Slowly but surely, Big Papa and I have been getting the things we need to (as we say) “keep the baby alive” when we finally become parents. We now have a crib, a changing table, a high chair, a couple strollers, an assortment of books and a few toys.
A few days ago someone asked me “What kind of diapers do you plan to use?” “Uh, diapers?” was my response.
The truth is I don’t know much about diapers. Sure, I am aware that there are cloth diapers and disposable diapers. I’m even savvy enough to know that there are all sorts of groovy diapers these days: pre-folded with handy-dandy pocket systems and even all-in-one diapers. But whether we want BumGenius, Gdiapers or Fuzzibunz is a mystery to me.
Aside from my lack of knowledge about diapers themselves the, er, bottom line is that I’ve never changed a baby and have yet to choose and use diapers. Even if we had diapers in the house, my confidence on what to do with them is on the low end of the bell curve. It’s been decades since I last did any babysitting and all the kids I took care of back in the day were all ready toilet trained. Plus, I was only three when my sister was born, so my recollections of a diaper service and diapers being dunked in the toilet are vague at best.
Up till now, what little Big Papa and I have learned about diapers, has been gleaned from the other end of the life continuum: adult diapers. I’ve purchased more than my fair share of pull-ups for my dad in the nearly four years he’s lived near Seattle.
And, sadly, Big Papa’s first experience with diaper changing was also dad-related, at 30,000 feet some place over the mid-West when we moved my father to Seattle from Florida. When my father, who is disabled, lost control of his southern end shortly after take-off, my sweet (fiancé at the time) Big Papa spent most of the flight from Charlotte, North Carolina to Seattle, Washington learning about do-do and Depends.
We laugh about it now, but while it was happening, we were horrified. I remember standing in front of the bathroom (where my father was holed up for most of the flight) holding up an airplane blanket to offer privacy (my father’s paralyzed and we couldn’t get him solidly into the bathroom enough to close the door) while Big Papa came to the rescue.
I couldn’t believe Big Papa was doing this for my dad…and for me. If there had been someone to marry us on that plane, I would have done it on the spot.
But I digress, so back to diapers and babies. We realized we needed a little help. While there are tons of websites these days, some devoted exclusively to diapers and the pros and cons of this diaper versus that diaper, and there are videos showing how to change a baby (thank you YouTube), we felt like we really needed a bit more, um, hands-on experience.
So we signed up for a diaper class. “Are you sure you want to use cloth, but are confused and overwhelmed by all the options?” Yes, that would be us (at least we think we want to use cloth). Adventures in Cloth Diapering, here we come!
I’ll be sure to report back and let everyone know which pampers we prefer. In the meantime, I’m trying to learn what I can about the business end of a baby.
“Laughter is like changing a baby’s diaper. It doesn’t permanently solve any problems, but it makes things more acceptable for a while.”
This is also one of the things I’m most nervous about…and the feeding. If we get those two departments down, we’re good!
heheh – I’m sure you’ll get all kinds of advice, so I’ll offer a coupe of tidbits that were helpful for me. It’s not rocket science. A good dose of common-sense will get you far. But a couple of things I learned along the way. Babies are squirmy things – and especially if they are wet (from bath or mishap) so don’t “slide” on securing the baby from getting away from ya (yes – every single time)! (ha) Two: if it’s a boy – cover the penis with a diaper or towel – as to avoid the mishap of pee-in-the-face 🙂 Three: keep anything and EVERYTHING OUT OF REACH of the baby as – while you’re focused below their waist – they can grab things and decide to stick them in their mouths (or try to swallow/choke etc). Four: Make it a light, fun and bonding time for you and the baby. It may be a bit stressful the first day – but by the second day you’ll be a pro 🙂
And finally, I have to add my 2 cents about cloth diapers. We wanted to use cloth – to save the landfills/environment. But it uses alot more water (for one thing) AND the mess and challenge of it – for us – just was not worth it. We started with cloth, and after just the ONE time of using a disposable, we couldn’t justify putting ourselves as new parents – through the significantly added stress of cloth diapers. Things are stressful enough with your first kid. So that’s what heppened for us. Whatever you choose – you can always change your minds 🙂 Best of Luck!
You may want to check out this post on eco-friendly diapers:
http://greenbabyguide.com/2009/11/10/how-to-choose-an-eco-friendly-diaper-system/
This is, in general, a good site for eco-conscious moms. (For the record, I personally have just used Seventh Generation disposables for my son, because there really is no learning curve with disposables and I was intimidated by the prospect of cloth diapers. In retrospect, the pocket diapers don’t sound too hard.)
Larisa,
Just this morning a mom in my spin class told me about Seventh Generation disposables. I’ll look into them (we use their laundry soap). If we go cloth, I expect it’ll be the pocket diaper route as there is enough to learn about keeping a kid alive without having to worry about diapers!
True enough, Beau. Diapers aren’t “forever.” We can change our minds as quickly as we can change diapers.
I think we strive for cloth diapering right now because we know so much plastic can’t be a good thing. That said, we are all but one family, one baby, and a few extra pampers won’t tip the balance. I hope and plan that I can figure out and master the cloth diapering lifestyle but I WILL NOT feel guilty if, especially given our unique circumstances, it proves to be too much. And I hope you don’t feel that pressure either. Sometimes the green parenting, etc, opinions can feel like judgments… and that truly serves no one. We will do the very best we can. And remember that we learn with the baby… we are entitled to a normal learning curve and we can’t expect to be expert by any means in these things right away!
Well…as of today, I’m now leaning toward ‘Seventh Generation’ disposables!
If you use cloth & pins: always, always slip your fingers between diaper cloth & baby when pushing the pin into the cloth. It is horrifying for the diaperer, and painful for the diaperee, if you miss the cloth and stick the baby. Everyone survives, but … *shudder*… its just better that way.