Tinkle Bell

We're in the midst of a urinary crisis.  Our 4.5 year-old is on a bed wetting streak - the likes of which hasn't been seen since Little Joe Cartwright pissed his way to the Olympics.  It's been sporadic for a few months now and, as much as it frustrated us, it was few-and-far-between enough that we could deal with it without much hoopla.  However, she did become a little apprehensive about letting us know she had these accidents and sometimes flat-out lied about it to point of even blaming her older sister sleeping in the bunk above her (right!  right?).  What was getting us was that we'd go to put her to bed only to find out she'd peed in it the night before.  Gross!  Anyway, like I said, it was infrequent enough that it wasn't a big issue and she was sometimes going several weeks without incident.

The past couple of weeks though...man...she's been going at it.  4 times in 10 days.  Her mattress went from a nice white color to yellow marble.  There's a hint of smell emanating from her bed and I've actually pulled the mattress out in to the afternoon Sun to help dry it out.  Kind of nasty.  It was getting a little intense for us, to be honest.  And I will admit to initially not dealing with it well at all  It wasn't until I did a little research that I realized I was being a poor Dad about it.  And then I felt real bad.

I now understand it's most likely hereditary.  Check!  When thinking back, I can remember marking my Serta territory there a few times at an older age than she.  I also remember my Mom being a little less than happy about it too.  And I remember feeling guilty about it.  I think I've been repeating that mistake with my daughter. 

I also learned that, other than making sure she pees before bed and cutting off the liquids earlier in the evening, there's not a helluva a lot else that can be done.  She can't feel that she needs to go.  There are various reasons that could be responsible for that lack of bladder awareness, but, bottom line...it's completely out of her control.  Hence the term accident.

After educating myself on this, my failure at properly addressing her bed wetting filled me with guilt to the point that I rushed home to make it right.  I sat her down, apologized for getting upset about it, let her know that it's OK to have accidents, that it's not her fault, that it will eventually go away and encouraged her to just let us know when she pees in the bed so we can make sure to pull her sheets off and let things dry.  I've also started praising her the mornings that she wakes up dry.  All that with a promise to not get upset anymore.  Now, I just need to live up to that promise. 

Now, how many times can she do this before we have to replace the mattress.  Anyone?