3 Day Method & waking them to pee

k.martell

I'm reading the 3 Day PT method and the part where it says to wake the child 1 hr after going down for the night and 1 hr before waking up to use the toilet just isn't sitting well with me.  I worry that that waking will keep them up or make it harder for them to go back to sleep.

Has anyone done that portion with success in not waking them up for the day early or trouble putting them back down for the night?

Cgilb

I felt the same way as you.  A friend of mine said she did it with her daughter and it worked for them so I decided to give it a try.  However, my daughter has always been a good sleeper.  I brought her little potty into her bedroom, so that I didn't have to disturb her too much when I woke her to pee.  I would go in about an hour or two after she went to bed and turn on the little night light so it wasn't too bright in her room.  Then I'd rub her back a little and give her a minute or two to "wake up" then whisper to her "it's time to go potty"  She wasn't happy, pretty whiny, but I tried to make it as quick and swift as possible so she could get back to bed.  I got her out of bed, put her on her little potty, and she just kind of sat there half asleep for a minute before going pee.  Then I helped her wipe, pulled up her pants and gently put her back into bed.  

I tried to keep the conversation to a minimum.  I guess the idea is to show them that it's OK to get out of bed if you need to go potty.  For the first week or so, I would wake her early (although not an hour earlier), then I just started to really listen to when I heard her waking up, and I'd go in to get her up and tell her it was time to use the potty.  

She didn't have any trouble getting back to sleep, but again, she's always been a good sleeper.  We also made sure that the last drink she had was her milk at dinner and for the next hour and half to two hours before bed would not give her anything to drink (unless she was asking for it because she was really thirsty, then we'd give her a little bit).  We try to make sure she goes pee twice before bed to try and empty out her bladder.

We've been doing this for over 3 weeks now and honestly it's hit or miss.  She would still have 3 nights or so a week where she'd wet the bed.  Just this week I went back to putting her in a pull-up at bed time.  I can only wash sheets for so long and I feel like we gave the method a really good try, but the fact is she just can't hold it all night sometimes.  I didn't really make a big deal about putting her back in pull-ups (I tell her we're putting her night time underwear on) and I still praise her a lot when she wakes up in the morning and she kept it dry.  I treat it just like I would underwear and tell her that she has to keep her "underwear" dry and if she needs to go, she's allowed to get up to use the potty.  

The thing is, when she was in real underwear at night and she would have an accident, she would just peel her pants and underwear off and sleep without anything on so she could be somewhat comfortable and go back to sleep.  

I think everyone has to modify the method to fit their child, but it doesn't hurt to give it a try and see what happens.  Good luck! 

k.martell

Thanks for the reply.

DD is a good sleeper too but I could see her just peeling off the underwear and going back to sleep also.  

When the newborn comes I can see myself waking her to pee but I also can't as I'll be too sleep deprived myself.  I think we'll just amend things to fit our household at this time.

Thanks again!

J&Jaggies06

We did try this as recommended because DD was still wetting the bed.  She is a very heavy sleeper especially before midnight.  Needless to say we could not wake her 1 hour after going down and when we did get her up any other time she would get so mad and never pottied during those times.  I think she finally figured out we would leave her alone if she stayed dry.  We now leave her alone but if she wakes up on her own we always ask and 9 times out of 10 she says no.

She never has trouble going back to sleep.  I will say that even now, she wakes up a little earlier than before because she needs to potty but that is no more than 30 minutes earlier.

At 1 hour before waking she would stay up so we did 1.5 to 2 hours before, but she still wouldn't go. 

Emilia0101

We kept pull ups at night. Within a few weeks of day training she was trained at night. I don't think the night pull ups caused any damage to the process.