24/7 startups, and unexpected pitfalls?

[Little Sherri]

15 hours ago, oznl said:

I'm wondering about what kind of cloth diaper you are wearing, how securely it is pinned or otherwise-fitted to you, and how securely fitting and non-gas-permeable are you plastic pants?

I was wearing a Rearz multi-layer sewn flat cloth diaper - the edges are a thick cotton, and the middle is a multiple layer sandwich of cotton sewn together. It was pinned on, and I can't comment on how well that was done, because I'm sure I'm not that great at it. Over top, I had a pair of vinyl "plastic" pants that are really, really big on me. They didn't leak, though, but there was definitely a bit of air in there at all times. They were also from Rearz, and I have to buy them that big because otherwise the leg cuffs are comically small. Speaking of the plastic pants, I had to throw them into the wash this morning, because I could smell them in my closet. I washed the diaper yesterday, and that came out with no scent, but with plastic pants, I usually just rinse them thoroughly and hang them to dry. But not this time - they smelled like a diaper bin and were detectable from across the room. Into the wash they've gone. This is different from what I have had to do in the past, although I was in that diaper for probably 14 hours, and maybe that's longer than in the past. 

 

16 hours ago, oznl said:

The pee smell is real and is one of the principle objections from my wife. 

It felt great to be in that cloth diaper most of that time, but I did become concerned, per @oznl's comment above, that the olfactory component might be pushing the boundaries with my wife in a way that no cute printed characters or pacifiers, or wearing a diaper under a, say, a tuxedo, ever could. I think I'm going to continue to mostly wear disposables, at least around her. Maybe if I broke out the cost delta, THAT might change her mind.

Speaking of cost, I had a cute conversation with my wife again yesterday; she was headed to the drug store, and she asked me if I needed anything. I said that I didn't, and she said "What about underwear?", and I threw a mental error code, because I did not immediately discern what she was talking about. I responded with a confused "Huh?", to which she responded by pointing at my diaper drawer and again saying "Underwear?". I said "Oh, right, diapers. No, I'm good right now, but thank you."

I thought again that maybe I should just let her go buy something, that maybe it would open a window into her "preferences" in this department, but, I also think there's a good chance that she'll come back with some $25 package of something that looks like either a) underwear a confident Formula 1 driver would be drawn to, or b) pull-ups designed to look as much as possible like the bloomers my grandmother remembers her mother wearing in the 1930's. Even if she goes by what she's seen I prefer, and she buys a package of tape-on diapers, they'll still be abysmal. The only place to get decent diapers here is a supplier "in the know", such as Rearz, or, a medical supply store. 

Speaking of decent diapers, my wife's inquiry as to how my nappy inventory stood prompted me to pull out what I had this morning and see where I am. I picked up a pack of the new Rearz Elite diapers last week, and they've been in the trunk of my car, so it was time to find a home for them. Folks, I have a lot of diapers on hand. Crinklz, Lil' Monsters, Lil' Squirts, Barnyards, Play Dayz, Magnifico's, a couple of random samples of Princess Pink's, plus 2/3's of a case of my daytime diaper (Prevail 360 Breezers), and, some remaining Depends that I improve by creating a landing strip with packing tape. Those are good for a stop-gap diaper, for example when my night diaper needs to be retired, and I'm getting up to some kind of activity that will require showering after - maybe yard work or vigorous housework, where I don't want to commit to a decent diaper that I know I'm going to be out of within a couple of hours. The failure-prone Tena's I had are finally gone. 

While I'm on the topic, I'll review the Rearz Elite, because they launched them with some fanfare at the start of the month, promising a revolutionary diapering experience. I'd say, after having had one on for about 12 hours, that their excitability isn't entirely without merit, although from what I can see, these are basically Barnyard diapers without the print. But that's not a bad thing - the Barnyards are a very nice diaper.

These Elites are plain white, with the exception of the "graduated" landing zone with an embedded sizing guide, and a faint yellow wetness tattle line. The landing zone goes to within a couple of inches of the edges of the front panel, which is an improvement on the Barnyards, and actually makes me think I could probably wear a Medium (I bought Large this time), making them perhaps a daytime diaper, under limited circumstances. I will buy Medium the next time I get some. The tapes are of a hood-and-loop (Velcro) type, and they seem tenacious. This is a very comfortable diaper, and while it may have been a drier-than-usual night last night, I have been in this thing for past 12 hours at this point, and it seems to have a lot of capacity left - they did not go lightly on the polymer. It is a bit bulky, but, that's what you sign up for when you put on a diaper this capable. 

