So, there are few things in life we enjoy and long for right now as much as the simple act of going to sleep in our own bed. With the exception of Alec, none of our kids have been great sleepers and Aiden has been far worse. You tell yourself you can do anything for a couple of years – but Smooch is 4. And he still wakes up twice a night. Yawn. On the flip side, the only down time Nic and I have together is in the evening, so we’ve been making things even worse by staying up far too late. We’ve been watching movies after the kids go to bed at 9 PM – which means we’re typically not in bed until 11:30 or midnight. Double yawn.
It’s in this context that we went to bed last Monday night right around midnight. We got ready, hopped into bed and both of us hit the pillow at about the same time, eyes closed. Both of our eyes flashed open as we had this horrible realization that our bed smelled like pee. Not any pee – Aiden pee. See, Smooch had slept with us the night before and had leaked (apparently) out of his diaper. And Aiden is on a medication that is supposed to protect his liver from some of his other medications. When he first went on it, the Doctor warned us: ‘He might start to smell fishy.’ His body has never smelled fishy, but his urine has the slightest hint of an odor I would call ‘low tide’. It’s a little gross.
<< As a quick aside, if you were expecting glamour from a blog of this type, I’m terribly sorry. This one is going to sorely disappoint you >>
Before I continue, this *IS* my fault. I caved. I gave the ‘OK’ for Smooch to sleep in our bed after years of trying my darndest to keep him sleeping in his room. I didn’t want to give in and send Smooch the wrong message, which I realize is a bit silly. Regardless, I gave in and Smooch VERY happily piled in with us on Sunday night and slept pretty well all night long.
But we got up well before he did – and when he woke up, he climbed out of bed and came downstairs, neither of us any the wiser to the defilement that had taken place.
Flash back to Monday night and the two of us, exhausted, trying to determine what to do. I wasn’t in Nic’s head, obviously, but there was part of me that was like ‘Meh, it’s not so bad – we should go to sleep’. And then the saner part of my mind kicked in and we both hopped out of bed. But there was still hope!!! Maybe just a little leaked out and the sheets were all that had been tainted? We ripped the sheets off and smelled the pad. Crap. Mattress pad off, now we’re sniffing the mattress. Ugh – not good. Nuts.
So, we clean up the mattress. Resolve for Pets is fantastic. So is Febreeze. But we were left with large wet spot on our mattress while Smooch, ironically, slumbered on peacefully in his bed way past his usually wake up point.
What to do? We conclude the best of many bad solutions is to sleep on the floor. Defeatedly, we arrange our makeshift bed on the floor and lie down.
Me: ‘Hehe – at least Lexie hasn’t discovered us yet’
Two minutes later I hear the dog crate rumble which is the sign that Lexie is rising. She must’ve sensed something was a little off. She comes padding around the corner of the bed, sees us, and quickly glides around our floor-bed and plops her head down right between our heads. Of course, she was on a pillow. She thought the floor-bed was the greatest thing ever.
Nic then asked: ‘What do you think Aiden will do when he comes in?’
True to form, Aiden was as adaptable as ever. About 1 AM or so he woke up, unhooked his pulse-ox monitor and came plodding in. I don’t think he even paused at the door. He just came in, plopped down next to Nic and went right back to sleep. He didn’t say a single word. Didn’t pause to try and figure out what was going on or why we weren’t in the bed. He just looked, realized the people he wanted to be with where right there in front of him, and sought us out. The ‘why’ was irrelevant. I think we could all take a lesson from that approach to life.
Needless to say Aiden has been going to sleep in his bed since Monday night, much to Lexie’s disappointment 🙂
Aiden's World 