Another issue not covered in the manual

Hailey has been doing great with potty training. She has filled up three charts with stickers and is the proud owner of a slew of Polly Pockets and Polly's rubbery wardrobe. The last couple of days something just sort of clicked. Where as before she was accident free as long as she was naked from the waist down, all of a sudden she can be clothed and still realize she has to get to her potty when she feels the urge. Now I will dress her in big girl unders and pants and she will come to me when she has to go or more often than not, she will just start stripping herself down on the way to the bathroom. The recent progress just amazes me.

Even more amazing is that the night before last she was dry through the night. I know that the leap from day dryness to night dryness is not a huge hurdle for some kids. In fact Spencer was the exact same way. When he decided he was done with diapers - he was done with them. Of course he was three and a half years old. I guess that I was just planning on having a little more of a difficult time with the night time dryness. I realize that you are probably reading this thinking "She was dry one night. That's a fluke. That doesn't mean that she is trained". To which I say- let me tell you what happened last night.

She went to bed around seven o' clock like she normally does. About an hour later we heard her wake up and then she started screaming for Daddy. She was hard to understand because she sounded really sleepy but still seemed to urgently need Daddy. Daddy went up and asked her what was wrong and she told him that she had to go pee pee. He took her to the potty, she went and then she went back to sleep. This morning at around 6:35 a.m. I heard a similar call for Mommy and also heard the word "pee pee". I ran in to get her and sat her on the potty and sure enough, she had to go. And her overnight diaper was perfectly dry.

All of which leads me to my latest parenting issue. She still sleeps in her crib at night. What are we supposed to do now? She has to be able to get out. I don't want her to hold in her urine when she has to go because she can't get out. That is just a recipe for bladder issues. The obvious solution is that she needs to go into a big girl bed. I just worry that if I do that it will be too much "new" at the same time and she will either regress with the potty progress or she will not stay in her bed at night. She hates going to bed already because she knows that everyone else is still up without her. I don't know what to do.


I was thinking this morning about what we did with the boys. Why is this the first time we are dealing with this issue? What is unique about this situation? What is unique is that for the first time I have a child who is two years old and I am not pregnant or taking care of an infant. Spencer was Hailey's age when he moved into a big bed to give up his crib for Evan, and no where close to being potty trained. Evan was even younger than her when he moved because we needed to get him set up in his room before she came along. He was daytime trained but still wore pull ups at night. In fact, he still wears pull ups at night. Maybe I underestimate her. I think that if they could transition without a problem, then she can too. But then again, all of this "transition" was not happening at the same time for the boys. See what I mean?

I think for now, I am going to see what happens over the next couple nights. If we continue to get the morning wake up scream, I think I will see if I can take a side off of her crib. That would let her out on her own but still seem pretty status quo. If the night dryness can continue and she can stay in her room, it will probably be time to go bed shopping. Which means that I will not have a crib in my house for the first time in over eight years.....

I don't know if I am ready for this!