24/7 startups, and unexpected pitfalls?

[Little Sherri]

I had two interesting "security breakdowns" yesterday, one my fault, one not. The first one barely qualifies, I guess: I left a pacifier on my desk and got busy with something in the house, and then my wife said she was going to my office to print something, and it didn't register. A half-hour later, I went back to continue working, and the pacifier was sitting in the middle of my keyboard. The funny thing is, I don't actually use one during the day very often, and I'd found this one in my desk drawer and pulled it out and examined it, and then remembered its origin story - I was at a Rearz event, pre-pandemic, and they'd had a pacifier decorating station going, and I'd idly stuck a few "jewels" to one while chatting with a couple of people who were ornately decorating theirs. It's white with a red handle and a few blue stones stuck to it, slightly unsymmetrically. I have on a couple of occasions popped one into my mouth while diving into a miles-deep spreadsheet, mostly to stave off a desire to snack, but, like drinking from bottles, I find pacifiers a bit of an affectation during the day, something I'm trying to enjoy, rather than something that comes naturally to me. Whereas sleeping with a pacifier is par for the course - I feel uncomfortable without one, now.

The second breach was not of my manufacture. My wife and I were working at a friend's investment property, lightly sanding some wall patches in preparation for a painter coming through, while also have beers and chewing the fat. He and his wife were similarly engaged. At one point, I got up on a stepstool to try and diagnose why a range hood vent wouldn't light up, and as I was standing, neck craned, trying to make out if I could access the junction box from below or if the thing needed to be taken down, my wife noted from across the room that I had drywall dust on my butt. We'd sanded patches on the wall over the staircase, and later I'd sat on a stair and sipped a beer. My friend's wife was standing just behind me, at the kitchen island, cleaning the sink. In response to what my wife said, she turned around, and smacked the dust off the back of my shorts. Laughter followed, somewhat forced on my part. My buddy made a joke about how he now needed my wife to smack his butt. Ha ha ha. 

Except that I was acutely aware of the Lil' Monster I had on underneath my bulky cargo shorts. I had worn a onesie, as I nearly always do under such circumstances, because bending over and standing up multiple times creates much opportunity for waistline diaper reveals. My onesies do compress my diapers a bit (thanks, Covid), so I can only hope that if she detected anything at all during the brief moment of contact (pun intended), it felt to her like the bulk of generous middle-aged pudgy guy shorts, over underwear, and not the plastic puffiness of a medium-range diaper. 

I swear to all of you, that I have never been smacked on the butt more often than in these last three years I've spent in diapers. Over the previous four decades, I'd need less than one hand to count the number of instances of this occurring. Whereas, there seems to be something about a diapered butt that begs for a smacking, even if the smacker doesn't know about the diapered status of the smackee. I think this is something I need to add to my list of "legitimate considerations for those considering doing this." Diaper noise? Largely an illegitimate concern. Leaks? Legitimate concern. Financial impact? Legitimate. Odors? This can be managed. Random unsolicited butt smacks? Legitimate concern. 

[BabyJilly_S]

And to our ears that "Thumpf" sound it makes is unmistakeable. Still that and the feel of it doesn't seem to register i guess. My sister did the same at Christmas to get me to hurry up and never said a word....

[Little Sherri]

I copied this over from another thread, because I thought that it might be of interest here as well:

I finally got my hands on a Fixx size 10 pacifier. Background: I have been a nightly user of their size 6 pacifier for the last four years. I find the sizing works for me, and the price is great, which is important, because I find the best way to use pacifiers is to have a bunch of them and clean then regularly and let them dry completely between uses. That's easy when they cost $6 each, not so much when they cost $30 each. 

But, I had to try one. Here is my review: the nipple is comically large, trust me, a LOT larger than a size 6 nipple. The length difference might only be 3/4's of an inch, even at that, it's already so far back on my palate that something much longer might be flirting with triggering a gag reflex. What is significant, though, is the volume - it's cubic centimeter volume has to be 5 X or 6 X that of a size 6. 

I slept with one last night and it was a mouthful, you can feel it on your tongue, and the roof of your mouth, no matter what position your jaw is in, unless you're practically yawning. Any motion you make with your mouth compresses the nipple, and I was most comfortable when sucking on it slightly, rather than having it just rest in my mouth, because the mouth has to be open at an unnatural width if you're not compressing it at least somewhat. I wasn't sure I could sleep with it in, because it's too big to breath around with ease (I'm a bit of a mouth breather when I sleep), but after a bit, I fell into a pattern of reflexive sucking and breathing through my nose. When I woke up in the morning, it was still in. 

One downside is that sucking on it vigorously causes it to act like a bellows, because of its volume, so it produces small hisses, which didn't really bother me, but caused me to worry about if I was irritating my spouse. However, light sucking on the partly compressed nipple doesn't make as much noise as letting it inflate to its full volume between "pulls", which is hard to do in any case because you have to open your jaw to give it enough space, were that your goal. 

I have it in now while I'm typing this, and its presence on the tongue and the roof of the mouth is such that, for me, the only way for it to be comfortable is to suck lightly on it - it pretty much makes you suckle. 

