Playing with poo

Happy Halloween!

Day 2 of cloth diapering went better than Day 1. One problem... the Snappis seem to bite through the Gerber prefolds and irritate baby's skin. Any tips from any of you cloth diaper veterans?

Also, there was no sign of any poo on Day 2, aside from some noise and fragrant air emitting from the fluffy end of my boy all day, so I knew I was eventually in for it. I will admit I was hoping it would happen at night (as in, when he's in a disposable) but it did not. As a matter of fact, he was up a LOT last night, screaming and squirming with, I think, a belly ache, because he needed to poop. I even had to take him for a drive at 1:30 this morning after 2 hours of screaming. Nothing would comfort him. The drive calmed him enough to let him sleep for a few hours, though.

(The evening's extended activities with screaming baby have prompted my "zombie" costume for Halloween: Still in PJs, fright-wig hair, unbrushed teeth, coffee breath, old-looking skin, dark circles, growls and groans).

So, this morning, I took off the disposable and put on a nice all-in-one with a Gerber prefold added because I knew the poo was coming! And as he sat in his high chair enjoying a Fiber One pancake, the grunting began in earnest, and there we had it.

So, my worst cloth diapering nightmare came true, on Halloween. How appropriate.

OK, so I'm being dramatic, but I knew when I made the commitment to switch to cloth that I would eventually be playing with poo. And play with poo I did.

I've heard people say they just shake the solid into the toilet. Well, what do you do when the solid has the consistency of peanut butter with various chunks of fruit and veggie in it (and a small piece of black thread that came from Lord knows where)? There was no shaking! I don't have a poo spatula (shudder) yet, and I think I've decided against a sprayer after hearing they often just cause more mess (Poo splash. No thanks!) So, I went for the old swish in the toilet method. And swished. And flushed. And swished. And flushed. Repeat, repeat, repeat. I was left with a soaked, still poopy diaper, but eventually got most of the chunkiness to go into the toilet. I think I did a good-enough job. We'll see.

And I touched a lot of poop in the process.

But holy cow... what on earth am I going to do if this occurs out in public?

Ugh.

Anyway, I said I was going to share my journey into cloth diapering, so there ya go. I'm still learning, and it's not going to be fun, and you get to hear all about it!

On the up side, after his healthy poo, baby boy is napping soundly in fresh fluff, so it must have felt good! :)