24/7 startups, and unexpected pitfalls?

[DL-Boy]

Or watch "Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me", when he was at "Roboto's factory and grabbed some asparagus conveniently placed next to the fountain that he was peeing in because he accidentally kicked the power cord out that ran the fountain...  The guard started sniffing the air as though something stunk.

[oznl]

On 3/12/2020 at 12:26 AM, 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. 

There is much to be said for adult's feeding their infants generic, low-flavor pulp whilst those same adults must deal with the outputs as well as the inputs.  I've abandoned my plans to conquer the world with chilli bean burritto flavored baby food.

On 3/12/2020 at 1:07 AM, Stroller said:

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...

That made me think, wouldn't it be a great name for an ABDL pub (if there were such a thing).  "Bye dear, I'm just popping down to the 'Asparagus and Nappy' for a quick pint!"

My wife hates asparagus and I can't recall touching the stuff since I went 24/7.  I think it may occasionally have appeared in dinners at bland corporate events but obviously not enough of it to have any memorable effect.

[BedWetMark]

On 3/11/2020 at 3:07 PM, Stroller said:

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...

I hate asparagus too. I love the taste of it, but there's something really off-putting about waking up to that asparagus smell, especially when I plan to sit around WFH in the same nappy. It's rancid. 

[Little Sherri]

Hi, folks - well, things sure have changed in the last few days, haven't they? Have there been any issues with diaper hoarding? I figured with the national toilet paper shortage, diapers would be next. This being an enteric virus... oh wait, no, it's a respiratory virus, isn't it? So, why is there a tower of facial tissue at Costco, but no toilet paper...?

Rearz has ended order pick-ups, so if I want to put more diapers into stock, I'll have to order them for delivery, which I have not had to do up until now. The same would go for my daytime diaper supplier, I suspect, although they haven't announced anything. But I can't imagine them wanting the public walking through their doors. I did a quick inventory, and it seems like I'm sitting on (or will eventually sit in) about six weeks worth of diapers, if I keep up my regular habit of wearing heavier diapers overnight, and switching to slimmer ones during the day. However, having been requested not to visit customer's sites for at least the rest of March, I'm tending to get more mileage out of my overnight diapers, often staying in them until mid-day, depending on how wet they are when I wake up. If I can make an overnight diaper last from 10 PM until, say, noon, then I could probably get through the rest of the day with only a couple of changes, so lets say three diapers a day. If I put another big diaper on, I could probably go down to two, but then I'm chained to the house. I have more small ones in inventory anyway. 

The kids being home for the foreseeable future has forced me to make some wardrobe adjustments, because usually by the time they get home from school in the afternoon, I would have switched to a daytime diaper, which I can wear under anything. But given how long this Coronavirus situation may take to play out, and the that my daytime diapers last maybe 1/3 as long as my night ones, trying to stay in a night diaper, as discussed above, for as long as possible, requires more effort in order to keep my tush under the radar. I have a couple of pairs of jeans from when I was heavier that seem to work, but, going this direction has forced me to create a third diaper category: I shall call them Medium Duty. My medium duty diapers have been drafted from the ranks of my heavy duty (overnight) diapers, because, while they are plastic, and most have cute prints on them, they aren't so comically bulky that no amount of layering will disguise them. Rearz Lil' Monsters and Lil' Squirts, as well as BetterDry (and their Krinklz printed equivalents) fall into this category, whereas the Barnyards and Elites are, I think, too bulky to hide. Since my spouse is in-the-know regarding my preference for baby pants, I would normally just wear a t-shirt and maybe shorts or athletic pants around the house during the day, or even just a diaper below, not having to worry about being covert. Now, I'm throwing jeans on as soon as I jump out of bed, and a long-tailed shirt. 

However, that brings me to my NEXT topic - I'm not sure how covert I need to be anymore...

Yes, IT happened, again, although IT took a different form than last time. If you recall, dear reader (I assume someone, somewhere is reading this...), my eldest daughter burst into my bedroom a few weeks ago while I was wearing a t-shirt and a diaper, and I dove behind the bed like I'd been shot, and nothing was ever spoken of it again, but, there is almost no way that she didn't see what I had on, unless her mind protected her by inserting something into her memory that differed from the fact of what she saw, however briefly. Maybe she's wondering now why I wear clown pants around my room. But I doubt it. At least it wasn't a printed diaper, but, it was still a big puffy white plastic diaper. 

Well, with the kids home for the foreseeable future, my spouse decided to give them some chores to do, and she asked my younger daughter to go empty the trash cans. You can see where this is going. I normally don't leave diapers in our bathroom trash can, but I was in a rush to leave the house, so I had taken off a Bambino Magnifico and hurriedly deposited it onto said can, replaced it with a Breezer, and run out. The Magnifico is very distinctly a diaper - the print consists of dinosaurs in pink, blue and green, themselves wearing diapers. My daughter saw it, and immediately asked my wife why SHE had a diaper in the trash can. So, of course, she deflected, and said, no, that's not a diaper, and mind your own business, but my daughter is smart, and she remained unconvinced. My wife broke the news to me very unceremoniously, announcing when I went up to bed that my daughter had found "One of your diapers, and she thought it was MINE, so maybe don't throw any more diapers into open trash cans."

