Little Sherri Posted January 8, 2021 Share Posted January 8, 2021 13 hours ago, oznl said: Changing into an Abena L4 I now have a sample of an L4 and I'm looking forward to test-driving it. I've never tried Abena products before. I noted that you pair it with a booster; it did seem like a light-medium weight contender to me. I don't usually use a booster except in my lightest diapers, but I will keep it in mind when I try this one out. Maybe I'll get into it later today once my night diaper has completely run out of runway. 13 hours ago, oznl said: As I stepped off the step to the lawn, I felt a brief, warm squirt at the front of my nappy. There was no overwhelming urgency and it was so quick, I wasn’t even sure that it had happened. This is interesting to me; I gave up my continence testing earlier this week, but, I had had the occasional unreported and un-permissioned spurt here and there, sometimes confirmed only by stimuli external to the normal departmental reporting structure. But my usual failure mode has been that I hold it for 45 minutes or an hour, with maybe a couple of hiccups along the lines of what you describe, tiny releases - but then I get a "in the back of a cab stuck in traffic on the way home from a bar at 2 AM" level of urgency, I involuntarily cinch up in response to it, and then the flow starts, and it can't be denied. I THINK I have come to terms with just wearing an unremarkable, fresh diaper for my medical appointments - I'll change in the washroom before I check in - and then, hoping that if my family physician wants to see the works, I get a chance to disrobe in private, and it's all over with quickly, which it likely would be. I'll have to remember not to use scented nappy cream. However for the ultrasound of the boys, I think that safety and decorum necessitate that I have something on. I'm hoping that they leave it to me to arrange "things" such that my diaper never really comes into view, but if undressing - waiting - getting into the examination room - arranging everything - the actual exam - the walk back to the change area - anything else that might come up - if all of that amounts to 45 minutes or 1:15, then if I get a warning shot from below and can just tuck the business end right back into a diaper, it might make the difference between a nonevent, and the offering of profound apologies, and/or an unexpected sprint, or weighing all of my bad options like a pilot who's lost an engine - is it "better" to make a puddle on the floor in the examination room, or to run through the lobby to the washroom, if I start trailing droplets mid-trip? Crash here, or try for the runway? Link to comment
oznl Posted January 12, 2021 Author Share Posted January 12, 2021 Product review: trying to leverage the Abena L4 + booster combo as a night nappy. Outcome: Don't... I woke up Friday morning in soaking-wet terry trainers. I didn’t realise this until my morning change but I had suspected that all was not well in the nappy department. Thus concluded the experiment of using an Abena L4 + booster pad as my night nappy. The Christmas break omnipresence of my partner along with persistently laundry-drying-unfriendly weather has seen me take flight to disposables 24/7 for the past few weeks with another week of landfill-generating peeing in front of me before I can again, urinate in sustainable cotton. Burning rapidly through my dwindling ABU Simple cache and not wanting to suffer the cold silent treatment my beloved would most likely inflict upon me for incurring nappy deliveries that she should witness or, god forbid, have to sign for, I decided to try the more-plentiful-in-supply Abena at night. The Abena L4 + booster is a common day-diaper for my non-working schedule. It generally goes on at the morning change around 9am and remains in-situ until 6 or 7pm. Fortified by tightly fitting plastic pants and a compression panty over the top, it will generally go the distance but with some caveats. The excellent wicking of the Abena means that by change time, it is mostly wet with nearly all of the padding having done its duty for the King. The downfalls to this nappy are tapes that are tragically prone to abandoning their posts (usually at the most inopportune times) and as a “cloth” backed product, becoming stretchy and saggy after use and thus vulnerable to the vagaries of gravity and ballistics. Recourse to masking-tape mid-shift nappy repairs are not unheard of with Abena but the requirements for those tight fitting plastic pants and compression panty are not negotiable for “active” usage. Removing those outer garments at evening change time usually sees the fully loaded Abena head straight for the floor with no tape removal effort required, such is the sag factor on this product when wet. I thought it might work well being peed in whilst lying quietly in bed. Regrettably not. I’d have to assume that I peed in my sleep at least a bit. I suspect most nights I do now but as I’ve often said, when you’re usually wet anyway, it’s very hard to tell. For me, I can remember a few dribbles here and there but measurement suggested more than one litre of pee in my pants by morning so obviously more than a few dribbles occurred. Anyway, I woke up to morning light and laughing Kookaburras in my first night Abena with a typically-empty bladder and a typically-heavy nappy. It was my turn to make the coffee and so I waddled downstairs. I could tell I was wet by the weight of my nappy but as is the case with modern disposables, there wasn’t that much of a wet feeling, more of a warmth although I also realised I was a bit loose and saggy. The cat loved me anyway. At least until I’d fed her breakfast whereupon her affection vanished. Two cups of coffee later enjoyed comfortably sitting in bed and it was time for my morning change. It was with no small sense of smugness that I watched my beloved head for the bathroom yet again after I knew she’d been up at least twice during the night but I know better than to try to leverage my advantage here. Once the bathroom was free, I arose, retired to it, took off my pyjama pants and hooked my thumbs into my terry-lined waterproofs to ease them down. The first clue was getting wet thumbs. The terry towelling padding under the plastic outer was soaked. The second clue was that when I did eased down my pee-drenched waterproofs, I discovered I wasn’t wearing the Abena any more. The two bottom tapes had both failed during the night. Around the two top tapes, the Abena had sagged and stretched to the point where there was nothing to keep it on me anymore. Presumably I’d gone and kept peeing anyway by which time the Abena had migrated to such a position in my pants that it simply got peed on by me along with everything else in my pants. I went back to an ABU Simple the next night and promptly wet my second pair of terry-lined waterproof pants. Admittedly it seems I’d gone a lot through the night but it looked like the failure mode this time was that I peed at some point laying on my side and overwhelmed ABU’s admittedly nearly-non-existent side protection. I don’t remember doing this but the train of evidence was fairly straight forward. I had a left wet hip. That’s a risk with any disposable and is one that I can only manage fully awake it seems. The auto-disrobing is an Abena trick however. Two pairs of pee-wet terry towelling pants made critical mass for a nappy wash so, in the spirit of may as well be hung for a sheep as a goat, I wore some cloth nappies to bed the next night so I could just run a load the following morning. I’d been accumulating an expanding collection of slightly-pee-stained plastic pants since my beloved went on leave just before Christmas but had been avoiding scheduling a nappy wash. It is absolutely forbidden to co-mingle any other washing with my nappy infrastructure in case my beloved catches nappy rash from me. Still, it was deliciously comfortable to fall asleep in a slightly-damp cloth nappy knowing that irrespective of my angle and orientation during the night, I could pee freely and I would wake up leak free. That’s never 100% the case with a disposable. Subsequent to this venture, I’ve been experiencing a series of unusually-wet night nappies. I’m not sure if this is due to an unseasonable outbreak of cool/grey weather. It’s been quite overcast during the day with temperatures generally not exceeding around 28C (82F) during the day and dropping back to a very-comfortable overnight low of around 21C (70F). This means that I’ve not been the usual “ball of sweat” during the day although oddly, my day nappy has been relatively normal. It’s the night nappies that seem to be copping the hits. I’ve actually been tactically using BetterDry at night after the last flooded ABU Simple. Irrespective of this, on multiple mornings I’ve woken up feeling like my bum was in a warm puddle: not normal for disposables. A quick measure this morning showed no less than 1.8 litres of pee had finished up in there but between the BetterDry and my terry-lined waterproofs, my pyjamas and bed remained dry! As is default these days, that nappy would have been used innumerable times for very low volume voids of which I can only remember a couple before bed and after just getting into bed. Paradoxically, it’s 10:30am as I write this and my day-nappy has remained dry, I think. Link to comment
Little Sherri Posted January 12, 2021 Share Posted January 12, 2021 14 hours ago, oznl said: The downfalls to this nappy are tapes that are tragically prone to abandoning their posts (usually at the most inopportune times) and as a “cloth” backed product, becoming stretchy and saggy after use and thus vulnerable to the vagaries of gravity and ballistics. This has been my experience as well. This week I've worn and M4 and an L4, marking my first experience with both, and I found them to be very comfortable diapers, with decent capacity and a nice feel to them, but.... those tabs. I don't understand why Prevail, which makes a very inexpensive diaper, somehow is the only company outside of Pampers that has access to NASA-grade fasteners. Take an L4 and give it the Prevail tabs, and voila, you have the world's best cloth-backed diaper. It might also have to do with the flocking on the diaper cover as well - again, both Prevail, and Pampers, have somehow figured out how to make it such that the strands don't pull away with the tabs. I think that the Prevail fasteners are actually aimed at those active silvers you see in the commercials sometimes, golfing while mentally planning their next Mediterranean cruise, but not before biking over to see the grandchildren, secure in the knowledge that their discrete nappies will stay in place all the while. Whereas the tabs used by the likes of Tena and Abena are for a demographic not normally portrayed in 4K advertisements... predominantly horizontal and untroubled by gravity. Side leaks are never an issue because responsible caregivers don't leave them on their sides when they're turned. However, once we establish a settlement on Mars, gravity will be much less of a concern, so perhaps these are, in fact, the nappies of the future? Link to comment