Coming back around to the cloth diaper experience one last time, I would also point out that this Elite I'm wearing is not a scented diaper, BUT, having had it on since last night, it has no detectable smell - there is something in the stuffing that counteracts the barrel-aging process that occurs within the fibers of a cotton flat diaper. 

 

[DL-Boy]

I'm wondering if some sort of acidic rinse component might help neutralize the ammonia smell during use of cloth diapers...  Maybe a citric acid rinse?  Using vinegar in the softener reservoir might work but the diapers would smell of vinegar then...

[Little Sherri]

1 hour ago, DL-Boy said:

I'm wondering if some sort of acidic rinse component might help neutralize the ammonia smell during use of cloth diapers...  Maybe a citric acid rinse?  Using vinegar in the softener reservoir might work but the diapers would smell of vinegar then...

Well the plot thickens, or at least, the scent does. I washed the diaper itself yesterday, and it emerged from the laundry smelling "spring fresh", or whatever the detergent calls itself. However, as mentioned, a strong smell still clung to the plastic pants, so, I put them into the wash today. Guess what? They still smell. Now, they smell like "spring fresh" layered over "old diaper", but they still have a distinct uric note. So, to recap, the porous, absorbent cotton diaper has had its demons completely driven out, whereas the allegedly impermeable vinyl plastic pants remain haunted. I may have to bag them for storage, if I don't want to risk my marriage - our walk-in closet can't smell of pee for the next week. That would be a bridge too far. 

[DL-Boy]

10 minutes ago, Little Sherri said:

Well the plot thickens, or at least, the scent does. I washed the diaper itself yesterday, and it emerged from the laundry smelling "spring fresh", or whatever the detergent calls itself. However, as mentioned, a strong smell still clung to the plastic pants, so, I put them into the wash today. Guess what? They still smell. Now, they smell like "spring fresh" layered over "old diaper", but they still have a distinct uric note. So, to recap, the porous, absorbent cotton diaper has had its demons completely driven out, whereas the allegedly impermeable vinyl plastic pants remain haunted. I may have to bag them for storage, if I don't want to risk my marriage - our walk-in closet can't smell of pee for the next week. That would be a bridge too far. 

I add vinegar to the prewash reservoir for my cloth diapers or any onesie or bed pads that may have gotten peed on.  It neutralizes the alkaline ammonia smell effectively.

[Little Sherri]

9 minutes ago, DL-Boy said:

I add vinegar to the prewash reservoir for my cloth diapers or any onesie or bed pads that may have gotten peed on.  It neutralizes the alkaline ammonia smell effectively.

I'll have to try that. I used Windex on the plastic pants yesterday; Windex works a treat on cleaning up dog pee, for example - but it doesn't seem to have made any difference. 

[DL-Boy]

8 minutes ago, Little Sherri said:

I'll have to try that. I used Windex on the plastic pants yesterday; Windex works a treat on cleaning up dog pee, for example - but it doesn't seem to have made any difference. 

Windex is the opposite. Since it has ammonia, it's adding to the problem.  You need to neutralize the alkaline ammonia with a mild acid.

Vinegar can be used on pet stains too, so they don't smell like ammonia.

[oznl]

13 hours ago, DL-Boy said:

Windex is the opposite. Since it has ammonia, it's adding to the problem.  You need to neutralize the alkaline ammonia with a mild acid.

Vinegar can be used on pet stains too, so they don't smell like ammonia.

Or, use an enzymatic cleaner (just like they do on "How Clean Is My Crime Scene").  Enzyme Wizard "Urine" is not a fancy name but it does exactly what it says on the tin.  It doesn't mask the smell, it chemically neutralises it.  It's available in Australia and the USA so odds on you can find it in Canada.

It *seriously* works...

[DL-Boy]

Enzymes work by speeding up the process of decaying urea into ammonia.  Acids work on the chemical bonds of the existing base substances (ammonia) to break them into a neutral solution.  If there is ammonia odor already, there is something for the acid to work on.  If not, the enzyme will convert it to ammonia which then needs to brew neutralized.

I'd be surprised if the enzyme cleaners weren't also slightly acidic to handle the ammonia they produce.