I fretted about it for most of the night, and finally decided on a course of action this morning. Background: my younger daughter inherited the bedwetter gene from me, and she wore pull-ups to bed regularly until she was about 9 (and she still wears one occasionally in solidarity with a good friend of hers who has to wear them whenever she sleeps away from home.) So, over a cup of coffee for me, and a cup of tea for her, I broached the topic in basically the same way I had with my spouse, when I opened up to her; I explained that I have a medical condition, which she already knew about (benign brain tumour), and that it sometimes caused me to wet the bed (also more or less true, although it doesn't happen very often), and so, much like she did when she was a bit younger, I wear protection, because it helps me sleep better and reduces the amount of laundry we have to do. I told her that, just like we didn't openly discuss her pull-ups, back when she wore them, so it goes that I would appreciate it if she wouldn't discuss mine with anyone either. She seemed to accept that. 

So, now I know that she knows. The question is, then, will she be more, or less attuned to detecting the diapers I wear during the day? Or, now that there's no mystery to it, will she not care anymore? 

Strange times, these. 

[oznl]

Mmm...  And now, like the mortality of Schrodinger's cat, you will be quantum-uncertain as to whether your diapered status remains unknown or is the talk of Instagram.

It's a little more delicate in my house.  There was ONE instance, quite a few months back, where I discovered washing from the line folded on the bed in the spare room, in refuge from an unexpected thunderstorm.  This washing included 2 pairs of my plastic pants.

It's possible that my wife did this but as a rule, she refuses to touch or see ANYTHING diaper-related (she will leave it on the line for me to deal with which is ok) but disturbingly, I *thought* she was out at the time.  I may have my timeline screwed up.  The remaining possibility, that a teenage daughter did it, seems however vanishingly unlikely as she is only dimly aware of the process whereby the used clothing she dumps on the floor gets laundered and is ideologically opposed to assisting her oppressors in any way, shape or form through chores or civility.

I just don't know...

If teenager DID, she hasn't told my wife.  I have no doubt that such an eventuality would be weaponised and deployed against me within minutes.  I have already been prosecuted for walking 4 meters up a hallway in the dead of night wearing a visible diaper.

[Little Sherri]

14 hours ago, oznl said:

If teenager DID, she hasn't told my wife.  I have no doubt that such an eventuality would be weaponised and deployed against me within minutes.  I have already been prosecuted for walking 4 meters up a hallway in the dead of night wearing a visible diaper.

I've been prosecuted for playing "diaper roulette" before as well, for example, by waltzing up the hall to my office to charge my phone just before turning in, or going downstairs to adjust the thermostat, which is programmable, but which my wife likes to subvert, leaving it holding a temperature that seemed like an improvement at noon, but that isn't ideal at midnight. My youngest is always dead to the world by that time, but my oldest might still be up, though loath to leave her room, generally. 

I've had another confirmation that "things have changed a bit" with respect to my tolerance for holding off on emptying my bladder; I was helping a friend with a project (which is how I could probably start at least every second or third story I have), and I was wearing a daytime diaper that was pretty wet, but I had another in my backpack. I had to finish tacking down some trim, then I was going to go change my diaper, and, not being sure if I might be exceeding the design parameters of the one I was wearing, I thought, I'll just hold off for a few minutes, finish my task, and then I can get into a dry diaper and I'm back in the game. About 20 minutes went by, and I suddenly felt an overwhelming urgency, a really notable fullness, so I thought, wow, I really need to go here, so I jumped up and dashed off to the loo, grabbing my bag on the way. I took the old nappy off and decided to relieve myself in the toilet, rather than half-soaking the new one right away. Opening up the gates felt great, of course, but, the volume subsequently discharged was far from epic, leading me to wonder what was going on down there. Would not allowing myself to dribble for, say, 30 minutes, now cause enough volume to replicate the sensation of being drunk and stuck in a moving car for an hour, when you left the bar knowing you already really had to pee? It's strange, though, because when I go to the gym and I'm out of a diaper for 60 - 90 minutes, I don't usually experience much urgency. Though I rarely drink beer immediately prior to going to the gym...

[Little Sherri]

So, how is self-isolation working for everyone? So far around here, it has allowed me to cautiously wear my medium-duty diapers throughout the day, which I am enjoying, but my largest ones have to be reserved for overnight - there is just no hiding a size-L Barnyard or Elite, even under over-sized jeans. The kids being home all the time means that I always have to have something on over my diaper, and usually an article of "day wear" - my pajama pants and other lounge-wear don't adequately camouflage my diapered status. I thought that I would be on here a lot, but someone is constantly coming in and out of my office - just now my daughter barged in to show me something she'd drawn. I may have to put a sign up on my office door, for, in addition to idle musings about my plastic underwear preferences, I also am sometimes on the phone with customers. 

In other news, my wife has been saying the "d"-word a lot more casually lately; we were talking about the hoarding of supplies, and she mentioned that she'd come across my diaper stash while organizing in the basement, and felt that I was adequately stocked for the moment. That conversation actually went fairly well - I was worried that if she ever really gave it a look, she might start asking questions about how much money I had tied up in baby pants. In another instance, I was bending over, leaning well into our wine cabinet in order to conduct an "end times" inventory, and she casually pointed out that my "diapers were showing" - my jeans had ridden down in the back. As an aside, I don't know if the word "diaper" really needs to be pluralized or not. I usually refer to my "diaper" or to "wearing a diaper", rather than "wearing diapers", whereas some people, my spouse included, treat the word more like "pants", for example. One wouldn't say that they were wearing "a pant". 