oznl Posted January 15, 2021 Author Share Posted January 15, 2021 In this week’s update, I have managed a very short holiday with my beloved whilst remaining in nappies. Back when I was employed as an international jet-setter (before the plague killed jet-setting in general and then killed my employment that drove my participation in aforementioned jet-setting specifically) I was a seasoned nappy-traveler. I know how to pack, when to change and how to stay under the radar. I just traveled alone for work, not with my betrothed whilst whom I believe loves me, would love me a lot more if I wore conventional underwear and removed it before peeing. It’s bizarre that it has taken two years to cross this shibboleth but such are the strange times in which we find ourselves. The holiday was short, relatively local and last minute. A response to COVID-induced quietening of business, my partner’s own employer had decided that staff should all take extended Christmas vacation in order to enjoy lock-downs, shopping shortages and the closure of entertainment venues more fully so staying home together was, as predicted, starting to wear thin. Snap state border closures and a new Stalinist Soviet Union style requirement for travel permits and occasional surprise-and-retrospective quarantining requirements made air travel practically impossible however and even old-fashioned road trips risky. There were actually people who’d left their home states for such holidays and were being blocked by their own Governments from returning home. Nevertheless, the siren call of sunburn and sand called her. Fortunately, our part of Australia hosts some of the country’s most famous coastal resorts so even within 100 miles of home, our options were good. We knew that there was a chance that Government decree could force us to abandon the trip and forfeit our booking fees so minimize the risk, we booked the resort hotel literally on the morning of the night we intended to stay in it, pretty much before jumping into the car and heading about 70 miles up the road. We would have stayed longer than the one night but an earlier lockdown had already consumed much of the holiday window and an unrelated (but since resolved) domestic crisis had further eroded the opportunity. One night and two days it was. Thusly, I found myself once again Northbound on the Bruce Highway but this time with my life companion in the seat beside me. At least we didn’t have to wear our masks in our own car the way we had to just a few days earlier. After my wife had filled my travel trundle bag with all of the fashion accoutrements and shoes she anticipated as necessary for a single night stay at a casual beachside resort and I’d stuffed in a supermarket bag containing 4 nappies, a tiny tube of rash cream and a spare pare of plastic pants, there wasn’t actually any room for my clothes. I went in what I wore with a spare pair of shorts and a fresh T-shirt in the driver’s side door pocket. We took my car so I knew there was my emergency “crash kit” in a duffle bag at the back containing a couple of aged nappies and a spare pair of pants. The snap-departure saw me leaving in an already-damp Abena L4 + Booster that I’d changed into maybe two hours earlier. Fortunately it seemed we’d caught a gap in the holiday traffic that plagues the Bruce Highway this time of year and the trip up was done and dusted in around 90 minutes. After a leisurely lunch and a bit of a wander through the hinterlands, we ticked off the next on her list of holiday requirements, an extremely long (well, 5 kilometer) beach walk, lightly sand-blasted by a vigorous but warm/humid on-shore breeze, one of us in by then, a well-wet nappy and rather tight fitting plastic pants. We’ve all seen photos from courageous ABDL basking on beaches in their nappies and whatever we may think of the advertising messages they are sending about our small community, you have to admire their sheer chutzpah for doing it. You’d think it would be the risk of social sanction and possible law enforcement that would be the biggest threat but in fact it is sand ingression. I have NO idea how sand can get inside ones nappy but it did. Back at the hotel room by early evening, a plan was made for a casual dinner on the beach (yay, more sand in my bits). By this time, I’d been marinating in my Abena for 10 hours and there was no way it was going to deal with another two. It was changing time and frankly, time for a shower. The sand and salt was driving me mad and a minor damp patch at the top of the front of my shorts was, in the context of me, ominous. Ignoring her queries as to why I would wish to shower now instead of after dinner (a nappy change was mandatory by now and my budgeted supply did not allow for a two hour tour of duty for the next one before being removed for a shower with consequential and catastrophic tape damage). I surveyed the microscopic “bathroom” partitioned off from our bedroom by nothing more than a flimsy louvre door that could, by dint of assuming a low angle of view (eg: laying on the bed), afford people outside of it to what was happening in it. Given that she HATES to see, hear or otherwise experience ANY aspect of my nappies, it seemed that her holiday was about to head south. Turning on the TV new and cranking the volume to “loud” let me disrobe, shower and apply sudo cream to sandpapered bits before fitting my night BetterDry which needed to last for dinner and bed. I’d leaked a bit. That was the small damp spot at the top of my crotch. It was just about quantity of pee, nothing else. There was nothing I could do about it. I dabbed at my shorts with a damp face cloth and hoped for the best. The bathroom was too small and lacked a “blank” wall to allow for my usual diapering position of leaning against one. Heading back into the hotel bedroom to lay down beside her in order to re-nappy myself also seemed a little confrontational so I just put it on crooked as best as I could standing up. Dinner, some beers and bed later. I’d also taken some terry-lined waterproofs. I pulled these on as quietly as I could before bed, disguising the noise somewhat by simultaneously running water and cleaning my teeth. Pajama pants pulled on over them, I waddled back into bed with my puffy crotch and large bum. I was NOT about to risk a wet hotel bed. Nothing was said. It was a strange night’s sleep. The room AC was a bit erratic and we cycled between being warm and cold although the sound of adjacent surf was nice. I don’t remember using my nappy much at all but woke up once to find myself in the “relaxed” position leaking into it on my back into a reasonably wet BetterDry. It seems that despite the new surrounds and added stress of being on holiday with my partner in nappies, I may pee in my sleep anyway: good to know for future reference. At the morning change, the industrial strength tapes of the pee-wet BetterDry screamed in protest as I removed them, four times, once for each tape, echoing around the small room, the cardboard screen door doing nothing to conceal the noise. Nothing was said. By now, I had a plastic trash bag with a pair of used disposable nappies the size of dead chickens. The hotel trash bin was the size of a flower vase. Fortunately, the resort was rife with children and wheelie bins were left at convenient intervals that had helpfully been filled with industrial quantities of disposable nappies. There was no escape route other than past the bed my partner was sitting on. I breezed past her with an opaque bag filled with dead soldiers. “I’m just going to take out some rubbish!” I cheerfully announced. Nothing was said. After check-out, we spent the next day wandering through various coastal beauty spots, drinking coffees and eating food that is bad for you. A couple of times she called for bathroom breaks. I was quietly getting soggier in my next day’s Abena and required none. Nothing was said. End of the day, we headed back down south towards Brisbane. Tired, sandy and over-fed. Unpacking our overnight bag, some clothes were found to be damp (stored next to a partially-full-chilled bottle of wine, condensation had its wicked way). My wife inspected my pyjama shorts (they fitted into the travel bag thanks to the consumption of nappies) with extreme prejudice. She bought them up to her nose and sniffed cautiously. “It’s condensation from your wine bottle, not pee…” I said. Nothing was said but the pajama pants were returned to the “live to see another day” pile. She believed me (it WAS true, it was just condensation). In prior posts I had opined about the inevitable ructions and dispute that would accompany her husband remaining nappy-clad for such a tryst. In fact, not a word about it was said. I’m not sure I even detected an eye roll. She even said she had a good time and wanted to do it again. I had steeled myself to tell her that the reason I’d taken nappies with us on our first night away together in so long was that for me at night, nappies are no longer optional. I had similarly steeled myself for the subsequent fight. The point remains moot. I saw no point in ruining a pleasant 48 hours by bringing up this unwelcome piece of news unilaterally. So nothing was said... Link to comment
