12 Months, 12 Challenges - February AND night time potty trained?

So for January I had two challenges - one for me (not eating chocolate) which went pretty well! (I was mostly very good about my challenge) and one for Butterfly, which.... well... started of good but then went very bad. I think it was the first day that I tried forcing brushing her teeth and then I decided I really rather not do it that way. Because I don't want it to be something she hates and something we have wars over, and anyway I doubt that I was doing a good job when forcing. The first few days went pretty well, but then it went bad. Right now not much is done. Not sure if I mentioned, but at least she doesn't really eat sweet, so at least that. I will put this challenge on hold, and return to it in a month or two (which doesn't mean we won't be trying again unchallenged :-) ).

Night time potty training. Night time my girl needs to pee sometimes (rather, rarely) at about nineish, and then around midnight-one am and that's it for the night until we wake up (and even then, she would nurse in bed for 1/2 an hour to an hour, dry of course). Of course there are days when things happen differently (I am sure tonight will be one of those nights), but generally that's how it is lately. And if you followed me long enough, you know she sleeps without a nappy (EC) and peeing means me holding her over a bowel. She, on her part, wakes up to pee, or half wakes up - I do not take a sleeping baby, but a baby that has cued me that she needs to go.

Anyway, why am I telling you all this? Well there was a discussion on my SMC board about night time toilet training, started of by a mother seeking advice. As we (me and Butterfly, that is) are not the norm, I do not participate in such discussions. But then they were talking about toilet training and maturity and how you have to be mature blah blah in order to be toilet trained at night, as opposed to day time toilet training. I chimed in with how it's with us, and well besides a nasty remark [somehow if you do EC and/or don't vaccinate your child and/or homeschool etc etc people feel free to be mean and nasty] I was told that my girl is not night time potty trained. In my original comment, I did say that Butterfly is not fully potty trained at night, but that comment I got made me think.

What does it mean to be night time potty trained? Not peeing in ones sleep? Butterfly has never-ever peed in her sleep. She has been sleeping without a nappy from when she was 2 months old and she has never learnt to just let go of her pee. She always wakes up or even half wakes to pee, wiggling and moving uncomfortably. Not always I get it and put her over the potty (and yes, we had some pretty bad months), but it is always me who misses, not her! Not peeing at all during the night? Okay, then that means I am not night time toilet trained because I do go to the toilet at night. Nowadays with baby and all not so much, but I always used to go at least once to the bathroom at night. So if I, an adult, go to the toilet at night, is it reasonable to expect a child not to go at all during the night? [though I don't think going in the night to pee was a habit of mine during childhood. I wonder when I picked it up..] And she does go for seven or eight hours without needing to pee! Not needing the help of an adult to pee? Then yes, she is not night time toilet trained, because she will not go by herself. So while she probably is not yet really potty trained at night, she is really not far from it. I do believe that once she masters daytime potty training (and lately she seems to be doing so much better!) and knows to how to go by herself, pulling down trousers and all that she'll master that last point of night time potty training :-).

And now for February's challenge. I want to try both [but not at the same time] not eating dairy - though that will be too difficult for me! so maybe going off cow's milk (but yes goat/sheep milk). I also want to try and minimize eating wheat products. Neither of which I feel ready to face right now, so I will (hopefully) leave these challenges for another month.

I think my challenge for the month should be getting my house clean every day (night) on a regular base. I am such a messy person and the nanny very much helps me keep things tidy, but amazingly it gets so messy so quickly. So I would like to try and keep it nice and clean, not let it get into such a bad state.

Challenge number two would be to spend more time with Butterfly actually playing with her! I do a lot of taking care of her and her needs and we usually take a lengthy walk before nap time (going nowhere in particular, like yesterday was more or less just up and down the street with her little wagon, as much as I can, I like to let her dictate where we're going :-)) But I don't so much just sit and play with her. Yes, she plays very nicely on her own and I take advantage of that and do my stuff. But I want to be with her! I don't want to look back and feel sorry for all those times we didn't enjoy together. So I really want to try and do better..