Nighttime Diaper Changes?

Firstly, your success in keeping a spica cast clean and smell-free hinges on frequent diaper changes, ideally every 2-3 hours. During the day I have been diligent regarding changing Kennedy's diapers regularly and know this has lead to my success in keeping Kennedy clean. However, I have often faultered in changing her diapers during the night and this lead to utter disaster with her first cast. Although she was only in her first cast for 5 weeks (half the time for her current cast), towards the end of that time she smelled awful and I was very eager for her cast change. After the cast change I vowed to change her diaper regularly at night as well. During this cast, I typically change Kennedy's diaper twice at night. She goes to bed in a new diaper and then gets changed around midnight & 3 - whenever she wakes up during these times. I understand how difficult it is when all you want to do is sleep! To help me remember I would put the diapers and pads together before bedtime so it was all ready - I also didn't wipe the cast out then unless it was necessary so she would fall back asleep easier. Although many women say that nighttime diaper changes aren't needed, I believe it's important to have at least one diaper change to help prevent moisture from wicking up inside the cast because while the moisture can get everywhere, there are only so many places we can clean out.

Having said all that I never woke Kennedy up for diaper changes, she regularly woke up 2-3 times at night while in her cast. I do not know if I would have been as diligent if I was having to wake her up for it (it would have been hard enough to wake myself up!).