My jaw this morning was slightly tired, as though I'd been chewing gum for a long time, or toffee, and as soon as I popped it back in to write this, I felt that way again - slight muscle strain in the sides of my jaw and at the back of my tongue where most of the suction is generated. But you can't not suck on this thing - your mouth can't relax when open enough not to compress the nipple, and if the nipple is compressed, it reaches far enough back to create the feeling that you need to swallow something. Suckling is the most comfortable response to having this in your mouth. 

One thing I'm curious about is if it mitigates snoring by forcing me to breath through my mouth. I need to get drunk in order to conduct the experiment, because (I'm told) I only really snore when I've onboarded a few double IPA's. My wife is not shy about elbowing me if I snore, so this weekend, I'll have to conduct a test. If this thing stops me from snoring, then it may become my "drinking pacifier". 

However, I'm not anticipating spending $300 to put a bunch of these into my rotation as of now. I'm going to try to work today with it in, and see if I get used to it over time, but right now I think that my mouth and jaw will be fatigued, which does not happen to me with the size 6 soothers. 

In other news, I also got a couple of new pairs of PUL "plastic pants/panties/diaper covers" or whatever your preferred term is. I really like these things; I pulled a pair on over a disposable and went for a long walk with the dog, and they didn't chafe or cause any discomfort. At some point, I'll try them over a cloth diaper and see how they do. But my first thought was, where have these things been all my life? I've seen a number of you sing their praises, but up to now, I've only worn vinyl "plastic" pants of various descriptions. The PUL ones are quieter, and you kind of forget they're there after a while, which is harder to do in plastic pants. 

So, I'm on the fence about the size 10 pacifiers, but I think I'll be buying more PUL covers. 

[FretaBWet]

Thanks for the review Little Sherri, I looked at those but they're way to big for me. I use a size 6 pacifier and it fits perfectly. I have a #7 that I bought at the same time and the nipple sits too far back in my mouth so it's not comfortable. I can sleep the night through with my paci in and I keep it tethered to my onesie just in case it drops out. I don't sleep with a paci every night but sometimes you just need the comfort.

Hugs,

Freta

[ppdude]

5 hours ago, Little Sherri said:

n other news, I also got a couple of new pairs of PUL "plastic pants/panties/diaper covers" or whatever your preferred term is. I really like these things; I pulled a pair on over a disposable and went for a long walk with the dog, and they didn't chafe or cause any discomfort. At some point, I'll try them over a cloth diaper and see how they do. But my first thought was, where have these things been all my life? I've seen a number of you sing their praises, but up to now, I've only worn vinyl "plastic" pants of various descriptions. The PUL ones are quieter, and you kind of forget they're there after a while, which is harder to do in plastic pants. 

So, I'm on the fence about the size 10 pacifiers, but I think I'll be buying more PUL covers. 

Thanks for this update! It's always fun to read your post! I've learned over the years to ALWAYS wear plastic pants over any kind of diaper.. They're great noise killers. I'm not so excited about PUL pants, but they certainly are cooler, perhaps less noisy. I will often substitute them for plastic when the situation might get uncomfortably hot. \

As to the pacifier, I'm assuming you get them from Rearz. I have a size 10 but it's just too big. Size 6 might be ideal. Thanks for the heads up on that.

 

[Little Sherri]

I've given up on the size 10 pacifier for the rest of this afternoon; it was just too tiring, actively sucking on the thing. Maybe I'll get used to it. Right now I have a size 6 pacifier in, and per your comment, @FretaBWet, it sits comfortably, and if I want to just let it sit, I can - it isn't trying to asphyxiate me if I'm not actively sucking on it. 

I switched to an ABU AlphaGatorz from the Megamax I had on this morning, in order to go to a doctor's appointment. I had zero expectation of my diaper coming onto the radar, and indeed that was the case. The Megamax had swollen up, as they are known to do, and while it probably still had some life left in it, I wanted something less obtrusive, less crinkly, and further from the end of its shift. 

We are going out for dinner tonight to celebrate the closing of a business deal, so I'm hoping my wife feels this diaper is appropriate for such an occasion. 

I was reminded again that my doctor has to be drawing near to retirement. I really like the guy, so I have no wish to see him go, but he's been my doctor since I was a teenager - we're talking probably 35 years or so. For all I know he may still have notes in his file about my wearing diapers when I was a kid, although as far as I can recall, we started going to him when I was 14 or so, so I'm not sure it would have been relevant at that point. Although I think my records from my pediatrician were transferred... but I'm willing to bet he hasn't looked at those in about three decades. So I think my showing up there in a diaper, even a plain white one, would come as a surprise to him. 

When I get a new doctor, I'm not sure yet precisely what I'll do with regard to my unusual preference for toddler's underpants. IE, whether I'm going to open with "Hey, I wear diapers, it's been a thing for a long time now and I'm fine with it, we tried some stuff when I was younger but I didn't enjoy the side effects so I have no interest in going on medication for this. On to the next topic..." 

Or, if I'll be more circumspect about it, and only let him or her know if it becomes necessary. I'm not looking to have my insurance pay for them, so, there isn't much of a need for it to be noted. If I end up in the hospital, I don't think they'll go back to my primary care physician for "permission" for me to wear diapers, if I say "Hey, I wear diapers, I'll provide and change them myself, they'll keep your sheets dry."  

