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2nd dry night for ds 7.4. Is this it?!

632 replies

Whereisegg · 26/04/2014 10:48

Ds has had very few dry nights in his life, and even fewer of these have been in a row.

At 5 he had his HUGE (surgeon said biggest he'd seen) tonsils and adenoids removed due to sleep apnea.
Dr had mentioned that his brain was so concerned about keeping him breathing, it didn't care if he wee'd but that this would likely resolve itself after surgery.
It did, for 3 nights.

Fast forward a couple of years solid of brick-heavy pants every morning (and occasional wet beds too despite pants), we are on our second morning in a row of bone dry pants.

I don't want to be too outwardly excited at home in front of ds as he can't control it, so I want to be excited here please!

Could this be it, or just a lucky streak?

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Lemonsole · 11/05/2014 17:46

Thank you!!

Whereisegg · 12/05/2014 17:32

lemon how did your ds get on last night?
He must have been shattered...
Did you go mat and alarm-less?

My ds had the tiniest wee last night Sad

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Whereisegg · 12/05/2014 18:52

Also, no word from mnhq about moving the thread, don't know if anyone else wants to ask??

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Lemonsole · 12/05/2014 22:06

He was fine! We're still alarm-less, but the mat will, I suspect, remain in place under the bottom sheet until one of us can be arsed moving it. Grin

I'm now tentatively saying to myself, "yes, DS is dry at night".

He has made detailed plans of how he is going to tell his G'parents. No big fanfare - just a nonchalant shrug when he next goes to stay, and one of them asks him to get his night pants and Jammies, and to get ready for bed. He is planning to look confused, before saying, "oh, those? No, I don't use them any more..." Grin So happy for him.

Lemonsole · 12/05/2014 22:09

Have also reported thread again, with the request to move to b/d.

Lemonsole · 12/05/2014 22:23

Egg, when he is dry, is it because he has got up for a wee, or because he simply didn't need one? That may provide the clues as to whether he's intermittently not waking or sometimes not having a full bladder.

I've always been confused by what the "objective" actually was in terms of being dry: sleeping through with no need for a wee? Or waking up when you need a wee? Or both? A lot of what you read on limiting fluids after 6pm suggests the former, as it talks about increasing bladder capacity, whereas wet stop trains for the latter.

DH nearly always goes for a wee in the night, and I often do, so it has never really occurred to either of us that going all night was a realistic goal, and we were a bit confused as to what was going on (too much fluid? Too small a bladder? A
Too deep sleep for reasonable amount of fluid?) The wet stop showed us when he was weeing (obviously) which did suggest to us that limiting fluids was a bit of a nonstarter, as he always weed between 10:30 and midnight - so we'd have virtually had to have dehydrated him to have pushed it back to bedtime.

Bit of a random post, really: just thinking aloud! Grin

Whereisegg · 13/05/2014 07:18

Slightly wet again today.

He is dry because he hasn't needed a wee, we have all had a chat about it and we are going to order the wet stop ready for half term Smile

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Whereisegg · 13/05/2014 09:55

Wet Stop 3 has been ordered Grin

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Whereisegg · 13/05/2014 12:40

Thanks mnhq Smile

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Lemonsole · 13/05/2014 13:00

Thank you HQ! New home. Ahhhh. Dry beds, too.

Whereisegg · 13/05/2014 17:13

Any top tips for the alarm lemon ?

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Whereisegg · 14/05/2014 09:20

Wettest pants for a while this morning.

We really pushed the daytime drinking yesterday though, he jad started barely touching his lunchtime drink.
Reminded him again this morning, and he has an afternoon sports club today so hopefully he'll get through a lot of water at that too Smile

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Lemonsole · 14/05/2014 18:38

Back again! Sorry; bonkers week going on here...

The strangest thing about the wet stop was that it worked - even though it didn't seem to be having any effect whatsoever. So that's the first thing: it's worth sticking with. The second is to decide beforehand with your DH who will be getting up, as it makes a right old mess of your own sleep, and you'll need to take turns. It really felt like having a baby - remember that feeling of staying awake reading because you know you're going to be woken up again soon anyway? Yep. It's like that...

