We taught Milo to pee on cue when he was a baby. I never went the whole diaper-free route, preferring to mix it up: cloth diapers most of the time, disposables some of the time, pottying/cueing/toileting/barebottomedness at home. No matter what kind of infant hygiene you’re using, it’s darn useful to be able to hold your baby’s butt over a suitable receptacle, make the Special Pee Noise, and have him pee right away. Saves trouble on car trips, etc.
I think that’s part of the reason why he spontaneously toilet trained early on. At 18 months he was diaper-free in the daytime. A few months later we stopped using diapers at night, too.
But recently he’s started wetting the bed every night. Regression due to the impending birth of Baby #3? Hard to believe that, when he sleeps right through it. I think he’s just temporarily outgrown his bladder capacity.
Please, no more diapers! Our solution has been to set an alarm for 2:30 AM. When it goes off, Mark takes him to the toilet and makes the sound — cues him to pee. Milo pees, without even waking up. Then everyone back to bed. It’s worked like a charm for a couple of weeks now. But Mark’s getting tired.
Last night I heard the alarm go off. Mark turned it off. But then he didn’t move again. I rolled over and poked him. "Hey. Don’t go back to sleep until you take Milo to the bathroom."
"OK," he groaned, and I heard him struggle to his feet. Then I heard him swear.
"Too late?" I asked. "Did he pee?"
"Yeah — in the last thirty seconds!"
I laughed as Mark started to peel the sheets back. "You cued him — with the alarm!"
Now what? A different alarm every night? I suppose we could set the cell phone to vibrate and strap it to one of our bodies…
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