Today marks the beginning of the second full week that OLM (Our Little Monkey or Monster depending on the day) is in grade 1 and I ‘m bracing for a stressful few months until he settles in. He appears anxious about going to school sometimes and I’m not sure why.

What I do know is it often difficult to get him ready in the morning and it causes a ton o’ stress for us as a family. I’m sure you know it well.

It’s hard to imagine that Grade 1 could be so terrible but right now that is his reality. In order to help him we’ve got to help ourselves because it is very possible that we’re contributing to the problem. What’s the problem? Bedwetting.

Stress rubs off

As parents we are our kids first role models and it is through our lens that they see their world at least for a while. But sometimes it’s just so hard to decipher those messages especially when you’re in the midst of a teeth brushing crisis. But we have figured it out for the bedwetting at least. We do our best not to place emphasis on whether he is dry in the morning or not. We might say, “That’s awesome!” if he points out he’s dry but we don’t make a big deal about it. 

But what lies beneath the issue of bedwetting? s it possible that the demands we place on him to get ready in the mornings, or even the bedtime routine manifesting as bedwetting? 

So today after a cup of tea to help with the ungritting of teeth after telling him over and over again to get his backpack out of his room I asked him what he thought would be a better approach might be.

Without thinking about it too much he simply said,

“You can just say….OLM, did you forget to do something?”

Can it really be so simple?

Apparently, it is. He was ready for school thirty minutes before we had to leave this morning. We had time to chill and have a bit of fun EGAD!! before we headed out the door and there was (NO. NONE. ZERO) swearing. Calmness is definitely not overrated.

He’s got this parenting thing down.

[Tweet “A kid who always forgets has a parent who always remembers. #ParentingFail #RestEasyTonight”]

Bedwetting

But what about the times when it’s not possible to remember something? Like when he has to pee in the middle of the night? Is that beyond his inherent wisdom or is it somehow connected?

Up until recently, we were waking him to pee about two hours after going to bed. It prevented nighttime wetting and allowed us, his very sleep deprived parents, to get a full night’s rest.

That went on for almost a full year. Yes, you read that right. We woke him up every night to pee for a whole fricken year. It got to the point where his dad would carry him into the bathroom still asleep and do everything but pee for him. But OH! the blissful sleep we had after that.

I think we made the issue worse but we’ll never know. The nighttime wetting started up again just two days after we quit waking him up and there we were back to the drawing board. We’d be up for fifteen minutes changing his soaked through sheets and settling him back into bed only to be wide awake ourselves. We had to do something different.

The switch

We switched our strategy to a happy medium for a while by using potty training pants. It was a relief for us all at least up until the hotter part of the summer. He felt more confident at night and happy to wake up dry in the morning. A better rest for all is always a win, right?

We celebrated, quietly for fear of jinxing it.

Unfortunately, no matter whether we praised him for staying dry or didn’t make a big deal of it, the bedwetting continued. And with the stickiness that comes with the summer months just past, he developed heat rash on his little behind. Poor little monkey.

What’s next?

We didn’t want to go back to getting him up to pee in the middle of the god-forsaken night so we switched to GoodNites® Bed Mats.

They have a self-adhesive on each of the four corners which allow the pad to be secured to the sheet without bunching or slipping. We lay a towel on the pad so if it happens again we just replace it and the bed mat and in two shakes of a lamb’s tail we’re all resting easy. 

He is still waking up in the night but sometimes it’s closer to the time we’re supposed to get up so at least there’s that. It is a way better option than heat rash although he wants to go back to wearing the potty training pants again too.

Sigh…

Ultimately, we have to trust that he knows his body best. And in the end, maybe he’ll just grow out of it.

Nighttime wetting and back to school

If the nighttime wetting is connected to back to school stress we’re hoping he will continue to impart his little nuggets of wisdom on us. But it’s not all on him, of course. We’ve enrolled in a parenting course to FIX the rest. Bahaha!

We’ll figure it out eventually. In the meantime, there’s GoodNites®.

If you’d like to read more about how to help your child with bedwetting, there is some great information HERE. Follow GoodNites® on social with the hashtag #RestEasyTonight. @GoodNites 

Disclaimer: I wasn’t compensated for this post however I was given a sample of product to try.