Potty training progress...and things

There are days when I literally don't care that Phoebe wears a pull-up to bed. And there are also days where I do care because I honestly never had a child in pull-ups before. For the most part they potty-trained over night quite easily. Benjamin was reluctant...but he managed. And he wasn't angry about it.

Phoebe is reluctant. And angry. 

Like, having to get up to go potty in the night just makes her so mad. 

Andrew usually wakes her up to take her potty because she tolerates him at night. When I weaned Phoebe some switch in her brain went off and she just finds my very existence to be beyond annoying at night. I think she was a little bitter about weaning (it's been eleven months now!) and she just was kind of like, "Well, what good are you to me now?!!?!" 

So Andrew has been waking her up to go potty at night. 

This has been our method for the rest of the kids, except for Alexander who I just said, "Okay, no more diapers." And he was like, "On my honour..." and literally never wet the bed (except for one time when he was five). But the other kids we just would put them to bed, and then wake them up consistently for several nights. And then they'd typically start waking up on their own to use the potty and then we could stop waking them up to use the potty and pretty soon...presto!

Phoebe...is taking a while. Her sticker chart is full because she can stay dry. She even has stayed dry for five consecutive days (at which point I thought, "Phew! We did it!" but at which point she thought, "Cool. Did that. No need to do it ever again."). 

So she's off again, on again. 

This evening, Andrew woke her up to use the potty while I went for a run on the treadmill. 

And then later in the evening I was working at my computer and I heard a child in the hallway bathroom, so I peeked down the hall and, lo, it was Phoebe, sleepily stumbling around.

Like a moron, I rushed in to help her. 

"Oh, are you trying to use the potty? What a good girl! Let's hop you on on here..." I helped her pull down her pants and hoisted her onto the toilet. To my surprise (and also not because...she can't stand me at night, remember?), she started sobbing. 

"Oh, what's wrong?" I asked. "Are you tired? Let's go potty really quick and we'll get you back into..."

"I WAS TRYING TO DO IT BY MINE OWN SELF!" she howled. 

So I'm basically the worst and Andrew has spent the last 45 minutes trying to get her to go back to sleep. 

But, hey! Lesson learned: if I see her sneaking out of bed to use the potty again, just turn a blind eye. 

That's more emotional work for me to do, but less physical work to do, so I suppose it will all balance out. 

I'm just happy that she woke up on her own to use the potty. This is the first time in her life...after many, many months of nighttime potty training.

(To clarify...or to make myself feel better...I'm often (but not always) the preferred parent during the day. She just typically loathes me at night for some reason (again, I'm linking it to some repressed feelings she has about weaning...because she did not want to wean...but also, like, it was necessary for me, especially with starting my PhD program, etc.). There are times when I'll do—like I was her chosen parent on Saturday night—but most often if she can't have Daddy she just...there's a lot of screaming involved).