First of all, apologies to JJ when and if he ever reads this as I’m going to talk about bed wetting. He is only three (well three and three-quarters) so bed wetting is mostly par for the course.
I wrote a while back that we were completely nappy free but there was a relapse last week. For three nights running he wet the bed in the middle of the night. He seemed to do it when he was asleep and it would only be a little wee that didn’t wake him up so the consolation for me was that I didn’t find out about it until the morning. The not so good thing for him was that he got to sleep in a damp bed for half the night.
He would come into my room in the morning, about 6am, and inform me that he was wet. First of all it’s half an hour before I normally think about getting out of bed but I can’t tell him to just wait so we’d walk down to the bathroom get him out of his wet clothes and I’d give him a wipe down with a warm, damp face washer. I’d get him dressed and let him sleep on the couch for a bit until it was time for me to get up. I have a psychological barrier about getting up before 6.30am.
Then I’d get up and change his bed. He’s got a car tent on his bed that’s a pain to get off and put on as there’s four elastic bands for each corner of the bed and his bed is up against the wall. Then of course I’d have to strip the bed and wash the sheets and hang them out before heading off to work so the mattress protector would be dry when I got home that night. A normal cycle on my washing machine takes about two hours but luckily there’s a quick wash which takes a bit less than half that.
Then the process would be reversed before he goes to bed that night. By the third morning this happened I was getting very sick of this process. Luckily I’ve got a newish washing machine and luckily it’s still fairly warm outside. If it was winter I’d be stuffed.
By the fourth night I couldn’t face another day of unmaking then remaking the bed so I said to JJ – do you want to wear a nappy tonight? He did, so I put one on him. I thought we were back to square one and that he’d be in nappies for another year.
But it was shortlived. The three nights were Sunday, Monday and Tuesday so he wore a nappy to bed Wednesday and Thursday. On Friday we were at a friend’s place and he slept in her bed till 10.30pm and I thought we’d be safe and if we weren’t then I’d be very apologetic and help her change her bed. Things were fine though and when I got home I steered him to the toilet and put him to bed without a nappy. No wet bed.
Saturday night he slept at another friend’s house and I put a nappy on him but it was dry in the morning.
Sunday night I said do you want to go to bed without a nappy? and he said yes. Every morning since then he’s said I haven’t wet myself.
So I freaked out for nothing – it was just a lapse. I was pretty pleased with myself that I didn’t get annoyed with him. I knew it would be counter-productive and of course it wasn’t his fault that he was having sleeping wees. I’m guessing there will be other relapses but we’ll get through them. I just hope he’ll save them for next summer.