The Baby Poo Experience

Anyone who is not a parent will coil at the thought of changing diapers. Who knows what one may find?! There will be smells, and oh, if big business has been done, the diaper will not just be soggy, it will feel mushy... Eeewwwwww!

That was how I felt in my pre-motherhood days. And as much as I had frens who were already mothers then, I never had to witness or experience a diaper change. So, I understood perfectly how my sister felt the last time when she offered to watch Julien and let me have a lie-in and then found that she had a very filthy diaper to change when I was asleep. Unable to deal with it alone, she had gone to her boyfriend for reinforcements instead.

Oh yes, I understand, for I had done the same the first time I had to change Jules's diapers. It was a few hours after the birth in the hospital, when a midwife came to visit me, that she smelled the poo. Me, the hours-old mum smelled nothing of course. She was very kind and asked me if I wanted to do the change myself or wanted her help. Inside, I felt weak at the very prospect and to the midwife, readily accepted her help. (I think she could see my mental readiness was the issue, not so much me feeling weak after the birth!) And as I watched her at work, I felt a strangely marvelous sense of wonderment and went in my head, "So, that's how it is done..." My resistance and repugnance had simply melted away without my even noticing it.

Indeed, I am a vast improvement, as so is Daddy Low in this area - we can smell the diapers easily now. And if we are ever not sure, we do the trick that all seasoned parents do - we smell Baby at his diapers. I know, it sounds horrendous - who in their right mind would put their face in poo, even if there is a buffer of diaper in between your face and the source of that awful smell? Oh yes, parenthood makes one do bizarre things! :)

Now, I changed diapers several times a day - it is simply part of the day's work besides feeding, cleaning etc. And you get better and better over time, attaining new achievements everyday - I can change Julien's diapers when he is asleep without waking him up; I can put new diapers on him, even when he's resting on his tummy ... Basically, you pick up new tricks along the way, especially when your baby is a right active, squirmy little monkey.

And I have had "accidents" before as well - once, Jules pooed into his towels, while I was creaming him after the bath. And Daddy Low was not amused, because I had borrowed his big, fluffy towel, now that the baby towels are too small for Jules. Oh, what a cleaning job I had after that!

But nothing takes the cake like today. After his bath, I had held him up to cream him, since he was fretting and did not want to lie down. It was tricky creaming him while he was standing up and he was unusually fretty... And just when I was wondering if he could possibly be hungry, I heard a familiar grunting sound that should only happen when he is in diapers, followed rapidly by a sputtering noise and a warm wetness on my pants and of course, a sickening, sour, pungent odor filled the room. And it didn't show any signs of letting up too...

Once I overcame my shock, I started frantically pulling out as many wet wipes as I can to catch this "machine gun's" foul discharge. The good news is that nothing got on the carpet; the bad news is that they all landed on my shirt and pants. And of course, with an upright baby, he was standing on shit, and he cried and fretted even louder - clearly, he does not like standing on shit.

And the funny thing is that as I watched this drama unfolding, my brain seemed to suddenly go on overdrive, as thoughts flew through as to what is the best way to deal with the whole mess - what should I do first, then second and etc etc. Should I wash his legs first? Or change out of my filthy clothes? Or clean the changing mat?

As much as time seems to stand still in these situations, you do make the best, snap decisions and take the right actions. Before long, Jules was clean again, but clearly still very unhappy. I think it traumatized him as much as it did me!

The moral of the story - watch and listen to your baby for the cues. Jules had made a few tiny grunts, but I had dismissed them, thinking, it can't possibly be... And without doubt, get that new diaper on asap! I know I would next time! :)