We did try to up daytime drinking, but DS has always been ok with that, and guzzles a fair amount of water anyway. We did try limiting fluids after 6pm, but it had bugger all impact on either his need to wee or his capacity to wake up for it, and we felt very uneasy about expecting him to go straight to bed after Beavers or an hour of sport without having a drink. So we kind of ignored the advice on avoiding fluids from early on, apart from not letting him have a drink in his bedroom any more.

DS is something of a techie, and so was quite excited about the whole thing, which helped, as he was very interested in how it worked. The sensor is very, very sensitive (see earlier posts about sweaty bits and dewdrops, boak) so make sure you have dry hands when setting up.

It clips easily into pull-ups, but needs to go right to the very bottom so that it's in the right position when they're pulled up. The instructions are clear, and we followed them to the letter, apart from the bit about changing the sheets, as they don't get wet with pull-ups. It was heartbreaking at first, as you have to make sure that they wake up and then get up and go to the loo, even if there is no wee left to wee. It's important that they switch the alarm off themselves, which sometimes took blimmin ages. The alarm has to go on their pyjama too, as when we tried it on his waist band he didn't even stir. We realised just how deeply DS sleeps, hearing it through two doors and a flight of stairs, while he snored on. You then have to make sure that they're completely dry (old towels or face flannels are handy for this) before helping them to change.

It was handy noting patterns that helped us to see when he weed, that it tended to be only once each night, etc. The sticker chart comes with it has helped, but we have tried to play down this side of things, as not getting one is, of course, beyond their control. He's enjoyed adding one each morning ever since, though.

I really hope it works for your DS, Egg: it had made a visible difference to our DS's confidence and it obviously flipped a switch for him somewhere in the depths of his mind.

Lemonsole · 14/05/2014 18:38

Blimey: mega post! Sorry.

AllabouttheE · 15/05/2014 13:32

Lemonsole that is a most useful post so thank you.
I have now left three messages as instructed by the letter from the enuresis clinic. They wrote four weeks ago. They still haven't called me back.

Most annoying.

Whereisegg · 15/05/2014 18:05

That is excellent, Thanks lemon!

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Whereisegg · 16/05/2014 07:58

2 more wet mornings here Sad

Not very heavy but my boy is sad.
Alarm is due 19th-21st.
Tick-tock....

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Whereisegg · 21/05/2014 07:37

Just a quick update, ds has been wet every morning since my last post, apart from this morning, which I wasn't expecting at all!

Alarm has arrived and we will be starting with that this Friday night Smile

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Lemonsole · 21/05/2014 21:18

I really hope that it helps, Egg. He's the right age for it, and he's had dry nights before his op - so hopefully his brain will reconnect for him in the right way. I'll be waiting and watching for updates!

DS is now 27 days dry Grin
Full-on Beaver camp under canvas very soon, and he's looking forward to it. I will need to train him to go a decent distance from the tent before peeing!

Whereisegg · 21/05/2014 23:57

When do you think you'll stop counting? Grin

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Lemonsole · 22/05/2014 10:52

Grin He's got a week of so left on the wet stop sticker chart, so I think we'll call it a day then! Unless he has a lapse, of course.

AllabouttheE · 24/05/2014 08:50

Dd needs a filling so I did a chart for brushing and mouthwash. I thought I'll bung on making bed, putting dirty clothes in washbin while I'm writing it. Oh and have an extra wee just before going to sleep.
I know they need to do this. I have tried endlessly with dd. Most times nothing comes and she smiles jubilantly at me.

But the chart has been effective for teeth brushing AND two dry nights in a row. Never had that before.

I desperately want to be the parent who says to the enuresis clinic, sorry we don't need your services anymore. (If they ever bloody returned my calls)

So full circle for the original post. Two dry nights. Is that it? Grin?

She's with her dad this weekend so I can't influence the timings of the wee but she has got her chart with her.

AllabouttheE · 24/05/2014 08:56

I just txt her dad and THREE nights dry.
[we need a fingers crossed icon]

Lemonsole · 24/05/2014 13:54

That is sounding great, Allabout. Fingers crossed for a fourth: maybe it's all about the last wee for your DD

Egg, how did your first "alarming" night go? I thought of you as I woke this morning. Smile

Whereisegg · 24/05/2014 17:08

We had dss last night who was exhausted and as he shares a room we decided to put it off until tonight.
Really excited to get going!

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