I'm rapidly coming up on the one year anniversary of deciding to try wearing diapers for a weekend, in preparation for what I thought might be a few weeks in diapers in the summer of last year. I embarked on this journey on the weekend of March 30th, intending at first just to go 24/7 for a weekend, then, I decided to try and see if I could stick with it for a couple of week days, and then a few, and then, by the following weekend, I realized that, first, I needed to buy more diapers, and second, that I really didn't relish the idea of ending my "experiment" yet, and going back to wearing boxers, and, third, that I needed to do some R&D and find a daytime diaper I could wear under anything. Since then, I've worn pretty much everywhere I've gone, except to the gym - day, night, workday, holiday, and in several countries and on two continents. 

So far, I still derive irrational joy several times a day from this adventure; I still get a thrill when I buy diapers, unpack them and put them away, as well as when I pack them for an errand or a trip, or just pull one out in preparation for a change. Lying in bed, reading a book, I still get a lift when I shift positions and hear crinkling or feel a slight dampness. I still debate whether to change, or let one ride for another hour; on the one hand, the feel of a good diaper, when it's damp, is unparalleled, but, on the other hand, a fresh diaper feels great. I still feel slightly electric whenever my spouse brings the topic up. So, as I close in on my one year "diaper-versary", I don't think that I'm going to be changing course. 

If I were asked to compile a wish list, I would first of all have to note that, amazingly, a lot things that would have been on it last year have been scratched off. One thing I do want to find is a medium-weight plastic diaper that I can wear under anything; I've grown quite used to my cloth-backed Prevails, but this year has taught me that I really prefer a plastic diaper, if I have the option.

Another thing I want to do is socialize with other like-minded (and like-attired) individuals, if I can figure out a "safe" way to do that, (once the apocalypse is over). Ideally, without romantic overtones - I just want to communicate with people on this wavelength, but I'm not looking for my first gay tryst, or to test my appeal on women twenty years younger than I am...

 

[oznl]

Depending whether the 4 week sabbatical I took back in March 2019 is counted, I'm currently either coming up to a bit over 14 months or up to 12 months in the 24/7 zone.

A lot has changed, not the least of which is that now sometimes I wet the bed, a habit that I discarded 52 years ago.  I suspect that if I didn't have a nappy on (absolving me of any need to attempt control), I might end up wetting myself during the day as well.  I just don't know.  My plan to test myself has been shelved as my partner's trip and the associated, enabling absence has been cancelled due to COVID-19 travel restrictions. 

Like yourself, I have absolutely zero interest in coming back out of nappies although sometimes they do frustrate me a little.  It's not exactly as convenient as you'd think.

I've no interest in attempting to bind future-me by resolution.  I'll just continue to take it one change at a time.

4 hours ago, Little Sherri said:

Another thing I want to do is socialize with other like-minded (and like-attired) individuals, if I can figure out a "safe" way to do that, (once the apocalypse is over). Ideally, without romantic overtones - I just want to communicate with people on this wavelength, but I'm not looking for my first gay tryst, or to test my appeal on women twenty years younger than I am...

Have a look at the "Signal" app.  Open source, secure, supports VoIP and video.

[Little Sherri]

Similar to what @oznl said on his post on his entertaining ongoing thread about adapting to a 24/7 lifestyle, I have also found that I seem to be able to get through a 24-hour period wearing just two diapers, if I choose the right diapers. This initiative is somewhat complicated by the fact that my whole family is also home, 24/7, so my biggest diapers just aren't making an appearance these days, because there is no hiding them. I have become a bit more risque, though, about wearing "bigger" diapers around the house during the day. I was in a Lil' Monsters for the latter half of yesterday, switching over to a BetterDry at bedtime that, amazingly, I still have on right now. Although  I'm not sure I could walk confidently through the main floor of the house in it, as I did this morning, any longer, because it has bulked up tremendously. It looks like I have a deflated football jammed down the front of my pants currently. But, no leaks. 

As has become my habit, I will transcribe a conversation had elsewhere over to this thread; the person I was chatting with asked me what it was like to wear diapers during the day, growing up, and did wearing them now have a similar feel?

First, I have to point out that I didn't wear diapers during the day very often as a kid, unless you count maybe the first hour or two of the morning. Some weekends, I probably squished around in a nappy a bit longer than was strictly necessary, but I had a nosy sister, and sooner or later, she'd poke fun at me or make an announcement about it, so I tended to eventually dress for the day. Most days my nappy came off sometime after breakfast and didn't go back on until sometime after dinner. 

So, it wasn't very common for me to have a diaper on as I went about my day. I'd say it probably happened 10 or 15 times a year at most, generally pertaining to circumstances where we were travelling somewhere. If we were expecting to arrive where ever we were going late in the day,  I tended to prefer to already have one on, rather than getting one on while in unfamiliar territory. There were a couple of instances where I was getting changed for bed in someone else's bedroom, for example, where I had a near-miss on getting seen in one, or where one was carried up to me through, I pictured, a room full of observant relatives. Or, if we were going to be in the car for a really extended period of time, then I'd have one on, because I tended to sleep in the car, and, as previously noted, I tended to pee when I slept. So, there were trips where we drove around the East coast or down South, over several days, and if the day was going to be spent mostly in the car, I'd probably have had a diaper on. There was also the odd time when we were babysat by someone other than my older sister, where I'd generally request that the whole sleep-underwear situation be dealt with well in advance, rather than having to traverse it with some bored teen from up the street standing over me. 

