8 month old nighttime difficulties!

[N&M]

My dd has recently stopped letting me potty her in the night. For her first 7 months, she willingly peed (or sometimes pooped) in her potty during the night. When she'd squirm, I'd potty her, she'd pee, and usually nurse right back to sleep. Sometimes (maybe around 6-7 months) she would just fall back to sleep with out nursing. She would almost never wet during the night. And, she usually only woke 2 times per night, 3 at most.

Well, now she's waking up with a cry more like 4 times/night and when I go to potty her, she arches and cries/yells and won't pee. I have ordered a potty cozy and am hoping that helps, but I am not convinced that is the problem. It is so depressing taking her back to bed to nurse KNOWING she has a full bladder and is going to wet herself (which causes more crying). and I feel like the more she wakes, the more she nurses, the more she has to pee!

The last few nights when she's woken, I've backed off the pottying. I nurse her, then just change out her wet diaper when she wets.

Anyone BTDT? Will she lose awareness and accustom herself to wetting her diaper if I continue to back off the potty during the night? I would appreciate any advice or even some encouragement

[emmaegbert]

have you tried nursing while pottying? That is our nighttime routine.
otherwise, personally I wouldn't fight it and just change when wet.

I don't think there is any "right" way to EC. Part time is fine if that is what works for you and your baby. Don't beat yourself up about it! Or get anxious about her losing awareness. Any EC is good, and even kids who eliminate exclusively in diapers for 2-3 years DO stop using them eventually. And, you can always continue to communicate ("oh, I am changing your diapers since it is wet").

[hrsmom]

I have TOTALLY BTDT and it did kind of suck!! My baby was the same- used the potty at night up until 7 or 8 months, and then would have NONE of it. You can try different things, like nursing while you potty your babe (I never did try that) or the potty cozy, or you may just end up using diapers at night and changing them. Not only did my babe refuse to potty, but of course didn't want to sleep in a wet diaper! I went for feel-dry and she still didn't want to sleep in a wet diaper. Can't say that I blamed her, but I wished she would have! I used to go to bed with a minimum of 4 diapers by the bedside, and most nights we used them all. Oh, how lovely it is to be past that stage!

Your babe will not lose awareness. My little one just at some point started holding it at night, I'd say around 19 months, but I don't remember for sure. I put a night time diaper on her for awhile, because it reminded her to hold it, but I was just realizing today that I don't remember the last time she wore a diaper at night. She's 2 1/2 now, though!

[N&M]

Thank you both for your advice! I have been nursing her on the potty at certain times during the day to jumpstart her pooping (which has been sluggish since introducing solids), but had not done it much during the night (who wants to stand over the potty in the middle of the night with a boob in a baby's mouth?).

But, I am happy to report the last two nights went much more smoothly. I threw an old t-shirt over the potty as a cozy and nursed her, and she peed almost every time (and last night she only woke twice and used the same diaper all night ).

There is some upsetment when she's done peeing and I want to take her back to bed. She cries as soon I disconnect her (I usually wait for her to break off, but she still cries!) until we get back into bed and start nursing again. But at least she has relieved herself and can drop back into sleep comfortably.

I'm a little worried with all this nursing while pottying (which we never did as a newborn) that she won't be able to go any other way (I've definitely been thinking about this with the pooping). Do you think that's a legitimate concern? I'm hoping it's just a phase, as I've learned everything else baby tends to be!

emma-are you still doing the nighttime nursing while pottying routine? Do you have to nurse her for her to potty during the day?

hrsmom-our girls sound very similar--I guess I had it pretty easy the first 8 months, I'll be looking forward to when she can just hold it at night for sure!

[emmaegbert]

Originally Posted by N&M

emma-are you still doing the nighttime nursing while pottying routine? Do you have to nurse her for her to potty during the day?

My DD is 18mos (as of yesterday). I never nurse during daytime pottying anymore and haven't for a long time. Sometimes I run a little tap water- that works much better than a cue sound to get her to relax and pee.

I still will nurse/potty when she wakes at night. For a long time now, she has been able to hold almost all pee in the night though. She will frequently wake between 2 and 4 hours after falling asleep, and will usually pee then if I nurse her on the potty and she goes right back to sleep. Then, she is virtually always dry in the AM. She sleeps about an 11-hour stretch, with just that one potty time in the first part of it.

Good luck!

We had 100% EC nighttime success for a while when she was an infant. Then back to diapers for a few months with a lot of nighttime misses. Then at some point, we got into the routine we are still in, and its one that seems really good to me, for now. Of course, some day I will want to stop the nurse-potty thing, but it doesn't bother me now.

[Momasauras]

I'm glad to find this post.  We have been struggling with nighttime pees the same way as it seems others have.  We started EC at 6 months and DD is now 11 months.  She and I do well during the day (or as well as can be expected, I think... probably about 50/50 or more on successful communicating).

Nighttime on the other hand has been a complete struggle... early on, she went after a little wiggling and fussing over the sink.  Later... probably around 8 months or so now that I think about it, she started refusing and crying and stiffening her body.  Especially if Dad tried to take her to potty.  We switched to overnight disposables and tried to let her pee through it in the interest of us all getting more uninterrupted sleep.  Now, however, she will cry and stiffen until I can get her to wake long enough to potty.  Fine, she goes in the potty... not fine that she thinks it's time to be awake for a couple of hours before going back to sleep.

