DS (2.5) started potty training about a month ago. He's doing awesome and, other than a few small setbacks, has been pretty consistent. Shortly after beginning to potty train, he started to wake at night to pee (I would have been perfectly happy leaving him in diapers, but that's seemingly not in the cards.) Then for awhile, he'd be dry all night, or maybe wake once to pee on a rare night. Now, he's up 2-3 times a night (we go right before bed, DH takes him around 10:30 or 11 when he comes to bed, and then he gets up 1-2 more times). I don't think he really needs to pee, I think he just wakes up and instead of going back to sleep, realizes he could go pee, and so he asks for potty.

So, I don't know how to address this. We've generally had pretty strong lines on nighttime wake-ups, and barring illness, often leave him to sort things out. But I don't want to ignore him when he asks to use the potty (and he does use it every time, I just don't think it's totally necessary.)

I've thought about leaving the potty in his room, but I truly think that would be disastrous. He isn't great at pulling pants down/up, and occasionally "misses," and I don't think I want to deal with that in the morning...

So, did this happen for anyone else? Was it a stage? If so, how long did it last?

Otherwise...any suggestions? I don't want to discourage potty use, just its frequency. I don't know how to make the difference apparent to DS.