November 11, 2004
Where Were You at 4:45?
Where Were You at 4:45?
Most sane people answer this question with, "Sound asleep in bed." And I was too. The baby and I were cuddled together and my husband was snoozing away on the other side of the bed, when screams of "Daddy!" followed by much sobbing broke through my pleasant dreams.
The two year old, not the baby, has been the greatest source of midnight wakings lately, whether because she's having bad dreams, getting cold, or just wanting to stick it to her tired parents, we aren't sure. Whatever the reason, she was up again and this time there were a few extra twists. My husband ran up the stairs and I almost fell asleep again, when I heard him running water in the bathroom. That meant either someone had thrown up or someone had wet the bed and needed to be cleaned up. Neither is pleasant at 4:45, but I was just routing for no vomit when I carried clean sheets upstairs under one arm and the now wide awake baby with the other.
Hooray! It's only urine. My son, who has finally graduated from Pull-ups, still has an accident every once in a while and this was one of those nights. Of course, this was also the night we realized that thanks to a few puddle pads not surviving the dryer, we had no spares. We finally threw on two crib sized ones, even though we just knew that since he'd wet the bed once, we'd be fine to make it up without a pad just this once.
Or not. When he got up in the morning, his bed was soaked again. So loads and loads of laundry await. It wasn't like I didn't already have a totally full hamper filled with things covered in baby spit-up, but then I think they are really all conspiring against me. You'd better believe I'm already teaching The Boy how to do laundry on his own.
Ouch! May be time to call in the cavalry, but having your parents (or in-laws) around could be a mixed blessing.
While it may be tempting to go back to the pull-ups, try not to backslide. They get expensive, and you don't want the boy to regress to bad habits that will be more difficult to break down the road.
That's a great picture of Dad and his 2 girls. I'm a little jealous of him, but still happy for him (and you) being surrounded by all that little girl love.
Posted by: MarcV at November 11, 2004 11:17 AMAh yes. Little boys, no pull-ups, middle of the night distress calls. I remember those days. The parenting classes for adopting special needs children suggested handling it matter-of-factly, no judgement, but make the child get up, take a bath and change his own bed. I remembered that when a few accidents happened (moving into an adoptive home when you're in kindergarden is stressful as is having a new baby sister and starting school). It took one boy only once and no more accidents. The other boy needed to do it twice.
Posted by: Earth Girl at November 11, 2004 09:04 PMFour out of my five children have had limited success in staying dry at night, until they were about 7 years old. It cures itself eventually; generally it is a matter of the development of the bladder. The littlest one in my house now has had the most difficulties; and she is really trying. But she just sleeps so deep soemtimes!
Going to bed earlier helps her; she isn't in deep sleep when nature calls, at least that is what we figured out. But getting my Monkey into bed early is like getting an elephant into a closet. It can be done, but it is hard.
Posted by: Rachel Ann at November 12, 2004 12:18 AM
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