Wednesday, December 5, 2007

Sleeping in a wet bed at 40

What is the threshold for sleeping in a pee spot? I ask because our large and lumpy king size bed is so full of people in diapers most mornings that this comes up a lot. My 3 yr old comes in at night and baby H wakes up and wants me so I bring him in also. How much pee warrants a middle of the night sheet change? For those of you who don't ever sleep with your kids, let me fill you in. Diapers and pull- ups leak, and sometimes they leak a lot!

The other night Husband woke up to find 3 yr olds pull-up had soaked his size of bed. (She usually is on my side, but I had the baby so she ventured to his side) He actually got up and started to change sheets in middle of night! I was incredulous.
I called him an amateur and rolled over. I can't even count the times I've woken up wet, from leaking breasts to leaking diapers to leaking sippy cups. Unless it's vomit (and a lot of it), a towel goes over it and it's dealt with in morning. Then the size of spot must be analyzed carefully. Quarter sized through Apple sized and up to dinner plate size are just aired out and ignored. Actual Vomit (and not baby spit-up which just get a wipe) and a true diaper explosions are really the only time actually sheets are changed in the middle of the night. This includes kids beds (we have 3) as well as ours.

"But this is the size of a basketball!!" he wailed. Get a towel and go to sleep. It's only pee. (and pee filtered through a diaper, which is hardly pee anymore at all)

Husband did as he was told, put the towel over spot and insisted we change sheets in the morning. Of course, I assured him, I'll change them tomorrow. When morning came, that pee spot had sort of dried up and didn't seem like such a big deal anymore. And it's a much bigger deal to change all the bedding. Especially since cleaning ladies were coming in a few days. Once again, I weighed my options.

So when Husband came home from work....he asked "Did you fix the bed?" I replied, Yes, honey it's fine now.

And is was fine. He would never know that the pee had dried and the sheets would be changed in a few days when the cleaning ladies came. Nobody was going to be hurt.

And so, I ask, what is the threshold to change the sheets in the middle of the night or even in the morning for that matter?