 for a couple of weeks and it seemed to help with her confidence of not wetting the bed.

I think "standard" thinking is though, that you shouldn't "lift" as they're supposed to wake when they need a wee. But having said that my dd1 did rouse when we lifted her so she was aware to a degree.

Is that any help or have I just rambled??

Have tried 'lifting', but she gets really upset and just will not wake enough to do a wee and just wants to go back to bed.

Still no dry nights...she's also started to be very hard to settle, constantly weeing on the potty and then coming downstairs to tell me! So its obviously playing on her mind even though I have been very neutral about the whole thing.

I'm giving it till Wednesday then I might start thinking about putting a nappy back on her - although I don't want to upset her further..arrrghhh its a minefield isnt it!!!

What about trying the Trainer Pants? We did this with dd1 before going "bum free". They only hold 1 wee and have Minnie mouse/cute pictures on. You could sell it to her as big girl Knickers for bed rather than going "back" to nappies? It might help her cofidence and certainly help with bed changing etc. HTH.

Thanks batey but unfortunately we already had those - she definitely sees them as nappies. She's just come down AGAIN (4th time) to tell me that shes weed in her potty, poor lamb.

Surely after this she'll have none left for the night-time???!

Had she had dry nappies over night before all this started? If it disn't improve and you use nappies again maybe you could say that she can leave her nappy off when she has a few dry nappies in the mornigs. My dd2 was v. determined to go bum free 3 weeks after SHE started potty training so we had a week of dry morning napies with a huge fuss/congratulations being made and we've not looked back. Worth a try???

Thats a good idea batey, thanks, I'll try that on Wednesday. No, we hadn't had any dry morning nappies, I don't really know what put it into her head to lose the nappies - I suspect its to do with the baby wearing nappies etc etc, you know what its like! Girls eh!

Just remembered we bought dd1 a pair if special(Disney Store/far too expensive) pyjamas after her first dry week, that was a big incentive! It's a tough one isn't it, but your'e nearly there, good luck. Keep us posted.......

Oh Enid - I do feel for you... I'd try to stick with it as you say until Wednesday.
What I did with DS - but he was different as he was ready and I didn't realise it - when he refused to wear nappies I would go and put one on him at 10PM... he wouldn't even wake... the difference was that his nappies were dry in the morning but stupid me took 4 days to realise that!!!!

Enid, it sounds like it's worth perservering for a few more days yet, but having broken nights over this for months could begin to disrupt your dd's good sleep patten - and yours as well.

If you decide to go back to nappies for now, couldn't you do as pupuce suggests, and wait for your dd to go to sleep before putting a nappy on her? If she sleeps so heavily, surely she wouldn't be aware of you doing the awful deed?
When the nappies are dry on successive mornings, you could congratulate her and go onto no nappies at night.

I have yet to face the no night time nappy thing with my youngest ds. Mustering my strength at the moment When my oldest ds abandoned night nappies, we held him over a potty before we went to bed at 11.00 ish and he usually wee-ed obediently. He progressed from this to going on the potty by himself.

Brilliant idea pupuce about putting a nappy on her at night and I think combined with the rewards for dry pants it might just work!

Although she was dry last night (but as she hadnt gone to sleep till 9pm and weed all evening prior to bed I'm not really counting it) and there was a little tiny wee in her potty this morning (not sure whether she did it before she went to sleep - she denies all knowledge of doing it in the night). I made a big fuss and bought her a book as a present so we'll see what tonight brings!!

ooh, ooh, we had another dry night and she got up and weed in her potty in the night!!!

Sad to say the thing that worked was excessive bribery - because she did it the night before last I bought her a puzzle book and told her I would buy her something else today if she made it through last night. She came in this morning and said 'Mummy, I didn't wee in my bed, and I got up and did it in my potty and then I went back to bed and it was cosy and now I want jelly beans please, pink ones.'

So I will probably soon be posting for advice on how to wean a 3 year old off jelly beans Thanks everyone.

Glad to hear it's improving. It's amazing what a bit of bribery..oops, negotiation can do!!

Well done for hanging in there Enid. I was blessed in that both of mine went dry at night within a week of day training - DD was barely 2 at the time. Neither have ever got up in the night for wees so one of the key things for us was making sure they didn't drink too late and we stressed the point about "last wee wees" - maybe this would help with the weeing all evening thing.

Anyway sounds like you've just about made it. Congratulations.