[Stroller]

It's difficult for me to give an objective response on the question of cloth nappies, since I'm in them all the time, and I'm so used to them.  Smell isn't a problem here.  I don't notice it, and my wife's never mentioned it.  Cold nappy?  No.  I can see that if I were wearing terry squares, not pinned up tightly enough, but I don't.  Mine are close-fitting, so everything stays warm.  Sagging is not a problem either.  It is important to find the right nappies that suit you well, and I tried quite a few before finding the ones that work for me.  I'd certainly recommend shopping around.  In the long run, if you're wearing full-time, it should be cheaper, and much better for the environment.

[Little Sherri]

16 hours ago, Stroller said:

In the long run, if you're wearing full-time, it should be cheaper, and much better for the environment.

This is an interesting component; I was involved in the long term care industry tangentially in a previous job, and at the time, most of the nursing homes were moving away from washable cloth diapers of one type or another - everything from pinned flats to vinyl trunks with terry liners that had Velcro fasteners. The reasoning was multi-fold (no pun intended...): first, if they weren't laundered correctly, they were a vector for illness. Second, they weren't kind to skin, and skin breakdown can shorten the life of an elderly person, because it leaves them open to other infections. Third, when the math was done on all the hot water, bleach and detergent used to wash them, plus the energy used in the dryer, disposable diapers *tended* to come out ahead in terms of environmental impact (although I'm guessing that it really depends on what you include or exclude from your equation - the fuel to deliver the diapers? Extracting petroleum to make the plastic? What price, landfill?). The clincher for the industry, though, was labour savings: the handling of cloth diapers required an army of laundry personnel, and the care staff had to change them more frequently, and pretty much had to guess at how "used" they were. Whereas the disposables had wetness indicators on them, and the institutions seized on this to print and display "care guides" that showed pictures of where on the wetness line a diaper had to be before it could be changed. So, residents could be in them longer, there was less "arbitrary" changing going on, and handling consisted of unpacking new ones, and tossing out old ones. 

I have a disposable on right now that I've been in for about 12 hours, it's well beyond 50% capacity, and unless I stuck my nose pretty much right up to it, there is no smell. I think for the sake of my marriage, cloth diapers will have to remain an infrequent indulgence. I had to bag my plastic pants because my closet had a slight but persistent smell to it...

[oznl]

For the record, I vastly prefer cloth nappies.  My primary use of disposables as a 24/7 wearer is not driven by personal preference.

With respect to odour, cloth nappies more or less HAVE to smell a bit.  There is no chemical odour control at play and unless you've managed to hermetically seal them (which would bring about its own constellation of compromises), gas exchange is going to happen.

Even a clean fresh-from-the-factory-gate nappy that's been peed in is going to smell slightly of, well, pee...  After time, biology and chemistry happen and that pee smell morphs into much more pungent ammonia.

I suspect if one is up and about, this smell is somewhat diluted and regular changing will get in front of the ammonia curve.  The residual ambient smell may well be masked by olfactory habituation (aka "nose blindness").  At night under blankets however, air exchange is inhibited making wet-nappy smells more noticable.  Last night I wore cloth and this morning I could smell wet nappy from under the covers.  It wasn't over-powering but it was there.  This is routine and near as I can tell, does not happen with disposables.

Sometimes I wonder if this might be what @Stroller's spouse objects to.

There's another category of smell that can arise on a frequently used cloth nappy.  They can kind of go rogue and reach a state whereby they swiftly smell strongly after being wet and rapidly produce ammonia.  This seems to result from buildup of residue in the fibres of the nappy.  A high temperature boil or strip wash clears it.  I've done this with Babykins pull ons and been rewarded with grey, slightly foamy water from boiling what was ostensibly a clean nappy.  This seems more prone on the multi-layer garments.  A simple terry square seems to wash easier and resist this but of course terry squares are a lot of work to fold, fit securely and wear.

I wish it were otherwise.  Whilst not a deep green, sustainability is in my mind is engineering common sense and I am a bit in awe and concerned at the amount of landfill I am creating.

[Little Sherri]

On 2/26/2020 at 3:19 AM, oznl said:

Or, use an enzymatic cleaner (just like they do on "How Clean Is My Crime Scene").  Enzyme Wizard "Urine" is not a fancy name but it does exactly what it says on the tin.  It doesn't mask the smell, it chemically neutralises it.  It's available in Australia and the USA so odds on you can find it in Canada.

