24/7 startups, and unexpected pitfalls?

[oznl]

6 hours ago, Little Sherri said:

However, my heartiest toast goes out to all of you here, without whom, I would not have had the guts, or the knowhow, to be where I am today. Thank you very much for your kind support and sage advice, fellow diapernauts. Stay damp, by friends. 

Thank you @Little Sherrifor continuing to document the route!

On an utterly off-topic (but thread-relevant) matter, the "tip of the year" from this very DD thread for 2020 for me is this:

On 12/11/2020 at 1:28 PM, Cruiser 03 said:

Up my frByAdd a.pinch of bakeing soda to water increas s surfac area of potato thus they get really crispy when fried  cooking and diaper tiling lessons taught here.

Obviously a certain amount of auto-correct mangling has gone on but I've road-tested the gist of this message and it is good.  Just as in 2019, I learned a new and better way to change disposable diapers (standing and leaning against a door or a wall).  My life changing tip for 2020 has been how to make roast potatoes properly crunchy!  Thank you @Cruiser 03 DD is indeed a versatile place!

[Little Sherri]

On 12/31/2020 at 7:17 PM, oznl said:

  Thank you @Cruiser 03 DD is indeed a versatile place!

This is evidence that we are not one-trick ponies with but one facet; surly to God I never suspected that one of things I would learn here was, how to roast a potato. But here we are. And the proper application of a diaper whilst standing is invaluable information. 

[Little Sherri]

Just popped in for a quick product review; I've spent the weekend in Rearz Essentials, part of their InControl series, and basically the daytime weight to the Elite, which is a linebacker of a diaper. Having confirmed that I can wear the Elite in a size medium for daytime purposes, but definitely not in size large, I decided that since the Essentials are touted as a daytime diaper, I would order them in large.

I have to say that they are a really solid daytime diaper; the tapes are excellent, and the "graduated" landing zone is helpful for those of us who take the diaper off for certain of nature's callings, and then want to put it back on again without too much repositioning of tapes. The diaper has a snug, fitted feel, at least on me and it didn't seem to stretch out much during the day, or with wettings. They bill it as an 8-hour diaper, and I would say that it's all of that - I got 10 hours out of them on average, and I never pushed one to failure. They are crinkly, but, under jeans and a onesie, it was barely noticeable. 

Rearz InControl sub-brand seems to be focused on customers looking for undecorated diapers, so these are predominantly white, with gender-neutral green printing and dash marks on them. Objectively, they seem to have been built in a fashion similar to the other Rearz diapers of medium bulk, which is not a bad thing, but I think there may be some extra reinforcement of the leg gathers and the waist elastic, because they seem to retain their "snug" fit for hours. I can also report that they stand up to exertion - I wore them skating for an afternoon and had no issues. I can also confirm that they remained pretty discrete - I wore them in a variety of social settings, including working closely with a buddy fixing an appliance that had us both beside each other in a tight space (wearing masks), and I never felt like "diaper butt" or an unanticipated wet spot were going to be issues. There was some crinkling, but experience has taught me that I apparently pay way more attention to that than anyone else in the world. 

[Little Sherri]

Update on the above; I decided to embark on destructive testing of the Essential that I had had on for most of the day, yesterday, just to see what it would take. I eventually abused the center of the diaper to the point that I got a leak; nothing catastrophic, just a dampening of the middle of my onesie on one side. If I had to find a downside to these, I would say that the polymer & stuffing is possibly a bit TOO effective - I noted that the middle of the diaper kept gathering moisture, even while I was lying down, to the point that it felt quite saturated, while the upper back remained bone-dry. My thought was that if some of that moisture could have migrated, the diaper might have been able to hold more, but then again, maybe that's where leaks find their origin stories most of the time, and these are touted as a "daytime" diaper, so, presumably, they weren't optimized for horizontal wear. 

