Cloth Nappies & Projectile Vomit

[imported from livejournal and backdated]

I think there's an in built stress tester in babies that causes their parents concern (assuming the parent isn't already overly a major worrywart). Tao got up to his projectile vomitus tricks again. I gave him his morning feed in bed as per usual and after an hour or so he chucked it back up. We cleaned him up, changed his nappy and it was feeding time again. He drank again, wet his nappy and I took him to the bathroom and was in the process of changing his nappy when he projectile vomited against gravity. I exclaimed "Crap," as he did so. Then "Crap!" as more followed in a slightly higher projectile, and finally major expletives as I pulled him out of the way of the third.

Josh by this point had ambled in to see what was going on. He made some similar expletives and went off to grab the towel I usually breastfeed on to avoid leaking milk onto the bed. This had been used to clean up the projectile vomit on the bed and was now used to clean up the projectile vomit on the change table (good thing those things have plastic covers). I used Tao's bath cloth to clean him up (lucky it had been warm, he'd only been sleeping in a nappy) and gave him many cuddles after that traumatising experience (though I think it might have been more traumatising for his parents, Tiny was all smiles afterwards).

I've been meaning to mention that I have finally grown to like my nappy bag. When we were using disposables for going out and cloth at home we had this big otherwise unused backpack to transport all the required stuff around, though we also had a nasty habit of losing things (outfits etc) in it coz it was big and we kept forgetting to take things out. After deciding to go to cloth full time we acquisitioned this nappy bag from Baby on a Budget. It cost $47.50, was a brand called "New Arrival" and it was a backpack (which for some reason is very hard to find nappy bags in).

I was a bit dubious about it but it was the best looking one, the others looked like they had similar features but were actual bags and they were ugly (my opinion only :) I guess the problem I had was the lack of an obvious wet section. There was a compartment at the bottom of the bag for "nappies and dirty clothes" which I decided could house the dirty nappies. It meant we could only go for short outings but we almost never do day trips and anywhere we'd be staying would have nappy washing facilities :) The problem I guess is nappy bags now need to look stylish as well as be functional (I got no problem with stylish as long as it looks good and is comfortable), but also a lot of people are using disposables so nappy bags are more catered to disposables than cloth.

Anyways this nappy bag has a couple of pockets at the back that I have yet no idea what I would use them for, a main compartment that I keep a bottle of wipes in (I have a ziplock bag for wipes which is currently occupied by the flannel I will be using as a wipe when the amount of wipes we got given as baby presents run out) and 3-4 spare nappies, a front pocket where I can keep all sorts of funky stuff like my wallet (which is clipped in, though if I feel anyone messing with anything on me they won't be moving very far when I'm done :P), diary thingi, keys, writey stuff and pads for whenever my period comes back (hopefully those seemingly random bleedings I've had weren't it). I wonder if I could squish my digicam and a small visual diary in there.

Going off course there. The bottom section I could probably squish five terry squares in there if I actually folded them but when I'm changing Tiny out of home I'm more interested in folding it in such a way so that the wet bit is contained inside the fold which is not necessarily the most space efficient fold. It's a small wet section and quite shallow, bad coz it doesn't fit much in but great coz I only need to open it up and let it air out when I get home, wiping it down with a wet wipe or damp cloth as necessary.

The backpack is a nice size as well, big enough to be useful and small enough to be convenient and...well...not look as massive as our other backpack. When we first embarked on this parenting expedition Josh and I used disposables for outings so we wouldn't have to worry about carting dirty nappies around. I got annoyed with the disposables after a while, hence the switch to full time cloth which I think we're all a lot happier about (easier on our budget, more comfortable for Tao). Surprisingly enough it's actually harder to get rid of disposables than it is to cart the dirty nappies around. If you have a convenient change room great, they have nappy bins, but yesterday when running around with kowren we ended up at the chiro for her appointment and Tiny needed a nappy change.

The receptionist there was nice and had no problem with me changing Tiny somewhere in the waiting room (living room, that place used to be a house). I changed him on the floor, stuffed the dirty nappy into the dirty nappy compartment and whacked a clean one on. He spent a lot of time staring at the coloured carpet. Woulda been stuffed if he'd done a poo or if he'd been in a disposable though as there wasn't any bin I could really have placed dirty nappies or pooey wipes :P

Which leads on nicely to us going to the shops today (3 hours later than Josh would have liked due to having to put the car seat back together, I had to take off all the washable bits and wash them and me and kowren spent a bit of time cleaning the seat itself because one of Tiny's prodigious poos had pierced the layers and gone into the stand at the bottom, and it hadn't completely dried when we wanted to reassemble it). We placed Tiny in one of those trolleys with baby capsules and wandered around shopping (strangely enough). We passed this grandmotherly type woman who did the standard oohing and aahing and what a beautiful baby and as we both moved along she added "Glad to see you're using cloth nappies!"

Gave me a bit of a warm fuzzy though Josh looked like he was more interested in finishing up the shopping :)

Hm, when the cats get in I might give Tiny a bath BEFORE taking the dog for a walk for a change. Each time we try to do it after it's always too late so he just ends up getting a wipe down with his bath cloth and Tiny gets cranky when his rhythm (bath-feed-sleep) is upset. He likes baths and gets annoyed when he misses out.

While I'm waiting for Tiny and his father to wake up, an amusing incident that happened when we returned from the shops. I brought Tiny in and he required another nappy change. He got another nappy change and then I fed him. He fell asleep. I made sure he was asleep then left him and went to try to help with a lightbulb change (we have a very strange light fixture in the corridor, it's set quite high up for some bizarre reason). I gave up eventually and returned to my laptop. I don't know how long Tiny had been awake for but he must have seen me at the computer. Either way he broke out into startled awake frantic crying. Being the great mother that I am (HAH!) I leaped up and immediately rushed over to him. As soon as I got there he stopped crying and flashed me the cutest little gummy shark smile, turning his head slightly to one side and looking at me just with his eyes (kinda like the icon for this entry, but with a more coy smile). Little ratbag :)