My husband got up four times in the middle of the night to shave, wash, and get ready for work. I told him each time to lay down so he would be rested for work.
I had the getting up in the night a lot about a year ago, but now (stage 5) it's got very rare. If he gets up and starts to get dressed and I wake up in time, I can tell him to come back to bed and he will do it. But if I'm not on time to prevent him from putting on his shoes, he won't take them off again. He will come to my side of the bed and sit beside me, for hours sometimes, and sometimes half lie down and sleep a little. He sleeps in his briefs, but sometimes when he gets up in the night to go to the bathroom he puts his dress shirt on before he comes back to bed. I think it's because he feels cold. But he refuses to wear pajamas, or a T-shirt.
My DH really does not know what time of day it is. Usually sleeps fully dressed. I now have a buzzer, and paper tape on the door, to keep him in. The retirement home we are in does not want an extra keyed lock.
I use duck tape on the locked door. Tape with a strip one way and another piece across. Then I pull a chair in front of the door I do the same thing on the back door leading into the garage and pull a garbage can in front of the door with a stack of aluminun mixing bowls on it. Mine is not trying to leave the house but if he gets up during the night and I don't hear him he may get outside. You could call that a low tech solution. The door lock will not turn if it is taped.
Bama--you are quite an engineer! I especialy like the stack of aluminum mixing bowls--I can imagine being awakened to them falling in the middle of the night!
Bama that all reminds me of what I had to do once when we were going to be moving in 6 weeks and could not change the locks. Someone came into the house while we were sleeping and stole my purse. The sheriff who returned my wallet and checkbook heard my story and told me to call my local police because the thief had my car keys and the person they thought was doing this stuff had a history of stealing cars too.
The local policeman showed me how to chain my car into my garage so the garage door would not go up. We locked the chain with a padlock inside the garage. I put marbles on the floor from the garage to the house and also the front and back doors, along with chairs under two of the handles. Basically he was not coming back into my house.
I like the aluminum bowls. And the tape over the door locks.
Heavens help us! miss bama you win an award for the most creative caregiver!! i sure hope you dont need EMS in the middle of the nite! haah. what a sight to behold them crashing into aluminum pans- we do what we can to keep our spouses safe-:) and sometimes that means non conventional ideas! divvi
The last time we stayed in a motel, I propped the ironing board against the door and stacked our luggage against the ironing board to keep him from leaving the room at night. We're very creative, aren't we?