7/21/10

There are so many wonderful things about being a parent that I never expected. There are also a few not so wonderful things. One of those not so wonderful things we deal with at our home is bed wetting. I was never a bed wetter. My parents have said that I was fully potty trained with no night time accidents before I turned 2. So dealing with potty training and bed wetting issues was not something I ever anticipated.

We have seen 2 different doctors and have tried several different methods to try to resolve the bed wetting issues our children struggle with. Unfortunately, our kids seem to have been born with tiny bladders and they are all heavy sleepers. This is a bad combination when it comes to staying dry at night time. We have been told there are medications that can help but my husband and I are both reluctant to medicate our kids. Not that we don't ever give our kids medication, we just prefer not to unless it seems absolutely necessary.

One of the mysteries of bed wetting that I have not been able to explain is how our kids can go a week without any accidents then the night after I have put clean sheets on their bed one of them wets the bed. This just happened the night before last. Our 4 year old went to sleep on clean sheets then woke up in the morning with a wet bed. I took the sheets off his bed the second day in a row and put them in the washer. I then went about my day, forgetting that he had no sheets on his bed.

I should also explain that we are in the process of removing nap time from our 4 year old's schedule. He has one more year before he starts all-day kindergarten and since he has been the child most resistant to change, we have started the transition now. Yesterday was one of the days that he did not take a nap. He didn't act very tired and seemed to be having fun playing with his older brother so I told him he didn't need to take a nap. Things were going fine until I started to make dinner later in the day. He was sitting on the floor in the kitchen one minute and the next he was face down on the floor asleep. I figured he could take a short nap before we had dinner. Since I had forgotten to put the clean sheets on his bed and since I was already in the middle of making our dinner, I decided he could nap in mine and my husband's bed.

Our kids all have waterproof covers on their mattresses to protect the mattress from accidents. Our bed does not. So when our 4 year old woke up from his nap in our bed looking like he had just been rescued from falling overboard a boat, we knew there would be problems. Not only were our sheets, blanket, duvet and cover soaked, so was our mattress. I don't know how it was possible but it looked as though the bathtub had drained all over our bed. My husband and I stripped the bedding off as quickly as possible but this was not enough to recover the mattress. We poured baking soda on top of the wet spot hoping to wick out most of the wetness. We hoped the mattress would be dry by the time we went to bed. It was not.

My husband and I were right out of college when we got married and did not have a lot of money to buy furniture. Our first child was born just a couple of years later and we still did not have a lot of money to buy furniture. We are now in the process of slowly replacing some of our college era furniture but we still have some old classics around. Like my husband's futon that once resided in his fraternity. I would like to push it off a cliff but there are not a lot of cliffs around. We joke that we keep the futon around because it is the only place for overnight guests to sleep and that way our guest don't stay very long. The futon was also the only alternative for my husband and I to sleep on last night. Let me tell you, being almost 6 months pregnant with a pinched sciatic nerve and sleeping on a futon are not a good mix.

Thankfully, our mattress now seems to have recovered so my husband and I should get a good nights sleep. That's if we don't hear crying in the night by another child with a wet bed.

7/19/10

I don't like going to the dentist. You could say that I kind of hate going to the dentist. I dislike going to the dentist so much that I recently took a 6 year hiatus from seeing the dentist. And my dentist is a very nice man. Everyone who works at his office is also very nice. Unfortunately, nice is not enough to get past the reason why I don't like going to the dentist. And that reason is fear.

I still remember my first trip to the dentist. I was around 4 or 5 years old. I was being seen because I had cavities - 4 of them. I was a very shy kid who also had a lot of anxiety. I'm not sure if my mom was not allowed to come into the exam room or if she couldn't be there but all I remember was that she was not there. It was just me, the dental assistant and the dentist, Dr. Somebody. I don't remember his name. I've probably blocked it from my memory. I do remember that I was scared, really scared. The dentist told me that I should be brave like a tiger. This dentist obviously did not know that I was also scared of tigers. So anyway, the whole experience was rather traumatic and it seems to have ruined any possibility of me not going into a nervous sweat every time I enter a dentist's office.

So now we jump ahead almost 30 years and now I have 3 children who had never seen the dentist all because of my fear. I finally broke down about 6 months ago and made an appointment for my oldest son to see the dentist. My oldest son has a confidence about him that I am in awe of because it is something I have never possessed. When I dropped him off at his first day of preschool when he was 3 he told me I should leave so he could check things out for himself. My fear of the dentist was also something he did not inherit. He loved his trip to the dentist. He told me, "I got to have cool pictures taken of my teeth, I got stickers, I got a toy out of the prize box and I got to watch cartoons!" Granted, I think the dentist is a lot more kid-friendly then when I was little but still, he LOVED the dentist! He loved it so much he was genuinely excited to go back last week for his 6 month check-up.

After my oldest son's latest check-up I decided I should make an appointment for my 4 year old son to be seen as well. The immense confidence that my 7 year old has is something my 4 year old truly lacks. My 4 year old also seems to have a lot of the same anxiety issues that I remember having as a kid. I was sure there was no way this trip to the dentist was going to be as easy as it had been for my oldest son.