Little Sherri Posted January 17, 2021 Share Posted January 17, 2021 Well, @oznl, I enjoyed the imagery you painted, which allowed me to walk on a beach by proxy. It's mid-January here in the frozen North, where, for hairless ape descendants, something has to be on fire, or have recently been on fire, 24 hours a day, for about the next four months, or survival is well neigh impossible. Water is a solid in its natural state right now. I take the dog for a stroll, now on my own property, rather than around a neighbourhood, but, I still have to accompany him, because he was walked on a leash around suburban subdivisions for most of his life, so he never actually learned not to go out onto the road, apparently. It just didn't happen very often because he was always leashed. The country road that passes our new house has infrequent traffic, but, often, whatever does pass by is trying to set a land speed record, so idle sniffing at the center line is ill-advised. I mention this only to contrast your strolling with mine; I was walking backwards to avoid being blast-frozen, while the dog, of course, thought that this was entirely recreational, and that each barren shrub should be thoroughly inspected. Worthy of peeing on? No. Next. I'd say you've reached some kind of breakthrough. Or at least, she has quietly resigned herself to the reality that, unconventional underpants aside, you're still good company, and odds are, anyone else your age and currently available would probably carry with them a host of personality idiosyncrasies that could be much harder to live with than the sound of tapes from the bathroom now and then. It's been ages since my wife and I have gone on a sun-seeking vacation together by ourselves. We've been to Florida a bunch of times with the kids, and we went to a couple of beaches in France, again, with the kids, but, the last time we went anywhere ourselves was to a friend's wedding in Cuba a decade ago, while my in-laws babysat. Because of the pandemic, we have only been on one trip since I put myself back into nappies fulltime, which was our trip to Europe in 2019. I don't know that she was fully cognizant at the time that I had a diaper on for the entire trip; it had only been maybe a couple of months since I "came out of the closet" with her, with respect to wearing diapers to bed, and I was sort of mid-way through being progressively less careful about being discrete about my daytime wearing. Couple that with the fact that we shared hotel rooms with our kids and, for a week in Paris, an apartment with friends of ours who have three kids, and, really, I did practically all of my dressing and undressing in the bathroom, anyway. All of which is to say that I don't know what her take would be on my packing nothing but plastic underpants for a sun-dappled getaway. I suppose at some point, if the vaccines work, we'll find out. My kids are approaching old enough to be left to their own devices for a short period. I don't know what I'd wear on a beach... normally I'd just stay in a bathing suit for most of the day, but now, other than for swimming, that wouldn't be very practical - bathing suits don't offer much cover. If she wants to go for a 5-mile walk on the beach - which she would absolutely want to do, much like your betrothed - then I would want to have something on, and something on over it. Would she resent it? Would she interpret my wearing of one as an admission, essentially, that, even when it's just her and I, I can't be happy without wearing baby pants? I remember one of those beaches we visited in France, where I went out in walking shorts and staked out a spot and spread the blanket and carted the coolers and then, when it was time to go into the water, I grabbed my backpack and headed up to the changerooms, only to find that the doors were slatted affairs that were ill-fitted, and I basically had to take my diaper off whilst making eye contact with the person waiting outside my door for the room I was in, and then, I had to toss the fallen soldier, which was, as you said, about the size and weight of a dead chicken, casually into a trash receptacle in the middle of the room, surrounded by people. And then reverse the process after I was done swimming. It was so much easier when I could just drive to the beach in a bathing suit, leave it on all day, and drive home in it. But, that said, I wouldn't trade where I am now for where I was back then, in terms of my overall satisfaction with life. I don't know if my wife would say the same thing. Link to comment
Stroller Posted January 17, 2021 Share Posted January 17, 2021 4 hours ago, Little Sherri said: It's mid-January here in the frozen North, where, for hairless ape descendants, something has to be on fire, or have recently been on fire, 24 hours a day, for about the next four months, or survival is well neigh impossible. Water is a solid in its natural state right now. I take the dog for a stroll, now on my own property, rather than around a neighbourhood, but, I still have to accompany him, because he was walked on a leash around suburban subdivisions for most of his life, so he never actually learned not to go out onto the road, apparently. ...Whereas over here, January is a time of mud and floods, around where we live anyway. Occasionally it's frozen up, but mostly it's just rain and mud. The lower part of the garden has flooded twice this week, and walking the dog has been interesting. We're seriously locked down here now, partly due to government restrictions, and partly because my wife is on the 'highly vulnerable' register and there's a lot of COVID around just now. I'm only leaving the house to walk the dog, and we're going along a quiet stretch of the river; not our normal route, which has too many people at the moment for safety. The riverside path is a mudbath, and has been flooded in places where the river has overtopped its bank. I've been wearing metal spikes over my boots just to be able to keep upright. And the fact that Binky has no more road sense than a squirrel any more than your dog doesn't matter, as we're straight out of the house onto the riverbank. Link to comment
oznl Posted January 18, 2021 Author Share Posted January 18, 2021 20 hours ago, Little Sherri said: I was walking backwards to avoid being blast-frozen, while the dog, of course, thought that this was entirely recreational, and that each barren shrub should be thoroughly inspected. Worthy of peeing on? No. Next. Yes, I have an acquaintance who followed the love of his life near Toronto (and has been unable to convince her to return home with him). He’s still in awe of the winter and starts dreading it every September. The idea that you might wander off in a t-shirt and be dead a couple of hours later with cold is quite impressive. Heat exhaustion and dehydration should at least take a day or two... I've only been there in early June where it was only slightly colder than what I'd expect from Brisbane in June. 21 hours ago, Little Sherri said: I'd say you've reached some kind of breakthrough. Or at least, she has quietly resigned herself to the reality that, unconventional underpants aside, you're still good company, and odds are, anyone else your age and currently available would probably carry with them a host of personality idiosyncrasies that could be much harder to live with than the sound of tapes from the bathroom now and then. I’m certainly relieved that she chose not to make a drama out of this. It bodes well for what seems to be another (slightly more challenging) night away that’s popped up for next weekend, staying with some friends at a share house back up on the sunshine coast (Noosa if you want to google, it's a nice place about a 1.5 hour drive from my place). It MUST be done in nappies if it is to be done at all. Last week I proved to myself that I might still wet in my sleep even if I’m not in my own bed. Whilst I’m very happy NOT to have had any fights over this, there is a small part of me that wanted to “clear the air” so to speak. I think I’d like her to know that nappies to bed are now it seems necessary for me (so can we move on please) although I don’t really want the blowback likely from this revelation. 16 hours ago, Stroller said: ...Whereas over here, January is a time of mud and floods, around where we live anyway. Occasionally it's frozen up, but mostly it's just rain and mud. The lower part of the garden has flooded twice this week, and walking the dog has been interesting. We're seriously locked down here now, partly due to government restrictions, and partly because my wife is on the 'highly vulnerable' register and there's a lot of COVID around just now. I'm only leaving the house to walk the dog, and we're going along a quiet stretch of the river; not our normal route, which has too many people at the moment for safety. The riverside path is a mudbath, and has been flooded in places where the river has overtopped its bank. I've been wearing metal spikes over my boots just to be able to keep upright. And the fact that Binky has no more road sense than a squirrel any more than your dog doesn't matter, as we're straight out of the house onto the riverbank. Yep, familiar with Cheshire. I know there’s been some bad winters lately but from my recollection, Cheshire is usually a bit prone to flooding. It’s supposed to be wet here too (although considerably warmer). It’s meant to be our rainy season but an annoying meteorological phenomenon has been more or less permanently holding a kind of atmospheric umbrella over Brisbane. We have loads of heat, loads of humidity (just fantastic nappy weather) but the rain and storms never seem to fire here. This is the third such season and I’m worried a bit that this might be climate change and some new normal that isn’t much fun. I know the COVID situation there is ludicrous: a mate who lives very close to you skyped me the other day just after Christmas. He NEVER skypes. He was bored witless as he'd been locked down for Christmas and could see neither friends nor family. Ironically, he's already had it. Despite being pretty tough, he had a rough ride with it so you'd definitely want to be very careful with your wife. Hopefully she'll get the jab pretty quick with her needs and that's one less thing to worry about. Link to comment
