The end of diapers… free at last

We’ve got a heavy sleeper. So heavy she doesn’t wake for anything. You could have a marching band come in and play and there’s a really good chance she wouldn’t wake up.

We tried many many things to solve this – limiting drinks before bed, changing bedtime, pee-activated buzzer, sticker charts, rewards, but nothing could wake our sleepy bedwetter. This went on about two years with anything we tried going on for several weeks.

Changing bedtimes, the theory is they’re so tired they sleep like the dead and don’t notice their body telling them it’s potty time. Limiting drinks is fairly obvious but even that didn’t really do anything.

This went on a lot longer than it should have.

Now, whether we found the answer to training her to wake up, or whether she’s just old enough that she can listen to her body saying it’s time to wake up, I don’t know. But we did something for a month that is listed as a big no-no in most of the literature I read.

Every night she would go to bed at 8, and every night at around 10 I would get her up, put her on the potty, and tell her “just use the potty and you can go right back to sleep.”

We did this for a little over a month and forgot one night, she was dry in the morning. This went on for a few more days and there was an accident one night when everyone had gotten to bed late. Not a huge deal… dry dry dry dry and wet again, once again during an exceptionally trying day.

And so the cycle went, with dry beating out wet except for nights where something changed and she got to bed later or we weren’t there to do the nighttime rituals (such as when a babysitter was there.)

So yeah, waking your kid up to hit the bathroom, definitely advised against in many things I’ve read, and it worked in a month.

Or it didn’t and it’s just because she’s older now.

Goodbye Fail Pail. You will not be missed.