As to whether or not it felt then like it does now, yes and no, I would say. I wear diapers voluntarily now, which is fundamentally different, although,  to a point made by @oznl, I guess I don't know how long it will remain completely voluntary. But so far, so good, on that count. I did experience the same anxiety back then as I do now, occasionally, when I wonder if what I have on below is really as invisible as I imagine it is, or those moments when you forget yourself and bend over for something, and then suddenly have to suppress the urge to tug the back of your shirt down, or have a quick feel to see if the waistband is sticking up out back.

However, back then, it was pretty rare for me to hang around in a wet diaper, other than maybe for a bit in the morning, because I generally didn't use my diaper unless I fell asleep and had an accident in it, so most of those days, I would be aware of the bulk and the heat and maybe the sound of the diaper, and it's tendency to rub the inside of my thighs, etc, but it wasn't wet very often. If I had more than the slightest of wettings in the car, I'd ask for a new one, and if we hopped out at a rest stop, I'd go pee in the restroom like everyone else, except only in a stall that I could close. Whereas now, my diaper is at least a bit wet almost all the time, and I often try to ride one out (if you'll forgive the imagery) until it is close to complete failure. Back then, if I had a soggy diaper on, I asked for another. I wasn't buying them. 

I'm not entirely sure of this part either: the bulk. If I had a time machine, maybe I could go back and experience what it was like to be 7 or 8, and wearing the Pampers of the day, but I suspect that they didn't feel as bulky back then, as any of the diapers I generally wear now, because even the largest ones were designed for probably a 3 - 4 year-old, and by the end of my diaper days, I was testing the limits of how far the waist could be stretched and how much tension the tapes could handle, because my mom would be damned if she was going to start buying adult diapers, or go back to cloth. So, the stuffing was probably designed to handle the emissions of someone weighing 30-40 lbs, not 60 or 70,  IE, there probably wasn't that much of it. Correct me if I am wrong about this, if any of you have a better memory than I do of what diaper technology was like back then. I have thought about trying to buy a pack of vintage Pampers on eBay or elsewhere online, just to open one up and see exactly what was in them, back then. But I assume that the makers of BetterDry or Bambino's or Rearz believe that their customer base either likes feeling their diapers, or are really, really reliant on them, ergo, they don't skimp on the stuffing. 

One thing that has remained the same is that my hands are periodically drawn to the diaper, when I'm wearing one. Not in salacious way (and certainly not back then); I just used to be prone to sticking one hand down and idly fingering the tapes or gliding a fingertip over the plastic at the top, the way some people can't stop playing with their beard, and, these days, it's the same - if I'm reading a book or watching TV, I treat the side of my diaper like the neck of a guitar sometimes. Deep down, I suspect that I liked being in a diaper then, just as I like being in one now, but now, I'm more at peace with it, whereas back then I was more conflicted, and carried more of a whiff of shame about me. 

 

[Little Sherri]

Update: I've think I'll go back to occasionally wearing my daytime nappies, because trying to operate on a two-nappy-a-day schedule was discouraging exercise, and since all I have to do these days is sit in my office, or on my couch, and mine our kitchen for carbohydrates, my waistline is in danger of expanding, and that would cause me nappy problems, in that right now I have some clothes that are a bit big on me, and do a great job of disguising a diaper bulge. If I expand myself sufficiently to fit those clothes perfectly, then I'll have to go back to wearing only the slimmest of diapers during the day. So, I am going back to wearing slim diapers intermittently, to avoid being sentenced to wear them continually. 

How so? Glad you asked. I've gone the last few days wearing a medium-duty plastic diaper like, say, a Lil' Splash, or, at the larger end of medium (and I'm slicing the pie very thinly, I know), a BetterDry, which starts life as a diaper of medium bulk, but expands heroically throughout its use. I put one on just before bed, typically stay in it until early-to-mid afternoon the next day, and then I put another one on that takes me to bedtime. A variation on this might have my afternoon diaper remain viable for bed wear, but then, I pretty much have to change as soon as I get up, because by then it will be sagging notably upon the transition from horizontal to vertical operations. But, since I am only changing my diaper in the afternoon, when I'm working, or right before going to bed, I'm tending to skip my run, because I'm not one for taking off a wet nappy and then putting it back on after taking a shower, which I do after said run. SO, by switching to a slim diaper once my bedtime one throws in the towel mid-day, I typically need to change my diaper again by 5 or 6 PM, which is the perfect time to go for a run. I run, put on another slim diaper, then get changed again just before bed, which these days is about 12:30 or 1:00 AM, since everyday has taken on the feel of a Friday in these strange times. 

[oznl]

All gyms are closed by Government emergency order down here and we're being asked not even to go outside unless it's urgent (this isn't mandatory today but ask again next week).

The combination of 100% sedentary existence and Costco cashew nuts is a lethal one.

I'm bear shaped with going to the gym 4 times per week.  God knows what will happen after a month of this.  I can practically feel my muscles going floppy.  My wife tried to buy some weights at a local sports store but the hoarders got in first.

I'm also a bit wary of the two-nappy-per-day diet for another reason: skin breakdown.  It hasn't happened yet and it might be my imagination but when I woke up this morning having marinated in the same nappy for 12 hours (I think I remember using it last night), the water in the shower seemed remarkably nice on the skin in my nappy zone...  I'll keep an eye on that. 

[Little Sherri]

16 hours ago, oznl said:

I'm also a bit wary of the two-nappy-per-day diet for another reason: skin breakdown.  It hasn't happened yet and it might be my imagination but when I woke up this morning having marinated in the same nappy for 12 hours (I think I remember using it last night), the water in the shower seemed remarkably nice on the skin in my nappy zone...  I'll keep an eye on that. 