Stroller Posted January 18, 2021 Share Posted January 18, 2021 6 hours ago, oznl said: I know the COVID situation there is ludicrous: a mate who lives very close to you skyped me the other day just after Christmas. He NEVER skypes. He was bored witless as he'd been locked down for Christmas and could see neither friends nor family. Ironically, he's already had it. Despite being pretty tough, he had a rough ride with it so you'd definitely want to be very careful with your wife. Hopefully she'll get the jab pretty quick with her needs and that's one less thing to worry about. I may already have had it myself, back in April last year, but there's no way of being sure. Antibody tests have never been made available here. I was rough, but not so bad I needed hospital treatment. I spent 2 weeks in the spare bedroom, leaving only to use the bathroom, then 2 weeks on the sofa. This morning's news is that the vaccination rollout here has now been extended to the over 70s and the extremely vulnerable, so I'm hoping my wife will get a letter soon. Unfortunately the treatment she's currently getting for her cancer means the vaccination probably won't be effective, so she'll have to wait until the next gap in her chemo treatment. And...the vaccination doesn't mean you can't get Covid. A friend of ours (a nurse) was vaccinated with the Pfizer vaccine before Xmas, and 2 or 3 weeks later she caught Covid, along with the rest of her family. Her symptoms were a lot milder than the rest of the family though. My 94-year-old mother has had the jab though, which is a relief. My mother-in-law (late 80s & housebound) is still waiting. Link to comment
Little Sherri Posted January 18, 2021 Share Posted January 18, 2021 13 hours ago, oznl said: Yes, I have an acquaintance who followed the love of his life near Toronto (and has been unable to convince her to return home with him). This I can't understand... I mean, I guess I can understand it, logically - Canada isn't a bad place to live, she's probably got family ties here, and it's all she knows. But, if my wife had some ancestral tie to Australia that would allow us to emigrate there, I think I'd jump at it. I have some good friends with a house in Florida, and my in-laws also live there for half the year, so, but for the pandemic, I would generally get at least a coupe of weeks and a few weekends every winter where I get to see how the other half lives, the people who don't own parkas and can swim on Christmas day. Florida is a lot closer to Canada, geographically, than Australia is, but Australia is a lot closer to Canada, philosophically, than Florida is. Particularly in these politically polarized times. Link to comment
oznl Posted January 21, 2021 Author Share Posted January 21, 2021 With the return of my spouse to work after her Christmas break things have been dull here at home but a small silver lining to this cloud is that I’ve been able to break out the cloth nappies from their long Christmas holiday at the top shelf in our walk-in-wardrobe. Yesterday saw the unexciting job of re-painting trim on a staircase made slightly less tedious by me complementing my paint-spattered painting t-shirt with a yellow-sheep Omutsu cloth diaper under milky white plastic pants. As I was working home alone, this was all I needed to wear. I showered quite early to get the paint off at around 5pm. This of course automatically triggers a nappy change. I had no interest in putting back on a wet-and-rapidly-cooling Omutsu and I didn’t want any more changes before breakfast the next day. This called for the “big guns” in my cloth nappy arsenal: A kite-folded 60” x 60” terry with a 24” x 24” soaker pad (baby’s terry nappy) beneath plastic pants but in the interests of visual modesty for returning family members, a compression short and some loose dark clothes over the lot. As it was “hump day” Wednesday evening, a beer and a glass or three of red were had as I made, and then enjoyed with returning family members, a not-bad-at-all-I-thought Thai green curry. Hint: you can cheat with a decent brand green curry paste but find some Thai basil and Kaffir lime leaves to include with your other ingredients. I went to bed damp at around 11pm. Drinking nights are wet nights. I do remember waking up and having one pee at around 4am but clearly there were others. I woke again at 6am with my wife’s alarm and was annoyed to discover a very small damp patch on the sheet below my left hip (I was sleeping on my side – no problem for cloth nappies though). A bit of a rummage suggested that my plastic pants had ridden up during the night exposing a tiny amount of wet towelling to the sheet. A slight poke and a rearrange and I fell back asleep. It was not a serious leak and I thought no more about it. At around 7:45am, I got up. My wife had already left for work. My nappy felt very wet on waking but there’d been no further damp spots on the sheets. When I stood up however, I it had the weight of a small television and two pins and a couple of snappis could not keep it on me. Waddling to the bathroom holding it at my hips in defiance of gravity, I turned on the tap to clean my teeth. The running water had its usual effect and despite imagining that I had an empty bladder, I felt myself semi-automatically start wetting a bit more. Uh oh. Within seconds, I felt a warm rivulet down my inside right thigh and make it all the way to the floor via my ankle! I can’t “stop” peeing any more of course so stepped into the shower until it slowed down. At least I was OUT of bed and only in a nappy and t-shirt so there wasn’t much to get wet. This wasn’t some kind of wardrobe malfunction though. My nappy was simply completely saturated. A visual check revealed an accusing yellow puddle had formed in the sagging crotch of my plastic pants. Changing time was brought forward from “after breakfast” to “now” and I took off the nappy (or rather, allowed gravity to thud it to the shower floor before I retrospectively deconstructed it for rinsing and eventual wash), had a quick rinse myself and found another cloth nappy to change into. Out of curiosity, I took my sodden night nappy (still inside its plastic pants) down to the kitchen to misuse the scales before its rinse as I don’t recall ever having overwhelmed one of these before. It proved to be carrying just a little over 2 litres of pee, beating the previous record of 1951ml set in August 2020! Admittedly, it had been on for an extra-long shift (15 hours) including a night on the turps but this was still an impressive effort. I must have wet majorly in my sleep because I could not recall anything like that kind of usage occurring under my command. I have the vaguest recollection of dreaming about wetting my nappy at some time (with startlingly real sensation): I probably was but I couldn’t tell you anything else about that dream. That’s probably a clue about how the “sleep wetting” thing creeps in at the borders between sleep and wakefulness. The “I don’t know where it all came from” state with respect to pee found in my nappy is near default for much of the time now. I can remember deciding to use my nappy here and there but how those events all total up to the fluidic carnage I find at changing time remains a mystery to me. The wet spot on the bottom sheet was small and I just let it dry under the bedroom ceiling fan. I suppose there will be an incriminating yellow patch but it’s likely me that will strip the bed anyway so what ho. A quick wipe with a damp cloth on the bathroom floor (which is usually pretty wet anyway) and we were good to go. I’m still waiting to find out if I am to face my next life challenge in nappies this weekend: a night away with friends at a share house. Details have not yet become available. These are good friends but their chronology can be hit and miss. It’s entirely possible we’ll get the shout 30 minutes before we’d need to be in the car driving north again. 1 Link to comment
Little Sherri Posted January 22, 2021 Share Posted January 22, 2021 On 1/21/2021 at 12:51 AM, oznl said: I’m still waiting to find out if I am to face my next life challenge in nappies this weekend: a night away with friends at a share house. Details have not yet become available. These are good friends but their chronology can be hit and miss. It’s entirely possible we’ll get the shout 30 minutes before we’d need to be in the car driving north again. Something like this really is a test of your resolve, as well as of the efficacies of your operating procedures. It can definitely feel a bit like walking a tightrope; it looks easy from outside, but, the person walking the rope is operating under the weight of the suspicion that a misstep could send them tumbling into an abyss. I work diligently under most circumstances specifically not to be an exhibitionist regarding my unconventional underclothing, but, the stakes are much lower with the uninterested, uncaring and largely oblivious general public, than they are with people you are close to. Thus, these are the moments that I struggle with the most. So far, my anxieties seem to be unfounded. The first acid test of my resolve came not too long after I found that I had, without expressly planning to do so, ended up on a 24/7 path, and then I joined my family in Europe, staying with extended family, and then sharing apartments with close friends. Since then, I've stayed with, or had staying with me, a few very good friends, and, a rotating cast of extended family members, and through all that, I have found a way to stay the course, and, as far as I know, nobody knows, or cares, what I put on before my pants. I say all of the above in order to point out this: you are better at this than I am. I found my way to where I am while following in your footsteps, as well as those of other veteran diapernauts here. So I'm entirely sure that you'll be fine, and that you will be able to enjoy both the company of great friends, and, the security of a (hopefully) great diaper, at the same time. The one wildcard is always the spousal weather forecast, but I think that your beach getaway set a good precedent. As long as she can remain assured that she won't bare any social consequences for your private choices, you are not, arguably, impinging on her enjoyment of the getaway, and so, her needless concerns should not impinge on your enjoyment, either. Link to comment