[Little Sherri]

I tried sleeping with the size 10 pacifier again last night, but got up at 4 am and swapped it for a size 6. I kept waking up to the sensation that I was trying to swallow something I couldn't get down, and my jaw felt fatigued. I do plan to try it again over the weekend after drinking, just to see if it mitigates snoring. My theory is it will, since I can't breath around it. 

I went out for dinner with my wife in that AlphaGatorz last night; I don't know why, but for some reason it had occurred to me that she'd think it inappropriate for dinner out, somehow, although of course, unless I had an anaphylactic reaction to the cabernet reduction, it wasn't likely that the gloriously juvenile Pampers Cruiser lookalike under my trousers was going to come into consideration. I didn't specifically choose that diaper for our "date night", it happened to be the one I had on, and it still had a good portion of its life remaining. I noted a failure mode that I hadn't previously identified, though: the tabs are of the hook-and-loop variety, and apparently the grippy bit is actually glued to the tab. I'd had that diaper on while engaging in some vigorous reorganization of my garage under humid conditions, and when I went to get changed, I realized that both upper tabs had parted ways with their claws, so to speak. I had to walk over to my wife's office and drive staples through the tabs, to keep them in position, because on a cloth-covered diaper, I haven't found tape that works for repairs. 

Despite my misgivings, I walked back to our room, now stapled into my big printed diaper, however my wife barely raised her eyes, so dumping it for a white one would have been a waste. When we got home from dinner, I even briefly considered sleeping in it, mostly due to inertia brought on by Merlot, but having only recently dispensed with diaper rash, I decided to swap it out. 

Tomorrow, I am once again going to be facing entering an amusement park with a backpack that will likely be eviscerated at the security checkpoint, so I don't want to have a big adult nappy bandied about while they try and sort out if I have contraband in or with it. Then, we will walk around the park for about ten hours, which, in itself, is not insurmountable - Mermaid Tales, Elite Hybrids, or a Megamax could bridge that gap. However, longtime readers may recall my experience at this park about three years ago, wearing a Bambino Magnifico (a top-tier diaper that I no longer stock because they cost $7 CAD each now). We ended up on a water rafting ride and I ended up sitting in a seat that wasn't draining fast enough, and so became a shallow bucket. The back of my diaper felt like it had a football in it by the time I got off, and I had to make up an excuse and walk 2.7 kilometers back to the car, and then conduct a diaper change in my car, in the parking lot. 

Maybe I'll just prohibit the kids from going on rafting rides. 

[Little Sherri]

Oh, I forgot to mention that while I was hanging out after our date, resplendent in that AlphaGatorz, before I got changed for the night, my wife was watching a sitcom on one of the streaming channels, one starring Tim Allen, I forget what it's called. Anyway, there was a reference in the storyline to the kids having to eventually take care of the mom, later in life, and then one of them said "As long as it doesn't involve anything requiring latex gloves, because you know, when you get older, stuff leaks...."  My wife shot me a look at that comment. 

[Stroller]

12 hours ago, Little Sherri said:

Tomorrow, I am once again going to be facing entering an amusement park with a backpack that will likely be eviscerated at the security checkpoint, so I don't want to have a big adult nappy bandied about while they try and sort out if I have contraband in or with it.

Been there, done that.  I was expecting the search, and it happened, and as I expected not a hair was turned.  And yes, it was an AB disposable (probably an Astronaut). To boldly go...

But you're right about avoiding the water rides!  I didn't risk it as I was wet enough already.

[Vulpix77]

I did the amusement park once with a backpack of bright colorful diapers. Didn't have an issue, not even a curious look.

[Little Sherri]

I elected to drive, rather than have someone drive us there, so that I had my own car with my diaper bag in the trunk if I needed it. I wore a Bambino SkoolDoodles, on the theory that the Velcro tabs would be easier to change discretely if I had to do it in a busy public washroom. I didn't end up needing to change it - it was a HOT day, so I lost a lot of the moisture that I filtered from pop and the occasional beer, to sweat. I did not go on any wettish rides, and I managed to get through the day in one diaper. 

However, I made a bad decision in a SkoolDoodle the previous night - it being essentially a Friday for me, since I took Friday off, I met a buddy at a pub on Thursday and we had a number of pints and solved the world's problems. I got a ride home, stumbled into my bedroom at 2 AM, well lubricated... and decided to go to bed in the diaper I had on, which had seen some fire but wasn't due for retirement. Or so I thought. 

When I woke up the next morning, having slept like a baby, I realized I was lying in a crescent of dampness. I'm not entirely sure what happened, because it happened while I was asleep, but based on the small size of the damp spot, I think that it was not the result of having wet over the front of the diaper, but rather, the result of the front of the diaper folding over at some point and leaving the interior in contact with my sheets, where hours of blissful wicking ensued. 