I may have to resort to this, to get those plastic pants back. Per the advice below, I soaked them overnight in a strong vinegar solution, and the result today after I rinsed and dried them is that I have a pair of plastic pants that smell slightly of vinegar, and slightly less of urine, but, they still smell enough like pee to make our closet smell like a cat may have gone in the corner late last year. It's just a vague hint. But it is indeed a smell that one can go "nose-blind" to; I sometimes consult on projects where they are pumping ammonia as a refrigerant, and one of the very real dangers working with it is that, while it has a very strong smell initially, anosmia sets in rapidly, and people can end up working in an environment that, to someone coming in from outside, would be blindingly pungent, but they don't even notice it, and as a result they can become hypoxic, which is an insidious condition that sneaks up on you and renders you intoxicated, essentially, and often without the sense to know that you are in danger. 

The funny thing is that the diaper itself smells daisy-fresh. And I have another pair of plastic pants - these ones clear, rather than with a print - that have been in the line of fire many times, and they have no smell at all. These ones seem to have been stained by the 14 hours or so I was in them. 

 

On 2/25/2020 at 1:38 PM, DL-Boy said:

You need to neutralize the alkaline ammonia with a mild acid.

I had a funny experience this morning - I woke up dry. I had on a Crinklz (a BetterDry with a print) and when I arose, I was astonished that it hadn't seen any action. I decided to swap it for one of my daytime diapers, because I really liked wearing it, and if I can get another night out of it, hey, why not? That lead to yet another confirmation for my wife of what is "going on" around here, in that, at 9 in the morning, I went into our washroom in a big, crinkly, printed diaper, and I came out a few minutes later in a smaller, cloth-backed plain white diaper. No comment was made, but, unless she thinks that I think I'm in danger of falling asleep during this morning's conference call (could happen), then I've obviously selected a diaper for day wear. 

Why was the diaper dry? Well, I was exhausted last night, and probably a bit dehydrated, as I'd just come back from the gym, and I fell almost immediately into a deep sleep. Deep sleeps apparently portend either a monsoon season down below, or, a drought. It tends to be from the deeper sleeps that I awake to a wet nappy that I'm not sure I deliberately wet, but here we are. I can at least glean from this that I have not completely parted ways with continence when I'm sleeping, which might bode well for my upcoming trip across the great pond, with some buddies, wherein we will be packing light and sharing hotel rooms. I am still not sure how I'm going to juggle nappies on that adventure; I won't have a car or anywhere to store anything, other than in my suitcase, if I even take a suitcase - other guys are musing about taking a backpack. We will be in a different hotel every couple of days, so if I buy a box of diapers, I'll have to cart it about with me and claim that it's my DVD collection or something. Or maybe I'll say it's a CPAP machine, and then download an ambient noise app that is capable of replicating CPAP noises...

Anyway, even if I don't wear diapers during the day while I'm over there - in itself a but worrisome, given that we'll probably spend more time in bars than we'll spend in our hotel rooms - I will have to at least pack 8 or 10 of my smallest nappies for night wear. Despite last night's results, I don't think I can risk going to sleep without a safety net. Particularly after a period of marathon imbibing.  

[SatinSissyBaby]

am challenging myself again to spend one entire month in diapers! I dont use them except for the occasional wetting at home. I just like to wear them.. I have made it before up to 9 days and then I caved! But this time, i have the support of my wife! I told her i really wanted to succeed this time. She was cool with it! She even agreed to help by taking all my underwear out of the house and hiding it all for the month. This is going to be fun. I never liked March anyway and hopefully this will make it go by faster 

[Little Sherri]

On 2/28/2020 at 4:12 PM, SatinSissyBaby said:

But this time, i have the support of my wife! I told her i really wanted to succeed this time. She was cool with it! She even agreed to help by taking all my underwear out of the house and hiding it all for the month.