oznl Posted January 28, 2021 Author Share Posted January 28, 2021 I can now cross the “spent the night with friends at a shared AirBnB house near the beach” off my “accomplished whilst wearing nappies” list. It was ok. I’d have to say it would have been more convenient wearing grown-up underwear but at this stage, I suspect I lack the bladder capacity to exploit that convenience anyway. As usual, I took just the nappies I’d need, a spare and a spare pair of pants. No underwear, no other real safety net. I guess it’s pretty solid in my head these days that nappies ARE my underwear. The fun started on the drive up to the Sunshine coast. Saturday was the first day of a de-facto 4 day weekend. Tuesday being the “Australia Day” public holiday, most people who still have jobs took Monday off to make a four day break for the price of one day’s vacation. It was also effectively the last hurrah for the summer school holidays as school returns later this week. So what seemed like the entire population of metropolitan Brisbane, blocked from interstate or international travel by various COVID-19 restrictions, decided to load up their SUVs with kids, dogs, caravans and watercraft to join me on the Bruce Highway up to the Sunshine Coast. The 100 minute trip took just under 4 hours… The only interesting finding from this was the sharp reminder of how incapable I now am of a 4 hour driving shift without either repeated toilet stops or regular recourse to my nappy. My partner however, sat stoically for the whole trip although wasted no time bolting for the toilet upon arrival leaving me to transfer a truck-load of alcohol from the car to the fridges. It was a good thing I was in a BetterDry. It saw plenty of action. Inspecting our accommodation, I was relieved to discover that we did at least have our own small bedroom although the depressingly tiny bathroom was a walk down a hall and was to be shared amongst five of us. We were already two hours late and the party had started. As we set up shop around the pool socialising and more hours slid by, it became abundantly clear that my usual modus operandi of a nice evening shower accompanied by a nice evening nappy change was simply not socially viable. The shower was also in the bathroom that was seeing very regular use from everybody except me (nobody commented on my seemingly cast iron bladder). As it happened, the water in the pool wasn’t that warm and most of the older adults decided to pass on the swimming so I was not out of place for not doing so. I’d decided that if cornered, I would swim and use the re-robing as my opportunity to replace my nappy. Eventually, after dinner, sensing imminent danger in the absorbency department, I crept away and completed a successful-but-less-than-geometrically-perfect nappy change standing up in the toilet nervously awaiting somebody to bang on the door. Each of four tapes being removed from my soaked and bloated BetterDry sounded like a sonic boom but there was more than one Bluetooth speaker belting out 80’s pop anthems so I think I got away with that. I’d disguised the inbound nappy in my small, dark nylon laundry bag (nobody seemed to notice that I took luggage to the toilet) and the outbound nappy (the size of a bowling ball and somewhat less disguisable) came back out the same way to occupy an awkwardly large amount of our shared overnight bag. I knew my beloved was going to see it there (wrapped in a plastic bag as it was) but there was simply nothing else to be done. Using any of the communal trash baskets would guarantee it being seen and force a host to deal with it. There was no chance for a wash or even a wipe down at changing so it was simply a fresh nappy before the resumption of drinking by the pool. Nobody seemed to notice and if they did, I expect they simply (and somewhat correctly) assumed that I’d visited the bathroom. Festivities continued through until about 1am. I’d switched to wine and although my fresh “night” nappy was by now a bit wet, remained confident that the BetterDry would last through until morning. Regardless of this, the next challenge was to don my terry-lined waterproofs before bed. Confident or not, there was NO way I was going to risk leaking in an AirBnB bed hosted by a friend. I needed to have the lined waterproofs over my nappy in bed. I didn’t particularly want to put these on in front of my partner. She knows I wear them but visually they are very puffy and quite infantile and I didn’t want to rock any psychological boats. The trouble was that our tiny bedroom was the only semi-private space we had. I thought it would be easiest to get her out of our room (using diplomacy, not ballistics) and dress for bed alone. This I did by graciously offering her the bathroom first: she cannot bring herself to decline chivalry. The moment she left, the coast seemingly clear, I stripped off my shorts only to have one of our friends burst unannounced into our room to give me what she considered to be imperative tuition on how to operate the air conditioning. As it happens, I’m fairly experienced at switching household appliances on and off. I’d earlier solved the group dinner crisis by unraveling the enigmatic riddles of the AirBnB house oven and cook top before capping my success by working out the dishwasher but my helpful friend was unspeakably drunk and clearly forgotten these object lessons on my capabilities along with much of everything else that happened after dinner on Saturday. Hammered or not, it was a moment of great peril. I had not anticipated that somebody would simply barge directly into another’s room without so much as a knock but such are the dis inhibiting powers of a vat of chardonnay. Fortunately, dim lighting, a dogged single-mindedness of her purpose and a pea-soup-fog of alcohol left me confident that she hadn’t noticed that my black “shorts” were in fact compression shorts and in places, suspiciously bulgy. I quickly bundled her out. Rationality told me that I could have been wearing a pantomime zebra onesie and tiara and she still wouldn’t have realised. Nevertheless, it was no longer safe to change in my bedroom as any minute she might return to hold forth upon the safe and legal operation of the door knobs. Fail over to plan B. I quickly pulled my shorts back just as my beloved returned. I then smuggled my somewhat-bulky padded waterproofs with me to the bathroom stuffed in a beach towel along with my pyjama pants and a more credible toothbrush and tube of toothpaste. Disrobing behind the lockable bathroom door, I pulled on the padded plastic pants over my nappy followed by my pyjama pants across the lot. Fairly bulky in the pants department now, I scuttled back to our bedroom under the cover of comparative darkness to the sound of my wine-soaked friend loudly singing “The Waitresses” seminal 1982 hit “I know what boys like!”. Is it any wonder that AirBnB houses have a bad name? I’m not sure if it was alcohol, heat through incorrect AC operation of just general tension but it wasn’t the world’s greatest night’s sleep. I’m also unused to retiring at 1:30am. I’m not sure if I sleep-wet or not (probably not), but no nappy was wasted by morning change time. The BetterDry had done its job though and the lining of my waterproofs had remained dry. In comparison to the preceding evening’s antics, my morning nappy change was easy. Apart from my partner, I was the only one awake at 8:30am. I had a long leisurely shower. Salt, sweat and more than 24 hours of wearing mostly wet nappies had taken their toll. I suspect I didn’t smell that great and my nappies were only partly to blame. I enjoyed a very good wash down there followed by some rash cream, the day’s fresh BetterDry, plastic pants, and compression pant. The expired night nappy was returned to my room again disguised in my highly versatile beach towel (the only action it saw this weekend) to join its compatriot after my beloved took her turn at the shower whilst others slept on. An uneventful morning ensued featuring plenty of coffee and a barbecued bacon-and-egg recovery breakfast before another big drive back down the Bruce Highway, this time relatively traffic-free. As before, no comment was made by my spouse of my nappies but it was unmistakable to her that I was wearing and using them. When I parked her car back home (we took hers), she fled upstairs for a toilet. Having no such need myself, I exploited this opportunity to retrieve the white bin bag of wet nappies that was rolling around in the boot of her car (TWO expired BetterDry proved one too many to reasonably be secreted away in our overnight bag and got smuggled out of the house in a depleted esky) and dropped them in the wheelie bin at our driveway with a gratifying “thud” that said “Mission accomplished”. No comments were made. 1 Link to comment
Little Sherri Posted January 28, 2021 Share Posted January 28, 2021 17 hours ago, oznl said: Hammered or not, it was a moment of great peril. Your usual hilarious and detailed description of this moment had my blood pressure spiking. I can envision exactly what the moment was like. I haven't had a drunken friend barge into my room (yet), but, I have had my kids do that a couple of times, and have had to dive behind the bed like I'd been shot. I've become smarter about reading the background noises of my ecosystem and predicting if they're down for the night, or, if they have something exciting to share, based on the pace of their strides and the tone (or absence) of their voices. But it's an imperfect science. I'm sure your hammered friend does not remember the incident, might not remember the trip, and certainly did not note that your shorts were lumpy. But, God, what a near-miss. Other than that, it sounds like you did a good job managing your wife's fears and sensitivities, and that this sets a further precedent for your ability to operate in a nappy under all circumstances. I think I spoke of this previously, but, probably the most blood-curdling incident (or, possibly, non-incident) that I've experienced - and one that still haunts me - occurred when I was staying with very good friends in the US in 2019, a while before the travel industry closed for business. I was in sunny but politically Quixotic Florida, sitting around their pool, when their precocious then-7-year-old daughter trotted over to me and asked if "there's such a thing as adult diapers". My friend had gone to freshen the beers, and his other kids were jumping in and out of the pool, so, mercifully, the question was directed solely at me. I knew I had very little time to dispense with it, and that if I inquired as to why she was asking, her answer might result in a deluge of words that I would badly want to staunch if it lasted more than half a minute, so I simply said "Yes, honey." She shrugged, and ran back to the pool, but, the question I didn't put to her screamed in my mind: Why do you ask? Was my diaper showing at the back? No. Then, I pictured the room I was sleeping in, in my head. My suitcase, closed, but lying on the floor, unlocked, and, in it, in nothing more secure than a plastic bag, my trove of nappies, enough to last me four days. I added to that situational data the fact that every time I visit them, I bring treats with me - Canadian chocolate (different from American, but still inferior to British in a lot of cases), sometimes shirts or hats for everyone. What were the odds that they'd gone exploring...? And found something, and then the young one said "what's that?", and one of the older ones said "An adult diaper", and the young one, not that far removed from wearing such things herself, was astounded by the knowledge that an adult version existed. But, surly, adults don't need diapers? Hence the question. Or, maybe I am profoundly overthinking it, and there was a Tena commercial on the TV earlier, and she asked one of her siblings what they were, and they answered, offhandedly, but she still had questions. Maybe. Hopefully. I have heard nothing more about it, but then, if one of my kids told me that they'd found something like that in one of my guests' bags, I wouldn't ever mention it, either. Hmmm. Link to comment