On another topic, I got what may have been a wry acknowledgement from my spouse on what she thinks I've been up to. Or maybe I'm wrong about that. She was sitting in bed, knitting, which is a hobby that she rediscovered over the holidays, and so I asked her if she was knitting booties, referencing the cliched, classic images of an old lady in a rocker, needles poised. She scoffed, and then without missing a beat, said, "Well, I guess we do have a baby around here again." Now, while she said that, I was walking past her from the washroom, over to my side of the bed, wearing a diaper and a t-shirt, and I had my pacifier in my hand; in an age-themed artillery exchange, I presented a barn-sized target. So, I'm not entirely sure if she was strictly referencing what I looked like right in that moment, or if she meant it as a commentary on the reality that she's folding onesies for me when she sorts the laundry, but no boxers have crossed the threshold of this house since we bought it. 

Today is actually the first day in about three weeks that I haven't had a onesie on, which is somewhat counterintuitive, since when I first bought them, their sole purpose was to assist me in wearing diapers to work, and today is my first day back at work in two weeks. However, because my kids are once again occupied with school (from home for a couple of weeks, due to the pandemic), and my-laws have left, I feel like I can get away with wearing a long t-shirt tucked into my jeans. This morning I'm in one of the last of my remaining Play Dayz, which are a cloth-backed diaper of mid-tier reliability, known for their silence, and tendency for the stuffing to gradually settle into the bottom of the diaper. I bought a bunch of them when I first went 24/7, thinking that crinkling was going to be a major impediment to my project, but at this point, I'm very comfortable wearing plastic diapers, so I don't think I'll be reordering them once they're gone. 

I found some ComfiDry 24/7 diapers on sale while idly perusing the website of the "health & wellness" provider that supplies my gym diapers, so, on an impulse, I ordered some. I vaguely recall hearing good things about them, although I should probably have gone and looked for reviews before placing an order. I only bought one bag of them. But, the area that my diapers occupy in the basement continues to expand... my wife wanted to get me some totes for them, and the conversation had condensed around a vague requirement for a "couple or three" large totes, however now, I think the right number might be five, if all the diapers are to be removed from their cases. As much as I like the idea of a waterproof and opaque solution to storing them, rather than cardboard boxes (some labelled "3 bags of 12  - LG"), once I have a finite amount of tote space allocated, diapers stacked up outside of the totes will be more obvious. I probably have three months worth of diapers in stock at this point; perhaps it's time to go cruise for a few weeks on my current inventory, and curb my instinct to "just get one more case" when I stumble on a decent price or an intriguing product. 

[Little Sherri]

This is off of my usual range of topics, but I stumbled across someone else's thread and it made me think for a bit, and I tend to muse about the things I think about. The topic was spanking - everyone's favourite spanking scenarios - and what I thought was, well, I was spanked as a kid, and I don't really have any favourite spanking scenarios... I don't like being spanked. But, it was interesting to me that, having been a kid who wore diapers occasionally to a relatively late age, I obviously ended up psychically focusing on those experiences, internalizing all the anxieties and secretive enjoyment from wearing diapers, being changed, fearing discovery, getting caught once in a while, the occasional humiliations, often accidental, that were inflicted upon my by my family during those years, etc etc. Anyone who has read this far along knows that I think a lot about diapers. 

However I don't think about spanking, almost at all. But I was spanked - not often, but it happened, and a couple of times at ages that were probably too old (and some would argue that any age is the wrong age to spank). I was spanked by my stepfather with a belt, and it was painful and humiliating, and the feelings that I had in those moments were very similar to how it felt, sometimes, to have to be in a diaper - far from all the time, but, for example, on New Years Eve, at my aunt's, when kids much younger than me were not wearing diapers, and it felt like all eyes were on me, and I planted myself on a chair, so nobody could see if my butt looked bulky, and then my stepdad ordered me to get up and go play - "The adults are having conversation", as he put it. And I got up from that chair and made my way to the basement playroom like a man walking to the gallows, acutely aware - I thought - that everyone knew my mom had taken me to the bathroom a half hour before, and that now my butt looked huge, and my shirt wouldn't stay tucked into my pajama pants, and it was still hours until we had to go to bed. 

Dropping my drawers to get spanked had the exact same feeling to it - dread, humiliation - and yet, somehow, diapers have become the nexus of my self-imposed regression therapy, whereas spanking doesn't make it on the radar. It's interesting how the mind works. 