I've thought of this as well, because I have had some run-ins with nappy rash in the past. I have a treadmill in my basement so I have no excuse not to get some exercise at least a couple of times a week, but, yes, the Costco jar of cashews is available on this side of the planet, too, and I do succumb to its siren song on occasion. 

I've resolved to go two diapers one day, and three the next - it offers the best rationing of my "preferred diaper stock" and my considerably-more-plentiful-and-less-expensive day diaper stock, while still lending these dark times a silver lining, however slight, and, it allows me to run two or three times a week without mourning the loss of a good diaper taken too soon. 

[DL-Boy]

Mentioning chafing and skin breakdown, last night while cleaning up I found the oddest thing and I wonder if it is due to the poly-backed diapers I've been wearing almost exclusively...  My left leg, near the fold, outside of my diaper zone developed a skin colored "skin-tag" or flap, about 0.5 cm in length, almost like a deflated blister.  I trimmed it off with my cuticle trimmers and doctored it with my shaving kit's styptic pencil to stop it any bleeding.  This morning it was just a small brownish line in the skin, almost half a centimeter in length.

I guess the constant rubbing and chafing of the poly backing caused skin irritation to create this (pseudo)-skintag.  Anyone else seen one of these in the diaper area?

[oznl]

1 hour ago, DL-Boy said:

I guess the constant rubbing and chafing of the poly backing caused skin irritation to create this (pseudo)-skintag.  Anyone else seen one of these in the diaper area?

Yes, anywhere there's friction.  I seem quite prone to them.  I've had one or two down in the diaper-zone.  The other hot spot is where my shirt collar rubs against my neck skin for some reason.  That's actually were MOST of them happen.

They are strangely satisfying to cut off but bleed profusely.

[Little Sherri]

Well, I think this pandemic-sponsored social isolation has caused my wife to crack. As I write this, I am inescapably taped into a diaper, and she's the one who taped me into it, sort of. This marks the first time she's physically interacted with one of my diapers, other than to move a new one off the counter or the edge of the bathtub if it's been in her way, and certainly the first time she's touched one that I was wearing at the time. Here's how it went down:

I was in my bathroom this morning, having taken off my overnight diaper, which was actually completely dry, shockingly, so I decided to put it aside and wear it again tonight, since it was a Rearz Barnyard, which is too big to wear stealthily during the day, when everyone is home. I could have thrown on my biggest pair of jeans and maybe worn it for a bit, but unless I planned to sequester myself in my office like I often do during the week, someone was probably going to notice the "crunch crunch crunch" of me walking about, or that the rear of my jeans seemed to contain a deceased cat of a medium build. So, I decided to put on one of my Depends, which fall into the category of awful diapers, unless you modify them in two ways - first, you need to tuck a booster or a baby diaper inside, as this seems to at least triple their capacity. Second, you need to create a landing zone for the tapes with clear packing tape, or white duct tape, because otherwise the tapes will shred the cover if you try to remove them. Which would be fine given their intended capacity - they seem to have been designed to last about 45 minutes. But put a Pampers Cruiser in there, and now there is the possibility that the wearer might need to un-diaper themselves to answer nature's other call at some point, and then resume baby status afterwards. 

So, I modified said Depends with packing tape, and then put the diaper on, but when I was messing around with snugging it up, after standing  up, in our bathroom, one of the tapes I applied mysteriously pulled the packing tape up from the diaper's front panel a bit, which never really happens. At that moment, my wife walked in, and I started tearing myself a small piece of packing tape to repair the malfunction, trying to do it one-handed, which was awkward. My wife said "Want some help?", which I was surprised by, and took to mean help with tearing the tape off the roll, so I said "Sure". With that, she took the roll, withdrew about an 18-inch strip of tape, and tore it off.  I was about to tell her that was WAY more than I needed, when she said "Hands up", so I pulled my other hand almost reflexively away from where I was holding the diaper together, and she bent down, stretched the giant piece of tape between her hands horizontally, and applied it to the front of my diaper from side to side, over top of the tabs, and then she gave it a swipe with one hand to make sure it was down, said "You were over-complicating things", and walked out. 

I was flabbergasted and a bit electrified by the whole interaction; it reminded me of times when, as a kid, I had a diaper on, and had to take it off to go #2. Back then, Pampers did not have tapes that could be re-positioned without either leaving their glue behind, or tearing the diaper, so my mom would repair the diaper afterwards, generally with Scotch tape. But she never ran the tape completely from one side to the other. I'm not sure if I want my wife in a "mommy" role or not - part of me is intrigued with the idea that she might sometimes be willing to play around with respect to my diapers, but then again, my relationship with my mom never anything but parental, whereas my relationship with my wife... well, you get the point. 

So, here I sit, at 2:00 in the afternoon, firmly and inescapably taped into my dampening diaper by my wife. Well, I could cut myself out if I had to, I guess. I'm probably going to leave it on for as long as I can. This also very clearly indicates that she fully understands that I am wearing diapers all day, since she taped me into this one at about 11:00 in the morning...

