My current theory is that he's just a sound sleeper and doesn't know he's peeing, a much better theory than my initial thought that he was just being lazy. I came to that laziness theory honestly - a wet pull-up (staying true to Pampers, we use the Underjam version) has never bothered Cal, so I thought he just chose to stay in bed and pee instead of expending the energy to get up and just use the toilet. I mean, this is the same kid who, during potty training, responded to my mom's "see how easy it is to go poop in the toilet, Cal?" with an "it's easy to go poop in my diaper." Why wouldn't I think he possibly meant that?
Our doctor said that it's nothing to worry about, that at 5 nighttime potty issues are not uncommon. So I don't worry and just accept it.
I'll be honest - washing and changing his bedding frequently, sometimes daily, other times after a stretch of maybe 3-4 days isn't fun. It does frustrate me that the Underjam, the best performer we've found, is not leak proof. I've got a decent system that keeps me sane, though. A plastic cover keeps the mattress safe. We no longer use a top sheet for cover and have a collection of 3 fitted sheets and 3 blankets that we cycle through. Blankets in the queue are folded, and fitted sheets are wadded up on top of them, all in Cal's closet for easy retrieval.
Every morning includes a trip to Cal's room where I inspect his bed for signs of leakage. Sometimes this is obvious; other times, it requires a sniff test. Any sign of urine, and I'm pulling off the sheet and blanket, gathering up any of the kids' dirty clothes and then throwing it all into the washing machine. On the plus side, I keep the washing of the kids' clothing small and manageable. And Cal almost always has a pair of his too-small, 4T pants to wear.
Sometimes Ella helps me, something that makes her happy. Her favorite thing to do is wipe down Cal's vinyl-covered mattress with a wipe... at least, as far as she can reach. I do the final wiping, of course.
Cal knows that he kind of has a problem to overcome. We don't get mad or frustrated with him, but we periodically bring it up as something for him to work on, that he can't be in his Underjam forever. I'm sure that Ella formally having a goal of waking up with a dry Pull-Up (for her we use the actual Pull-Up version since it's cheaper and doesn't need to perform with high volumes) is a reminder for him that he has that same goal.
As I made Ella's 5-goal Reward Chart in response to my All-Time Mommy Low post, Cal made a reward chart of his own. The theme was his using the potty at night. As he put it together, Cal let me take occasional peeks at what he was doing; and this made us both laugh and incented him to do more with it.
The chart includes 32 days written in a pattern of the colors of the rainbow. In the upper, left corner is a picture of Cal sitting on the toilet with pee coming out of him and landing in the toilet. In the upper, right corner is a picture of a wet, leaky Underjam still on what is Cal's body with his torso and upper legs included in the picture. And in the bottom, right corner is a picture of Cal standing with his arms in the air, no pants and a yellowed penis - in this picture, he's declaring, "I showed my mom my muceles <muscles> but then I peed in my pants!" And like any good Kindergartener, he included his name and the date on his piece of art.
I should also note one more attention to detail that Cal included - in all pictures he drew himself wearing the red- and gray-striped shirt that he wore that day.
Needless to say, Cal's "going to the bathroom chart" does not yet have an X or a sticker on any of its numbered days. The chart does hang on the back of his door beneath his Underjam storage bin for periodic amusement and perhaps something that'll be useable in the future, whenever that may be.
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