Diaper Changes Ain't Easy.
Diaper changes - the everyday struggle
Changing a diaper on a squirmy baby is quite, quite difficult.
When Kyrie was a newborn, the diaper changes were simple, easy and not that messy. His poops were just like a little squirt of mustard in his diaper.
Now, Kyrie is ten months old, he can move around as much as he wants AND he also eats a lot of solid food. It's a recipe for disaster when it comes to diaper changes.
Changing his diaper in the early morning can be pretty challenging, even when there's the two of us doing it. As soon as you pull that dirty diaper off, he's rolling over and wants to crawl everywhere with his dirty bum. Getting him back on his back to change his diaper is damn near impossible. We switched up our methods and now we just chase him around and do the deed while he's standing up.
Diaper changes in public washrooms takes diaper changes to another level of difficulty. You know in video games where you can set the gameplay from 'Rookie' to 'All-Star'? Public washroom diaper changes on your own, is the All-Star difficulty level. And if there is no change table available, that's a whole new league.
But those public change tables are scary. Not only do you have to change a diaper but you also have make sure your squirmy baby is safe and secure on that piece of plastic that is three to four feet off the ground. Kyrie likes to roll around a lot and when he's up on one of those things, he's moving as much as he can to escape, and once you have the diaper off and his bum is full of poop...it can get quite challenging and messy. Sure, most of them include a buckle, but that really does nothing as he can easily wriggle is way around to his tummy so he is in crawling position.
I've now seen diaper changes in public places taken to a whole other level: public washroom diaper changes that require a wardrobe change.
It's happened two weeks in a row for me and both times were in the middle of church. For the past two Sundays, I have been on diaper duty during church and both times were explosive poopy diapers that have leaked out into his nice church clothes. And if there's any advice you should take away from this blog post, it's to make sure you have a change of outfit on the go in your diaper bag.
Two Sundays ago, Kyrie had a dirty diaper in the middle of the church service and his whole outfit was soiled. I ran into a couple of obstacles.
First crisis: I checked the diaper bag, there were no wipes. Luckily, the church nursery had some in the washroom. Crisis averted.
Second crisis: New shirt in the diaper bag? Check (sure it was camouflage print, but at least it was clean). New pair of pants? Negative. The soiled pants had to go back on. These were dress pants so they didn't hold much dampness, so we made it through the final 30 minutes of the service. Not the best parent performance on our part.
The following Sunday, we went to a different church to attend another service. Kyrie was rocking a similar church outfit from the week before. Part way through the service, Naomi and I look at each other and we both mouth "I smell poop." I volunteered, "I'll change it." I've been through this battle before.
I took him to the washroom and popped him on the change table...explosive poop. One big poopy diaper, all leaking through his outfit. Luckily, we learned from our mistake from last week and we had a spare outfit packed. Sure, it didn't match at all but it was a clean outfit he could wear.
As I took off his massive monstrosity of a dirty diaper, I see above the change table a sign on a box of sandwich bags that said "Please put dirty diaper in a freezer bag." This wasn't a box of big Ziploc bags but a box of those tiny sandwich bags that fold over at the top. The bag was HALF the size of Kyrie's massive diaper. I say to myself "Screw that." and I chucked the diaper in the garbage and continued to change Kyrie into his mismatched outfit.
Finally, once he was all dressed, guilt set in. These church people didn't want stinky diapers to be stinking up the whole building and I needed to follow the rules. I reached down into the garbage, pulled out that dirty diaper, tightened it up as much as I could and made it fit into that tiny sandwich bag. It wasn't pretty but I followed the church rules and then washed my hands.
You'd think diaper changes would be a routine thing when it comes to parenting, but it ain't! Diaper changes are no joke. There's gonna be a whole laundry list of things in my parenting future that will be challenging but right now, this whole diaper changing can sometimes be a struggle. Especially those sketchy change tables in public washrooms.
