My mom gets up just about every hour at night to go to the bathroom. What can I do to get her to sleep through the night?

Thanks Carol. I do appreciate the thoughts and the support. You are right, I don't want to hear about moving Mom anywhere. She is such a joy in all of our family's lives that I would not even consider it at this point. She has had the dementia for over 7 years now and it has not gotten much worse than when it started. (due to low blood flow to her brain prior to a pace maker) She still crochets and plays pinocle (cards) with us and goes to bingo and bible study, etc. That's why I feel so bad.......she is wonderful and so easy going and fun to have around......it's just the sleeping thing. I wish I knew how to even slow it down to a couple of times per night. I will keep trying! Thanks again for responding back to me. It means alot to know that there are people that care enough about us to help out and support!! Hugs and God Bless!!

I am really new to this site but have been caring for my grandfather-in-law for the last 5 years off and on but the last 2 years continuously. We had the same problem except we have a 4 year old that without fail he would wake up every single night when he made his rounds. After a few weeks the lack of sleep got to me as well! I tracked the extended potty breaks to 2 things. The first problem was that after he went to the bathroom he wasnt able to go back to sleep because there was nothing going on at 2AM. I went to Walmart and bought some glow in the dark stars that simply stick to the ceiling. I put a few around his room and a few on his ceiling fan. Now when he lays back down he can watch them until he falls back to sleep. (I did the same thing with my daughter) The second reason was he wanted to check on all of us and make sure we were breathing and havent left (which we have never done) in the middle of the night. My solution for that was a baby monitor. I put one in his room and one in ours. I told him that our end was a mic and his was just a speaker so that if anyone got up or if there was a problem he would hear it. The catch is that I never turned our end on. As long as the green light is on in his room he thinks he is able to hear everything that goes on. Then he doesnt worry about us. The monitors dont actually have to work so you could probably find a set on craigslist or worst case scenario they are like $15 new for the cheapest ones!
I know its a little dishonest but I needed sleep! We are going on month 2 of not waking up in the middle of the night!
Hope it helps!

Please don't feel guilty. You are under incredible stress from lack of sleep. Your mom's short term memory issues may be dementia of the Alzheimer's type and the trauma of a broken hip and subsequent hospitalization may have pushed her dementia farther down the road. This is a documented issue with hospitalized elders, especially those with AD.
Your mom is remarkable to have recovered this well from a broken hip at her age. Statistics about this would make a complete, long term recover quite rare.
First of all, of course, you need to talk to her doctor about this, and you should also discuss your health with your doctor. You can't keep this up. If her doctor has no better ideas, it's entirely possible that, even though you won't want to hear this, for both of you it may be time for a good nursing home where they have staff shifts who can deal with this. You are placing too much on yourself, and this will affect your ability to be a good caregiver, to say nothing of putting your own health at risk.
Who will be there for your mother if you go down? If she is in a good facility (assuming the doctor has no better suggestion), you will still be there for her as a caregiver and her advocate. Please take care of yourself. She would feel horrible if her situation damaged your health irreparably.
Take care,
Carol