This is a key part of being able to stick with it. Once I went 24/7 (X 95% of the time, still have to go to the gym unpadded...), it was only a couple of months until I had to talk to my wife about it. I had managed to get away with sleeping in a diaper for a couple of years by staying up past when she usually fell asleep, and then diapering myself covertly, and dashing off to the bathroom in the morning, but I always had to sleep with something on over the diaper, which isn't my preference. But I used to sometimes get two or three nights out of a diaper, because I didn't accidentally wet it very often, and I often woke up dry, having been in it for only maybe 6 hours. So my diaper consumption was still relatively low. Once I switched over to trying to wear full-time, I had a LOT more diapers coming into the house and, of course, more to dispose of, and then there was the logistics of basically never appearing in our bedroom in anything other than jeans or loose shorts. We were approaching summer (which for us is 12 weeks of bad skiing, but there days when it's hotter here than it is in Florida), and I knew it was going to be hard keeping up with the stealth requirements I had imposed on myself, and as well, I had become somewhat emboldened by reading other people's stories here. 

Jumping off the high-dive board was taking a big chance, but I'm glad I did it, because it is dramatically easier to live a life where I'm not hiding my underwear from the person I share a bed with. So you leading with discussing your idea with your significant other is a smart idea, and I wish you good luck. You may find that after a month, you don't want to go back. 

[Little Sherri]

On another topic, I am astounded by the latest in disposable diaper technology offered to the actual little people of the world. As I mentioned previously, I decided to experiment with usinga  Pampers Baby Dry size 6 as a booster, essentially, in my daytime diapers, which are quite slim, but which I thought could do with a bit more capacity, and also, strictly from a preferences category, lack some of the bulk between the legs that my bigger diapers have. Well, the Pampers don't add much bulk- they are astonishingly thin when dry, seeming almost like a sheet of paper towel laminated inside cloth-covered plastic. So I was a bit dubious as to what, if anything, they'd add in terms of capacity, thinking that instead, they might act like a sluice, with possibly catastrophic results. Well, I should not have doubted the mighty Pampers. 

I ended up spending the afternoon and a good part of the evening yesterday with a buddy, working on a hellishly-detailed home improvement project that took way more time than it should have, and I was in a daytime diaper under a onesie, under my jeans and shirt. I hadn't planned to be there that long and hadn't brought another diaper with me - I was 5 minutes from home, after all. So, I was using my diaper very cautiously, because it had attained a never-before experienced bulk with the Baby Dry in there, and after I was done and home, I decided to press the limits, since I was on safe ground, and I wanted to know exactly what I had discovered - perpetual motion? The 100 MPG carburetor?

I wore that diaper combo until just before I went to bed, and the results were comical - it bulked up like something from Bambino or a Rearz Safari, and still, it didn't leak. (I should mention that I had lightly perforated the cover of the Pampers, so the workload was split between it, and the Prevail it was in). Apparently diaper technology marches forward; I guess that, unlike those of us raised in Pampers from the 1980's, today's preschoolers don't necessarily want to be continually reminded that they're wearing diapers. If I could put one of these things on, I imagine that they'd feel like you weren't wearing anything, at least until they were a bit wet. 

[DL-Boy]

47 minutes ago, Little Sherri said:

On another topic, I am astounded by the latest in disposable diaper technology offered to the actual little people of the world. As I mentioned previously, I decided to experiment with usinga  Pampers Baby Dry size 6 as a booster, essentially, in my daytime diapers, which are quite slim, but which I thought could do with a bit more capacity, and also, strictly from a preferences category, lack some of the bulk between the legs that my bigger diapers have.

Welcome to the world of baby diaper stuffers!  You may find that based that unit price per ounce of capacity will be better with #5 diapers rather than #6.  You get so many more size 5s in a package than size 6 and although they don't hold as much, they still work remarkably well.

[Little Sherri]

I'm once again copying over some material from other threads, just to keep this as one continual "record" of my adventure so far...

In response to speculation from a member about the probability of us 24/7 "diaper-nauts" eventually losing command of our plumbing:

A complete accidental wetting during the day still has not occurred as far as I can tell - when one is wearing a modern nappy that is midway through it's usable service life, the question of if one has wet it from any particular moment to the next, is similar to the question about the fate of Schrodinger's cat. But up to now, I've never put on a dry diaper and then been surprised to find out that I've wet it at some point, other than if I'm wearing it overnight. 

