Water, Water, Everywhere by Barbara Quinn

I am so grateful for my waterbed. After I had my son (who is in his twenties now) I suffered from back pain. I read how a waterbed could relieve the stress on your back and figured why not try it. My husband also had pain and agreed to give it a whirl. We bought one.

Amazingly, within a few days of sleeping on the waterbed my back pain disappeared, and so did my husband’s joint aches. For those who remember the waterbed craze of the seventies (there was a dorm guest room that had one you could reserve. Ewww, very gross) this mattress is a long way from those. Back then, they weren’t heated and rolled more than an ocean liner in a hurricane. My mattress has much “baffling” inside so that there is one wave and then you are supported in every way. No limb ever falls asleep, no matter how contorted you are and I'm a rather contorted sleeper. My head is at an angle, and often a foot dangles off the side to breathe fresh air. In the winter I turn the temperature control up, and in the summer I make it cooler. It’s truly joyful to slip into warm sheets in winter

When we bought our second home at the shore, we went waterbed shopping again. Now there’s an even newer line of waterbeds. The mattresses are exactly like regular mattresses, take regular sheets, have pillow tops, and they too are heated. The bladder of water is inside, sealed by the outer mattress. I love both the beds.

When my son grew up he bought one of his own. He still prefers my older model to the new one. My brother also bought one, his with dual controls for heat. We are a waterbed family. They should do a documentary on us, including the time many years ago when the first one sprung a leak in the middle of the night. Geez, dear, is that you?

The only thing better than sleeping in that waterbed, is lying on it, snuggled next to my husband with my head resting on his chest, his arm wrapped around me. That’s my favorite place on earth.

True, true, bliss.