I came back to this again out of fear that I sounded judgmental at all in the above; that is not at all my intention. I can totally see how someone would become fixated on a physical and emotional experience like being spanked. Indeed, spanking is not an uncommon theme in diaper-focused stories and such, and one can understand why - much like being put in diapers, it feels like a regression, it leaves one feeling powerless, and it is generally imposed by forces beyond your control. That's part of why it's interesting to me that being spanked, or an obsession about spanking, hasn't seemed to have grown roots within my brain. 

As a side note, we haven't spanked our kids, although both my wife and I were spanked growing up. 

[Little Sherri]

Well I'm on a tear today... maybe I should keep some powder dry for tomorrow. This will be entry #3 - just a quick note to point out that I can still learn something, even after 21 months. Specifically, that a cloth-backed, "breathable" diaper can get the diaper equivalent of bad breath. I was in one of my last Play Dayz, and, per my earlier observation, the stuffing did indeed eventually all settle down in the middle of the diaper. However, that wasn't what troubled me; what troubled me was that I kept getting the occasional nose full of an awful, "uncleaned urinal in a train station" smell that I eventually tracked back to... me. It's been a while since I've been in one, so I am either forgetting, or I never noted in the first place, that apparently they don't have the scent-killing chemistry of most of my other diapers, even the lowly Depends, and after maybe 8 hours in it, it smelled like I was approaching hour 80. Then, the micro-perforated cloth backing did its trick, and allowed air molecules to transfer in and out, allegedly for my comfort. However, those molecules had become tainted, and out of deference to the sensibilities of the rest of my family, that diaper had to go. Now, I'm in a softy-scented Lil' Monster, which, while a bit noisier, is MUCH less likely to attract unwanted attention than that silent stinker. 

[Little Sherri]

Well. Here I sat, thinking I'd said more than enough yesterday on the regnant topic here, and that I could take a day off, but, alas, the universe has a sense of humour, and it has provided me with something to talk about. In my household, of late, we've tended to keep the laundry streams separate - my wife and I throw our laundry into a bag in our closet, and my daughters collect and wash their own laundry, because when it gets intermingled with ours, I can never tell whose extremely stretchy dance shorts are whose, for example, because they all look like they were sized for a 6-year-old. To say nothing of the epic battles over branded socks. This also works well for me, because my laundry stream includes items that I'd rather not have other people sorting through - chiefly onesies, although there could be the rare cloth diaper in the returning, clean stream - I would never send a cloth diaper unaccompanied into the inlet side of the system, because they need to be run on the sanitize function with an extra rinse. Tossing one of those carelessly into a basket would be grounds for divorce, and deservedly so. 

However, my wife got frustrated this morning that my younger daughter didn't have some key piece of dance gear for one of her virtual practices, so she ordered her to run whatever laundry she had - not a full load - and just to augment it with whatever we had. My daughter dutifully followed these instructions, washing, drying, and then sorting the items, and returning a pile to our room that had been separated by category, rather than by ownership - socks, shirts, pants, etc. And, of course, three black and one white Rearz onesies (diaper shirts), curtesy of my contributions, in leu of boxers. I have no idea what she made of this, and I haven't asked - they were simply left, folded, in a pile on the bed, neutrally positioned with some of my wife's stuff and some of mine. Hmmm... 

[oznl]

Something similar happened a while back but I can't see if I blogged it or not - too late, too many glasses of cab merlot.

My partner and I had gone out somewhere and there was washing on the line, featuring a range of adult-sized plastic pants.

A storm had come through some time whilst we were away.  Some hours after our return, I found my plastic pants stacked with other washing in the spare room.  To this day I'm not 100% sure if my wife collected them or my daughter did.  I just do not know.

There's just no point conducting a coronal inquiry...  I had to move on.

 

[Little Sherri]

On 1/6/2021 at 7:51 AM, oznl said:

There's just no point conducting a coronal inquiry...  I had to move on.

 

That's it, isn't it? Going back and asking questions would only serve to highlight that which one would prefer not to bring any further attention to. "Which one of you folded my lederhosen...?" "THAT'S what those were? Why do you have lederhosen?" "Er, no reason. Good job with that.... I, uh, have a meeting. Gotta run." 

