Potty training manipulation - help!

[NoWayNoHow]

Hey hey

My DS is 3 and a bit, been toilet trained for a couple of months, and THANKFULLY went dry at night at the same time as going dry during the day.

I know I'm very, very lucky with this, but it's brought its own little issue along to play...

He used to sleep until about 6:30/7am, but over the last couple of weeks, he's started waking up at 5:30am (not early for new mums, I know, but I thought I'd left all that behind!) and wanting to go for a wee. We are then seriously struggling to get him to go back to bed afterwards, and it's normally a battle of wills that involves another 3 trips to the loo to do NOTHING. He's definitely using the loo as a manipulation technique as he knows he'll get at least a couple of trips out of it before we KNOW there's nothing left for him to do.

Basically, it's an hour and a half of sleep a night that both me, DH and DS are losing. And it sucks. I don't know if he's waking up early and then realising he needs to wee, or if he's waking up BECAUSE he needs a wee. Either way, I really need some help to stop this - it's not good for him, he's a walking zombie (at nursery 4 mornings a week so knackering himself out)and quite frankly it's not good for us either.

Anyone been through the same thing? All ideas will be greatly appreciated!!

My DD uses the loo except during sleep times when she uses the potty in her room exactly for this reason. It works for us, means there is no need for her to call us / come out of her room etc and if she needs to wee, it doesn't affect the time we come through to her in the morning. Might that work?

itsatiggerday had thought about the potty, would definitely solve the problem of having to come into our bathroom, waking us all up. However, I just don't know if he would go on the potty, and then get back into bed and go back to sleep. I think he would still feel "awake" and come into our bedroom anyway... I guess you don't know till you try!