Tracey

As she pinned the wriggly boy into a dry diaper Gudren made eye contact with him, they could not communicate in a spoken language so perhaps this might work she thought. It never occurred to her that if the accident had happened in what had been West Berlin before the wall had fallen, most people would have also been fluent in English as well as their native German. But here in Schwedt, a large town in northeastern Germany near the river Oder, they were right on the border with Poland. Because of the towns location German or Polish were the spoken and written languages in everyday use. That fact would not play out well for the now diapered boy as she took a pair of of toddler size waterproof baby pants from the shelf under the change table, tugged them up his skinny legs and covered the diaper she had expertly pinned around his loins. Admiring her work she smiled, he might be a boy but with blonde hair down to his shoulders and wearing a pair of soft pink waterproof baby pants he could easily be mistaken for a girl. Mmmmm, I wonder now convincing I could make him look, that could be a fun way to break up the monotony of my day she thought to herself as she released the velcro tummy strap that had kept Jamie safety secured to the baby change table.

Clearly Mama has a plan in mind for Louise, but what could it be?

The interesting thing is Kelly also has Maddie back in diapers but because she is younger and petite that doesn't look out of place like Zach. While he might eventually be off the proverbial diaper hook will Maddie also escape Kelly's clutches as well or is there more babying about to come her way?

Gudren worked methodically as she did with all of her small patients, from experience she knew that a routine was just as important in hospital as it was at home. Changing a wet diaper before breakfast was a key part of that routine, one that she would ensure her latest patient soon understood even thought it was clear her that he spoke no german and she only knew a few words of english. h Hearing the petite boy say the word ‘diaper’ instead of its German pronunciation ‘windel’, when she slipped the waterproof plastic pants down the skinny legs of the fussing toddler that lay on the change she assumed he must be American. Ignoring his whining wiped his bottom with a warm cloth before dusting it in baby powder. With his legs kicking she took end of the dry diaper and roughly pulled it up snug between his legs before securing the back to the front on both sides with diaper pins.

Gudren smiled at the small boy standing in the crib as she unlatched the locks at each end of the dropside crib rail. Letting it slide down she reached in lifted her patient from the crib. With one hand holding him steady on her hip she walked across the room to a vacant diaper change table. The warmth emanating from the plastic baby pants that covered the boys diaper left no doubt in her mind, his diaper was wet and he needed to be changed. Laying the boy on his back she secured the safety strap across his tummy, folded a clean diaper using the aeroplane fold, lifted his skinny legs and slipped the dry diaper under his bottom. In german she then spoke to him, “Hallo Kleines, wirst du ein gutes Baby für mich sein, während ich diese nasse Windel ausziehe und dir für den Morgen eine trockene anziehe?”

It looks like Zach is about to get an emergency placement with a foster Mom who will think he is much younger than his actual age… that will be interesting.

Back in daytime diapers Across the room Gudren heard the commotion from the small boy who had been brought into the hospital by ambulance last night from the scene of the triple fatal motor vehicle accident. He had no Identification, the family’s luggage and identification papers had been been destroyed in the fire that taken hold shortly after the boy had been pulled from the wreck still in his carseat. He had been given a sedative at the scene and was asleep on arrival, after the duty emergency doctor had done the necessary checks and declared him to be unharmed the small boy had been brought up to the children’s ward to be cared for. The only thing that distinguished him from any of the other children that had been admitted was the fact that he was wearing a disposable diaper, almost exclusively the local Mothers used cloth diapers, occasionally a child would arrive in a disposable diaper but it would be one of the locally manufactured Kriepa brand. They were produced by the state-owned VEB Papierwerk Kriebstein and unaffordable. Disposable diapers were far too expensive, most East Germans did not have that kind of money on to spend disposable diapers and used cloth ones. Finished with her current charge she turned and walk over to the crib that contained the boy. She could clearly see that his diaper was soaked through the pull-on plastic pants that protected the crib sheets from accidents. The plastic baby pants used by the hospital were manufactured by the State, when new they would have been an opaque, almost see through white color, but now they were yellowed through repeated use and laundering. Incorrectly she assumed that the boy had woken in a wet diaper and now wanted to be changed. Making eye contact she spoke to the boy in German, “Guten Morgen, mein Junge, für Schwester Gudrun sieht es so aus, als ob deine Windel nass ist. Wir müssen die Windel wechseln, bevor Sie einen Windelausschlag bekommen, dann können Sie eine Flasche Babymilch trinken. (Good morning baby boy, it looks to Nurse Gudrun that your diaper is wet. We need to change that diaper before you get a diaper rash, then you can have a bottle of baby milk.)

