Summer isn't really over if you're counting by the number of degrees outside. But somehow, when the "brr" months come (SeptemBR, OctoBR, etc.), it seems like it SHOULD be fall, even if the weather doesn't get the memo.
We're welcoming the cooler fall weather with a muted color scheme today. Everything I'm wearing, except for the shoes, is several years old, when I dressed more muted all the time.
I'm experimenting with baby-led weaning, so I've started giving Jax some solid food. Instead of mashed up stuff, I've been giving him large, fist-sized chunks of food that he can grab and self-feed with. It's more about discovering color and texture and flavor than it is about food going down the throat. Very little goes down the throat in fact. He's still getting all his nutrition from breast milk, so I'm not worried about whether or not he's eating anything else. It's just a discovery process for now. I might give him purees at some point; I might not. I'm in no rush for him to wean, and neither is he. So for now, he's just learning to enjoy food.
TMI POOP ALERT: Jax has had avocado, butternut squash, and blueberries (I split the blueberries with my fingers so the pulp would begin to come out... he had them twice and both times he puked up a ton within an hour of the blueberries, so I haven't given them to him again.). I give him food only once a day, and perhaps less than 1/2 teaspoon of it has made it down his throat each time. Unfortunately, any amount of non-breastmilk food distinctly changes a baby's poop. We are cloth diapering, which has been ridiculously easy up to this point. Babies who are fed only breast milk (no formula at all), often poop less than once a day, sometimes as little as once a week. This is because breast milk is so well absorbed, there is hardly any waste. In addition, their poop is completely water-soluble, so you just throw the poopy diapers in the wash along with the wet ones. Easy.
Today was his first poop that seemed.....different. Instead of being runny, it was thick and sticky. It took five cloth wipes instead of the usual one to clean him up. It smelled more stinky. So I realized, it was time. Time to get out the diaper sprayer, and spray that poop off into the toilet. Human feces is toxic. So it's toxic when baby poop gets inside disposable diapers, gets thrown into landfills, and eventually gets into our dirt and ground water. Millions of people do this every day. Because poop is disgusting. And no one wants to take their disposable diapers to the toilet, shake out the poop, then throw out the diaper. They just want to fold all that nastiness up and throw it out, smelling and touching it as little as possible. But the right thing to do, is to get that kiddo poop out of the diaper and flush it, so it can be treated along with all the other adult poop. When you cloth diaper, you don't have a choice. Once baby starts eating solids (or if they drink formula), that messy diaper can no longer be thrown in the wash. You've got to rinse it out in the toilet first.
So I took that nasty diaper and all five of those wipes and the changing pad which got messy too, and marched over to the toilet. We have this (supposedly) awesome gadget attached to the side of the toilet, that hooks up to the clean water supply behind the toilet. You grab the little wand and press the button, and spray water onto the nasty poop so that it falls into the toilet without you ever touching it. Then you fold the diaper up and stick it in the diaper pail.
That's how it's advertised to work.
But that's not how it actually worked for me today. I held my hands outstretched, getting my body as far away from the toilet and diaper as possible, and sprayed. Water erupted from the sprayer with a huge amount of force, hit the poop, and bounced droplets of poop and poop-water everywhere. All over my bathroom. All over my legs, over the towels hanging, over the sides of the toilet, on my skirt, on my shirt. In shock, I stopped immediately. Perhaps I was holding the thing wrong, or pressing the button wrong. I tried again. The water hit the diaper and splashed right off, flinging yellow-brown water droplets everywhere. So I shook the diaper. And shook. And held the sprayer really close to the diaper so it couldn't fling so far. And tried aiming the diaper and sprayer closer into the toilet.
No matter what I did, the poop was still stuck like glue paste all over the diaper. I got poop smeared on the diaper sprayer, and smeared on my hands. But did any of it go into the toilet? Nothing except the tiny drops that went all over the place. The only thing I managed to get off the diaper and into the toilet was a raisin-sized chunk of undigested butternut squash.
I stood there in shock and confusion. What to do now? Obviously, change clothes. Clean the bathroom. But what to do with the diaper? And what to do with the diapers to come?
Then I knew. I'll just feed Jax breast milk only until he's potty trained. I'd rather nurse him until he's three than bathe in poop spray on a daily basis for the next 2.5 years. I'll let you know if I change my mind. :)
HERS | Tank Old Navy | Skirt thrifted (Ann Taylor) | Belt I've had so long I don't remember | Necklace, gift | Bracelet, gift, vintage | Shoes Ross
