baby gates/closed bedroom door and PT

My toddlers get wild if they are together near bedtime - since we split rooms, it works best just to let them say good night after we finish with baths and then get each one ready for bed in his/her own room. So we keep a small baby gate at each of their doors and close the door itself so they know it's time to settle down. That's working really well, but now that they are no longer in diapers, sometimes they have emergencies in the early morning where they just have to go quickly. I guess I really wouldn't want them exploring the halls and bathroom on their own anyway so it's probably just as well right now, but when did you set them free so that they could just get out of bed and go to the bathroom if they needed to? We have small potties in the bathroom and i know I could move one into each room for the night, but I'm not really comfortable with the idea of teaching them to pee in their bedrooms :bad: Right now I just try to jump out of bed the second I hear someone ask to use the potty and RUN down the hall to make sure I get them over the gate fast enough. It's working pretty well, but it's a bit much before I've had any caffiene!

 

Bless your heart and with a new baby, it cannot be easy! can you remove the gates after they go to sleep and block the hallway off so that they have access to the potty but not the rest of the house? I would do that if possible IF you think they can handle the bathroom without you - by that I mean wipe, and not play in the sink, toilet etc.. ? If you answered no or they may to any of those questions I would keep up with what you are doing for a while longer! My girls are 3 (4 in Jan) and they get up and go without me (ok, Addison does. Ava has to come find me and make sure I know she needs to go to the potty!! lol!!) Ususally if I am in my bed, they will come get in bed with me at that point!

 

I remember peeing on a little potty in our room when I was a toddler, I'd say it's a better alternative than the rest, all things considered.

 

My girls didn't PT until 3, but before then they had a gate on their door because I didn't want them roaming the house. Once they PT'ed though we took the gate down so they could use the bathroom is they needed to. In the beginning they would come and get me to help them pee (even though they could do it on their own), so I didn't have to worry about them wandering. GL figuring out something that works.

 

My oldest didn't have a gate on his door and he always came and told me first... We're not doing little potty's so we'll have a gate at the end of the hall so they can get to us and the bathroom but we'll put a gate on their doors and take them off before we go to bed.
Good luck!

 

My guys come and get us to go to the bathroom. We lock the bathroom doors, because they get into all kinds of trouble when allowed unlimited access. It's really for their safety. They were getting into medication. Even with all the problems we had with wandering, early morning is not typically the time they choose to get into mischief. I think they'd rather cuddle with Mom or Dad. So coming in to get us is more inviting.

 

My boys night PTed with crib tents so I'm familiar with the early AM sprint. I guess either they have very good control or I'm amazingly fast half-asleep because there weren't any accidents. I went ahead and took down the tents at 3, though. With full access in the AM, they did exactly what I feared most -- wandered the house unmonitored in the early AM while I slept away oblivious to it all. When I caught them trying to cook paper in the toaster, I put a bell on their door to wake me when they opened it. That solved it for us.