However, I did have an experience again this past weekend that I've had a couple of times before, and that was a bit disconcerting; I felt an urge to go, so I did what I usually do, and provided clearance to drop the gates. I happened to be standing in front of our bathroom sink, brushing my teeth - and, as discussed previously, this timing is not uncommon. Once I finished brushing, I decided to test the bulk of the front of my diaper via a quick pat, and when I put my hand there, I could feel "activity" - the motion of liquid. I was not pushing and I did not feel like I was going at all. I had a quick look, and I was indeed producing a small continual trickle. Once I was staring at it, I became aware of it, but up until that moment, it seemed that, having initially "allowed" a transfer to commence, the works down there had gone on autopilot and stopped reporting up the chain of command. 

 

In response to a conversation about how often and why I wore diapers during the day as a kid:

I didn't wear during the day very often really; however, when I did, it made an impression on me, resulting in more vivid memories than the hundreds and hundreds of nights that kind of run together, and that I can barely recall, when I put my diaper on maybe a half hour before going to bed, and took it off when I got dressed for school the next day. On weekends, I tended to stay in it longer if we weren't going anywhere in the morning - I have no idea why I didn't just take it off as soon as I got up, other than to suspect that even then, I actually liked wearing them, at least on my own terms, so I recall occasions where one of my parents would say "it's time to get dressed", and point to my diaper, if I got caught up in video games or whatever, and it was 11 in the morning and I was still in sagging Pampers. I would use the toilet after I woke up - I'd pull down the front of the diaper to have a pee. It just seemed like a lot of work sometimes to trudge upstairs, select clothes, and put my diaper into the pail. But I used to also feel that way about taking showers. I think it relates to anything one is compelled to do by someone else as a kid. It all feels like a chore. 

I've written before about wearing them if we were going on long car trips or flights, and one train journey that I recall - anywhere that I might fall asleep during the trip, or, when we were going to be arriving late somewhere. Sometimes I wore them during the day at the cottage if we were waiting out bad weather - in that case, it wasn't because I needed to have a diaper on for any reason; it was just that we were often only up there for 36 - 48 hours, and usually spent entire days in bathing suits, so often the extent of my wardrobe would be what I wore up there, and some pajamas stuffed into a bag with whatever toys or books I wanted to bring. I had a toothbrush, bathing suits and a box of diapers up there, and I'd usually wear a diaper on the way up and back, because both trips tended to reach their terminus at around bedtime. 

Other than the above, there were the odd days when I stayed home sick from school, and spent the day lazing on the couch, where I'd probably just have another one to put on, when I took my overnight diaper off. But as to if there were days when, apropos of nothing, my overnight diaper was swapped for a fresh one, and I just ran around the house all day, and we weren't eventually going on a journey, or something like that, the answer is no, not that I can ever recall. 

[oznl]

On 3/5/2020 at 1:59 AM, Little Sherri said:

I'm once again copying over some material from other threads, just to keep this as one continual "record" of my adventure so far...

In response to speculation from a member about the probability of us 24/7 "diaper-nauts" eventually losing command of our plumbing:

A complete accidental wetting during the day still has not occurred as far as I can tell - when one is wearing a modern nappy that is midway through it's usable service life, the question of if one has wet it from any particular moment to the next, is similar to the question about the fate of Schrodinger's cat. But up to now, I've never put on a dry diaper and then been surprised to find out that I've wet it at some point, other than if I'm wearing it overnight. 

However, I did have an experience again this past weekend that I've had a couple of times before, and that was a bit disconcerting; I felt an urge to go, so I did what I usually do, and provided clearance to drop the gates. I happened to be standing in front of our bathroom sink, brushing my teeth - and, as discussed previously, this timing is not uncommon. Once I finished brushing, I decided to test the bulk of the front of my diaper via a quick pat, and when I put my hand there, I could feel "activity" - the motion of liquid. I was not pushing and I did not feel like I was going at all. I had a quick look, and I was indeed producing a small continual trickle. Once I was staring at it, I became aware of it, but up until that moment, it seemed that, having initially "allowed" a transfer to commence, the works down there had gone on autopilot and stopped reporting up the chain of command.

I don't know either but I intend to find out, and document it for posterity.  I've been thinking about this.  Like yourself, I'm not sure I've ever actually involuntarily voided (completely) in my nappy during the day but like nights, it's starting to get blurrier.  There has been some dampness here and there.

I *do* know that whilst the decision to void remains mine (at least during the day), the mode of voiding is now quite abnormal and that's completely outside of any conscious decision.  The flow rate is appalling, voiding is incomplete (happens in 2 - 3 installments) and doesn't finish neatly but rather dissipates into a protracted dripping that peters out.  I think that drip time is lengthening out and possibly explains subsequent damp patches.  It's reached the point where voiding in this fashion using a toilet would be frustrating and time consuming.