I have a new diaper to try out; I received the ConfiDry 24/7's that I ordered. I heard someone here say something good about them - I THINK - I still haven't sought out reviews, and they were on sale, so I thought, why not? I had to go to the post office to retrieve them for some strange reason; most of the diapers I have delivered just get placed on the front porch, so I have no idea why that was required, but here we are. When I told my wife that I was going to pick something up at the post office, I thought that I was retrieving a late-arriving gift for a buddy of mine, so I was excited and headed up there on foot with the dog, only to discover that the package was much larger than I thought it was going to be. It was still manageable, but when I came back up our driveway with that under my arm, why wife became curious and said "What'd you get?", to which I said "Diapers", and she raised her eyebrows and said "More?", so I launched into how they were a really good deal (which they were, assuming they're at all decent), and she shrugged, basically, but, I do have to admit that I have a lot of diapers in inventory right now. That, and wine and beer. They're musing out loud about a curfew here. One can never be too careful. On top of the ConfiDry's, the supplier threw in a few other single diapers, I guess to entice me to order those as well; they're various Abena Abri-Form products, which I have never tried, so I'm curious. (I do have a bag of Abri-Form youth diapers in the house, but I wouldn't likely fit into those, and have never tried).

On another topic, how many of you avoid asparagus, as a rule? I suspect that it's probably banned from the menu in long-term care centers, although I have no actual evidence of this. If any of you are dieticians, feel free to chime in. I haven't seen any strained asparagus baby food, either, possibly for the same reason.  I personally quite like asparagus, but, it has a noxious effect on one's fluidic output for a few hours after consumption, which never bothered me... until I decided to live my life in baby pants. My wife had put some into a meat pie that was absolutely delicious, and I devoured it.

About an hour before, I was late into the ninth inning on my diaper from the previous night, and had swapped it for a Lil' Squirts, but we were eating late, and I had thought that if we turned in early, I might have been able to ride that Squirt out until morning. However, while it was still well within acceptable limits for wetness, and had in fact achieved what I would call "dampness perfection" in terms of comfort versus longevity concerns, while we idly watched the demise of modern Western democracy on the 11:00 news, and I really, really just wanted to go to sleep with it on, the air under the blankets had an occasional acrid kiss to it. So, reluctantly, I swapped it. I suppose I could have pulled on some plastic pants, but, my wife puts up with a lot, and so far, has never mentioned smelling anything, and I want to keep it that way. 

[Stroller]

11 hours ago, Little Sherri said:

On another topic, how many of you avoid asparagus, as a rule?

Me, for one. Even though I used to love the stuff.  It's not exactly a major sacrifice though!

[Little Sherri]

I've copied this over from something I typed on @oznl's string, in service of collating everything in one spot...

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?

I'll probably have more to add later. 

[Little Sherri]

I knew I'd have more to add... just found out that Northshore Megamax is now available locally, and, they're offering free shipping on orders over $50, so I'd have to go in for a case for a case of them to take advantage of that. My wife will be thrilled. I may put this out to the collective in its own string just in case it garners more views than entry number 640 of this long-winded novel, but... anyone out there familiar with them? I am looking for sizing advice. 

The medium is listed as fitting 32 - 44" waists. The large lists a range of 42 - 54". My question is, do they fit large, or fit small? Should I aim for the middle of the range, or more toward the large end?

Empirically, the medium should fit me, and it undoubtedly will, but, because I apparently have unusually large legs, I often find that medium-sized diapers will encircle my waist just fine, but, the lower tabs barely make the landing zone. Whereas a large will be oversized on me in general, but, the lower tabs will make it well over toward the front panel. 

Megamaxes being, well, "Mega" and "Max", and boasting of a 6500 ml+ capacity, I imagine that they are at the bulky end of the spectrum. So, buying them in large will render them overnight diapers only, particularly while my kids are doing school from home, which will likely last for at least the month of January. If I buy them in medium, I'm assuming I could probably wear them during the day under a onesie and oversized jeans.

I'd love to hear about anyone's experience with them. I'm 5' 10" and weigh 190 lbs+, size 36 waist. 