I slept with the giant pacifier that night, and my wife did not complain about my snoring, something that often vexes her when I am more than two sheets to the wind. However, whereas when I wake up with a size 6 pacifier, I might decide to lie in bed for a bit if there's no pressing reason to get up, either in a semi-conscious state, or, reading the news on my phone, while giving my pacifier no thought, when I sleep with the size 10, the first thing I want to do is get it out of my mouth. More data is needed to determine if it is to become my "drinking paci", or if it's just going to end up in the back of a drawer, a $25 testament to impulse buying. 

[Little Sherri]

I had another night "on the sauce" on Sunday; I went over to help a buddy organize his garage, and beer was consumed, and the car got left on his driveway overnight for pickup the next day. When I got home, this time I changed before going to bed, which was a good decision, because I slept like a rock and woke up wet at the front. I donned the giant pacifier, to once again test the theory that it curtails snoring. I can't comment with any certainty on if I snored, or, if I would have snored, had I not been using that comically large silicone teat, but, my wife did not elbow me at any point in the evening, and she didn't complain about my snoring the next day. 

However, last night, I didn't have any beer on board, and I was very happy to go back to a size 6 pacifier for the night. Maybe someone will make a size 8 someday that strikes the perfect balance?

I woke up dry this morning, vaguely needing to pee, although it was my wife's alarm, and not the biological imperative, that summoned me from the inky depths of slumber. Over the weekend, I wet overnight maybe half the time, but I was also drinking half the time. I'm likely going to be off the terps for a couple of days now, so I'm curious as to what the overnight climate will be like, down below. 

I'm closing in on the guys trip that I've been talking about for a while, and I still haven't figured out exactly what I plan to wear, in terms of diapers. The whole situation is confounded by a couple of factors; firstly, the sharing of hotel rooms, which I can't opt out of without costing myself, and someone else, a notable amount of money. Second, we're going to be jetting around a bit on crappy discount airlines that charge as much for a checked bag as they do for bringing a llama with you. Terrestrially, we're operating on trains, Ubers and transit - we aren't renting cars because we plan to be pickled for a good portion of the trip, and nobody wants to be the designated driver. So going shopping for diapers locally would be very difficult to pull off without raising questions. But carrying enough of them with me to last me 8 days will require a checked bag, and that will cost as much as a month's worth of diapers - it pretty much doubles the cost of each of the legs of the flights. 

I'm considering wearing those awful man pull-ups during the day and just cheating and using the potty wherever I can; if I can make one of those last for the better part of a day, well, they're small and discreet, so I probably could carry enough of them in a checked bag to work. Assuming I never forget that I'm not wearing a real diaper, and cut loose while sitting on a bar stool somewhere. 

But, overnight, I need to wear real diapers. I will not sleep well if I try to go to bed in pull-ups, particularly after a dalliance with Lady Ethanol. 

Part of me is wondering if I should just tell my buddies that I wear diapers. They're all smart guys and good friends, and we've been very frank with each other about a lot of the issues that people face in their marriages, raising kids, advancing their careers, etc. However, they also love taking the piss out of each other, in a good-natured way, so I KNOW that there will be wisecracks, eventually. I'd like to think that disclosing this wouldn't really change the nature of any of our relationships, but, it's a bell that can't be un-rung, and I'd hate to lose the comradery if one or more of them got "weirded out" by the situation, and I started getting left out of the golf trips or whatever. 

Also, do I owe it to my wife to run it by her first, or is it entirely up to me? Hmmm. My first instinct is that it's my decision, but, she's also friends with their spouses, so, in theory, whatever I do on this topic could have an impact on her relationship with them. Although the guys in this group are definitely the driving force, the tighter group. The ladies like each other, but if we weren't engineering opportunities to get everyone together, it wouldn't happen nearly as often as it does. It's the men's dedication to ethanol and smoked meat that forms the gravitational center of this galaxy.  

[justforfun]

5 hours ago, Little Sherri said:

...

I'm closing in on the guys trip that I've been talking about for a while, and I still haven't figured out exactly what I plan to wear, in terms of diapers. The whole situation is confounded by a couple of factors; firstly, the sharing of hotel rooms, which I can't opt out of without costing myself, and someone else, a notable amount of money. Second, we're going to be jetting around a bit on crappy discount airlines that charge as much for a checked bag as they do for bringing a llama with you. Terrestrially, we're operating on trains, Ubers and transit - we aren't renting cars because we plan to be pickled for a good portion of the trip, and nobody wants to be the designated driver. So going shopping for diapers locally would be very difficult to pull off without raising questions. But carrying enough of them with me to last me 8 days will require a checked bag, and that will cost as much as a month's worth of diapers - it pretty much doubles the cost of each of the legs of the flights. 

I'm considering wearing those awful man pull-ups during the day and just cheating and using the potty wherever I can; if I can make one of those last for the better part of a day, well, they're small and discreet, so I probably could carry enough of them in a checked bag to work. Assuming I never forget that I'm not wearing a real diaper, and cut loose while sitting on a bar stool somewhere. 

...

I forget if you've said where you're headed on this trip... but shipping a package to yourself at the hotel has worked for me before, and gets around the whole 'what's in that second bag' question.  I've also been lucky sometimes and found a place with an Amazon locker near the hotel, allowing easy discreet pickup locally of supplies. 

