"But I REALLY DOOO NEED A WEEEEEE!!!" Getting up 1000000 times at bedtime before settling to sleep...

[ginhag]

HELP ME!

Ds (2.5) has taken to the toilet/potty really well, and we have been lucky with this I guess. Only have the odd accident, on the whole it's fine.

The problem we have is night time. He's still in a nappy, but is often dry thru the night (we're not rushing him though!)

BUT at bedtime, after stories, we take him for a last wee on the toilet. This was fine until recently. Now he insists on getting up again and again, each time insistent that he needs a wee.

It seems completely wrong to make him stay in bed when he thinks he needs a wee...sometimes he squeezes a bit out, sometimes not. Although I think he often is really convinced he needs a wee there is definitely also an element of 'playing up' and playing for time.

It's starting to really upset us both as it is so hard to know what to do. This is going on for often over an hour and he is up 10 times or more. I hate losing my temper with him but I am so bloody frustrated. And I KNOW that he is little, doing so well with toilet etc... but how do we break this cycle?

Are we the only people this has happened to? Are we crap parents???

[HopeForTheBestExpectTheWorst]

I think they all do it. I just let ds get on with it, at first I'd go with him but with no comments, just get to the loo, do what you need to, back to bed. Then he started going on his own. Did that for about a week and then stopped. All back to normal pre-bed wee and that's it now!

Hang in there, I think they just find it all a bit exciting and yes, do try and use it as staying-up-leverage.

[ginhag]

Thanks... did your ds literally spend 30 seconds back in bed before coming out again? And did he decide to do 'drumming' etc when on the toilet while watching you to see if you got wound up? I think that bit is just my stupid fault for letting him see I was getting annoyed in the first place. See I am crap

We still have a stairgate on his door, so he can't go on his own.

I'm also 5 weeks pg and last 2 pgs were a mmc and an ectopic so I'm a bit strung out (am currently convinced this is another mmc...)

The hormones and stress are not making me the calmest person.

Thanks for making me feel like I'm not totally alone in this...

[redrosa]

Hi, you're not alone in this at all. our twins are playing this 'game' every night and we are beginning to go a bit spare. After bedtime story they can do one last wee. Then they get into their beds and immediately announce that they 'need to do a wee and a poo'. They both insist on going back to the loo/potty - of course they never produce any more.

[BelleDameSansMerci]

This is absolutely not necessarily going to work for every child but my DD (2.9) is quite proud that she wears knickers now and not nappies so when she's a bit silly about this, I say, as if thinking to myself, "hmmm, I wonder if you need nappies again?" She absolutely doesn't want that so then tends to stop the messing around element.

This clearly won't work if the child wants to be in nappies though!

[HopeForTheBestExpectTheWorst]

V. sorry to hear about your previous pg problems ginhag, and keeping fingers crossed that all is well this time

Very hard if your ds is getting up so often, but I do think the best way is to ignore, ignore, ignore.
You might also suggest that if he still needs to do so many toilet trips that he'll have to start getting ready for bed earlier, which might of course mean missing out on some play time / story time etc.

[ginhag]

Well, I thought about what you said about your ds going on his own, hope... And also that as ds is obviously thinking he doesn't want to wee in nappy at night maybe it's time to bite the bullet and lose nappy (he's usually dry anyway...)

so last night put him to bed in just a t shirt and put potty in his room. Sat on the stairs (he couldn't see me) so that when he called I just told him to go on the potty....he actually did a poo (!) and several little wees,and I only went in when he was back in bed to tuck him in.

It still went on for a while but it was much less stressful. Feels like he won't play up as much,but can wee if he needs to... And no wee in the bed this morning. So hopefully it will work

am due to have a scan soon to check pg is in right place,hopefully I'll be calmer after that too!

Thanks everyone for the support

[HopeForTheBestExpectTheWorst]

Excellent news!