[Little Sherri]

And then I went and wet the front of my shirt somehow. Watch and learn, kids - this is how the pro's do it. I was in a medium Lil' Monster that was, admittedly, toward the end of its timeline, but, in recognition of that, I had gone and put plastic pants on, determined to try and stretch that diaper to the end of the work day. Well, somehow, the plastic pants got below the waist of the diaper at the front - probably careless shirt tucking - and while I didn't have my shirt tucked into my diaper (and I have done that a bunch of times), somehow, the trajectory of my equipment conspired with the sagging of my diaper to open up a pathway for wicking that eventually dampened my t-shirt, the front of my jeans, and even my sweatshirt. So, here I sit, freshly showered, a load of laundry running, test-driving my first ever Abena Abri-Form M4 Air. I'm more of a plastic diaper guy but these are stone-silent and of reasonable weight for daytime wear, a tad bulkier than my Prevails, and without the stretch side panels. It's 2:45 - I wonder if I can make late enough in this to swap over to a bedtime diaper? 

[oznl]

4 hours ago, Little Sherri said:

So, here I sit, freshly showered, a load of laundry running, test-driving my first ever Abena Abri-Form M4 Air. I'm more of a plastic diaper guy but these are stone-silent and of reasonable weight for daytime wear, a tad bulkier than my Prevails, and without the stretch side panels. It's 2:45 - I wonder if I can make late enough in this to swap over to a bedtime diaper? 

My experience is superb wicking, they punch above their weight but are compromised by becoming stretchy/saggy when wet and also the tapes are so so, prone to failure.  I *must* wear them under tight fitting plastic pants and a compression pant for them to get their opportunity to do their thing over a day (that they WILL then do).

They didn't do so well in bed for me due to the absence of compression pants.  I actually just tried them and plan to write up the venture.

[Little Sherri]

3 hours ago, oznl said:

My experience is superb wicking, they punch above their weight but are compromised by becoming stretchy/saggy when wet and also the tapes are so so, prone to failure.

I see what you're saying about the tabs. If I elect to try to sleep in this thing... not sure about that yet, but, IF, then I will put on some of my compression shorts. I had forgotten what it's like to wear a cloth-backed diaper like this; it's been a while since I put on one of my gym diapers, and with the exception of that Play Dayz that I had on a few days ago, which is in any case a bulky diaper, I haven't spent much time around the house in one. I was luxuriating in being in pajama pants before the kids turned in, without concerns that diaper sounds might betray me. I love my Lil' Monsters daytime diapers, but, they must be worn under jeans or they speak too loudly. I may wear the L4 out for lunch with my in-laws tomorrow, if we end up doing that. The way things are right now, it will probably be takeout eaten in their garage. The kids haven't been back to school since Christmas, and we've been careful, but still, this virus is hunting for people like them. 

Still, and this may be the 10% Imperial IPA I'm drinking that is doing the typing, but, still, it's bloody great to just always wear diapers. I think maybe my slightly pathological desire to order more of them stems from the fact that for every two to three I put in stock, that's another day I'm "guaranteed" to be in diapers. I wonder if people who smoke are like this. How many packs in the cupboard is enough? Also, despite my being most of the way through my second year doing this, I still get slightly giddy thinking about picking my next diaper. It sets up an internal battle of sorts, because, sometimes the diaper I am in is simply delicious, wet but not absurdly so, subtly reminding me that it's there with its weight and bulk, but, at the same time, it would be so nice to pull another diaper out. Ah, but then, if it's a half-decent one, it won't feel like my current diaper for a few hours at least. Such a dilemma. Clearly, I'm bananas. 

[oznl]

1 hour ago, Little Sherri said:

Still, and this may be the 10% Imperial IPA I'm drinking that is doing the typing, but, still, it's bloody great to just always wear diapers.

Many things feel great after a couple of imperial IPA.  It's extortionately expensive in Australia, taxed-to-oblivion for our "own good"...   Rohrbach's "Space Kitty" was one of my firm favorites from the east coast.  What's not to love about a drunk cat in a space suit?

3pm here and my daytime Abena is also at the "very comfortable" stage.  The only decision is whether to risk an ABU Simple at my dinnertime change into my night nappy or, given that it's a beer night, go for the safer BetterDry.

A cloth would be great but I can do without the spousal angst.