Dealing with sharing a room... well, I've always just said no... and I dealt with the associated costs... but that's me.

[oznl]

I’m not sure 8 days is viable without checked baggage if you’re going to be wet at all.  I've done 7 days and even then, my mid-sized trundle-case was 70% nappies!

If your developmental stage is close to mine (and I suspect it might be), whilst you won’t wet the bed every night, you can’t “plan” to be dry.  It's outside your conscious control now.  At the recent stay-away-large-family-and-friend shindig, I was actually quite surprised that I bed-wet.  I fully expected not to.  It was my usual two-day trick.  The first night, peeing was deliberate.  The second night (after a suitable quantity of Shiraz) I woke up in a panic because I could feel that I was very wet and I couldn’t remember changing before bed (I did).

Maybe it’s because I’m a wuss but I’d be disinclined to share the news.  As you've identified, you just can’t take it back and the bloke-dynamic is a funny thing.  I might have a contingency plan should circumstances back me into that corner (at which point your previous attempts at subterfuge would not only be understandable, but lend credibility) but it wouldn’t be my “A” game strategy.  I'm not sure how realistic my preferences are in your circumstances though.

Nights would be a challenge.  A bedwetting event calls for a substantial diaper to have any hope of avoiding bigger problems.  I’d even add insurance over the top with some waterproof pants.

Obviously, ABDL products are the best to cope here but are probably a no go.

I’m wondering if a “Barry” (with its awesome hook-and-loop tapes and vanilla appearance) might be the weapon of choice for night time.  In the event you are able to keep it dry, it should be re-usable the next night (science experiment here)?  A Barry is going to be less of a conversation piece than a “Mermaid Tale”.  You'll also need to pack opaque disposal bags but these take no space at all.  I often used to have on in my backpack and toss it in a city trash can (I was often in the centre of a town) when nobody was looking.

During the day, I’m relatively convinced I’d be able to stay dry but I would absolutely have an underwear-like insurance policy as you describe.  I’d have a contingency (strategy for local emergency procurement) in the event you discover you’re not as daytime continent as you think you are.  It’s occurred to me that my assumption of daytime continence is largely that: assumption.  I’ve tested short-haul upon necessity but multiple days is something of an unknown.  It’s entirely possible at some point I’d “forget” and revert to my new default (which is I suspect what is happening at night to me).

[dribblez]

Best of luck with this. If I remember correctly, you're heading for the UK. Things are pretty chaotic at airports here. You may be lucky or you may have to stand for a couple of hours waiting to clear passport and customs.

Personally I would have a bag of diapers delivered to the hotel. Nappies r Us have a good selection - Betterdry and now also Barries. Megamax availability is sporadic. Allow 3 working days for delivery.

Unless you're in the presidential suite, sharing a fairly confined space with one other is going to be near impossible without him finding out. I would consider carefully telling just your room mate, leaning into a medical explanation, and ask him to keep it to himself, not even telling his wife. If he is a good friend, he will respect your privacy.

Wearing a pull-up while drinking is risky. Multiple trips to the toilet, which may be noticed by your mates, and if you are like me, the likelihood that leaks will occur before you get to the urinal. Cumulatively over the course of a boozy evening, you may end up a lot wetter than you think, with the prospect of a journey back to the hotel at the end.

But perhaps your mates already know about your underwear and have never said anything.

Have fun and best of luck.

 

[Little Sherri]

17 hours ago, justforfun said:

Dealing with sharing a room... well, I've always just said no... and I dealt with the associated costs... but that's me.

Under any other circumstances, this is exactly what I would do, too. However the trip was booked with the assistance of one of the participants, who works for a major hotel chain, and who got us absolutely smoking deals on major hotels in city centers where the rack rate is like $350 Pounds or Euros a night. In many cases, we are paying 70 Pounds. (I can't make my North American keyboard give me the simple for Pounds right now for some reason... new computer). So, my deciding to take my own room, if it's still even an option, in terms of availability, would sentence me to paying five times per night what everyone else is paying, and, the person I'm bunking with would also face double their cost, unless I stepped up and still paid my half. Granted, double his cost would still be a third of what I'd be paying. But it would all look very weird. I'd probably end up having to stay at alternate locations at this point, just because of availability. 

5 hours ago, dribblez said:

If I remember correctly, you're heading for the UK.

Correct. 8 days keeping a shine on the bars with the sleeves of our coats, to quote Spirit of the West. 

 

10 hours ago, oznl said:

I’m wondering if a “Barry” (with its awesome hook-and-loop tapes and vanilla appearance) might be the weapon of choice for night time. 

Definitely the best choice. I don't want to go ABDL in case my case of nappies comes onto the radar, either with my friends, or, through customs or whatever. And the hook-and-loop fasteners can survive multiple takeoffs and landings, so if I'm dry overnight, I could use it again the next night. 

 

6 hours ago, dribblez said:

Personally I would have a bag of diapers delivered to the hotel.

This is an interesting option, although we're only two nights in each city, so the logistics would have to be fairly tightly scheduled... or else the person who booked the rooms might get an email saying "Hey, my Canadian colleague, I just wanted to touch base on the bag of diapers that's still sitting behind the desk in London... did you want that forwarded somewhere?" 