[Little Sherri]

Follow-up: I marinaded in that diaper for most of the rest of the day, thinking that she might follow-up with a question on its status at some point, or offer to assist with another one, but, alas, no more was spoken of it. I even briefly (pun intended...) considered leaving it on until later in the evening, after the kids retired, when I could walk about in it, but I realized that by then, it would have been so desperately sodden that I would have had to put plastic pants over it, and also carry a changing pad with me everywhere I went, and, at the end of all that, the odds were pretty good that she either would not have noticed, or, would have been disturbed. Still, it was an interesting episode. 

In other news, I was once again dry when I woke up this morning; I had spent a bunch of time yesterday assembling furniture, and was uncharacteristically uninterested in imbibing afterwards, possibly because of a sixth sense tingle I felt that drinking for the 7th or 8th night in a row was not entirely necessary or good for me. I have to admit that I've been treating every night like it's Friday night lately. So, when I went to bed, I feel immediately into a deep sleep, and I didn't have to "go" badly enough to have been roused by the need, apparently. When I woke up this morning, I had a mighty need to go, but I did some quick math in my head about how the day was likely to play out, and realized that soaking my overnight diaper would be gratuitous, since I'd have to take it off in order to operate below the radar once everyone else woke up. 

This is the second time in three nights that I woke up dry, providing some data back on an unintended experiment entitled "Am I wetting involuntarily at night?" The answer seems to be no. I'm also surprised at how well I'm able to sleep, considering that during the day, "holding it" for half an hour can cause little stabs of urgency these days. I'm aware that the endocrine system puts out a "reduce urinary output" order when you fall asleep, but I'd always assumed mine was faulty, given that I spent the first 10 years of my life seemingly peeing more when I slept than I did when I was awake, and that I was compelled to begin wearing diapers overnight again (although not at all reluctantly, this time) when I wet the bed a couple of times 2 - 3 years ago. Maybe ethanol has more to do with my nocturnal calls of nature than I was giving it credit for. 

[oznl]

Well clearly some degree of acceptance there.  None of that this side of the equator i'm afraid.  On Sunday i washed my cloth nappies.  I put them on the "long" and "hot" cycle so the machine takes awhile.  I went and did some other chore whilst the machine did its thing.

Whilst I was gone, it went out of balance on the spin cycle and so decided to stop spinning and start beeping.

When I came back inside she intercepted me more or less immediately to tell me that my "things" in the washing machine were out of balance in the same tone of fear and reluctance that I imagine she would use to inform me that there was an annoyed and hungry leopard on the landing.  God knows how long it had been beeping.  How hard would it have been to simply open it, redistribute the (already washed) load and let the spin cycle finish?

12 hours ago, Little Sherri said:

In other news, I was once again dry when I woke up this morning; I had spent a bunch of time yesterday assembling furniture, and was uncharacteristically uninterested in imbibing afterwards, possibly because of a sixth sense tingle I felt that drinking for the 7th or 8th night in a row was not entirely necessary or good for me. I have to admit that I've been treating every night like it's Friday night lately. So, when I went to bed, I feel immediately into a deep sleep, and I didn't have to "go" badly enough to have been roused by the need, apparently. When I woke up this morning, I had a mighty need to go, but I did some quick math in my head about how the day was likely to play out, and realized that soaking my overnight diaper would be gratuitous, since I'd have to take it off in order to operate below the radar once everyone else woke up.

Whilst all for hedonism, I've so far managed to avoid making every week night a "virtual Friday".   Wednesday might be wobbly though.  It's very much a drinking world right now.  Alcohol is certainly a trigger for waking up wet with no memory how but the whole general degree of blurriness of when pee happens under the covers is progressing such that I'm no longer sure it's 100% to blame.

Amazingly, in one of the most outrageous pieces of bureaucratic over-reach into personal liberty that I've EVER seen in Australia (and there have been a few), the West Australian Government has introduced alcohol rationing for the citizens "own good" during the COVID-19 semi-lockdown...  I've never been more grateful not to live in Western Australia.

[Little Sherri]

12 hours ago, oznl said:

Amazingly, in one of the most outrageous pieces of bureaucratic over-reach into personal liberty that I've EVER seen in Australia (and there have been a few), the West Australian Government has introduced alcohol rationing for the citizens "own good" during the COVID-19 semi-lockdown...  I've never been more grateful not to live in Western Australia.

Good Lord, what do they consider to be a reasonable quantity per person per day? Or are they just trying to stamp out hoarding by only allowing a certain amount to be purchased per visit? Here, they decreed that liquor and beer stores were "essential services" (as are the cannabis dispensaries), and would remain open, like pharmacies and grocery stores, throughout the pandemic, granted with reduced hours. This may have something to do with beer, liquor and cannabis outlets tithing heavily to the provincial government, in these, the most costly of times, particularly for our public healthcare system. Liquor stores (in Ontario, called the LCBO) are in fact entirely owned and operated by the government; you can also buy beer there, and it's my preferred destination for beer because they let you buy them in single cans and stock a lot of craft offerings. Whereas the Beer Store, paradoxically, is a partnership of three massive global beverage conglomerates, each of which purchased a large Canadian brewery at some point, so until recently it has contented itself with vending cases of fizzy yellow macro-produced swill. Just in the last couple of years, they noticed that the only sector of the beer industry that is growing falls under the craft banner, so they've started offering a lackluster selection. But, fear not, even though the Beer Store (and cannabis stores) is/are privately owned, the price at which they can sell their wares is set by the government, so there is no discount to be had there, versus the publicly run stores, except that you get a discount if you buy cases of 24 of the same beer - and the discount is a pittance, half the cost of one beer, and in no way compensates you for then having to plow through 23 additional uninspired bottles of whatever 5% straw-coloured bilge froth you selected. The craft breweries don't offer cases of 24; most of them don't even sell 6-packs. I happen to have in front of me a can of an excellent white IPA from a local craft brewery (and no I'm not drinking yet, though it is past noon here...), which amply demonstrates why they don't offer 24 packs: they would cost $94.80 CAD. The good news is that, at 7% ABV, it should take the average bloke a bit of time to cut through 24. But why would you want to have 24 of the same beer in inventory, even if it is great? Life is short. 