On 1/8/2021 at 6:54 AM, Little Sherri said:

On another topic, how many of you avoid asparagus, as a rule? I suspect that it's probably banned from the menu in long-term care centers, although I have no actual evidence of this. If any of you are dieticians, feel free to chime in. I haven't seen any strained asparagus baby food, either, possibly for the same reason.  I personally quite like asparagus, but, it has a noxious effect on one's fluidic output for a few hours after consumption, which never bothered me... until I decided to live my life in baby pants. My wife had put some into a meat pie that was absolutely delicious, and I devoured it.

I avoid it given the opportunity.  My wife likes it.  Let's just say, I can "tell" when she's indulged, even after she's flushed and left the en-suite!  There are other bits and pieces that can make for a pungent wet nappy but I've not yet worked out the causality.  Nothing is as bad as asparagus though.

[Little Sherri]

1 hour ago, oznl said:

A cloth would be great but I can do without the spousal angst.

It's 2 am here, and there has been a couple more Imperial IPA's, and also, a 16-year-old Scotch. Lagavulin. Speaking of spousal angst, here's one for you... so, this move has not been without its indignities. I think I relayed before how, when the people from the moving company arrived, the very first thing they did, seemingly, was wrap up and take away my bedside dresser... which contained some diapers. Then, they grabbed everything from our wardrobe... more diapers. But wait! I have all those boxes in the basement... but they were getting carried out by people and there were always people down there. I ended up having to search through my car for a diaper, and lingering in my bulky overnight diaper rather longer than was my intention, given a day spent interacting with strangers. Then we settled in to the new place, and there has been constant talk about where the diapers are stored, how much space to allocate to them, etc. Then my daughter takes on a load of laundry, and somehow, a few onesies are left folded and tucked in with everything else. 

Finally, we are organizing our room, and it has its challenges, because apparently people didn't like closets back when this house was built. My previous house, built around 2010, had closets you could back small cars into. It was glorious. My "new" house, which is actually a very old house, has closet space premised on the idea that everyone needs three outfits - the one you wear to work, the one you wear to bed, and, the one you expect to be buried in. So I bought a giant armoire for supplemental space, something akin to the monolith from Kubrick's 2001, and my wife set about unpacking this and repositioning that... cloth diapers here, plastic pants there, disposables everywhere.... and then, from the bottom of one of my bins from the previous closet, appears... a Gerber baby bottle. The thing is, I bought that thing, but, in discovering where I stand on the AB/DL spectrum, I realized that it felt like a bit of an affectation. I wear printed diapers, I genuinely prefer to sleep with a pacifier, but the bottle thing, at least, seemed a bit much. I've never tried adult-sized bottles, but actual baby bottles are a lot of work. I tossed that thing into the bottom of a bin probably 18 months ago, and forgot about it. 

So, of course, my wife exhumes it in the middle of sorting everything, and she pretends that she isn't seeing it, turns away and holds it between pinched fingers like a dead animal, and drops it one of my drawers. I should have thrown it out or at least put it somewhere intelligent, but the irony is that while she found a spot in the room for my plastic pants, she could not find a spot in her heart for that bottle. It's one of the few times I felt genuinely embarrassed with respect to "this", although, really, I felt that while simultaneously standing there in a ridiculous nappy, which I was nonplused about, so, none of this makes any sense, but here we are. Oh IPA, how I love thee. 

[NannaAnnabelle]

2 hours ago, Little Sherri said:

and then, from the bottom of one of my bins from the previous closet, appears... a Gerber baby bottle. The thing is, I bought that thing, but, in discovering where I stand on the AB/DL spectrum, I realized that it felt like a bit of an affectation. I wear printed diapers, I genuinely prefer to sleep with a pacifier, but the bottle thing, at least, seemed a bit much. I've never tried adult-sized bottles, but actual baby bottles are a lot of work. I tossed that thing into the bottom of a bin probably 18 months ago, and forgot about it. 

I believe I've bought baby bottles no less than 3 separate times since the beginning of my "career". None have lasted longer than 3 days in the house. Each time it just feels like a bridge too far.

Oddly enough the pacifier seems to have stuck. So much that it may be hard to give up!

