Managing his situation

**** Warning - if baby poop grosses you out - read no further.****

I think of diapering as an art form of sorts.  Everyone has their own methods.  Some diaper the baby long ways, some side ways, some with cloth diapers, some with disposable.  Some take their time, some quickly "get through it".  Some hold their breath through the whole thing....others hardly notice the stench.

This is the way I do it:  Sideways - head in front of my left hand, feet in front of my right.  I prefer to use Seventh Generation disposable, especially because Mo has sensitive skin.  I do the tush in sections, cleaning off each part of the tushy and then folding the dirty diaper underneath the clean booty parts.  I go down the legs, make sure I get in the cracks and then I take the whole package and seal it up with the side fasteners.  I think my method is fairly standard but it took a little while to perfect.  The challenge factor increases with a wiggly baby or in a less than ideal setting - like the backseat of my car or on my lap (in both cases, I switch to a horizontal placement but the rest of my method stays standard.)

Diapering my babies hardly ever bothers me.  I am not sure why but my babies' poops really don't gross me out all that much.....except for those really horrific blow out ones.  They are a major curveball.  My method gets thrown out the window and I just concentrate on getting through it.

In our home, I change most of the diapers.  Ted was freaked out when he learned we were having a boy (Max).  He worried much too much about pee shooting into his mouth.  While it is true that anytime Maxie's diaper was undone the pee would unleash all over everything - walls, curtains, us....it never, ever landed in Ted's mouth.  Ted used to do Maxie's diaper every morning.  Poop grosses him out but having time with Max each morning was worth it.  Ted is such a good daddy.

When Mo was born, I just took on the diaper changes.  It isn't like I am being nice or that Ted won't change diapers....it is just that I don't really mind and he really doesn't like it so it just seems like a no brainer to me.  There are many things Ted does around our house that I don't like to deal with - like killing mice and gigantic bugs.  He has changed a few of Mo's diapers over the last (almost!) 14 months, but I bet you could count them all on two hands.  Again, if I wanted him to, he would, I just don't really care.  But, OH MAN, did he get served this weekend!!!!  This one diaper change made up for every diaper he didn't change for the whole year. 

I won't give you all of the gory details but the quick version is that we went on a long walk on Yom Kippur - a day that Ted was fasting!  Halfway through our walk, I was struck with the need to go to the bathroom so badly, that I probably would have gone in my pants had we not found a Del Taco restroom.  I ran inside the restaurant, grabbed a token and flew to the side of the building to get into the bathroom.  It was then that Ted looked at me and then down at Mo and said "We will meet you at the market - in the diaper section".  Mo was COVERED with poop - all over his outfit, all over the stroller.  With no water or food in his system (which was probably a blessing if you really think about it), Ted MANAGED that diaper.  I found them in the most disgusting Men's bathroom in the Ralphs near our house - baby poop EVERYWHERE.  "How are you doing this?", I asked.  "I'm just plowing through," he responded with a nasal, plugged nose voice and a determined look.

Never have I been so proud.