Newbee Posted January 28, 2021 Share Posted January 28, 2021 I had my youngest come into my bedroom just as I pulled down my skirt luckily I was the other side of my room and had a towel next to me as I was going to go for a shower so I quickly grabbed it and covered myself up he hasn’t said anything so I take that as he didn’t see anything. even though I need to wear diapers as I’m ic I still don’t want my children knowing about them. Link to comment
oznl Posted January 29, 2021 Author Share Posted January 29, 2021 8 hours ago, Little Sherri said: their precocious then-7-year-old daughter trotted over to me and asked if "there's such a thing as adult diapers". My friend had gone to freshen the beers, and his other kids were jumping in and out of the pool, so, mercifully, the question was directed solely at me. Then, I pictured the room I was sleeping in, in my head. My suitcase, closed, but lying on the floor, unlocked, and, in it, in nothing more secure than a plastic bag, my trove of nappies, enough to last me four days. Yep. I reckon she went on a treasure hunt and got a bit bewildered by the findings. Smart enough to avoid incriminating herself by directly asking "Why are their diapers in your suitcase?" but not smart enough to foresee that an abstract question about the existence of adult diapers would of itself raise a certain contextual suspicion from the adult community. Still, she was seven and very prone to the "ooh, squirrell!" mechanism and has since forgotten it. 6 hours ago, Newbee said: I had my youngest come into my bedroom just as I pulled down my skirt luckily I was the other side of my room and had a towel next to me as I was going to go for a shower so I quickly grabbed it and covered myself up he hasn’t said anything so I take that as he didn’t see anything. even though I need to wear diapers as I’m ic I still don’t want my children knowing about them. My youngest just turned 20 so it's less of an issue. They never come into our room because it's not where the food and internet is kept. I could be on fire and they still wouldn't look at me. I still take reasonable precautions though. No sense giving them more therapy-fodder than they already have to work with... I'm not sure if I could manage 24/7 if they were very little though. Link to comment
Newbee Posted January 29, 2021 Share Posted January 29, 2021 My youngest is 11 the reason he came into my room suddenly was because there was an unexpected noise outside and it scared him a little Link to comment
Little Sherri Posted January 29, 2021 Share Posted January 29, 2021 10 hours ago, Newbee said: My youngest is 11 the reason he came into my room suddenly was because there was an unexpected noise outside and it scared him a little My closest household version of this, which I have had happen on multiple occasions, is either A) a smoke alarm deciding that now would be a good time to signal, every two minutes or so, the desperate need for batteries, always at around 3 AM, or, B) the dog deciding that something he scavenged from the kitchen floor isn't sitting right, and deciding to rewind through everything he's eaten in the previous 24 hours, which also, of course, always happens at 3 AM, and generally, on an upholstered surface. Scenario C is less common now than it used to be, but, it generally involved one of my daughters either having a bad dream, or, being unable to sleep. I keep a pair of loose pajama pants next to the bed for such occasions, lest I find myself evacuating the family through a second-floor window to escape a fire or whatever, wearing only a t-shirt and a Bambino Classico. Ideally, while neighbours film and post to Twitter and YouTube. I am in a Bambino Classico today; I put it on as soon as I got up this morning. Comfy diaper, with a very ABDL shell on it (toy blocks spelling out B-A-B-Y), maybe not the a capacity match for high-caliber diapers like Elite's or Megamax's, but I'd put them somewhere just below a BetterDry, which is still pretty good company. They aren't cheap, though - I bought these on sale. I will say one argument for having a "trove" of diapers in inventory like I currently do is that I can cruise for a while without buying, and wait for deals. Rearz runs some great sales at least a couple of times a year, and their pricing, on their own products in particular, can be amazing. My Lil' Monster and Lil' Squirt stocks can attest to that. I also suspect, though, that the other reason why I feel compelled to add to my stock at a faster rate than I draw it down, is that every 2 - 3 diapers I have in stock represents another day spent wearing them. It's my attempt to strong-arm destiny. A man with this many diapers can't not wear diapers. That said, I've seen the collections that some people on this site have, and for them, my inventory might represent one generous order. I went with this Classico because the Universe has a sense of humour... the previous topic I touched on wherein my wife commented on my lounging around in a sodden diaper has come back tap me on the shoulder. Apparently 18 or 20 hours or whatever it was, was too much that day, and, for the first time in ages, I have a touch of diaper rash. I haven't reached for the pharmaceuticals yet - it's just a bit of red, chaffed skin. But, I have commenced applying Orange Alert levels of diaper cream - I smell like a newly-opened carton of Pampers right now - and, I've decided that until this clears up, I'm not going to push any diaper past the 8-hour mark, so, I might as well keep my heaviest hitters on the bench. In my experience, in anything other than a cloth diaper, 8 hours is insufficient time for dampness to transition from "unremarkable" to "chemical warfare". Link to comment
Little Sherri Posted January 29, 2021 Share Posted January 29, 2021 Sorry, @oznl - I lost track of where I was when I typed most of the above. I was responding to one of your commenters, but then I went off and typed a "diary entry" that I'd meant for my thread. My apologies for treading all over your space here. Cheers. Link to comment
oznl Posted February 4, 2021 Author Share Posted February 4, 2021 Another quiet week (most weeks are quiet now). I’ve subscribed to a few employment forums and have been keeping an eye open but to date, there is no work in my field of expertise showing anywhere. I briefly considered applying for a position managing a level 1 IT help desk but then I went and had a lie down before unconsidering it: there’s only so many times I could listen to staff telling people “have you tried turning it off and back on again?” before something would snap and some kind of career-limiting comment would occur. My earlier frenetic renovation/household maintenance efforts have trailed off into long periods of doing nothing. A good day is one where I can stay to my beloved at the end of it: “I did THIS today”. Some days I can do that, others not. Nappy stocks have been running down a little and I’ve had to start spending money (which of course now, all comes out of savings) although an unexpected and small residual bonus payment appeared which has helped. Another case of Molicare L4 and a few packs of booster pads should take care of daywear for the next couple of months. I still find them comfortable and absorbent although tragically saggy after prolonged use, requiring industrial strength compression pants to keep them roughly in the relevant area on my body. This has been problematic when attempting physical work. My suspicion is that the demographic Abena have in mind as using their product tend to spend their days sitting in a chair or laying in a bed as opposed to painting a ceiling. I know that there are far better ABDL nappies but they are priced for recreational usage, not daily driving. I’m in Babykins cloth pull-ons today which frankly, work much better when your day involves ladders. Annoyingly though, I CAN smell them a little (it’s late in the day). It’s good I’m home alone. If I can occasionally get a whiff of pee, it’s probably stronger than I think. I’ll shower and change before company arrives though. For night use, I still have nearly three bags of BetterDry and a couple of packs of ABU Simple (both sold exclusively through ABDL suppliers). The ABU Simple are actually a bit cheaper than the BetterDry but remain perilously leak-prone at night, classically out the sides or over the top at the front. It’s never to do with absorbent capacity but rather positioning and fit. As comfortable as they are, they just don’t fit me well. I’m trying to decide whether it’s worth ordering another case of ABU Simple (because they ARE so comfortable) or, I should just accept the 20c per unit premium (assuming I call in to collect rather than have couriered) of the BetterDry. I’ve caught myself wetting a little on my side at night in the BetterDry and have gotten away with it: something that would never happen in an ABU Simple. Ideally I’d like to try more of the Rearz hybrid elite but at A$3.26 per unit (and even then, only when ordered by the double-case) they are just too expensive for permanent use. The cost of nappies is something to be carefully considered when you are using them 24 hours per day. In terms of developments, there was only one event that occurred across the week the sticks in my mind. It may have happened before, I’m not sure. I woke up during the night. I was already wet of course but I tried to empty anything in my bladder anyway. As is often the case these days, there wasn’t anything there but an odd thing happened. I distinctly felt my pelvic floor drop a little (so I must not have been fully relaxed). There was nothing in the tank but after a minute or two, I felt a quite strong “I’m gonna pee!” sensation from my bladder. I could feel a faint drip but that’s all that happened. Somehow, I stayed in that “I’m gonna pee!” mode. Periodically, I would feel a drip down there. I lay there for some time, experiencing a not-insubstantial and quite constant pee-urge but with all relevant taps open, sometimes dripping into my nappy. It reminded me a bit of once when I was hospitalised and had a urinary catheter installed, that constant pee urge that was completely irrelevant in the face of an open tap featuring constant dripping. I am wondering. Is this what a “bladder spasm” is? My bladder certainly seemed to be kicking up a fuss for no reason I could discern. I get the feeling I may have been able to stop it by clenching down but that’s hardly the point of this exercise so I didn’t. I can’t remember what happened to end this. At some point I fell back asleep. I don’t know if I eventually reflexively clenched up or not. Such are mysteries shrouded by the fog of sleep. Link to comment