I will plan to try peeing her while feeding her and hope like heck that will do the trick.  I don't mind doing that if she will go back to sleep... I can tell our other solution of trying to let her pee in her diaper is not her favorite as she will still cry and fuss through that and refuse to nurse while doing so.

Thanks for these tips!

[Momasauras]

Update:

Tried the potty last night.  That was a failure.  First waking she just wanted to nurse, no peeing.  Stiffened when I tried to position her (while nursing) over the sink, over the potty, and over the toilet.  Luckily, she went back to sleep relatively easily after nursing.

Second waking, took her to pee without nursing.  Dry diaper!  Yay!  We did a tandem pee with her facing me... seems like as soon as she hears me go, she will relax and go.  This worked and she nursed and went back to sleep fairly easily.

Third waking... up for the day.  First AM pee, success.  Tried to lay down again, but she wasn't having it.  So before we got in her cloth diaper, offered again... more pee!  Then after about 5 minutes of playing she went over to her potty and started playing with it (anytime she does this I tell her we don't play and offer her a pottytunity).  She pooped!  So great!

Even though I really don't like getting up with her in the middle of the night, I am wondering if this will lead to more success during the day?  I plan to continue the same "tandem pee" concept tonight and see how it goes.  There is really nothing quite as thrilling as waking up with a dry diaper!!

[turtlemamameg]

Sounds like we've been through just about all of what you all have been through.  Currently DD is 15 months and nurse/pottys at night. We get up at about 3 am to pee, 90% of the time she is dry .  She will pee, and then cry a bunch as I am rediapering her, but then nurses back to sleep (sometimes more easily than others) and is dry in the morning.  The nurse/potty nighttime routine saved us.  There was a time when dd refused to potty at night and hated to be changed, in fact she seemed to prefer remaining in her wet diaper all night rather than being messed with, but we managed to turn it back around with nurse/pottying.  We don't do it at all during the day, but I am not worried about it becoming a nighttime crutch...she won't nurse forever so eventually it wont be an option, but it works for now. 

[Momasauras]

I've been struggling still to get her to pee while nursing.  She will nurse while sitting on the toilet with me, but doesn't seem to want to pee.  And sometimes it's a struggle just to sit down as she "knows" we are sitting on the potty and stiffens even at the idea of going.  Oh well, guess we will keep trying.

I also think we are going to try to have daddy comfort at night without nursing.  I really don't think she has to nurse as frequently at night as she does, it's more a "habit" and a convenience factor of me being right there.  Just a few weeks ago we moved her crib in our room and side-car-ed it to the end of the bed.  She naps in there pretty well during the day and I am doing my best not to nurse her down for a nap so that she doesn't associate NEEDing to go to bed with milk.  I'm totally fine nursing before bed and once she gets up, but I'm darn tired of getting up at night and getting up to potty/nurse/potty/nurse means I don't get much sleep at night!! 

Anyone else tried night weaning like this?  I wouldn't have dreamed of it when she was younger, but now that she is 11 months, I'm guessing she's really not hungry at night anymore.

[anarchamom]

we've always had this problem.  i have recently figured out a good way to potty my usually very resistant boy at night. (during the day he doesn't fight it) I sit him in my lap facing me with his legs around me and let him nurse. then i slip the potty bowl (plastic bowl with flared rim) under his rump and scoot him back a bit so that we can aim for the bowl and not for my pajamas. finding a good position to nurse and potty at night took a very long time for us. in fact he is a year old and i feel like i just figured this out.  just a suggestion.

[brooke13]

HI there,

I'm looking for a few moms to talk to about EC as well. I'm new to the site, not sure about how to find people. Anyways, my son is 8 months old and uses the potty all day. I have also nursed him on the potty at night here and there and it never affected his potty time during the day. The nights are when we put on a disposable and let him sleep and change in the am. Mostly because our sleep has been a nightmare up until the last 6 weeks. So we were not willing to do the diaper changes in the night. but it has never been an issue.

looking forward to meeting other moms doing this!

brooke

[Momasauras]

Yeah, anarchamom, I have tried that with my DD, too.  She does okay sometimes, but then like last night - she won't latch and just fusses.  I'm also confused sometimes by her waking.  Sometimes she has NO interest in pottying and just wants to nurse.  Other times, she will still fuss a little, but will let me pee her. 

I'm guessing there really is no one answer here, but all have helped and we have had a few nights with a dry diaper!!  Just wish she would sleep longer stretches throughout the night, but I imagine that's another topic for another forum!  :)

[Momasauras]

Just thought I would post about our breakthrough...

Seems nursing FIRST, then peeing is the best option.  I always was afraid that if I nursed her, she already would have gone in her diaper.  But without the nursing first, she arches and won't latch if we're on the toilet.  I also discovered that bringing her lovey (a pillow case) with us on the potty helps as she nuzzles that and still stays "mostly" asleep.

We've had several nights of dry diapers this way!!!

Best of luck on your journey!