48 Hours of Diapers

Yesterday marked 48 hours that we’ve been home from the hospital. For the most part, we’ve been able to settle in okay. The first evening was probably the hardest, but it’s been getting better. In those 48 hours we managed to completely fill the kitchen trash bag that we put into our Diaper Champ. During that time, we’ve learned a bit of what (not) to do while changing diapers.

During one of our first diaper changes at home, Effy was visiting. We figured we would show her what we do when we change diapers in case she’s watching them some time in the future. We set out everything: a box of wipes, a bowl of warm water to warm the wipes and dilute the soap on them, a changing pad with a brand-new (and washed) pink terry cloth cover, a disposable waterproof pad to protect the changing pad cover, an alcohol prep to clean the umbilical cord, and a new diaper. We put Miranda on changing pad and unfastened the diaper. It was a mustard yellow swampy mess in there–both stool and urine. I warmed a wipe, moved away the soiled diaper and wiped her from front-to-back. I glanced up and saw Miranda grimace. Then, a moment later, more stool comes shooting out about three feet. It barely missed me, but she got an unprotected part of our changing pad cover, a laundry bag, and a bit of the floor. Luckily no one else was in the line of fire. All we needed to do was put the changing pad cover in the laundry, along with the laundry bag. Effy was kind enough to clean up the floor. Since then, I’ve started changing diapers standing to the side–not directly at the girl’s feet, and we’re pretty careful in keeping the girls covered one way or another while their diaper is off.

A little later, we found that the girls were constantly leaking from their diapers. It was soaking their onesies, the two receiving blankets that swaddle them, and sometimes the sheet on which they sleep. We were going through all those blankets and onesies that we thought we wouldn’t need. It turns out that the Huggies Newborn diapers are still a little too big for our girls’ butts. Pampers Newborn Swaddlers are a little smaller and they are what we were using while we were in the hospital. We had a couple of packages of Pampers among our hundreds of diapers, but I went out and bought more anyway. A diaper that doesn’t hold things in just isn’t worth using. Maybe when the girls hit the 6.5 lb mark we’ll try the Huggies again.

I mentioned that we have a bowl that we use to warm the wipes and to remove a bit of the soap on them. The theory (which we really haven’t tested) is that the soap may be a little harsh on their skin. Anyway, we’ve found that a warm wipe keeps the girls from crying their heads off while they’re being cleaned. On the other hand, a warm wipe seems to soothe and relax them just enough that they start to urinate again while they’re being wiped. That’s happened many times.

After we change the diapers, the water in our bowl cools down and we need to refill it with the next diaper change. Yesterday, I emptied the bowl in the kitchen sink and left it there when we went in for our first visit to the pediatrician. When we got home, Agnes’ mom was cooking some vegetables as part of our lunch. I saw some of the leaves in the sink in the bowl we use for wipes (which I thought was labeled clearly enough). I asked if she had used the bowl for washing the dirt from the vegetables. She said yes. Eww. I mean, I’ve had a bit of stool on my hand while I dip the next wipe into that bowl. Luckily, she didn’t stay to eat lunch with us, and we were able to just eat other things. From now on, we keep this bowl with the diaper stuff, even when it’s just drying out.