[ozziebee]

It gets worse though, @oznl.  The Qld Govt announced the other day that all shops who had firearms dealers/armourers licences had to close immediately for "public safety".  One minister announced this was because they were worried incidences of domestic violence would increase as a result.  

So now they've linked the most heavily vetted people in Australia with domestic violence.  Yet they continue to allow bottle shops to remain open - the one thing that directly contributes to such violence...

[oznl]

Don't get me started on beer tax, excise increased TWICE per year in line with not with CPI but with a bizarre Government calculation that comes in nearly twice CPI meaning that in constant-currency terms, beer gets dearer twice a year.  Beer in Australia is now some of the most expensive in the world.  Yellow-fizzy-swill is about A$40 per 24 pack but a quality craft beer is approaching A$100 per case.  This is more about excise tax than it is hops.

We can't have cannabis in Australia.  Good Lord!  Have you not watched "Reefer Madness"???

2 hours ago, ozziebee said:

It gets worse though, @oznl.  The Qld Govt announced the other day that all shops who had firearms dealers/armourers licences had to close immediately for "public safety".  One minister announced this was because they were worried incidences of domestic violence would increase as a result.  

So now they've linked the most heavily vetted people in Australia with domestic violence.  Yet they continue to allow bottle shops to remain open - the one thing that directly contributes to such violence...

I flatly reject the premise that a legitimately purposeful resource should be banned, taxed or limited based on the premise that a very small percentage of the community might mis-use it.

People mis-use scissors.  Deal with the idiots and leave the general population alone.  If we’re truly fortunate, Darwinian selection will dial them out anyway and the rest of us can move on :-P

I accept the need for some degree of gun control in our community but by the same principle, closing down stores on the assumption that people will start shooting at each other because of cabin fever is insulting and reflects the same intellectual poison behind rationing alcohol in case a handful misuse it.

The nanny-state culture is self-perpetuating.  Governments tend to expand themselves and an infantilised and dis-empowered population under their all-knowing control gives up on resilience and personal agency replacing those values with expectation than an all-knowing Government will provide.

  We see that now with a critical mass ever-more baying for this and that to be "banned" and more regulation in a pointless drive to de-risk life by legislation and control.

Idiots prosper and the self-reliant end up ranting at the ABC news.  We need a “Boston Tea Party” down here, now.

Ok, back to diapers now…

[Greybird]

59 minutes ago, oznl said:

Don't get me started on beer tax, excise increased TWICE per year in line with not with CPI but with a bizarre Government calculation that comes in nearly twice CPI meaning that in constant-currency terms, beer gets dearer twice a year.  Beer in Australia is now some of the most expensive in the world.  Yellow-fizzy-swill is about A$40 per 24 pack but a quality craft beer is approaching A$100 per case.  This is more about excise tax than it is hops.

We can't have cannabis in Australia.  Good Lord!  Have you not watched "Reefer Madness"???

I flatly reject the premise that a legitimately purposeful resource should be banned, taxed or limited based on the premise that a very small percentage of the community might mis-use it.

 

People mis-use scissors.  Deal with the idiots and leave the general population alone.  If we’re truly fortunate, Darwinian selection will dial them out anyway and the rest of us can move on ?

 

I accept the need for some degree of gun control in our community but by the same principle, closing down stores on the assumption that people will start shooting at each other because of cabin fever is insulting and reflects the same intellectual poison behind rationing alcohol in case a handful misuse it.

 

The nanny-state culture is self-perpetuating.  Governments tend to expand themselves and an infantilised and dis-empowered population under their all-knowing control gives up on resilience and personal agency replacing those values with expectation than an all-knowing Government will provide.

 

  We see that now with a critical mass ever-more baying for this and that to be "banned" and more regulation in a pointless drive to de-risk life by legislation and control.

Idiots prosper and the self-reliant end up ranting at the ABC news.  We need a “Boston Tea Party” down here, now.

 

Ok, back to diapers now…

 

I was brought up on an old fashioned concept of ‘common sense’. It went along the lines of ‘if I wet my pants, I should wear nappies’! Oh, no, wait, should I ask the government?

[Little Sherri]

We have firearms dealers here in Canada, and so far, there haven't been any limits placed on them that haven't also been placed on hardware stores, I guess because hammers and shovels are equally effective mayhem instruments, although, from a social distancing perspective, perhaps firearms would be more responsible. However, getting a pilot's license is easier than getting a permit to buy a firearm, so not that many of us avail ourselves of that right, and it does show in our homicide statistics, which are typically 1/2 of the US rate -  although the number involving firearms is higher here than in the UK or the EU, mostly because we share a very long and porous border with the most armed country in the world. 