Little Sherri Posted February 4, 2021 Share Posted February 4, 2021 4 hours ago, oznl said: I am wondering. Is this what a “bladder spasm” is? My bladder certainly seemed to be kicking up a fuss for no reason I could discern. I get the feeling I may have been able to stop it by clenching down but that’s hardly the point of this exercise so I didn’t. This is interesting to me, @oznl; I don't know exactly what a bladder spasm feels like, because I'm not sure if I've had one or not - perhaps what you describe is what they feel like. I have had similar instances of being either very near to empty, or certifiably empty, but, still having the strange sensation of needing to pee, even with all the gates thrown open. I have also sat (or laid) there trying to figure out what was going on, without "intervening" for a while, but, on occasion, I have also clamped down, and *generally*, when I clamp down, it stops, although there have been a couple of instances where clamping down angered something down there, and I had an even stronger urge to pee, although there was nothing to be passed. As to the daily driver conundrum, I have been wrestling with that a bit myself, because I have a lot of 3/4 empty bags and 1/2 empty cases and samples of this and that in my inventory, and I want to simplify a bit. Variety is the staff of life, but maybe not when it comes to underwear. The Elites are fantastic, but, as you noted, expensive - more so for you, because I can drive to Rearz, but even with shipping out of the picture, they are not cheap. I have benefitted from Rearz running occasional sales with very good prices on some products, but that's also part of why I have so many different models in my inventory. At $2 a piece on sale, though, Lil' Monsters or Squirts represent very good value for a middle-weight diaper. They're a good day-weight for me. How is NorthShore Megamax pricing for you? I just discovered the Megamax - a local home healthcare company started stocking them. They're $3 CAD per unit, bought by the bag or case. I have found them to be on par with an Elite or a BetterDry, but the medium size is slightly more generous than the medium of those models, so it works well for me as a day or night diaper. The large is enormous and very impressive in terms of capacity, but, until the kids are back in school, they're of little use to me because they're visible from low earth orbit. They can be had in a very natty dark blue, however. One of them under a shirt and tie, and I'd almost look respectable. Almost. Link to comment
oznl Posted February 4, 2021 Author Share Posted February 4, 2021 6 hours ago, Little Sherri said: The Elites are fantastic, but, as you noted, expensive - more so for you, because I can drive to Rearz, but even with shipping out of the picture, they are not cheap. I have benefitted from Rearz running occasional sales with very good prices on some products, but that's also part of why I have so many different models in my inventory. At $2 a piece on sale, though, Lil' Monsters or Squirts represent very good value for a middle-weight diaper. They're a good day-weight for me. The Australian dollar and Canadian dollar are practically identical in value so you can read my comments in the currency of your choosing and it's not going to make much difference. At case pricing, Lil' Monsters and Lil Squirtz ARE available to me at unit prices of $3.53 and $3.24 respectively. This compares to $3.02 for the BetterDry. I can get away with a BetterDry during the day AND they are cheaper. The only argument I could mount for the Rearz in this scenario would be if they somehow worked better. Of course, I would then have to re-battle with my beloved about why my nappies now have cartoon features. I think she's still brooding about the penguins on the Omutsu. You can get an idea about what this stuff costs here from https://littles-downunder.com.au/ It's tempting to whine about being ripped off but I suspect it's more about scale (or lack thereof) costs. The "least worst" medical nappies are around $2.50 - $2.90 per unit by comparison, currently the functional-but-saggy-when-wet Abena L4. 6 hours ago, Little Sherri said: How is NorthShore Megamax pricing for you? I just discovered the Megamax - a local home healthcare company started stocking them. They're $3 CAD per unit, bought by the bag or case. I have found them to be on par with an Elite or a BetterDry, but the medium size is slightly more generous than the medium of those models, so it works well for me as a day or night diaper. I was going to say that they aren't available in Australia but I googled to check again. There IS a slightly dodgy looking trans-shipping agency that offered to sell them to me for (and are you sitting padded and comfortably?) an eye-watering $400 for a case of 40. So, the cost of spending a penny in them would actually be $10. Perhaps this is acceptable for an exciting Saturday night for a hormone-fuelled fetishist but as a daily driver, I'd need to find a cheaper hobby. If I could get them at your prices then they would be a viable plan B to the BetterDry (which has been known to go out of stock from the single Australian distributor for long periods of time). But I can't. This is where it sucks to be living on such a remote part of the planet. It's just us and New Zealand. We are a small, captive market. Link to comment
oznl Posted February 11, 2021 Author Share Posted February 11, 2021 Another quiet week serves as a stark reminder that there is only so much journalistic mileage to be had out of habitually pissing your pants. Briefly, my week consisted of 7 days, 14 nappy changes and fortuitously, zero leaks, zero rashes. Since “normal” people do not routinely complete a week by celebrating the functional efficacy of their toilets, this reflects how slightly more complicated things become living as a grown up in nappies. In the absence of any specific developments however, I’ve been thinking. Thinking leads to dangerous ideas. Perhaps that’s why so few people do it. As a demographic, is there a tendency within us as ABDL to self-limit our lives as a way of defending the dark secret that we carry within them? I’ve encountered commentary from similarly-afflicted individuals to the effect that they had on occasion, moderated or avoided career, social or even familial events for one or more nappy-related reasons. Typically, this avoidance may be presented as necessary for the preservation of secrecy or operational feasibility but some, possibly more honest people have simply stated that they would “prefer” indulgence of their ABDL desires to the alternative, irrespective of the competing value that alternative may offer. In a sense, they chose nappies over life. Is it that deep? William Windsor (aka “Heidi Lynn”) made an interesting reference to this idea in his interview with the Phoenix New Times back in 2005. His alter-ego, Heidi Lynn, was about the last word in the 24/7 “AB” lifestyle: not only permanently diapered (complete with self-inflicted functional double incontinence) but fully kitted out in extravagantly florid adult baby dress for all aspects and outings of his life. The wall of social sanction he must have encountered on even a trip to a supermarket to replenish the milk, juice and baby food upon which he survived would have been formidable. For sheer chutzpah, he deserves some kind of diapered “Oscar” award. RIP Heidi Lynn. Before going prime-time in his diapers however, Windsor had a career and a family. Careers and families are both perilously soluble and can dissolve for many reasons but Windsor made some interesting comments. The loss of his family was not entirely clear to me but the loss of his career less so. Originally a talented singer who had appeared on the Broadway stage many times, Windsor was asked by an “alt” interviewer why he had not pursued his promising stage career to enjoy the considerable financial and social success that it would have conferred. "I was always so afraid that if I made it, if I became more popular someone would find out about the baby thing.” "I think I kind of sabotaged myself. I wouldn't go to auditions. I just didn't work very hard. I'd rather have the baby thing than the success." Yes, that… He self-limited to preference a capacity to operate as an ABDL in the shaded seclusion of society’s fringe. I can see weird echoes-in-miniature of this in my own life. I’m no star of stage or screen (and the world will be a better place for that). I do however, possess a reasonably functional brain. That’s not a boast. I can no more choose my intellectual capacity than I can choose my eye colour but the general perspective from my cohort at school was that “he might go on to make something of himself”. I didn’t really. Yes, I’ve done a bit, travelled a bit, and I’m not exactly sleeping on a park bench but I suspect I could have done something bigger if I had pushed myself. But I didn’t. Even recently, in the autumnal years of a corporate career, opportunity still periodically presented itself. Commensurate with advancement however are suits, travel and yet more corporate relocations. I let them all slide. I’ve advised directors on job descriptions that I suspect were coded invitations for me to apply for but which would have required another international relocation (I’ve had a few, but I’m back home now). I’ve mentored others for advancement that I could probably have taken for myself. I’ve deliberately ignored my partner’s constant hounding for more international holidays until COVID-19 travel restrictions rendered her nagging pointless and I wonder how I could navigate retirement without being constantly hauled to airports that I frankly have no wish to see again (I am so sorry LHR, JFK, SGP, LAX, CDG and SFO). I wonder how much harder my life would become when, undistracted by her own work in her retirement, my wife has time to gaze upon my midriff and disapprove all day long. Hmmm, time to stop thinking. If this is generally true then it’s probably for the best that some of our TRULY great minds were not ABDL. It would have been a monumental loss for science and the world to have had an ABDL Albert Einstein obscurely retiring at some point in the 1940s after a life wasted working in a Swiss patent office. 1 Link to comment
