Poo patterns and sleep... HELP!

[nudhistbudhist]

I've finally got a great night time routine where DS is sleeping by 7, and waking only a couple times until 6 am. This is a huge improvement over waking every 30 mins ALL NIGHT LONG. But, he seems to have developed a pattern of skipping his bowel movement before bed every other night. Which means he wakes up on those nights saying "psssssss" but not pooping on the potty. He hates sitting on the potty at night, and even though he is farting like crazy and keeps SAYING he has to poop, he wont poop at night. We pee him in a little bowl on our laps in the bed at night. So the only thing I can come up with is put him to bed LATER on those nights (which is probably not great, he's falling over tired by 7 now) or possibly giving him something to help his digestion earlier in the day. I was thinking maybe prunes/prune juice??? I've never had prune juice myself, so I was wondering how much to give him and does it make you uncomfortable? I dont want him to be uncomfortable, I just want him to be comfortable at bed so he can sleep.

As soon as he wakes up for good in the morning after the "bad" nights, he has a HUGE bm. We've had him on this new bed schedule for two weeks, and I keep thinking his digestion will fix itself, but I dont think I can wait much longer... I am 7 months pg and when he wakes up sooo much at night, I get nauseous and can't get back to sleep. My husband is helping out at night, but he has a very very hard time with waking up and he can't even function the next day.

If there is something better for him than prunes, please let me know. We do yoga with him and tummy massage to encourage BM, but it's not working DS is 13 months old and weighs 24 lbs if someone can tell me how much prune juice I should give him. Thank you

[LCBMAX]

That's the same age that my son switched from a reliable 1st am poop to anything goes. I'm not really in favor of trying to manipulate the bowel pattern unless things are going seriously wrong (constipation, diarrhoea.) In general, I think you can trust that a toddler's body will pass the poop when it's right for them. An ec'd toddler, especially, is unlikely to restrain poops from fear of diaper changes and mess sensation. I know this isn't your situation, but just to say that perhaps your dream-come-true sleep pattern is, like so many things in babytime, subject to change.

If my son has an impending poop, he can't nap. He'll drowse on the breast and then pop up and say "poop!" and off we go. Sometimes that means the nap is lost for that day, and I hate it, but I wouldn't try to change his diet to make it go differently.

At night, he will sometimes say "poop!" in an effort to delay bedtime, or because he's farting and he doesn't seem real clear on the difference. For the serious farting, I'll hold him in an ec position but not remove his nighttime diaper while reassuring him that it's ok if he poops in the diaper.

Instead of trying to reset his bowels to fit the bedtime, you could try your idea of a later bedtime, or adjust something about evening eating. Also, you could try adding probiotics, in case it is all about gas and not actually about poops.

I sure wish you didn't have to deal with this while pregnant too! I can't imagine how you do any night time ecing at all with a belly.