But back to diapers. My family was once again presented with mute testimony as to what I have been up to under my trousers; my wife and kids decided to make an activity out of sorting and folding all the laundry. Normally, it gets sorted into individual baskets and then the respective owners of said laundry take it back to their quarters to put it away, generally by stuffing it randomly into drawers, in the case of my children. However, isolation can make anything fun; I've read books about prisoners in solitary confinement in foreign prisons who have wiled away years patiently training insects or counting grains of sand. So, they put a movie on, and very carefully sorted, folded and piled up all the laundry on our bed, before calling me over to applaud the effort, which I did. However, as I surveyed the topographical map that resulted, I noted that there was a low spot - my boxer shorts. There were two pairs that emerged from two weeks worth of laundry. The gyms and martial arts studios being closed, that pile depicts the two times I went for a run.

That has me thinking... is it time to remove all the "big boy" underwear from my room, and maybe locate a couple of pairs in the basement by my treadmill, stashed with my boxing gloves and shin pads and such? Are they just athletic equipment at this point? I do very much wish that I could find a diaper or pull-up that I could wear while running, because I think that I would, at that point, dispose of the rest of my underwear entirely. I have already relegated them to a bin in my closet, next to where I put running shorts, their spot in my dresser having been taken over, of course, by nappies. 

That nappy drawer is the final staging area for diapers before they go on duty; it is fed from a pull-out shelf in our walk-in closet that invariably contains a bag of my daytime diapers, plus an assortment of nighttime, and hybrid day/night options, and that, in turn, is replenished from two basement shelves that hold four boxes, each of which would be big enough to raise a bunny in. I have cloth diapers and plastic pants on another shelf, behind sweaters I never wear, although I haven't been inclined to wear cloth diapers lately - with everyone home, there would just be no hiding them. As an aside, I'm impressed by those of you who wear cloth diapers as you conduct your daily lives; maybe I'm doing it wrong or have the wrong equipment, but on me, though silent, they are very, very bulky. And I still haven't sorted out why the last time I wore them, the plastic pants - my newest ones - developed such an affinity for the smell of ammonia that a run through the wash, and an overnight soak in vinegar, hasn't banished it. Meanwhile, the diaper itself came out of the wash smelling of a spring breeze. 

[Stroller]

2 hours ago, Little Sherri said:

As an aside, I'm impressed by those of you who wear cloth diapers as you conduct your daily lives; maybe I'm doing it wrong or have the wrong equipment, but on me, though silent, they are very, very bulky. And I still haven't sorted out why the last time I wore them, the plastic pants - my newest ones - developed such an affinity for the smell of ammonia that a run through the wash, and an overnight soak in vinegar, hasn't banished it. Meanwhile, the diaper itself came out of the wash smelling of a spring breeze. 

Maybe try some different cloth nappies.  Not sure what yours are like, but I find that folded flat nappies are very bulky and no use for daytime wear in public.  Velcro and side popper nappies with an extra soaker or two when necessary are less bulky.

As for those plastic pants, I find that it's the elastic that you have to concentrate on cleaning.  Mine have exposed elastic, so it's reasonably easy to get the elastic washed through.  Pants with enclosed elastic are much more difficult to clean, once wee has got into the elastic.  Perhaps that's what happened to yours.  I just rinse my pants in the sink in hot water, making sure I'm getting the elastic properly rinsed through, then I dry them with a towel, and that's it.  Occasionally I'll use soap, if the elastic's getting a bit grubby.  I've never had problems with them getting smelly.  (So far, he added, touching the table.)

[le Hollandais]

2 hours ago, Stroller said:

 

 I just rinse my pants in the sink in hot water, making sure I'm getting the elastic properly rinsed through, then I dry them with a towel, and that's it.  Occasionally I'll use soap, if the elastic's getting a bit grubby.  I've never had problems with them getting smelly.  (So far, he added, touching the table.)

Yes, same here.

[oznl]

5 hours ago, Stroller said:

Maybe try some different cloth nappies.  Not sure what yours are like, but I find that folded flat nappies are very bulky and no use for daytime wear in public.  Velcro and side popper nappies with an extra soaker or two when necessary are less bulky.

Yep.  Wearing cloth nappies a LOT lately because it's cheaper and has lower environmental impact and I'm seen by no-one below the waist. I'm wearing 60" x 60" terry towelling nappies in the Chinese fold.  They have amazing comfort, range and leak-proof qualities but they are bulky.

I can offset this a bit with an industrial-strength shaping pant, loose-fitting dark shorts and an overhanging T-Shirt but things are definitely a bit Teletubbie-shaped down there.

I have to call into our office today to collect a device and so I'll be changing out of my cloth night nappy into an ABU Simple.

I also have velcro Babykins diapers and they are (a bit) less, er, visual but I rarely use them.  They are hard to wash (prone to developing ammonia smells) and if the velcro gets anywhere near your skin, instant skin dramas.

5 hours ago, Stroller said:

As for those plastic pants, I find that it's the elastic that you have to concentrate on cleaning.  Mine have exposed elastic, so it's reasonably easy to get the elastic washed through.  Pants with enclosed elastic are much more difficult to clean, once wee has got into the elastic. 

Yes, again I concur...  The trouble is that with cloth nappies, I NEED enclosed elastic.  I have beautifully comfortable lycra-banded Babykins vinyl pants but with cloth they are useless.  The wet cloth wicks to the lycra which wicks to my pyjamas and finishes up in bed with surprising efficacy.  I hardly ever wear them but I suppose they have limited use with disposables.

You can use an enzymatic cleaner to kill the smell from wee-infused enclosed elastic bands but it's treating a symptom rather than a disease.

Uh...  The "Mahna Mahna" bells have just started for the day here (cross-thread-topic)...