When Kyrie was a newborn, the diaper changes were simple, easy and not that messy. His poops were just like a little squirt of mustard in his diaper.
Now, Kyrie is ten months old, he can move around as much as he wants AND he also eats a lot of solid food. It's a recipe for disaster when it comes to diaper changes.
Changing his diaper in the early morning can be pretty challenging, even when there's the two of us doing it. As soon as you pull that dirty diaper off, he's rolling over and wants to crawl everywhere with his dirty bum. Getting him back on his back to change his diaper is damn near impossible. We switched up our methods and now we just chase him around and do the deed while he's standing up.
Diaper changes in public washrooms takes diaper changes to another level of difficulty. You know in video games where you can set the gameplay from 'Rookie' to 'All-Star'? Public washroom diaper changes on your own, is the All-Star difficulty level. And if there is no change table available, that's a whole new league.
But those public change tables are scary. Not only do you have to change a diaper but you also have make sure your squirmy baby is safe and secure on that piece of plastic that is three to four feet off the ground. Kyrie likes to roll around a lot and when he's up on one of those things, he's moving as much as he can to escape, and once you have the diaper off and his bum is full of poop...it can get quite challenging and messy. Sure, most of them include a buckle, but that really does nothing as he can easily wriggle is way around to his tummy so he is in crawling position.
I've now seen diaper changes in public places taken to a whole other level: public washroom diaper changes that require a wardrobe change.
It's happened two weeks in a row for me and both times were in the middle of church. For the past two Sundays, I have been on diaper duty during church and both times were explosive poopy diapers that have leaked out into his nice church clothes. And if there's any advice you should take away from this blog post, it's to make sure you have a change of outfit on the go in your diaper bag.
Two Sundays ago, Kyrie had a dirty diaper in the middle of the church service and his whole outfit was soiled. I ran into a couple of obstacles.
First crisis: I checked the diaper bag, there were no wipes. Luckily, the church nursery had some in the washroom. Crisis averted.
Second crisis: New shirt in the diaper bag? Check (sure it was camouflage print, but at least it was clean). New pair of pants? Negative. The soiled pants had to go back on. These were dress pants so they didn't hold much dampness, so we made it through the final 30 minutes of the service. Not the best parent performance on our part.
The following Sunday, we went to a different church to attend another service. Kyrie was rocking a similar church outfit from the week before. Part way through the service, Naomi and I look at each other and we both mouth "I smell poop." I volunteered, "I'll change it." I've been through this battle before.
I took him to the washroom and popped him on the change table...explosive poop. One big poopy diaper, all leaking through his outfit. Luckily, we learned from our mistake from last week and we had a spare outfit packed. Sure, it didn't match at all but it was a clean outfit he could wear.
As I took off his massive monstrosity of a dirty diaper, I see above the change table a sign on a box of sandwich bags that said "Please put dirty diaper in a freezer bag." This wasn't a box of big Ziploc bags but a box of those tiny sandwich bags that fold over at the top. The bag was HALF the size of Kyrie's massive diaper. I say to myself "Screw that." and I chucked the diaper in the garbage and continued to change Kyrie into his mismatched outfit.
Finally, once he was all dressed, guilt set in. These church people didn't want stinky diapers to be stinking up the whole building and I needed to follow the rules. I reached down into the garbage, pulled out that dirty diaper, tightened it up as much as I could and made it fit into that tiny sandwich bag. It wasn't pretty but I followed the church rules and then washed my hands.
You'd think diaper changes would be a routine thing when it comes to parenting, but it ain't! Diaper changes are no joke. There's gonna be a whole laundry list of things in my parenting future that will be challenging but right now, this whole diaper changing can sometimes be a struggle. Especially those sketchy change tables in public washrooms.
Romy is a dad, husband and blogger based out of Halifax. He also writes about hoops too at HipHoopJunkies.com. For dirty diaper stories, follow him on Twitter @DadDontLie and for hoops talk, follow @RomyAquino
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