There also sheer thoughtlessness.  I micro-wet frequently and with no planning.  It's not surprising that sometimes I lose track of how wet my nappy is.

I suspect my bladder has shrunk too.  On nights I can recall, I'm stirring and wetting 3 - 5 times now.  Days I don't know because I pee a tiny bit every few minutes.

My PSA remains normal and there are no other symptoms so I'm putting this down to protracted time using nappies 24/7.

There's another change I noticed the other day.  On a whim, I tried to stop a void that had started (haven't tried this in several months at least).  It hurt, and I couldn't.  I just had to let it finish in my nappy.  Bad luck if you aren't diapered.   I still can't help thinking I could have stopped if I'd somehow tried harder but I've noticed that Mr Rationalisation is a regular visitor in my head.

[DL-Boy]

I may have said this in the past but during my morning routine I come out of the shower and shave and brush my teeth before putting on my daytime diaper, and 

on a few occasions, while running the water and brushing my teeth I have dribbled in the floor.  This isn't a prostate issue (either) but I think it's the Pavlovian response to the running water.  I realize that the leak is imminent when I feel the warmth coming from my bladder into my plumbing so I clinch quickly but it's usually too late to stop the leak completely.

[joemama]

I too have this experience.  I try hard to not pee, but when I get up my diaper is usually wet.  I get in the shower and after, I brush my teeth and deal with the other items of the morning.  I find many times I am dribbling without control.  I have mats in my bath that I can wash with clothes to keep the smell at bay. 

[Little Sherri]

 

On 3/5/2020 at 11:16 PM, joemama said:

I too have this experience.  I try hard to not pee, but when I get up my diaper is usually wet.  I get in the shower and after, I brush my teeth and deal with the other items of the morning.  I find many times I am dribbling without control.  I have mats in my bath that I can wash with clothes to keep the smell at bay. 

At this point, when brushing my teeth, I just always have a diaper on. I can stop it if I want to - there hasn't been a case yet where I couldn't - but it takes some concentration that I'd rather expend on something else. As soon as I step out of the shower and towel off, I put on a diaper, then do everything else - shave, brush teeth, trim nails, etc. It's much easier now that my wife is in the know; she can come and go as needed if we're both getting ready for something,  or ready for bed or whatever. 

Though when I'm at the gym, I'm never really stopped in my tracks by a compulsion to have a wee. Maybe it's the exertion. I always make a concerted try to empty myself before I take my diaper off, and I can usually do a 90-minute stretch without having to run back to the washroom. I am careful about sipping water lightly, though, whereas I used to guzzle it with abandon. As soon as I get back, I have a good tinkle in the loo, and then I shower and diaper up. I guess I should probably be peeing in the shower, to save water - I've read this is what we are supposed to do - but I don't clean my shower with either the frequency, or the harsh chemicals, that I use to clean my toilet, so I'm not convinced. 

[oznl]

7 hours ago, Little Sherri said:

Though when I'm at the gym, I'm never really stopped in my tracks by a compulsion to have a wee. Maybe it's the exertion. I always make a concerted try to empty myself before I take my diaper off, and I can usually do a 90-minute stretch without having to run back to the washroom. I am careful about sipping water lightly, though, whereas I used to guzzle it with abandon. As soon as I get back, I have a good tinkle in the loo, and then I shower and diaper up. I guess I should probably be peeing in the shower, to save water - I've read this is what we are supposed to do - but I don't clean my shower with either the frequency, or the harsh chemicals, that I use to clean my toilet, so I'm not convinced. 

As I change out of my nappy at the gym change room (they are individual, not shared) and back into another nappy at the end of my session, I'm only ever out of a nappy for around 45 - 50m.  I make sure that I've emptied as completely as I can into my nappy before removing it.  Outside of the odd drip or two into my underpants once I've first taken my nappy off, I've had no problem at all lasting this period of time but I'm pleased (and more or less instantly slightly damp) when I'm back in nappies after my shower.  I will hydrate regularly during my exercise session, particularly important during our "hot" time of year that runs between end of September and end of April.

