Sorry guys, this is a longish one?
Twin boy 1- 3.5 y.o.- is wearing a cast at night to help straighten a bendy foot. This seems to be causing him to wet his bed, having been dry at night for months. He comes in to our room to be changed, usually at around 3-4-5am- I whip off his pjs and dry him off a bit without waking up really as I'm a VERY heavy sleeper- and he climbs into bed with us. I go back to sleep and he proceeds to annoy the pants off my partner by wiggling, sniffing, talking etc etc while my partner responds by telling him off, tutting, humphing and fuming. Eventually the enticing sounds of family disharmony wake the light-sleeping, ever-ready-to-party twin boy 2 and he comes in to join in the fun... Four in a bed when one of them is related to Tigger wakes even me up and usually leads to me changing twin 1's bed and ordering them both back to their own beds. Twin2 is the kind who finds it hard to go back to sleep though. He firmly believes that day begins when he awakes?
This is happening on a nightly/early morningly basis since the cast arrived in our lives a few weeks back and, to be honest, I think I've just accepted it as one of the downsides of family life and been pretty self-absorbed/selfish about it- ie: thought I can cope, so everything's fine. This morning, however, I was woken up at 5 am by partner ranting and fuming that he hasn't had a good nights sleep for weeks and we can't go on like this etc etc. He was really, really upset- to the extent that he didn't come back to bed but started his day at 5am (by doing the washing up!). I'm feeling awful as I didn't realise how badly all this was affecting him- I'm usually in a state more asleep than awake while all this is going on.
So what can we do? Please can I have some ideas/advice?
Twin1 doesn't want to go back in nappies at night- should I insist? I don't want to really as he is being an absolute angel about wearing his cast, even though it isn't comfortable- it's there to bend his bones in the opposite direction from the way they have grown- and makes him very hot and sweaty at night. I don?t want him to get upset about wetting the bed by harping on about nappies and we?ve both tried to be very low key about the bedwetting itself. Has anyone ever tried lifting their kid onto the loo late at night- could this work or does the last time of weeing make little difference to bedwetting? Could lifting be traumatic for him? Think it might work, as part of the problem seems to be that he?s minking about trying to get comfy when he first goes to bed, so getting to sleep later and sleeping more heavily and just not waking when he needs to go for a pee. There?s also a problem in that he?s less mobile with the bloody cast on anyway so it is harder for him to get to the loo fast if he wakes up desperate.
But on the other hand, the bald fact is that he does love the closeness of being in bed with his Dad and me. My partner feels he may be wetting on purpose in order to join us. I?m not totally convinced by this but there may be some element of truth in it. I don?t think my partner would mind if only twin1 would go straight to sleep quietly and in one position (it?s not as if our intimate moments are being disturbed at 4am!) and not pootle about until a crisis point involving the whole family being up and grumpy is reached. Got to nip this in the bud somehow because I hate seeing my partner so down and upset... Advice needed fast!