 

[Little Sherri]

8 hours ago, NannaAnnabelle said:

Oddly enough the pacifier seems to have stuck. So much that it may be hard to give up!

Agreed, @NannaAnnabelle; I have slept with a pacifier every night for at least the last two years, probably longer. I sleep great, and it has the added advantage of quelling a tooth chattering that I engage in while sleeping - I have a mouth guard, which protects my teeth, but, it allegedly makes the noise worse for my wife, who used to elbow me awake with some regularity right as I was slipping into deep sleep. I think that even if I decided to give up my pacifiers, my wife might demand that I bring them back. 

@oznl, you were right about the tabs on the M4. Good diaper, awful tabs. I actually resorted to safety pins. 

[oznl]

5 hours ago, Little Sherri said:

Agreed, @NannaAnnabelle; I have slept with a pacifier every night for at least the last two years, probably longer. I sleep great, and it has the added advantage of quelling a tooth chattering that I engage in while sleeping - I have a mouth guard, which protects my teeth, but, it allegedly makes the noise worse for my wife, who used to elbow me awake with some regularity right as I was slipping into deep sleep. I think that even if I decided to give up my pacifiers, my wife might demand that I bring them back. 

@oznl, you were right about the tabs on the M4. Good diaper, awful tabs. I actually resorted to safety pins. 

A strip of paper-based paint masking tape works extremely well for either in-flight repair or pre-takeoff insurance.  Obviously this is a "one shot" mechanism as subsequent removal of the masking tape will generally precipitate catastrophic failure in the "cloth" lining.  If the Abena were plastic backed with tabs from something like the BetterDry, they would be a truly awesome product.

[carsfan]

When I started wearing diapers they were plastic backed. I feel like the quality has steadily declined, but Abena M4 used to be the gold standard of the plane white medical diaper variety. I’m fully on team BetterDry these days 

[Little Sherri]

1 hour ago, oznl said:

A strip of paper-based paint masking tape works extremely well for either in-flight repair or pre-takeoff insurance.  Obviously this is a "one shot" mechanism as subsequent removal of the masking tape will generally precipitate catastrophic failure in the "cloth" lining.  If the Abena were plastic backed with tabs from something like the BetterDry, they would be a truly awesome product.

I was trying to figure out what to use, and settled on safety pins... for my plastic diapers I have packing tape, or white duct tape for the worst failures, but I didn't know how well that would stick to the M4. They are a very comfortable diaper, and stone silent, plus when damp they have a nice feel to them, though my enjoyment of that was somewhat tempered by my trepidation about pushing them past their limits while not at home. The tabs, though, disappoint, reminding me of supermarket Tena products designed to dissuade the incontinent from ever leaving their homes. Tomorrow, I move on to field-testing the L4, and then maybe the ConfiDry on Monday. 

 

44 minutes ago, carsfan said:

I’m fully on team BetterDry these days

I like the BetterDry, and their printed cousin, the Crinklz, although I still think that the best tab system is having a fully-reinforced landing strip up front, and good quality tapes, because you can reposition anywhere. There are innumerable examples of this on the market, but Rearz has nearly attained perfection with the V3 Lil' Monsters, which now have very tenacious tapes, and, their InControl Essential diapers, which have a "graduated" landing zone that goes almost completely to the edges of the diaper, and, they have the same tapes (I think) that were added to the V3 Monsters, so they stick like crazy and survive multiple openings and closings. Honourable mention goes as well to the Rearz Elite hook-and-loop tabs, which hold really well, although I'm not sure they're really better than tape would have been. 

Prevail has what I think might be the best hook-and-loop system, very similar in feel and functionality to the one used on Pampers Cruisers. For an inexpensive diaper - ~$1 CAD per unit - the Prevail tabs never let go and can be moved dozens of times. Pampers are probably technically better, just because they achieve that with a surface area that is only 20% of the Prevail tab, but, it's been 30+ years since I've had Pampers on without some kind of external hardware being involved, so, the award goes to Prevail. If the M4 had the prevail tabs, that might be cloth-backed perfection, right there. Unless the L4 is better. I shall report back. 