One thing I've noticed is that pee production slows dramatically after a gym session.  I thought I wasn't hydrating enough (or more likely, just sweating out fluid) but a quick google showed some academic evidence that vasopressin (anti-diruetic hormone) is elevated in blood plasma in response to exercise.  I guess I'm not imagining it then.  If dependency continues to manifest and the gym session becomes a problem, I will wear a pull-up for it.  I've done this before through a work-out but to be honest, the pull-up sees little to no action.

As for peeing in the shower, I generally do it in my nappy immediately after the session as peeing in shared gym shower seems a little antisocial to me.  Having said that, from a healthy person, pee is clean (not sterile, but probably less bacteria-ridden than our local tap water) so providing there's a good rinse, there seems to be no bio-hazard with this at all so I'm probably over-thinking it.  When showering outside of gym, my bladder is generally empty when I remove my nappy so again, the tiles are safe for the 10m or so.

[Little Sherri]

I am cautiously going to report that I may have found a "17-hour diaper" in the Rearz InControl Elites. Let me explain: I work from home generally at least a couple of days a week, and sometimes, lately, for most of the week. My actual office is hundreds of kilometers from my home office, and I'm never there, basically, but I am out visiting customers. However, because the Apocalypse is imminent, the fifth horseman of which is a guy with a persistent cough who likes to shake hands, a lot of customers have put off site visits unless absolutely necessary, so I am home now more than ever.  

My "diaper day" typically starts the evening before, when I get back from the gym or otherwise call it a day, and head up for a shower, after which I put on one of my larger, plastic diapers, in preparation for eventually going to bed. By this point, my younger child is in dreamland, and my older one has mind-melded with her phone, or is studying, or both, and is rarely if ever seen. I can generally traipse about in an "indiscreet" diaper at this time of night - I'll throw some loose shorts over it if I need to head down to the kitchen. In the morning, my oldest is long gone by the time the rest of us emerge, and my youngest likes to test the limits of how quickly a human can dress themselves, eat, brush their teeth (she claims she is doing this), and run out the door, so my contact time with her is minimal as well, since I'm, as likely as not, already in my office checking emails before I head down to make a coffee (I call that my commute). 

If my overnight diaper isn't sodden, which it often is not, particularly if I returned from the gym the night before, then I'll generally stay in it for as much of the morning as I can get away with. I usually wear something over it at that point, as whereas being in just a diaper in our bedroom at the end of the night does not seem to vex my spouse, a couple of times when I have experimented with walking around in just a diaper (and a shirt) mid-day, I have caught the odd irritated glance from her. Right now, in winter, it probably is a little too obviously a case of me indulging in gratuitous diaper exposure, whereas maybe in the summer, when it's hotter, I can revisit my daytime attire covenant. 

My kids get home from school at about 3:15, so, at about 3:10, I generally change into a slimmer diaper than I typically wear to bed. If my overnight diaper isn't up to such a prolonged tour of duty, then I'll have to change up earlier, sometimes much earlier, and the eternal quandary at that point is, do I put on another diaper I enjoy padding around in, knowing it will be consigned to an early grave, when I have to swap it for a thin one, OR, do I just switch over to discrete big-boy diapers, earlier in the day than I really relish? 

The holy grail, a reliable 17-hour diaper, allows me to go from 10 PM until about 3 PM the next day without a swap. It's about 1:30 PM right now, and this Elite, while comically bulky, shows no signs of quitting. And the Velcro-style tabs are holding fast to what is now probably a 5-pound suspended load. 

As an aside, this is the time of day when I could lose track of if I'm wetting or not - everything feels the same down there, once the gates have been allowed to open, and I have been surprised on occasion to detect motion from a peripheral sensor, while the main fluid handling systems report no activity.  

[Little Sherri]

Well, and immediately after posting that I may have found a 17-hour diaper, my wife served asparagus with dinner. No 17-hour diaper today. I think I am gaining some insight into why Gerber doesn't make strained asparagus baby food. 

[Stroller]

45 minutes ago, Little Sherri said:

Well, and immediately after posting that I may have found a 17-hour diaper, my wife served asparagus with dinner. No 17-hour diaper today. I think I am gaining some insight into why Gerber doesn't make strained asparagus baby food. 

Ho ho ho.  I stopped eating asparagus when I went into nappies again.  It's been about the only down side, as I love asparagus.

...and if anyone doesn't know what we're talking about, just try eating a load of fresh asparagus then staying in your nappy for a few hours...