Pondering Over Pampers.

A while back, I had Edmund invading my privacy with him deciding to crash in my bedroom, disrupting my late night activities and making me go to bed early. Fortunately for me, he fell into a "relapse" not before long and went back into squeezing his way through the nights in between the comforts of mom and dad. 5 months later, he decides to come back into my room - for good. I guess this time it's permanent as mom was the one who (one way or another) chased him out of her room after complaining about space deficiency and something about her back aching due to the inability to move around at night with a surprisingly huge sleeping log in between her and her husband. Dad, pitying mom, too agreed that it was high time for Edmund to start adapting himself in my bedroom, in his own bed.

It's been another two weeks since he slept in my bedroom. Only this time, he seems to me, to be more accepting the fact that this is also his bedroom now. One thing that's obvious is that he doesn't complain about the level of loudness of my music anymore, compared to last time, when he used to say he can't sleep with any kind of music on. Now, he can sweetly escape into the night with Gwen Stefani anytime. Though, I do notice that he prefers the likes of Frank Sinatra, David Miles, Jim Brickman or John Mayer. I too, find myself, surprisingly, not persuading him to go back to mom's anymore. Probably it's because I've been allowing him to occupy the top bed so as I would have my own sweet time even after long he goes to sleep and because of that too, he hasn't been complaining to either mom or dad. He doesn't even require mom and dad to be smooching him to sleep anymore. Maybe this time he's (really) growing up and is finally ready to take the next step forward. At least mom and dad thinks so.

Then again, let's not go too far on giving him credit.

See, Edmund is still 9 and still encounters problem in controlling his bladder in the night - even when he visits the toilet every night before bed. The possibilities of him wetting his bed pretty much still remains a high and alarming 80%, even more so when he just had supper or when he had a nice warm cup of Milo before bed. Come to think of it, mom and dad's bed have been wet countless of times just because he couldn't control his bladder or wake up to make a trip to the toilet in the middle of the night and every time it happens, dad will have to spend about RM50 in total to send the sheets to the laundry to get it cleaned while akak curses under her breath trying to get the mattress dried and smelling good again. The stains are inevitable but I'm more concerned about the springs in the mattress. The worst thing is, Edmund refuses to wear pampers, unlike the way I used to.

Heck, I used to have my own bladder problems as well. Even worse than Edmund's current issue, as his only occurs occasionally. To tell you the truth, I had a much weaker bladder than Edmund does now. Gee, I don't know what are the consequences of me revealing this but I had pampers on till the age of 7 before I moved out of mom and dad's room back then! Laugh all you want but that's what happened and I can't change the past. Ask mom about this as she'll gleefully share! I guess I never got used to waking up in the night to visit the toilet while mom and dad are too lazy to wake me up in the night and holding the potty for me to pee while my eyes are still closed, unlike Edmund now. They must've seen the pampers as one of the greatest inventions back then. Let me tell you, it sure saved them a lot of sleepless nights and stained sheets.

Given my extraordinary size for a 7 year old that time, dad always purchased the biggest sized pampers from the kid's section and when I grew out of that, dad had to resort to old folk's pampers, the smallest size which fitted me comfortably, mind you. Funny, I didn't feel embarrassed back then, even when I was holding dad's arm in the supermarket while he expresses his problem to the saleswoman, most of whom gave an understanding laugh before hurrying away to get the suitable size. I still battled with my unmanageable midnight mess when I moved to Grace's room, leaking every now and then, causing mom and dad their precious sleep to clean the bed and my buttocks. Considering how much milk I drank (before bed) back then too, my leakages were pretty huge that I get my whole body drenched sometimes, often needing dad to clean my whole body with a wet towel while I'm still halfway dreamy.

Mom and dad made the right choice when they didn't tear open the plastic cover of the mattress then, saving them from stains on my mattress. I was such a frequent leaker that my bolster had a certain smell that I could recognize even after washing it. You can bet I was dead embarrassed among my cousins like Carina and Adrian as they were younger and they proved to be far more independent than I was but... that was then! Can't remember exactly how or what made me learned but I'm clean now. Clean to the extent that I didn't even need to clear the bladder every night before climbing into bed - unlike many other little boys back then. I suppose I just decided that I'll hold it every night, huh? Didn't even wore pyjamas with an open fly as I really could pull through the night without making pit stops to the toilet, even under circumstances like an extremely cold room. Pretty neat, don't you think?

So two nights ago, Edmund had another one of his huge leaks, seeing that he just had supper and he just had his medicines, consuming a lot of water after that. As usual, I didn't realize anything while snoring away on the pullout bed. I'm a log, so I never notice anything when I'm asleep. Sometimes I don't even realize other people waking me up until like the hundredth time they yell into my ears but let's leave that for some other time. Like previous nights too, he occupied the top bed. I really didn't feel anything until I felt squishy and got irritated with my wet back. At that point, I thought I was sweating and didn't put much thought into it. I only woke up furious when I realized that the bedrooms light were switched on and dad was standing above me wiping the bed, stripped off its sheets, with a piece of rag. "Did he get any on you?" was all I remember dad asking before I started yelling in disgust and hurriedly taking my shirt off!

Yeap, I got my brother peed on me (now that's the first!).

He was just pulling up his fresh pants at the door when I shot him a poisonous look, trying my best to hold back the cussing. Of course, Edmund retreated and spent the rest of the night in the parent's room while I spent mine, miserably, on a couple of pillows on the floor as the bottom bed was wet as well. I really don't want to know how his pissed could get on my back but I'm guessing that it overflowed at the top bed and flowed down to my place, ruining the pillows, the sheets and me. That little git didn't feel anything close to a remorse or whatsoever when I picked him up and shook him furiously, almost choking him in the neck scolded him the next day. Instead, he took it as a threat towards me, telling me that he'll piss on me more if I don't hand him the remote, that evening. I told him I'll shit on him if he says another word.

Akak's grumbling and my wrath got him sleeping at the bottom last night. We're not letting history repeat itself.

P.S. : Still surprised he didn't request to go back to mom and dad's place. Let's see how long he can last.