[Little Sherri]

I'm in an Attends today; the tab issue with them is very similar to that of Tena & Abena; they get choked up with strands that get pulled off of the cover when you pull them off, so they lose some of their stick with each move. I actually think that it's not a tab issue, it's a cover issue - the "flocking" on the cover comes away too easily. The actual tabs themselves look  a lot like Pampers tabs, but on Pampers, the cloth layer on the cover holds together better. It's a very quiet diaper and the fit is nice, but I would burn through probably 4 or 5 of these a day if they were all I wore. 

Well, I'm off the hook with respect to the physical with my doctor - his office isn't doing those right now. So, the only appointment I have to attend is for a below-the-belt ultrasound which will be conducted by some technician I've never met and will never likely meet again. That takes the pressure off with respect to trying to decide if I should go in a diaper or not, because my primary concern was with my family doctor, who has known  me since my late teens, and would surely have questions if I showed up one day rocking a diaper. But if my diaper comes onto the radar at an ultrasound clinic - and I'm assuming it likely won't - but IF it does, I can live with that. It was the same thing when I wore one to my MRI - I was pretty sure that it would never even come up, but, if it did, I felt that I could live with that kind of anonymous exposure, in exchange for the security of being in just a hospital gown for a couple of hours, waiting around. The alternative would have been to run to the washroom every half our, out of an abundance of caution. 

[Little Sherri]

I wrote the following in response to a topic about diapers and self-pleasure, but then I decided to transplant it over here, because I realized that I had ranged far beyond the original question everyone was answering, and I didn't want to trample all over someone else's thread.

I found when I decided to, first, wear diapers to bed 100% of the time, and then, wear 24/7, that one of the processes I had to go through was getting past the idea that being in a diaper meant it was "fun time", every time. That definitely used to be the case back when I would sneak an afternoon in one here and there, or wear them overnight when I travelled for business. Moving to sleeping in them all the time had me tossing and turning for the first week; I had to learn to just relax, let go, and be in the diaper, as a background sensation, rather than as my primary focus.

Being in them all the time was, similarly, a distraction at first, but life goes on, and the bills need to get paid, and you need to drive the kids to their activities, take the dog to the vet, and clean the house and etc. I was concerned that wearing them all the time might diminish how much I enjoyed them, but that has not been the case. Instead, I now appreciate the subtler sensations, situations and feelings that wearing diapers all the time allows one to appreciate, once the thrill of being in "naughty underpants" recedes.  I feel like the occasionally "involuntary" nature of certain moments and situations has brought me closer to my childhood diaper-related experiences and emotions. Although, overall, every day, I choose to be in a diaper, the fact that in many individual moments, there is basically no escape, and I just have to navigate as best I can from inside my baby pants, has an authentic feel to it. It recalls for me what it was like to hear the front door of my childhood home latch shut behind me, as I walked out to the car, feeling the snug confinement of my Pampers, and knowing that I would be in them for the rest of the day, come what may. There was no court of appeal. 

[Little Sherri]

Product update: I am in a ConfiDry 24/7 right now. The tapes use the same tape-on-a-tape strategy as with BetterDry, and they are physically about the same size as a BetterDry, but a bit lighter in terms of their bulk. I am unconvinced by the tabs; I think that having a big landing strip is far more forgiving if you err in your initial placement. Being able to go back to the same spot I regret putting the tape in is not a benefit. I suppose if you get it perfect the first time, then you have those waypoints to go back to. But that also ignores that the diaper stretches out and you may need to snug it up, at which point you are abandoning those mounting points in any case. All of which might be fine if you are confined to the diaper, as they say, 24/7, and, you largely stay in one position, so that likely the only reason for it to be removed would be to bin it. If you're an active user, though, you'll find yourself needing to move the tapes, and when you do, first, the primary tapes don't have as much "stick" as the landing tapes, and, second, once you've moved them, you're strapped in for the rest of the ride, unless you are willing to resort to diaper repairs. 

I wore mine to bed and when I got up this morning, it was well under 50%, but, had stretched out a bit, and when I went to snug it up, first of all, the inner edge of the top tapes ripped the cover behind the "landing tapes", and, second, then, when I moved them inward, they didn't want to stick. I am unimpressed with a diaper that requires corrective surgery this early in the game.