6 hours ago, dribblez said:

Wearing a pull-up while drinking is risky. Multiple trips to the toilet, which may be noticed by your mates,

It's funny, but one of my concerns is generally NOT being seen going to the bathroom. One night at the pub last week, I was sitting with a buddy of mine, swapping rounds and watching baseball, and he got up three times to go to the washroom, and I hadn't been up out of my chair once... because I was wearing a big Bambino diaper that was doing its job. I was thinking about pretending to go to the washroom, after his third trip, but then his wife arrived to drive us home. All of which is to say, that my hitting the washroom every hour or so would be a bit out of character, these days, but I don't think it would lead to any conclusions about my underclothes. Maybe they'd worry about my prostate health? 

But the danger of overwhelming a man pull-up while not paying attention is real, for sure. Maybe I should try to buy toddler diapers for use as stuffers, while I'm there - those are cheap and generally readily available, and can be bought in small bags that could be secreted in a backpack. I take it the brands are more or less the same? Pampers, like Coke, are available everywhere on earth, plus select planets within the solar system? 

[dribblez]

1 hour ago, Little Sherri said:

.... brands are more or less the same? Pampers, like Coke, are available everywhere on earth, plus select planets within the solar system? 

Correct.

[adhb]

Sherri, I think that the chance of your not "getting caught" during your week-long trip to the UK is slim. And in my opinion, getting caught hiding diapers is likely to lead to a worse outcome than telling your buddies that you are wearing diapers because you "need to". I've needed to share a room with a colleague during trips on three or four occasions. And telling my roommate about my need for diapers has always worked out OK. However, there's one important difference between you and me: I actually do need to wear diapers for a medical reason. However, I have avoided going into a detailed discussion of my medical condition. Another thing that I've done on more than one occasion when it was not essential to make the trip is deciding not to go. And that's the surest way not to prevent friends from not finding out about your diapers. 

[Little Sherri]

Thanks for the feedback, @adhb. This is one of the rare occasions where I wish I was older. If I were in my 70's, I'd like to think I could rock my diapers with pride and dignity, but because I'm in my 40's, masquerading as a person who needs to wear for "physiological reasons" is a bit more challenging. 

The ship has sailed on not going - the tickets are booked and paid for, and I really want to go - this was supposed to have happened in 2020, but it's been shelved from then to now, for obvious reasons. This is kind of a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. That might be a slight exaggeration, but, the odds of getting the stars (and spouses) to align with all of us taking a trip of this length and distance again, when we all have kids and careers, are slim. Not going would be giving diapers too much space within my metaphorical household. They already take up a lot of space. I need to cogitate on this further. I appreciate everyone's input. 

As I write this, I'm wearing a Rearz Critter Caboose, one of a sample pack I bought to determine what size suits me. These fall into the "Super Duty" category within the Rearz hierarchy, allegedly possessing more than 7000 ml of capacity. Anyone who has worn diapers for more than a day knows that those "ISO" numbers are useful for comparison purposes, but like electric vehicle range estimates, your actual range is likely to come in well under the number on the label. I can't comment on this thing's capacity, as of yet, because I've only had it on since I went to bed, and it was a dry night for me, so right now it has maybe 1.5 cups of coffee in it, and feels barley used. 

One note I wanted to make, for any of you who have noticed the new Rearz sizing guidelines, which have reduced the "L" size range a bit for the next-gen products, like these Cabooses, and the new Lil' Monster diapers, and some others: the L size is definitely smaller. Some of this has to do with the actual size of the entirety of the diaper, which has shrunk a bit, specifically in width, but the landing zone has also moved inward a bit from the outside edges, so if you were one of those people who parked your tabs close to the edge in a size L, you'll be able to wear the new size, but you will not be able to move the tabs around without risking ripping the cover and necessitating tape repairs. I'm an XL in these Critter Cabooses, where once upon a time, I was buying Lil' Monsters in medium. Granted, Covid has added bulk to my once-svelte form, but, the change in sizing is also a factor. Double check that sizing guide before you take advantage of their back-to-school sale and order 3 cases of 48 diapers in the wrong size.  

[nareh60280]

I am a loyal reader fo your thread (and also Oznl's) but I rarely comment (sorry for that)

I agree that it is very likely that your diapers will be discovered at some point, TSA and customs checks are unpredictable, and sharing a bedroom without seeing your diapers is impossible...

I agree with a previous opinion, being open and honest (specially if you have a good friendship) will dive better results than being discovered and being taken by surprise... Just my opinion.

The most important thing in this trip is for you to have fun and enjoy your friend's company! It will be easier if you don't need to worry all the time of being discovered or accidentally wetting your clothes with those awful man pull-ups.

Wish you the best!

[Little Sherri]

I wrote this out to a friend of mine, but then decided to go wider with it, because doing so is in keeping with the pact I have with myself not to sugarcoat the 24/7 experience. You have to take the crunchy with the smooth.

So I had an awesome argument with my wife today, because she's an awful project manager and she's vexed one of my friends who went above and beyond in helping out one of her clients in a business transaction that was a complete shit show, because they (the clients) are idiots. It's the one I was referring to earlier on this my thread. No good deed goes unpunished. 

