Door open or closed at night

Here is my situation and I was wondering what others have done.
My twins just turned 3 and are newly potty trained. They are in panties all day, during naps and everything, but at night they wear a pull up. We have always had their door closed with a child lock knob on the inside so they couldn't get out and wander around or go downstairs (for their safety). When they wake up they would play for a while, and thenI would go get them up. It worked great.

Now, however, I have a newborn that I'm nursing and can't get up there right away and sometimes they are calling that they need to go potty. Do you leave the door open for them to go in and out of in the morning? Or go downstairs by themselves? I'm just worried that they will get up at the crack of dawn and play around the house when I want they to stay in their room until a certain time (usually 7). Any advice? Hope this made sense!

 

I haven't dealt with the potty issue yet (mine are still in pullups too, and are all too happy to pee/poop in them in the morning ), but I would suggest the wake-up light as a way of having them stay in their rooms.

There is a special alarm clock (discussed a few times in this forum, but I don't know how to search for it) with a light that turns green when it's OK to get up. We just have a small lamp on a timer, which serves the same purpose (but the downside is that if they're still asleep later than usual, the light goes on and wakes them up). We started using it around 2.5, when they were still in cribs but we didn't want them yelling for us at the crack of dawn. When they switched to twin beds we just kept using it. Sometimes they still yell for us, but they know there will be a consequence if they leave the room (we take a toy/book from their beds), and they almost never do it.

 

Our doors are closed at night, but there is nothing preventing them from coming out. I would say give it a try without the lock on and make sure there is a night light in the bathroom. We are also lucky that rarely do our kids ever go to the bathroom in the middle of the night.

 

My guys don't wear pull-ups at all, so their door has to be left open all night. They will get out of bed by themselves, go potty and then go back to bed. Is your bedroom by theirs? I would open their door at a certain time every morning and leave it open, regardless if they are up or not. You don't want them going the bathroom in their pull-up if they want to get to a potty. That's just going backwards in the potty training. I understand about the safety issues. My guys sleep in, so we have never had any wondering problems while we are still sleeping. I also know what it is like nursing a baby when you have 2 toddlers wanting something and wanting it now.

 

We always close the door to our girls' room, but if they wake up in the night, they come straight to my side of the bed. (I always wonder, why not Daddy's?? LOL). They've been potty trained since 2 1/2 and almost 3, so we removed the gate from their doorway at 2 1/2. They just go potty in the night if they need to, sometimes waking us, usually just putting themselves back to bed. But neither has ever gone downstairs to play without us - we set down that rule when they were 2, and they're still both too afraid to be down here without us, I guess.

If they wake up too early, which one went through a phase a month ago where she was up early in the AM at 4, 5, 6, 6:30... they have to go back to bed until 7. We finally put one of those doorknob covers on the inside of their door as a consequence for getting up more than once a night, which curbed that behavior very promptly so that we no longer need to use it. For her, it was just a matter of learning to go back to bed if it's too early.

 

We keep the door closed, and instead put training potties in their room near the night light with a pack of wipes, that way, if they need to go potty, they go in their training potty at night and wipe with a wipe instead of tp. We empty the potties in the am, but if they poop they call us over the monitor until we come in and dump out the poop and help them wipe (since they are terrible at poop-wiping still). Works great for us.

 

Take the lock off and try it! We recently had a discussion about doors opened or closed in here. The overwhelming consensus was that it was a fire hazard to have them open, but many people do!

I have the door closed. If I am lucky enough they get up and go to the potty and get back in bed! they can open the door.

I kept a gate over the top of the stairs for a long time because I didn't want them disoriented going the wrong way and falling down the stairs. That was never an issue though. They just started getting up in the night to potty. And it happens rarely!

 

My twins had just turned 3 and were about a month into potty training when my DD was born. I kept the door closed but unlocked. The kids just got up in the middle of the night to go potty and then went back to sleep. If they got up earlier than me, they knew they were allowed to play in their rooms or in the living room. But I told them not to go into the kitchen for safety reasons. They were old enough to understand and never really ventured into the kitchen.

Try it with the door open and see how it goes. I'd have a talk with them about what is allowed and not allowed while mommy is nursing the baby or sleeping. (And then I'll try to childproof as much as I can, just as a precaution.)

 

I was also going to suggest putting the training potty in the bedroom and see how that goes. Non of my kids ever really needed to go potty in the middle of the night we stop drinks at a certain time and I think that helps with that. But all of them know if they need to go to call for us and we will help them. We don't have any lights on in our house and both kids rooms doors are shut. They can get out if they want to but they don't.

You could also try to and take the lock off the door and see if they stay in their room. I never put locks on their door because we are all on the same floor and I can hear them if they open their door.

 

I too would put the potty in their room, with wipes.
(OH I WISH that I had this problem.................

 

That was the same with us. We gave up cribs and potty trained at the same time (when they turned 3). By that time, they were old enough to understand they could only get up to use the bathroom, not to play or wander the house. All our bedroom doors are closed and unlocked at night, and we've never had a problem. Good luck!