Using potty as an excuse to stay up

[physmom]

At night the only way to get DD to sleep is basically sit in a completely dark room with her and let her run around until she's finally ready to nurse to sleep. We've tried everything and that's it, she's just a child that really has a hard time winding down.

Anyways, the way she lets me know she has to go to the potty is normally by running to the bathroom door. Well, at night when we're trying to go to bed she does that ALL THE TIME! Granted, sometimes she really does need to go potty and that's fine. But other times she's just doing that so she can play more (her favorite is to grab the bathroom curtain while on the potty and play peekaboo). During the day she never asks to go to the potty when she doesn't need to go, this is really just something that happens at night when I'm trying to put her to sleep. It might bed time take hours and by the time she finally sleeps I'm so exhausted! Has anybody else dealt with this?


On a somewhat related note, has anybody else noticed that their kids wake up more at night after you started EC? We don't do EC at night because I'd never be able to get back to sleep but DD definitely seems to be waking up a lot more... I'm just wondering if they're related.

[pixiepunk]

all 3 of my EC'd kids went through a phase of this. they get over it. promise.

as for the night time thing, i guess every kid and every experience is different. but i didn't night time EC DD1 and she was by far my most frequent night waker and i believe her elimination was waking her up (but it did that before we started daytime EC at 9 months, so i don't think they were related). i didn't do nighttime EC with my DS either, bu started EC earlier (6 months) and his sleep was less disrupted and he was a night time graduate earlier than DD1 (and actually prior to being a daytime grad). DD2 i did night time EC from the beginning, and she started staying dry all night really early on, like 3 or 4 months, and has been my best sleeper. when she does need to pee at night she always wakes me and we keep a potty bedside. in hindsight i really wish i'd night time EC'd my older two. i think i would've saved myself a lot of waking up.

[LCBMAX]

I totally know this experience. In our house it sounds like "mama, pee!" or "mama, poop!" and of course I want to honor that but only once of the times I took him did he actually have a real poop, and that was the start of an illness.

Once I figured out that it was a delaying tactic, I started saying, "That's ok, you're wearing a diaper/ underwear, and it's night time, so if you get wet we can change you, no problem, but right now it's time for milk and sleep." And lo and behold, back on the breast ... at least til he remembers to ask for another book from dada. Not once has he actually gotten wet within 2 hours of falling asleep.

[physmom]

Tonight I wasn't so flexible about it. I let her go to the potty once and when it was clear she just wanted to play I simply shut the door and didn't let her go anymore. I also paid attention to her body language (her meanduring to the bathroom playing while she went vs. her running there with a determined look on her face). Well, she went down without nearly as much of a fight and she's still dry 4 hours later!!

[Carlyle]

Originally Posted by physmom

Tonight I wasn't so flexible about it. I let her go to the potty once and when it was clear she just wanted to play I simply shut the door and didn't let her go anymore. I also paid attention to her body language (her meanduring to the bathroom playing while she went vs. her running there with a determined look on her face). Well, she went down without nearly as much of a fight and she's still dry 4 hours later!!

That's what we did too One try and you're done kiddo...

[hrsmom]

My LO has done this and still does it sometimes. If I don't think she has to go, I'll tell her, "I don't think you have to go." Then she doesn't ask again. Or sometimes she wants something that she's been playing with in the potty area, so we get that. She cracks me up, though, when she'll ask to go pee pee and if I don't say or do anything, she'll bring out the big guns and ask to go poo poo! A genuine request sounds different from the "I want to go over there and play" request. Typically even if she just wants to play during the day, I'll put her on her potty. It's only when we're settled and cozy at night that I don't.

As for your last question, I am pretty sure some of our many wake-ups can be attributed to the fact that we EC. I can't say for sure, but it seems that way.