Last night was night three of our on-going experiment with a bedwetting alarm. Our six-year-old guinea pig was getting a pretty big head about his two day run without accidents! I had a feeling, though, that the run was about to end and it sure did.
So, last night we woke him up at 11:30 pm, later than usual. He had not yet wet – great sign! So we escorted him to the potty and back to bed. We had hopes that, since he slept through without wetting from midnight on the previous night, he might stay dry again with only an 11:30 pm waking.
Wrong. This morning our son woke up to find his bed soaked. He was used to wearing pull-ups prior to our bedwetting alarm experiment so we have been putting the pull-ups on OVER the underwear to protect the sheets and bed from urine. The alarm is clipped to the underwear. I’m not sure what went wrong but the alarm never sounded at all. Not even once. And it was pretty clear that he’d wet the bed at least twice as he managed to urinate so much that he soaked through his pull-up and leaked all over the bed.
Needless to say this was a reality check for all of us. Clearly we are just beginning on this journey. No gold star today. Not even a silver star. But you can hardly fault the boy since the alarm did not work!
Tonight we are going to try to keep the pull-ups off. Perhaps the pull-ups wick fluid away from the alarm too quickly for it to respond? We aren’t sure exactly how to test the efficacy or sensitivity of the alarm itself. When directly exposed to moisture, it goes off. I dared my husband to put it on himself and pee in his underwear – he didn’t think it was funny. But, honestly, it is beyond me how to test this thing. If it happens again tonight, we’ll contact the vendor or manufacturer for ideas.
So tonight’s plan: one night waking, zero pull-ups.
Score to date: Alarm: 2 – Wet Sheets: 1