Staying dry

I feel like there has been so much loss lately. My heart goes out to Dede and her family for the loss of her nephew Tommy. And although on a completely different scale, I've experienced a loss recently as well which you can read about on my personal blog here and here.

To lighten the mood (but certainly with no intention of glossing over the emotional struggles we are dealing with) I am going to write a post that will take us in a totally different direction. One that focuses on celebrating the little things - in this case, Aiden being 100% potty trained...even at night!

The ironic thing about this scenario is this: I worried that Aiden would never be potty trained. He showed zero interest and fought me every step of the way until finally it just clicked. And from that day on, he wore underwear (not a pull-up) all day and all night and woke up dry...while my older son Ethan,4, wears underwear during the day just fine but still wears a pull-up at night and wakes up soaked. Quite an achievement for Aiden to surpass his big brother in the potty-training department I must say!

I do want to clarify one thing here however. When I say Aiden wakes up dry in the morning, I am referring to the fact that he did not wet the bed. "Dry" is a term that should be used loosely, as he has always woken up with wet sheets from being a hot-natured little kid with Apert syndrome who sweats like it is going out of style. Oh the joys of hyperhydrosis.

But even wet sheets from sweat are a thing of the past thanks to the next best thing since sliced bread: Wicked Sheets. A friend from my college days started her own company making bed sheets that are made of the same moisture wicking material that athletic uniforms are made of. You know those silky soft golf shirts that help guys stay cool and dry on the greens? Take those shirts and turn them into sheets. That's Wicked Sheets. (Totally one of those "Why didn't I think of that" things, right?)

After seeing her product come across my Facebook feed, I immediately thought of Aiden and other kiddos with Apert syndrome who might deal with the same sweaty situation. My friend was gracious enough to send a set of sheets to Aiden and let me just tell you, he LOVES them. And, they don't even have Thomas the Train or Toy Story characters on them. They're just good ole' solid white sheets - crisp, clean and COOL...literally. The first night he slept on them, he woke up dry. He hadn't stripped off his shirt in the middle of the night or resorted to kicking off the covers. Perfection.

While I did receive the sheets for free (thank you Alli!), the opinions and choice to write about the sheets are 100% genuine. I wanted to share this with all my cranio friends who might know someone who sweats a lot due to their condition. Alli is doing wonderful things with her company - even working on getting her sheets into the hands of cancer patients who deal with terrible night sweats as a result of chemotherapy and other treatments.

If you're interested in learning more, or in purchasing a set of Wicked Sheets, visit www.wickedsheets.com. You can also find Wicked Sheets on Facebook to follow the development and success of her venture. Be sure to let her know that Taryn sent you!