Little Sherri Posted February 11, 2021 Share Posted February 11, 2021 15 hours ago, oznl said: I’ve advised directors on job descriptions that I suspect were coded invitations for me to apply for but which would have required another international relocation (I’ve had a few, but I’m back home now). I’ve mentored others for advancement that I could probably have taken for myself. I often have debates about this within myself. I like my current role, mostly because I make my own schedule, I can work from anywhere, and, pre-pandemic, it was a nice mix of being out talking to people and looking at interesting processes a couple of days a week, and, sitting in my office the rest of the time. If I want to take my bosses job, I would have to relocate to a grim industrial city nowhere near anyone I like, with the only upside being that I could buy a massive house there, relative to what housing costs where I live, although I wouldn't be in it very much. Meanwhile, there are people in my role (not me, yet), who make considerably more than our boss does. But... have I peaked? In my 40's? Being able to pick the kids up from school or take the dog to the vet or mow my lawn at 3 PM on a Friday (or wade through a 7-kilometer-deep schematic at midnight on a Wednesday - it's not all glory) does have a dollar value attached to it, although I'm not sure what that is. I wouldn't trade it for 8 - 6 in an office and a 20% pay bump. 35%? Hmmm. I'd like to think that if I ever got a role where I was in an office all the time, I'd continue wearing nappies. Hard to say, though, because pre-pandemic, if I spent a day in an office with a client or whatever, I always knew it was just going to be that one or two days, and then I'd be working from home again. However, to your other point, regarding altering one's life-plans to fit nappies into them, I was definitely doing that before I went 24/7 - I was concocting all kinds of reasons why I needed to meet my family on vacation or at a rented cottage or whatever, a couple of days after they got there, or, I had to leave a couple of days early. Or, if my wife wanted to go visit cousin so-and-so in the US for a week, as long as she was taking the kids, it was never a debate - I would fund it, because it was a week I could spend in diapers. So, in that respect, going 24/7 has actually reduced the amount of "lifestyle" latitude I needed to create for myself. For example, when my wife proposed taking the kids to go visit her parents on a day that I didn't have much planned for, I actually said "Want me to come?", and she said "They'd probably like that." In my pre-24/7 world, I would have said "Have a good time, don't rush home..." Link to comment
oznl Posted February 18, 2021 Author Share Posted February 18, 2021 Something odd happened again the other morning. Reviewing my notes I can see that I documented events of this nature twice before back in October (around three months ago) however it was not 100% clear to me if what I thought had happened, had indeed happened. In the way of these “developments” however, it came back: I woke up to find myself wetting. The whole “waking up” thing is a bit blurry for me. It’s hard to delineate the precise instant that I’ve “woken up”. It’s not as though a metaphysical light switch is thrown and I go from “snoring” directly to “checking email and solving a Sudoku puzzle”. It’s more of gradual ascent back to the land of wakefulness, as if from a deep-sea dive. As I get closer to resurfacing, I start to notice more things. Sound seems to appear first, “Where is that music coming from?” (Answer: the clock radio. It’s 6am). Sensation seems to follow along next (hopefully a “I am warm and comfy on dry sheets, nothing hurts” sensation) followed by sight (“Uh, it’s 6am”) and eventually, perhaps after a coffee or two, sentience. On the morning in question, I’d just gone from asleep in my bed to realising that it was the clock radio that was playing “Crowded House” as opposed to an interesting dream. This is a fancy clock radio that gradually fades-in volume from inaudibility over a gentle slope of 30 seconds or so rather than crudely dumping Motorhead’s seminal work “Ace of Spaces” at 75 dB upon the reposed. As the volume gently mounted, sensation joined audio and amongst more normal things, I dimly realised I could feel a tell-tale gentle, faint vibration inside the front of my nappy along with a possibly-associated wet warm trickling sensation down there. Yep, I’d greeted the dawn to discover that I was having a pee in my nappy. In earlier days, a panic-reaction and clench would have been automatic in such a scenario (before I realised that I was suitably attired for such an event and could finish in safety) but it seems that two years of mostly-wet nappies has blunted that response. I was laying on my back (the optimal position for wetting in disposables) and I was in a BetterDry protected by terry-lined waterproofs (the optimal disposable product for wetting in bed) so the chances of leaking were miniscule. There really didn’t seem to be any point in doing anything about it so I didn’t. It petered out into dripping of its own accord after a few seconds. A subsequent, deliberate attempt to empty my bladder showed that there was a little more pee left in there (hmm, incomplete voiding) but nothing much. I was largely empty. I tried to recall if I had been dreaming but I could not. Some dreams are memorable after waking. Most for me, can briefly be recalled upon waking but their memory dissipates before me, like smoke. Trying to recall them in detail is like trying to grasp that smoke. This morning I could recall nothing. It’s not clear to me whether I started peeing early in the waking cycle or if I was woken by a peeing event that was co-incidentally at or very near the clock radio alarm time. The key thing was though, I knew I did not choose to do this. My body (or at least my subconscious) took the decision for me. I’m fairly certain that I’ve been a “sometimes bedwetter” for quite some time but it’s always been an open question as to whether I was truly unconscious during some wetting events or actually choosing to wet but not waking enough to remember it the next morning. This time around it was abundantly clear that it happened and I didn’t expressly choose to let it. It just did. This was my 754th night of peeing in bed. So much for the “12 month program” for me I guess. Link to comment
Little Sherri Posted February 18, 2021 Share Posted February 18, 2021 13 hours ago, oznl said: On the morning in question, I’d just gone from asleep in my bed to realising that it was the clock radio that was playing “Crowded House” as opposed to an interesting dream. In Canada, we imagine that all Australians awaken to Crowded House, have at last one can of Fosters in the fridge, an affinity for shrimp and barbecuing, and have lost at least one person you know to sharks, one to a venomous reptile, and one to melanoma. Also, you have cool diesel-powered compact pickup trucks with manual transmissions. This is interesting. I'd say that you're a bedwetter, my friend. Congratulations.... I guess? I have not experienced what you described yet in my adult return to nappies. I have found scant evidence that I "wet the bed" (IE wee while sleeping) with any frequency. Once in a blue moon, usually after some IPA's or stouts with the word "Imperial" or "Double" somewhere in the name, I will wake up wet, with no recollection of having done it myself, but, it's not common, and it's no proof that I didn't drift up 4/5th's of the way to the surface, wave a hand at the guards, and then drift back down to the depths, without logging the incident. However, I recall experiencing what you described, when I was a kid wearing nappies, and I was, at the time, definitively a licensed and certified bedwetter. I have memories of waking up from a dream to the feeling of peeing in my diaper, and it usually provoked exactly the "clench" reaction you mention, because, back then, I could not let fly with abandon, because I was wearing a toddler-sized Pampers that could be overwhelmed. Usually, upon awakening, I'd immediately reach down for a feel of the frontal zone, because if I felt when I woke up that I was in the middle of a good strong pee, often, the front of my PJ's would be damp at the top, but the bedding would have been spared or would only need a spot-cleaning. I'd like to get to where you are, in that, it would be nice not to have to wake up to pee. Although, mysteriously, the amount that I produce overnight seems to have diminished, so that about half the time now, I wake up only an hour or two before my alarm sounds, needing to go, but, in a dry diaper. This is not the expected result, given that during the day, my capacity is considerably lower than it used to be. One would think that, overnight, I'd need to go more often, too, and that did seem to be the case for a while, but, the trend over the last few months has been in the other direction, and I have no idea what that means or portends. During the day, I have to go 2 - 3 times an hour. Link to comment
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