Craptacular Days for Everybody!

It seems there's a theme running among a few of my favorite blogs, Anti-Supermom and The Rambler (and no ladies, you are not listed in order of preference... I love you equally).  Normally I try to avoid jumping on bandwagons, but the stories brought to mind one of my own.  It's from June 2008, when Mad was a wee babe of not quite three months.  The original title was BGS and the Craptacular Day. 


I mention this because BGS has been Nancy's nickname for Mad since she was en utero.  It stands for Baby Girl Sweener (our combined last names); she always knew I was going to have a daughter.  This is relevant because you may hear me mention BBS periodically until we find out at the end of next month whether we need to come up with a new nickname or not.  And I'll work on telling you how everything went today regarding BBS once I get this posted.


Madelyn and I got going early today... well, actually, I got up and going early today. I managed to have a shower while both of my children (I'm still not quite used to that, lol) slept. I looked outside and felt the window (my usual way of figuring out the weather... it's at least as good as any weatherman's report) before dressing Mad. I was pretty excited to put her into my favorite bloomers outfit because today we were going visiting with Nancy at some of our classes.


As the three of us walked out the door (Corey was loading La Mad for me), we realized it was misting... not the best day for the bloomers outfit, so I ran back in and grabbed not one, but two! footie sleeper outfits. I tossed them in the car and figured I'd change her at my first stop, which was the newborn center.


Just as we pulled in I got the text from Nance saying that she was heading down to get the van, which was my cue to work my way over to one of our employers.


I went to pull Madelyn out of the car and realized that the diaper bag wasn't there... we'd gone for an extended walk yesterday evening (complete with a stop at the polling place for Madelyn's first "I voted" sticker) and we brought the bag along just in case. I forgot about the sleepers and just ran on in so I could get Mad weighed. Then we dash back home, where I grabbed the diaper bag and a few other things I'd forgotten, and off we went to meet Nance at the employer's.


When we got there, I backed my vehicle up to the dock so that a bunch of gifts for the students could be loaded up. Loading had occasionally taken a bit of time to handle previously, so I took that opportunity to nurse Madelyn and change her diaper and clothes. No problem, but there was more stuff for the kids than my car would hold, so Nance had to cram the van (very skillfully, I might add) up next to my car on the dock. Her vehicle was loaded pretty quickly, too, and FedEx had just arrived, so we had to scoot off the dock.


I loaded Mad into her seat and we headed over to Casa Sanchez. She nursed virtually the entire time we were there, and mostly slept when she wasn't eating. At one point the owner came over and said to Madelyn, "I'm the one who fed your mommy when she was pregnant," but Mad was screaming by then so it we hightailed it.


We stopped at one school and saw some of my favorite people (kids and adults), went to another employer's and then to another school. While we were at the second school it was time to nurse again, so I spent the whole time there bundled up in the car with Madelyn. Kids and teachers came and went and I really didn't get to say much more than hi to them.


Madelyn was in serious eating mode, so I said goodbye to Nance and watched her drive away. Mad finished on one side and I decided to check to see if she needed another diaper change.


I put her on the back seat... I probably should have done it in the cargo area, but that seemed more exposed than I wanted her to be... and I wasn't even sure that she needed a change, so I hadn't put a pad down, just the blanket that I'd used while she was nursing. I used that second footie sleeper to prop her up from where the seat is angled and to cushion her against the seatbelts.


Did she need a change? OMG, yes!!!


Tom and I have talked about diapers in the past few weeks as being "the messiest" or "the biggest" or "the one that took the most wipes." This was the diaper to beat all other diapers. Possibly even adult diapers.


A little baby poo primer for ya... breast milk diapers look like seedy mustard. Madelyn looked like someone had taken a large bottle of mustard and dumped it in her diaper. That thing was full to the edges... in the front, sides and the back!


A little Madelyn primer for ya... Madelyn doesn't like anything cold or wet, and the combination of cold and wet will drive her over the edge.


So I opened the old diaper and began the massive cleanup. But it was cold and windy, which was making Madelyn very unhappy, and it was also making the poo stick to her body like glue... and not just on the private parts that she's used to getting cleaned up, but even up to her abdomen! I was taking a sort of "top down" approach, so I started on her belly first (good to keep the hands from getting into anything nasty). While I did that, she screamed bloody murder and flailed her legs. After a few minutes and several wipes and I'm still not sure that I've gotten her stomach clean, I realized that Madelyn's feet are in the dirty diaper, which she has kicked open. And there's poo on her clothes.


I worked frantically to get her done. My back was aching from being bent over like that (ugh! I'm old!) and I was talking to her, trying to soothe her and get it done as quickly and as best I could. What happened next?


She peed, of course.


No pad, remember? So I grabbed another blanket and stuck it under everything to hopefully absorb as much as possible before it ruined my still new car interior.


The upside? Pee acts as a poo-glue remover and I was able to finish up fairly quickly and get my poor baby girl into a clean diaper and some dry clothes... but not that other sleeper, because it also helped catch pee.


After I got everything into bags, I took her back to the front seat of the car and we snuggled and then finished nursing. After that, life was good and she fell asleep pretty quickly.  I could have done the same.