I thought things were probably going to go South when we dropped my oldest son and my daughter off at great-grandma's house. My 4 year old said he would stay at great-grandma's house as well and we could just skip the whole going to the dentist thing. After a lot of convincing I was able to coax him back into his booster seat and on our way to his appointment. When we arrived at the office my son was very excited to see some kid-sized wing-backed chairs he could sit in. He was also happy to see a very cuddly teddy bear. My son loves stuffed animals. He hugged the bear and waited patiently for his turn to see the dentist. He leaned over once and quietly asked me if he was going to get shots. I told him no even though I was not sure. I'm not sure if that was the right thing to do but I knew that if I told him there was a possibility of shots he would have gone running for the front door.

When the dental assistant called my son's name we jumped up quickly. I think we both had some nervous adrenaline running through our veins. The dental assistant was very nice (see above) and asked if my son had been seen by a dentist before. I explained that he was a first timer. She was very patient and brought out all the tools she would be using for my son's check-up. She explained to him what each one was for and let him touch them so he knew they would not hurt. She then proceeded to give him a very cool pair of neon green sunglasses to wear so the bright light would not shine in his eyes. All of a sudden, my nervous, anxious child transformed right before my eyes. He put on the sunglasses and casually leaned back in the dentist chair. He obeyed the dental assistant's every command to open wide or bite down. He was calm. After the dental assistant finished cleaning his teeth and taking his x-rays the dentist came in. The dentist complimented my son for being such a great patient. He also told us the best news, no cavities!

After the check-up my son swaggered down the hallway to go claim his prize from the box. I told him how proud I was of him. He retorted back with a cool, "Yeah." Just goes to show that my children never cease to amaze me. When we were checking out with the receptionist I thought about making an appointment for my daughter to be seen.

Maybe in another 6 months.

7/18/10

Today our family went to church and I found myself asking the same question I ask every Sunday... Why is it so hard for us to get to church on time? During the week my husband is usually out the door by 7:00 and the rest of us are off to our different activities by 8:30. So why can't we all manage to get to church by 10:00? Is there a special time warp that occurs every Sunday that makes time go faster thus causing us to be late almost every Sunday? If someone could answer that question for me I would be very grateful.

I was excited to go to church today. I know I should be excited to go every Sunday but I can honestly say that sometimes it feels like a chore that eats up a portion of my weekend. However, today I was excited because we had a guest speaker, Don Piper, the author of "90 minutes in Heaven". I have not yet read Don's book but I have heard from many people that it is very good and that he is an excellent speaker. I always look forward to listening and learning from someone who can help inspire me to have a better relationship with Christ.

Don definitely did not disappoint me. He was very engaging and I really enjoyed what he had to say. His story is quite remarkable but there was a point where I started asking myself why. Why was he pronounced dead but then given another chance to live? Why had he lived through such an ordeal when so many with lesser injuries have not? Right then, Don said that he had met a woman who had asked him the same questions that were going through my head. He said she stood up during one of his appearances and asked why he had been given life when her 18 year old son who had been in an accident had not. Don said he answered the woman by first giving her his condolences. He then told her that for whatever reason, God wanted her son to come home. He explained that her child, her wonderful boy, was given to her by God. She was chosen to be the steward of this precious life but he really belonged to God. And just as God had given her this boy, He had also taken him away.

As I was sitting there, next to my 7 year old son, I felt myself overcome by emotion. I partly blame my pregnancy hormones but I also blame the fact that I was able to put myself in this poor woman's shoes. I could picture myself pleading with someone, asking why my child was taken away from me. I know that my children do not really "belong" to me although I love to take credit for them because I think they are all exceptional people. There are times I wish I could keep my children forever, tuck them away in the box in my closet where I keep all of the cards and gifts they have made me. Keep them safe and away from the world where they can be hurt. I know this is not reality and I know that I don't really want to lock them away. I love seeing them explore the world and ask questions and want to know why. All I could do to keep myself from breaking down in front of everyone was to lean over, hug my son and tell him that I love him.

That's really all I can do everyday, love my children with all my heart and try to teach them the way.

7/17/10

Several people have told me that I should write about our family. I really don't think we're that interesting but hey, if I can amuse someone besides myself I guess I'll give it a try.

Our family is made up of myself, my husband of almost 10 years, our sons who are 7 and 4, our daughter who is 2 and a new baby boy who is due in November. My husband is a public high school science teacher and I have been a stay-at-home mom for almost 3 years.

Our family is centered around our love for God and our love for each other. My husband and I know that we'll never be "perfect parents" but we always try to be a little better than we were the day before. We try to learn from and laugh at our mistakes and hope that we are setting a good example for our kids.

My husband and I know that we have never had, nor will we ever have, "control" over our kids. Not that we really want to control our kids, we are trying to raise them all to be independent thinkers. We don't want them to accept things as they are just because that's the way things have always been. Although I will say this can sometimes lead to disaster. This might explain why this blog is titled: "Rice Family Misadventures".

And so the story begins...