Pee

So, I think a small miracle has happened in our household. After spending much of the summer with Theo not in pull-ups at night, and consequent peeing the bed every single night (don’t even ask how much frigging laundry this was for me, ugh!) I invested $30 in a “pee alarm” from amazon and decided to do a “four day challenge” - if Theo could stay dry four out of five nights, I’d give him $5. 

The first three nights he peed the bed every night, once three times in one night. Mind you this is with the normal restricting water before bedtime/peeing before bed/etc. In fact the first night the alarm didn’t even wake him up but woke me up in another room. I had read in the reviews that it could take up to six months to work, so I was ready for the long haul. Although I have to admit being dragged out of bed in the middle of the night was an unpleasant reminder of baby/toddler years - a phenomenon I have zero interest in ever returning to. 

Then, Sunday night, he stayed dry. Also Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday. In fact last night we didn’t even bother attaching the alarm. He doesn’t wake up to pee in the night - he’s just suddenly become capable of holding it while sleeping. Is it an anomaly? Maybe. I won’t feel secure in this until it’s been a couple of weeks at least. But for now? I do believe we have one child finally out of pull-ups!

What does it all mean? How does it work? I don’t know for sure, but I think the sheer annoyance of the alarm kicks kids’ sleeping brains into deciding that letting the pee out is a bad thing. Aversion therapy? Maybe! Whatever, it works!

Bobby is next, and I can tell he’s scared of failing. He may have a totally different experience. He has those constipation issues, and he’s had two more years of habitually peeing into pull-ups all night and not having to get up. I’m not going to hold my breath that the alarm will even work for him. But like all things - getting pregnant, breastfeeding - you have to at least try.

Speaking of constipation issues, since Bobby figured out to squat on the toilet seat back in July he has had zero poop accidents. I don’t even have to make him poop before school anymore, which makes our mornings much easier. Is it possible that after nearly eight years my parenting life will no longer be completely dominated by poop and pee? Can it be true??

In other news, I finally bit the bullet and handed off my SMC meeting duties to the group to see if anyone wanted to take over. I’m actually pretty shocked that many of the women have stepped up to revitalize and improve on the group, running surveys to assess the needs of the group, etc. Maybe this is just what the group needed is some new eyes and new energy to make it better. Most of my meetings were pretty sparsely attended, so I never tried very hard. I figured there just wasn’t much need or interest. But hey, if a group of new people can do a way better job than I’d been doing, great! 

I also met with a friend and teacher at my event yesterday to pick her brain about my classes at my event. She had lots of great advice, some of which involves firing people. But I agree with all of it. Certain things I’ve been doing for several years have outworn their relevance, and new ideas need to be brought in. So now I’m in the hiring and firing phase. I’ve got some unpleasant emails to send, but it’s all going in a good direction. If I can get a few things confirmed in the next couple of weeks, I could have my entire event finalized in October. Awesome!