What's funny is that she was really, really acting childish - at one point she actually stuck her fingers in her ears. Which left me in the admittedly precarious position of accusing her of being infantile... while I was, of course, wearing a diaper, although underneath generous cargo shorts. So chalk that up as another new experience. To her credit, she did not point that out. Although maybe she didn't hear me. The whole situation reminded me of arguing with my older sister when we were kids. Right down to me being in a diaper, and her acting like a toddler.

I've said it before, and I'll say it again - there is no better test of your resolve than having to mount a serious argument... while wearing baby pants. 

[Little Sherri]

Well, things have calmed down a bit. My mother-in-law has gone home, which has taken my wife's temperature down several degrees. Every time they reside under the same roof for more than 24 hours, they revert to the roles they occupied 30 years ago, with my mother-in-law trying to drive from the passenger seat, and my wife becoming increasingly irritable until she's basically a grenade with the pin out, waiting for someone to jostle her.

I'm also enjoying being able to once again operate in my "normal" diapers primarily, which means plastic products like Megamax's and various Rearz offerings. I still wear those when she's here, but I'm more careful about what I put on over them, because I know that my wife is sensitized to me "crunch-crinkle-crunching" around when she's here. My mother-in-law can be a bit of a ghost in the house, showing up unexpectedly and silently in odd corners, at strange times of the day, so, paradoxically, I've been moving over to quieter diapers in the evening hours, so I don't find myself on the way to the back door with the dog at midnight, wearing light shorts over a Mermaid Tale or something, and suddenly my mother-in-law appears in the corner in the kitchen, silently cutting a lemon. 

My wife and my daughter and I got into a light-hearted argument about where to go for dinner one night this week, with her voting for a chicken place we often go to, and my daughter and I suggesting Chinese, and then my wife said "It's me versus the diaper gang, I see." So, her sense of humour is returning, albeit slowly. 

I wore a Rearz Active Air out to a concert on the weekend, which worked out pretty well. They have a decent capacity for a cloth-backed diaper and aren't as prone to the surface dampness that some cloth-backed products get (I'm looking at you, Northshore AirSupreme), I think because they integrate some plastic under the cloth. We left the concert and returned to the area we live in, decided to go to a local bar, and then drank a lot more than I thought we were going to, and I started distrusting the sensations coming from below, so when it was time to go back to my friend's place, where I was spending the night, I claimed I needed some air and walked back, rather than piling into the Uber with everyone, out of concern for precipitating a press-out leak. However, the diaper held up until I got back and was able to execute a change in the washroom after retrieving my "go bag" from my car. I did have to make my way back to my car, feigning that I wanted to put my sunglasses away, in order to drop off the 5-lb package that I felt it would be imprudent to jam into their little powder bathroom trash can. 

[Little Sherri]

One again on the topic of taking the crunchy with the smooth... I'm pretty sure a few people saw, or at least, could have seen my diaper last night. Not that it's a big deal, they're people that I don't know, and I'm sure most of them, if they noticed, probably didn't care, but, it's not a concept I'm used to, outside of the confines of my home. I spend a fair bit of time trying to make sure that people don't notice that I'm wearing a diaper when I'm out in public, via wearing oversized shorts or trousers, and, by wearing a t-shirt type onesie about 95% of the time. 

However, circumstances conspired against me last night. The backstory is, I had agreed to take my buddy's daughter to a baseball skills practice at a park in another town fairly close to us, because he was away on business. This wasn't a baseball game, but rather, a drill on hitting, where the kids lined up, swung at pitches, got some coaching advice, ran to the back of the line, and did it again. I was working on a presentation I had to give this morning, and lost track of time, until my phone notified me of the impending appointment. I did a quick check on a navigation app... and realized that my estimate of how long it would take me to collect her, and go to the location, was off - something had happened and the best route, the highway, was choked. I had to leave. Right NOW.

I jumped up from behind my desk and assessed my outfit... cargo shorts, which were slung over a chair, and a t-shirt and a sweatshirt on my person. I had been working from my office for most of the day, so I'd been wearing just a diaper south of the equator, as I often do. I'd changed into a Rearz Lil' Monster after lunch, so it still had life in it. I pulled the shorts on, grabbed the car keys and the wallet, and I decided to take my laptop, so that I could continue to work on the presentation. 

After a mad sideroads dash to their house, we headed to the baseball diamond, arriving with a few minutes to spare. My buddy's daughter joined the throng of players waiting to start the drills, while I went to find a spot on the bleachers, which were of the typical aluminum bench type, with a sitting platform and a lower footrest, arranged like stairs. The parents for the previous class were mostly still seated and watching their last few exercises, so I took a seat on the lowest bench, right at the front, and I pulled out my laptop and hunched over it for several minutes. I had to get up and down a few times, because I was seated more or less at the entrance to the bleachers, with fencing in front of me creating a small passage that people had to squeeze through. Eventually, people behind me started getting up, and walking by me on either side, and when I looked back, most of them had left, and there were lots of spots further up the bleachers, which I judged to be preferable, because then I wouldn't have so many people sitting behind me who would have to file around or in front of me, as their kids joined the exercises, while other kids left. So I got up and moved to the top of the bleachers. 