Great writing, a glimpse into her future in the Meadows room, the transition from trainers to pull-ups, the needles are a bit dark but no doubt a necessary part of your narrative. The next couple of chapters will hold more drama and change for grown up Emily in her transition to toddler Emma! Well done. 😀

The Movie StaR Like every girl, Jamie had dreams of becoming a movie star as he was growing up. Although he was a boy he preferred to play with dolls rather than trucks and guns. In his fantasy world the dolls were his fans and co stars. During his childhood life had not been an easy ride, he had undiagnosed Growth Hormone Deficiency, or GHD as it is more co referred to, his parents and older sister had been killed in a car crash when he was six and he had lived in a succession of foster homes where because of his petite stature he had more often than not been treated as if he was much younger than his actual age. As he scanned the job ads looking for a new opportunity he reflected on his short life and wondered how different it might now be if his parents and sister had not died in the smash with the semi trailer. It was only because of his petite statute and the fact that he still to still ride in a toddlers carseat with a five point harness and full body shell that he had survived the smash, the shell of the carseat preventing his small body from being crushed. They had flown to Europe on a family holiday, it had been an amazing trip before the accident and a wild ride after it. Closing his eyes he remembered the accident vividly, it was night and raining, they were in north of what had previously been East Germany close to the border with Poland, a semi trailer had lost control on the autobann, rolled and crushed their car. When the emergency services pulled him from the wreck still strapped in his carseat the paramedics were amazed that he had survived and immediately mistook him for being much younger than his six years because of his petite stature, the fact that his Mom had diapered him for the road trip and that he was riding in a toddlers carseat. Unfortunately for Jamie the accident was the trigger on a smoking gun that set in chain a series of events that were to define the rest of his childhood. His undiagnosed GHD made him look like a toddler, in a country where english was not the first language and with no parents or sister left alive to support his case that he was six, not three. Sedated at the accident scene he had woken the next day to an environment completely foreign to him. Rolling over he stretch his arms and legs making contact with cold steel. Slowly he opened his eyes, his vision blurry at first. Initially he began to panic, it looked like he was in jail, white bars of cold steel filled his field of vision, as his vision cleared that assumption was dismissed and replaced by a new reality. Moving to a sitting position he realised that he was in a hospital crib, to his left and right other cribs stood their ground, some occupied, others empty. Across the room he could now see four large tables with soft waterproof mattress covers, below each mattress were stacked white cotton baby diapers and well worn plastic baby pants. Without realising what he was doing his hands reached for his manhood, it was only then that he realised that he was wearing the same plastic baby pants and diapers that he could see across the room. Looking down he felt the pressure in his bladder demanding release, his pulse was now racing, through the opaque plastic pants he could see the diaper pins that had been used when he had been brought in from the accident scene and his wet disposable discarded and replaced with a cotton baby diaper. Pulling himself up to a standing position he had called out to the young nurse who was attending to another child that he needed the bathroom, all she had done was smile back at him and greet him in german, a language he did not know. With his repeated attempts to be let out of the crib and baby diaper to use a bathroom the inevitable eventually arrived, his bladder released, the warm liquid pooling between his skinny legs before being wicked up by the soft cotton of the diaper he was now wearing. His worse fear had been realised, he was in a foreign country and had been mistaken for a toddler who had not been potty trained.

The plot speculation was not supposed to be dark, but it is easy now to see rereading the comment how it could read as such. Rather it was to demonstrate the scope for future development that the author has laid the ground work for. It has the capacity to cover a broad spectrum of potential outcomes with the main character clearly capable of modelling in magazine photo shoots, tv commercials or play the part of a younger child in a family sitcom, tv series such as Criminal Minds (ending with a good outcome) or a movie. The author is doing an amazing job with the plot development. 😀

The scene has been set, whats next in Little Lucy’s modelling or acting world? More commercials for cribs highchairs, strollers or baby formula, a part in a sitcom as a toddler, or a movie one where she gets adopted as a familys new baby or kidnapped to be a deranged couples toddler maybe?

Wow, so well written. The time with Kathy was really building up to a big bang and then you defused it. I wonder if Kathy will still find a way to get to her little prize?

If Kelly was thinking straight she would have asked the kebab shop guy if he had seen Zach, all boys go looking for food ad a priority.

Oh, that makes perfect sense. Interesting about the size 8s, that is a surprise that they are so big, you can’t get them in my area. When you said that you “confirmed that they often did dress 5 and 6-year-olds in diapers for ads or photo shoots, because they were a lot easier to work with than babies, and with the right lensing and props, they could be made to look like they were 2-3 instead of 5-6” what was that for? Just a single commercial or photo shoot or on more than one occasion?

Totally, hopefully it is just to scare her and she won’t be going or Abby’s plan is to start with the worse possible threat and negotiate to a position where Dani is back in daytime diapers and preschool.