T.T.: Heat, Glorious Heat

Any of you who have been reading for a long time might remember how cold our bedroom at Blackrock was. 

It was frozen-fish-tanks cold. 

It was literal-ice-on-the-walls cold.

It was pillows-frozen-to-the-wall cold.

It was the coldest bedroom I have ever experienced and likely will ever experience.

The worst part of a very cold bedroom like that is getting into bed at night. The sheets are cold, and it takes a really long time for body heat to warm them. The old-fashioned solution to this is either a hot water bottle or a soapstone, the latter of which I used to use to warm toddler Cubby's bed before he went to sleep.

Both of those items help, but they aren't as good as the modern equivalent: The heated mattress pad.

A. bought one at Walmart almost ten years ago that we used up until this year. I finally replaced it because it was only producing a token amount of heat. 

I recall the one A. bought being something like $30. The new one I got was about a hundred dollars. But even with the much higher price, it is definitely SO WORTH IT.

Especially since I got one that has dual controls. This is my personal thermostat, which, as any married person can tell you, greatly contributes to marital harmony.

I'm always cold when I go to bed. My feet, in particular, take forever to warm up when I'm trying to go to sleep. The makers of these mattress pads obviously know this, because most of the heat is produced at the bottom of the bed, creating a toasty little pocket exactly where my feet go. 

I turn it on high about an hour before I want to go to bed so it can heat up, and then I turn it off when I get in. If you're a really cold sleeper, though, you could leave it on a lower setting overnight. A. looked at the instruction manual for the new mattress pad and discovered that it uses less electricity than a lightbulb, making it much more economical than running a furnace.

A. usually isn't very cold when he goes to bed, but he does often feel cold in the early mornings. So on weekends when he doesn't have to get up to drive the school bus, I turn it on for him when I get up and he can sleep longer because he's not cold.

I also sometimes get in bed to read on very cold days, just so I can turn the pad on and warm up. And let me tell you how nice it is to bake in a heated bed if you're sick and have chills from a fever. VERY NICE.

My initial concern about these pads is that I would feel the wires under me, but I don't notice them.

So, in summary, if you too wish to be enveloped in heavenly warmth on a nightly basis, try a heated mattress pad. It's a very affordable and highly satisfactory indulgence.