Diapers - A Change You Can Relieve In

I never thought about diapers much before Caleb was born. I just figured "hey, you buy the diapers, you change the diapers, repeat as necessary." Nothing more to know, right?

Well, rule #1 for diapers now - Only buy Pampers.

Why is that rule #1? Because Pampers diapers are the only ones that seem to actually work when it comes to things like holding pee and poo inside. The rest of them seem to utilize an automatic release valve of some kind, leaving Caleb's clothing to do most of the absorbing duties. Maybe that's a good thing, right? I know exactly when Caleb is ready for a changing, because he is sitting in a puddle and it makes him upset. Even Caleb, at such a young age, is starting to learn that Pampers - and only Pampers - are capable of a change you can relieve in.

I didn't really come up with any more rules for diapers, but maybe we can just lay some ideas out here in the old bloggy-blog:

#2 - Make sure you adhere to the weight limitations posted on the diapers. It's for real...those things won't hold any more than 8-10 pounds of crap if that's what it says it can hold.

#3a - FOR BOYS...cover the wang immediately upon removing the diaper (if not before), and be sure to point it downward when you're finishing up or else you will have an angry son and a lot of pee coming out the top of the diaper.

#3b - FOR GIRLS...don't assume that lack of an actual hose means that you can't still get nailed during the changing. Cover the nethers, sooner the better (secondhand information...I don't have a girl baby).

#4a - FOR BOYS...check under the nuts. There's probably poo there.

#4a - FOR GIRLS...clean up from front to back. Or else. And you don't want to know what "or else" means, so just do it (again, secondhand info).

#5 - Don't look them in the eyes when you're changing them or you'll get distracted and probably jam your finger in the cornhole by accident (or maybe it's just me).

#6 - Avoid changing right after a feeding if at all possible. They'll probably spit up their food.

#7 - Always be aware of the location of the new diaper before you take off the old one.

#8 - Watch the feet. If they get too excited and start kicking their feet around, you now have a bigger mess.

#9 - Keep tabs on your diaper supply...running out of diapers before you realize they're all gone can be a difficult pill to swallow (especially if you failed to observe Rule #7). It is especially stressful if it happens to be the middle-of-the-night diaper change. That's a big 'ol "oops" for ya right there.

#10 - Change the diaper on as sturdy and tilt-free a surface that you can find. They can start rolling otherwise.

#11 (yes, it goes to 11) - Throw the diapers away and get them out of the house as soon as possible. Otherwise, everyone gets to know you as "those people who live in the pee-and-poo smeilling house with the stinky kid." You start to ignore that smell pretty quickly. No one else CAN ignore it.

There you go, diaper advice. The straight poop.

Walk Through the Fire

For those of you keeping score at home, it has been a little over a month now since I last posted on any blogs (including Caleb's blog). This has not been for lack of any interesting things to talk about, as I'll detail below.

Since this post is relevant for me personally and also about Caleb, I'm double posting it on both blog sites.

As of the date of my last post, my life changed a little bit. Not quite as drastic as the actual birth of my son, but mind-altering nonetheless. That evening of April 1st, Caleb's situation with the constant vomiting finally came to a head (see previous posts for more details). Around 11pm, we contacted the on-call nurse at our pediatrician and asked what could possibly be wrong with our little guy. All of a sudden, we get a diagnosis for something called "pyloric stenosis" which we had never ever heard of in our entire lives. Essentially, it's a condition where the muscle (pylorus) that allows food to flow from the stomach into the intestines becomes overgrown or swollen to the point that nothing - no food, no liquid - can pass through the system. This apparently started off relatively unnoticed when Caleb was born and became more pronounced in the ensuing weeks to the point that he was getting no hydration and no nourishment.

We don't know how much longer he would have actually survived with this condition. Suffice it to say that we left for the emergency room at Children's Healthcare of Atlanta within the hour to begin a crazy 5-day trip at the hospital that included multiple rooms for multiple days, a trip to the ICU and a simple surgery with scary unexpected complications - in fact, the complications were probably more disconcerting than the whole situation at the time, since we were expecting a straightforward procedure.

So when you come through the other side of this thing like we did, you can look back and feel quite blessed that you're all here to tell the story. At the same time, you can look at it all and say, "wow, THAT was close." It's scary to think what could have happened if the condition wasn't finally diagnosed correctly.

I thank God that all we're left with is a little surgical scar and some bad memories. And the results of the surgery are that we have a baby now that eats and eats and is growing bigger (not smaller) with each passing day. He's happy most of the time and just seems to enjoy life all the more because we're all here together.

There's a song that says "you don't know what you've got 'til it's gone." I would agree, but I'd add that sometimes you know exactly what you have once you just come close to losing it. Going through the fire and being able to hold on is an amazing blessing.