However, I became aware that, seated as I was, now 8 feet or so in the air, with no backrest behind me, just an aluminum railing, my lower back was going to be a billboard for everyone walked up the path from the parking area. I glanced back, saw the path was momentarily empty, and then I reached down with my fingers to make sure that my t-shirt was tucked in securely. It was not. What I encountered was a small band of skin... and then a strip of plastic. While I was getting up and down, and concentrating on my laptop, my shirt had ridden up, some of the waistband of my diaper was standing above my shorts, fractions of lil' monsters, rendered in blue and purple and pink and white. Crap. 

I immediately started tucking my t-shirt into my shorts, trying to look nonplussed, because I was seated a few feet away from a person who had stayed in their spot when the exodus had occurred, and who, in theory, could have seen that state of my equatorial region, when I was sitting a few rows in front of them, were they paying attention. The person, a middle-aged lady of South Asian descent, seemed uninterested in me, I thought, but then she glanced over at me, and quickly looked away... a reaction rooted in her culture, perhaps? Or, because I was the man in the diaper? Or was I letting my mind get away from me? 

I thanked my stars that at least this was a skills drill and not a regular game, where people would be seated together for the umpteenth time, and would know each other. A few of the people there exchanged greetings, but most of them seemed to be ships passing in the night, so it was unlikely, I thought, that there would be notes exchanged by anyone... "Who was that guy we haven't seen before?", which might have led to "And did you notice...". Or not. Polite people tend not to discuss such things. One hopes! 

I should have taken a couple of minutes and just gone and pulled a onesie on, and I would have been able to work on my PowerPoint without the stress of wondering what the people around me might be thinking. 

 

[justforfun]

On 9/8/2022 at 7:16 AM, Little Sherri said:

Thanks for the feedback, @adhb. This is one of the rare occasions where I wish I was older. If I were in my 70's, I'd like to think I could rock my diapers with pride and dignity, but because I'm in my 40's, masquerading as a person who needs to wear for "physiological reasons" is a bit more challenging. 

A very good friend of mine in the age range you indicate in your profile recently went through a difficult situation, where a serious infection due to a prostate biopsy gone bad left him temporarily incontinent, and not just the "a few drips" kind of incontinent.  Not being the kind of guy to avoid social events due to such an inconvenience, he let a few of us know that he was having some "man problems" as a result of the situation, and he hoped we'd not make a big deal of it.  Rather than others ribbing him or giving him a hard time, he got a few us us on his side, and nothing happened.

He didn't know about my situation, and while I considered 'coming out' to him about my bedwetting, I ended up choosing not to.  It took a few months, as the infection had buried well into his prostate and was apparently drug-resistant, but as far as I know he has recovered.

Point here... I agree with others that the likelyhood of your keeping a secret are small (to non-existent) on this kind of trip.  Getting out ahead of it with a, "I just want to let you know I'm having some 'man problems'... don't get old, haha... but I would appreciate not making a big deal of it..." might end up getting a little support and heading any comments off before loud questions start being asked in a bar...

[Little Sherri]

Well, it's been a prolific week, but I've been writing all over everyone else's threads rather than my own. Probably the big revelation is that I've been playing around with bamboo infant cloth diaper liners, to see if they might spread liquid further afield and in so doing, increase the range of disposable diapers. Everyone of the diapered among you I'm sure has experienced a leak or liquid running under the wings at your hips, while the front or middle of your diaper is swollen like a dead raccoon in the sun, and the back is... dry as the Sahara. This, because the superabsorbent polymer cores of decent diapers wick fluid with incredible efficiency... and never let any of it get to the dry parts further down. Until, that is, they are completely saturated, and then additional fluid forms raging rivers that head straight for your leg gathers. The long and the short of it is this: yes, they do help. However they never stay where you put them, so unless you have the mobility of an infant, they render themselves useless pretty quickly, at best, and at worst, they can then channel liquid to places you don't want it. Caveat emptor. 

My wife walked in on me sitting in my office today, wearing a onesie snap-t (diaper shirt? what does everyone call these things?) over a diaper, and nothing else, and she didn't comment on it. She was there to print some stuff. I was working. I had the diaper shirt on because I'd met someone for lunch, and when I got back, I took off my shorts but didn't have the energy to go seek out a complete change of wardrobe. It felt good, "freeing" in the least profound sense of the word, to just be hanging out like that, and for her to come up to use my office, and for me not to dash over and frantically pull my shorts on. I wear diapers now. I was wearing a diaper. No news here. 

Tonight, I am drinking my own beer quietly and plan to go to bed at a reasonable time, because tomorrow night there is a fairly epic piss-up scheduled, at a place with 120 taps, where five of my good friends, and I, are going to convene. It's a light training night for my liver. Tomorrow is the fight. I'm probably going to wear either an InControl Elite Hybrid, or, a Mermaid Tale. Maybe a Critter Caboose could sub in, although those remain untested under heavy fire. I guess it depends what I want the paramedics to see, should the occasion arise...