by Beks
Nearly 6 months ago, my husband and I were the recipients of an awesome trade with my sister-in-law’s father. We traded some moving services for fancy furniture – furniture we could never afford to purchase on our own. Included in this trade was a very, VERY nice king sized bedroom set.
My husband loves this set. It’s exactly what he would have picked out, including the ultra comfortable mattress. It should come as no surprise that his love affair with this bedroom set would cause him to do… interesting things.
I came home from work to find him covering the bed in plastic sheeting.
“Uh hon? Whatcha doin’?” I asked.
He glanced up, then glanced at the sheeting, debating whether or not to tell me the truth.
“Um. Protecting against bedbugs?” He said and mumbled, “And protecting against your water breaking and destroying the mattress.”
“What was that?” I asked.
“Babe. We can’t afford to replace this mattress if your water breaks and ruins it. You know what we can afford? A $19 protection sheet” he said sheepishly.
I can’t fault the guy for trying to protect something we couldn’t possibly hope to replace, but I’m not going to lie…
Nothing makes you feel like a three year old quite like the crinkle of plastic sheets.
Oh the things we do for fancy furniture.
Beks is a full-time government employee who enjoys blogging late into the night after her four kids have gone to sleep. She’s been married to Chris, her college sweetheart, for 15 years. In 2017, after 3 long years working the Dave Ramsey Baby Steps, they paid off more than $70K and became debt free. When she’s not working or blogging, she’s exploring the great outdoors.
We had our baby on the 15th and my wife was SOOOO happy to take the protective sheet of our mattress during the latest sheet change. She hated it. She actually put our regular cover over the protective cover which made it more tolerable. You might lose (or have to really wash) the regular cover in the event of your water breaking, but it lessens the crinkle and makes it more tolerable, and is still MUCH cheaper than a mattress. Note: with both of our babies, the protective cover didn’t come into play, though it was definitely good insurance!
God bless your husband. That’s something I would have never thought about (although I’ve not had the occasion to NEED to think about something like that). There ARE waterproof mattress pads – but not sure that you could get one for $19…
Supposedly it happens only 10% of the time before going into labor, but it happened both times for me. I was in bed when I heard the pop that meant my water broke. I was able to make it to the toilet before any liquid came out.
Better to be safe than sorry! You have a great husband!
I would invest in a higher-quality waterproof mattress pad cover because you’ll still need it after the baby comes. We got one for our bed before our son was born and it has saved our mattress numerous times. (Leaky diapers, leaky sippy cups) He doesn’t sleep with us, but does come in to snuggle in the mornings. We have them on all the beds in our house.
I laughed out loud. Note that a baby is not exactly a recipe for maintaining pristine furniture. A little late to drop that bomb on you now, I suppose.
How silly to do that in the middle of summer. I just had my third child and never did this. My water broke in bed but I didn’t get anything on the mattress. I hope you don’t sweat too much.
I agree with WicketsMom. I LOVE my high-end, pillow-top, waterproof mattress pad. My dog has piddled on the sheets (out of sheer excitement), I’ve dropped an entire bottle of water that the lid wasn’t quite tight enough, and my poor dad spilled 1/2 cup of coffee.
None of that made it through to the mattress. Also, the sides of my cover are very stretchy – meant to accomodate puffy mattresses – so it would easily go over the plastic sheet.
I second the votes for a waterproof mattress cover, even though it can be pretty pricey. I sprung for one when I bought my new mattress, figuring I might still own the mattress in my dotage. And remembering that I live with both a dog and a cat, who are pretty good, but one never knows.
I can just imagine this exchange going down. So funny! At least your husband is thoughtful enough to consider these things; I never would have!
Wicketmoms…Im with you ALL the way…we have it on all beds..there are times when guests have young kids in the guest room bed too. If you are gonna protect one matress might as well protect all. I got our matress covers at Walmart..doesnt have to be expensive to be practical!
Well, when I was pregnant with my daughter, my water broke while I was in bed. I felt a trickle on my thigh and jumped out of bed. Then there was a huge gush onto the floor. So, I saved the mattress. But then we ended up co-sleeping with my daughter, and then the mattress really suffered. Don’t worry too much about it. By the time your baby is 4 or 5 years old, everything in your house will have been vomited on or peed on.
I like how he just does these things without discussing them first. Guess he really knows you well. 😉
When I was in my third trimester, we put a plastic mattress cover. We then covered it with a second hand wool blanket to be used as a soaker pad (http://iloveclothdiapers.blogspot.com/2005/10/wonders-of-wool-soakers-shorts-and.html). We were able to get two 100% wool blankets at Value Village for under $10. Our baby is 4 months old, we still have the same set-up. Even if you aren’t co-sleeping, you might have the baby in bed with you for snuggles or skin-to-skin time and you never know when a mess will occur. Also, if you are breastfeeding, you will appreciate not waking up in a puddle when your breast leak.