Potty trained during the day - night time a nightmare!

Our twins (fraternal girls) will be three at the end of October. I am proud to say that that they are pretty much trained during the day. We have the occasional accident, but they are becoming fewer and farther between.

The night time routine is another story! We put pull-ups on at night "just in case." We tell them it's OK to go in the pull-up if they need, or their door is open if they need to go to the bathroom. The stalling is out of control. No joke for two hours, they say they have to go pee pee. If we tell them it's time to go to bed, they will take off their pull ups and pee or poo on their floor. This goes on and on. Every time they go to the toilet, they pee (and sometimes poo). How is it that they seem to wait at least an hour between bathroom visits during hte day, yet at bed time it's impossible?

It's been suggested that we put potties in their room but they are not interested at all.....we are at our wits end.
ANY advice is much appreciated!

 

I would just put them in the pull up, give them one opportunity to go to the bathroom and then back to bed. Or, if they are small enough, put on a diaper with duct tape to hold it closed after the one chance at the bathroom. Don't argue, don't fight, just be matter of fact about it. I bet after being in a duct taped diaper for a few days they will want the pull up, and won't go on the floor to spite you.

 

Gabe's tried the stall thing a little bit too. I finally said that enough is enough, time for night night. If you have to go pee, then get up and go pee, but straight back to bed. I don't use pullups on him at night, just regular underwear. I also limit the amount of beverages after supper.

The peeing/pooping on the floor in spite, to me would be a punishable offense. Accidents are different, but if they are doing that out of spite...they would most certainly be cleaning up the mess themselves.

 

OK, so last night, we put the girls through "bed time boot camp." We wrote a chart with all the steps in their bed time routine (even included some of the sillier steps they have bcome insistant on like saying good night to our nrighbours kitty who they can see from their window). It was still a little rough as they insisted on peeing over and over again....after about 4 trips to the bathroom each and a couple of time-outs for getting out of bed they FINALLY fell asleep. A much shorter process and we remain committed to cutting out the nonsense!!!

They have also recently given up their naps so the afternoons are rough with melt downs and I am worried they are not getting enough sleep...anybody going through the same thing?

 

My g/b twins will also be 3 at the end of October. They are occasionally still taking naps in the afternoon, more often not. I have the same concerns that you do. When do you know if they still need the nap? If they got more sleep would they still have the meltdowns. My son would take a nap everyday as long as I laid in the room until he fell asleep. My daughter on the other hand would never go to sleep, even at night unless she was forced to.
The whole potty training thing with us is just frustrating for me. They are really doing well, and I guess I should be happy with how they are doing but I HATE the whole pooping in the panties. We started off with leaving them in diapers and just asking if they had to go to the potty. The whole peeing thing was easy. They both did great with that. We have now moved on to panties most of the time. Diapers at bed time and nap time. But when you get 6 poops in the panties in one day, there really isn't alot of desire to keep trying. I just put the diapers back on them and kept asking if they had to go to the potty. I think my son would be fine in the diapers and just having help when he needs to potty. My daughter on the other hand wants the panties, no matter what. We fight over her going in a diaper at night. I even went as far as getting a different brand of diapers for her at night so she thinks they are special panties. Do you think that is making things worse? Should I just stick to the panties trash the diapers and deal with the poop? LOL
TIA,
Cassie

 

Bizarre, I just posted almost the same thing as you described, only mine involves more bedtime woes than just the pottying thing, but that is by far the worst part these days. My 3 year old fraternal girls do the exact same thing, except for the letting loose on the floor thing! Poor you, I would lose it!!!! But mine play musical toilets, on and off their and our toilet fifty times and refusing to get into a pull up. They will sit there forever saying they have to poop, but never go. Then when I get serious and take them off and force their pull up on, then I feel bad. like what if they really DO have to go?? The old "crying wolf" scenario, you know?? Oh, and mine are also giving up naps, although I try to do "quiet time" every day in their beds, just like thier naps, but maybe they sleep and maybe they don't. Each day is different.

I'm completely broken down every night by the time I finally get them (kicking and screaming, literally) into their beds. It's horrible. I'm normally alone because my dh travels all the time, so it's doubly hard.

I like your idea of the big bedtime chart and I am going to do that first thing tomorrow. I think sometimes that if they don't nap that they are way over tired, so I'll try a super early bedtime, like 7:00, but that usually doesn't work either, they just fight me as usual, sleep for an hour or two, and are up and ready to begin another day at 10:00 at night!!! Like it was a nap!!

Sheesh! I obviously have no advice to offer you, I can only empathize with you! Keep us posted and let us know if you find something that works for you and I will try it!!!

Good luck!!!! Hope it gets better!!!

 

Well, I have to say it's nice to hear someone else is having the same night time battle. The girls started preschool this week and yesterday they took a nap AND went to sleep much quicker. They also took a nap today. It makes such a difference when they do nap and we are ALL a lot happier!
I don't want to jinx it but I am so hoping this is the start of something good!

As for the bed time chart, they are the ones going through each step to make sure we're following the rules....they haven't peed on the floor again, but if they poo before falling asleep, we have to get in there ASAP or they are out of bed and out of their pull-ups in record time. One of our girls has been waking up dry in the morning, the other so wet that her pull up falls down as soon as she stands up! Very few day time accidents....now it's just trying to figure out how to use a public bathroom when they have to go at the same time!!!