An Alarming Night.

Declan is now taking part in the NEAT study- the Nocturnal Enuresis Alarm Therapy study, to try and get him dry at night. Now that the medication he is on is working so well during the day, it makes sense to try and get him out of night nappies. Up until recently I don't think he really cared about it, but the past couple of months Declan has been asking questions about why he still has nappies and the other kids don't. We were lucky enough to qualify for this clinical study being run through Westmead Kids Hospital, where he goes for his appointments. It means that we get an alarm for free for 4 months, in return for keeping a record of his progress. Basically the alarm has a sensor that senses fluid, so in the night if Declan does a wee the sensor (which is wireless) sets off the alarm. Last night was the first time we set it up, and I am hoping and praying that it works quickly because it is bloody awful! The alarm sounds like shooting on a computer game, all powpowpow eeeeeeee eeeeee whooooooopwhooooooooop over and over again. This is supposed to wake Declan, who then needs to press a button on the alarm, which will then playback a recording of a key word that i had made earlier. This is to test whether or not he has properly woken- if he remembers the word the next day, then he has. After listening to the word he is supposed to go to the loo to finish the wee. Then we reset the sensor and the alarm, and it's back to bed.

So, last night I was expecting some disturbance, but what I wasn't expecting was the bloody smoke alarm to go off at 2.03am! It only went off because the batteries are going flat, so it beeps for 5 seconds in a cycle until you replace the battery. We had to get up to fix that up. Back to bed for an hour, and then next thing I knew was Declan's alarm starting. It is LOUD. But not loud enough, apparently, to wake Brett, who slept peacefully through it all until I was just about ready to come back to bed, after getting Declan up, changing his pyjamas, setting the alarm again and trying to convince Simon that he had not been listening to the alarm for the past 5 hours.

I am considering swapping Declan into Ruby's room, and Ruby in with Simon while we do this alarm thing, as it is really disruptive. The thought of it night after night just depresses me, quite frankly- I still get up to Ruby at least once every night as well, and I am tired all the time. Hopefully it will work quite quickly- the doctor told me that if it is going to work it should only take a short time. I sincerely hope she is right!