After moving into a new house in late 1997, Jake made a lot of new friends very quickly. He was nine years old and in the fourth grade. He was an active kid and enjoyed a lot of sports, TV, and video games. He came to school for the first time on January 3 of 1998, after his family got settled in their new home during the Christmas vacation of 1997. Jake had no trouble at all making friends because he was a pretty good-looking kid who fit very well fit very well into this third grade class. However Jake did have one embarrassing story that he never shared with anyone besides his family. He has never been without a diaper on at bedtime. He has wet the bed since he was potty trained at age three. Jake’s parents were never mean to him about it. They kept him in pull-ups at night from age three to age seven, then, when Goodnites came out, they switched him into those. Jake was always very much afraid of the other kids finding out about him. At his other school in his other town, there was a young boy who found out about Jake’s bedwetting and that boy gave Jake a hard time about it. He told some other kids at that school that Jake wore Pull-Ups to bed. Jake was always afraid to have people sleep over at his house after that boy found out.

As the school year came to a close in June, Jake had some very close friends. Max was probably his best friend. Max was the first person Jake had met when he came to the school. Jake felt lucky that he was able to avoid any weekend sleepover invitations during the school year, but he did want to have sleepovers like the “normal” kids, as he said. By this time, after many leaky mornings in Goodnites, Pampers came out with a larger than ever toddler diaper called Pampers size 6. Jake’s parents were buying these for their son because Jake was a pretty small, thin kid and these diapers rarely leaked if at all. Jake at first objected to wearing these “baby-diapers” but after some more accidents that his Goodnites didn’t hold, he decided that he would start wearing the Pampers 6 to bed.

Of course, not long into the summer, Jake’s friend Max was sniffing around for sleepovers. At first Jake dreaded the idea and always had some excuse like “my mom said no” or “I have to go to my grandparents” or something like that. But, soon after he ran out of valid excuses, he decided that he really did want to sleepover Max’s or have Max sleep at his house. Jake remembered that the time he was “found out” by that kid from their old town was at his own house. The boy saw a bag of diapers in Jake’s closet and then tackled Jake and made sure that he was able to prove that Jake had one of the Pull-Ups on. So, Jake wanted to avoid sleeping at his house. Jake finally on one late June day, decided to accept the offer and was going to sleep at Max’s house.

It was a weekday night that Jake went over to Max’s house. He packed carefully. He got a suitcase from his closet and one Pampers diaper. He threw in some pajamas and some socks, underwear, shorts and a shirt. He told Max he would sleepover but then had to leave somewhat early the next day. He was really worried about getting rid of his used diaper. Jake went over to Max’s around 6:00 and had dinner. They played around for a while then around 9:00, Max’s mother told them to get ready for bed. She said they didn’t have to go to bed until 10:00 but they should probably get their pajamas on. Jake knew he couldn’t put his diaper on yet so he just put on his pj’s and played video games with Max until 10:00 rolled around. After about thirty minutes of being in bed, Jake’s hands were sweating. He knew he had to get his diaper on soon or he might forget and soak himself overnight. He pretended that he just had to go to the bathroom. But how was he going to get the diaper out of his suitcase without Max seeing? He thought and thought and came up with nothing. Then luckily for him, Max got up and said he had to go to the bathroom. As soon as Max left, Jake leapt out of bed and went over to his suitcase and opened it up. He got out his diaper and shoved it down into his pajama pants. When Max got back, Jake went into the bathroom and taped on his diaper. He forgot to try to pee in the toilet first. He knew that was stupid but he was so nervous about the whole wetting thing that he completely forgot. He couldn’t untape his diaper because if the tapes didn’t stick again, he’d be sunk---in pee!

Jake quietly went back to bed. Max was talking when Jake came back in so he couldn’t hear the diaper making that crinkling noise. Jake was relieved and after a few minutes of giggling and talking, both Max and Jake fell asleep.

Halfway through the night, Jake woke up and felt that all-too-familiar soggy feeling in his pants. He shoved his hand down his pants but on top of the Pampers to check for leaks. None! He was very happy that he wasn’t wearing one of those leaky training pants or Goodnites that he tried wearing. He was of course afraid of that smell that his wet diapers had, pee and some kind of powdery smell. Jake didn’t know if he should take it off while his friend was sleeping. It was only about 3:00 in the morning and he knew he would fall asleep again and maybe wet again. He really didn’t know what to do. But, while thinking about his diaper, he fell fast asleep.

At 9:30, the birds were chirping, the sun was shining and it smelled so much like the bacon that Max’s mother was frying, that Jake knew if Max didn’t get too close, he could never smell the diaper. But where was Max? He was already up. Jake thought that this was his chance to get rid of his soggy diaper. He hoped that Max wouldn’t come back into the room until he had his diaper in his suitcase. He pulled back the covers and started to crawl across the bed, over on Max’s side and over to his suitcase. As he moved across the bed he slid his hand over some very wet sheets. “Oh no! My diaper did leak!” he thought. Then Jake felt his pajamas, aside from the smushy feeling of his diaper, he couldn’t tell he was wet. His diaper wasn’t leaky! This was Max’s side of the bed too! MAX WET THE BED TOO! Jake didn’t know how to feel. He left the room quickly but quietly still wearing his diaper. He went out into the hall and heard Max’s crying. He was telling his mother that he had wet his bed and his Jake was still up there sleeping right in the same bed. His mother said that Jake would probably just get out of bed soon without finding out. She also said that this was the third time this week that it happened and she was taking him to the doctor’s next week to find out what the matter was. Jake went downstairs and sat at the table in the kitchen. He said “good morning” to Max and his mother. Max said with tears in his eyes “good morning”. He then got up, said that he would be back soon and went upstairs. Jake knew he was going to change the sheets and change his clothes. Max’s mother gave Jake some bacon and an English muffin with cheese on it. Jake said he had to go to the bathroom before he ate. Jake really went into Max’s bedroom. When he opened the door, Max turned around and looked scared. Before he could say anything, Jake said, “Max, I know what happened to you. I know that you wet your bed.”

Max looked really scared then. Jake then said, “I did too though. You just didn’t know it because I was wearing this.” Jake then pulled down his pajama bottoms and showed Max his wet saggy diaper. Max said, “That’s a baby-diaper!” Jake said, “Yeah it is but it works. Your bed didn’t get wet just this diaper did. I need to wear them because I wet my bed all the time too.”

Max looked relieved then. He told Jake that he was sort of glad that he wore diapers because that way he didn’t feel so “alone”. Jake told him all about what happened to him back in the other town and why he wore Pampers instead of Goodnites. For the rest of that summer, Max and Jake slept over each other’s houses a lot. They both wore Pampers size 6 and without many leaks. They never let anyone else find out about their wetting problems or their diapers. One of the worst things that can happen to a child made these two boys the best of friends!