Sure, I could post about more important things. But it's late. I'm exhausted from this stupid time change. So I want to talk about diapers. Or I should say the lack thereof.
Packing for myself and a one-year-old in a single suitcase is difficult. Kinda like working a rubik's cube. I have to plan very precisely for exactly what we'll need for an entire week for both of us. And diapers take up a bunch of room in that tiny space. So I must have done the math a bit wrong when deciding how many diapers we'd need for 7 nights, because I decided that 34 would be plenty. In my defense, I also packed about 10 swim diapers since we'd obviously be spending a lot of time in the water.
What I didn't account for was that due to all the amazing cruise food, including a ton of delicious fruit, my child pooped about 3 times a day. And peed WAY more than usual, resulting in a diaper change at least every 2-3 hours. Now, none of this was a concern to me until the 4th day when I realized that our diaper stash was getting L-O-W. And the cruise ship, amazingly enough, did not sell diapers. You can surf onboard, climb a rock wall, and ice skate. But heaven forbid they sell diapers!
So we did what any intelligent parents would do, and we started using swim diapers in place of the regular ones. What we didn't realize is that they are completely worthless in capturing any bodily fluids at all. Don't ever swim in a pool with kids wearing swim diapers if you aren't okay with swimming in urine. Because she peed all over my pretty dinner dress one night while wearing one. :)
Since "Operation Swim Diaper" failed to help us, we resorted back to the regular diapers which were now like an endangered species. This began the phase of "Commando Baby" or "Premature Potty Training". We started letting her swim in the ocean without a diaper at all, in just her suit. I'm sure she actually really enjoyed this, and it worked well for the most part except when she peed all over my mom while sitting on the beach. Oops. Still it bought us some hours that she didn't need a diaper.
And let's all admit that we have some less than stellar moments as parents. Sadly enough, this is not the first time I had to resort to the following disgusting measure. One night, I had just changed a really wet diaper and to my horror, she immediately goes into poop mode. The kid loves pooping in a clean diaper. Her face turned red, she squatted down, and started doing "shoo-ey" with her hand. It's cute everytime she does it, but this was not the time!!! I checked the diaper and found about 4 solid rabbit pellets in there, so I had only one option. I fished them out with a kleenex and flushed them down the toilet. Crisis everted.
We ended up making it home with one diaper to spare. (My mom found a package of 3 in Cozumel that we bought or we would have been using towels as cloth diapers.) I was holding on to it in case of absolute emergency. I will pack more than enough diapers next time we travel. I may even order a jumbo box of them online to be delivered to where I'm going just to be sure.
Packing for myself and a one-year-old in a single suitcase is difficult. Kinda like working a rubik's cube. I have to plan very precisely for exactly what we'll need for an entire week for both of us. And diapers take up a bunch of room in that tiny space. So I must have done the math a bit wrong when deciding how many diapers we'd need for 7 nights, because I decided that 34 would be plenty. In my defense, I also packed about 10 swim diapers since we'd obviously be spending a lot of time in the water.
What I didn't account for was that due to all the amazing cruise food, including a ton of delicious fruit, my child pooped about 3 times a day. And peed WAY more than usual, resulting in a diaper change at least every 2-3 hours. Now, none of this was a concern to me until the 4th day when I realized that our diaper stash was getting L-O-W. And the cruise ship, amazingly enough, did not sell diapers. You can surf onboard, climb a rock wall, and ice skate. But heaven forbid they sell diapers!
So we did what any intelligent parents would do, and we started using swim diapers in place of the regular ones. What we didn't realize is that they are completely worthless in capturing any bodily fluids at all. Don't ever swim in a pool with kids wearing swim diapers if you aren't okay with swimming in urine. Because she peed all over my pretty dinner dress one night while wearing one. :)
Since "Operation Swim Diaper" failed to help us, we resorted back to the regular diapers which were now like an endangered species. This began the phase of "Commando Baby" or "Premature Potty Training". We started letting her swim in the ocean without a diaper at all, in just her suit. I'm sure she actually really enjoyed this, and it worked well for the most part except when she peed all over my mom while sitting on the beach. Oops. Still it bought us some hours that she didn't need a diaper.
And let's all admit that we have some less than stellar moments as parents. Sadly enough, this is not the first time I had to resort to the following disgusting measure. One night, I had just changed a really wet diaper and to my horror, she immediately goes into poop mode. The kid loves pooping in a clean diaper. Her face turned red, she squatted down, and started doing "shoo-ey" with her hand. It's cute everytime she does it, but this was not the time!!! I checked the diaper and found about 4 solid rabbit pellets in there, so I had only one option. I fished them out with a kleenex and flushed them down the toilet. Crisis everted.
We ended up making it home with one diaper to spare. (My mom found a package of 3 in Cozumel that we bought or we would have been using towels as cloth diapers.) I was holding on to it in case of absolute emergency. I will pack more than enough diapers next time we travel. I may even order a jumbo box of them online to be delivered to where I'm going just to be sure.
I am at the same time horrified (for you) and laughing at your story. I would have been in a panic! The other night we were at dinner and G pooped and after frantically searching through the diaper bag, nope, not one diaper. So I just put a wipe between him and the poop until we got home- gross. I can't believe the cruise didn't sell diapers. I would write a letter to the cruise line- ha!
ReplyDeleteI love it, so resourceful!!! Good to know about swim diapers though!!
ReplyDeleteI'n glad you had a good trip!!
Sounds like you had a wonderful time (from your previous post)! Welcome back! As for the diapers, I was cringing through your whole story as I imagined the panic I'd be in as the diapers slowly dwindled away. I had the same experience with swim diapers when we went to the beach. By the time we finished dressing the quads for the pool I started seeing pee soaking through the diapers. What the heck is the POINT of those stupid diapers? Now I have 2 boxes I can't even use. Ugh!!
ReplyDeleteHate to break it to you but swim diapers are just poop catchers. What little liquid they do absorb is whatever hits them first be it pool water or pee. We use cloth swim diapers from target which are much cheaper and perform the same function (poop catching).
ReplyDeleteLOL, I'm sorry, but this is just too funny! I would have been in a panic, too, lol! And, yes, we learned the swim diaper reality when Jax was walking around outside the pool and peed and it just came out like he had no diaper on at all. Poop catchers is all they are. I guess thank goodness for that:)!
ReplyDeletehahahaha Im shocked the ship didnt sell diapers!! Yeah swim diapers are worthless. Well I'm glad you all survived the diaper crisis of 2011. I think I would have been in panic mode if I realized I didnt have enough! haha
ReplyDeleteI am so disturbed by the swim diaper discovery. I'm never going in the water again! I'm also annoyed with the cruise ship. They should be selling diapers in their sundries store to keep Moms happy AND to make a huge profit. I get the feeling you would have paid upward of $100 for some diapers!!
ReplyDeleteChildren in diapers of any kind, including "swim diapers," and those who are not toilet-trained are never allowed in cruise ship pools or hot tubs, not even in "family" or "kid" pools. This is a CDC rule. A few cruise lines have special "splash" areas, usually with fountains and sprayers and barely an inch of standing water for kids in diapers or kids who aren't toilet-trained. Don't know which cruise line you were on or which ship. Obviously having your baby in the ocean, with or without a diaper, is one thing. But hope you didn't cruise with the expectation that she'd be allowed in shipboard pools.
ReplyDelete