24/7 startups, and unexpected pitfalls?

[Greybird]

1 hour ago, oznl said:

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.

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)...

My plastic pants problem is currently that I wash them with the nappies then hang them on the line to dry in the sun ...  big mistake, the elastic isn’t any more, just rather limp and leaky! My annual trip to NZ is usually 4/5 months but with this damn virus thing, I am here for longer. I always bring enough (Suprima 205s and 1312s) for the trip but now I need more. Plastic pants are a rarity in NZ but I’m not sure about ordering some other brand from Aus? Any ideas anyone?

[oznl]

21 minutes ago, Greybird said:

My plastic pants problem is currently that I wash them with the nappies then hang them on the line to dry in the sun ...  big mistake, the elastic isn’t any more, just rather limp and leaky! My annual trip to NZ is usually 4/5 months but with this damn virus thing, I am here for longer. I always bring enough (Suprima 205s and 1312s) for the trip but now I need more. Plastic pants are a rarity in NZ but I’m not sure about ordering some other brand from Aus? Any ideas anyone?

https://littles-downunder.com.au/

This guy does the high waist Gary plastic pants which work well over cloth nappies and he will ship to NZ I believe.  Air freight can be a drama right now though.  It turns out a surprising amount of freight went on passenger flights and of course, they are practically gone.  It's a bit "1857" down here right now.  He responds pretty quick on email if you wanted to check.

[Stroller]

9 hours ago, oznl said:

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 just don't have this problem.  My pants are simple thin polyurethane with narrow elastic sewn round the openings.  I wear the elastic next to my skin as that doesn't cause me any skin irritation.  It also sometimes gives me a warning if my nappy's too wet for safety, as I can feel dampness in the elastic - not at night of course.  But I don't get any wicking at all, not even to the elastic of the pants - that only gets wet if my nappy's sodden.  Nappy and elastic don't seem to make contact with each other under normal conditions.  Quite honestly I'm surprised it works so well.  But it does.

[Little Sherri]

Well, I have rocketed past my diaper-versary with nary a look back. March 30th was the day that I posted on here, looking for advice in preparation for possibly going 24/7 for a few weeks in the summer. From that day, which was a Saturday, if memory serves, I have been in a diaper most of the time, but I consider April 1st to be my real leaping-off point, because I had been in diapers for weekends before (and overnight pretty much continuously for about 18 months at that point). Whereas a weekday in diapers - THAT was a new challenge. I kept thinking I would abandon ship at some point, that some activity or insurmountable logistical issue would derail me, but, other than doffing my diaper when I go to the gym, nothing has. Since then, I have gone on business trips and vacations, across the country, the continent, and the ocean, packing only diapers, or vowing to find them along the way. Here I am a year later, wiser, more experienced, but generally just as damp as ever. 

I thought I would bore of this but in truth I have not. Even at my lowest moments, I always thought that if I took my diaper off, I would feel lower still. And at my highest moments, having a diaper on my "6" only heightened my appreciation. Have I felt absurd at times? Absolutely. But I feel absurd a lot of the time, anyway. Terrifying moments include contending with airport security while wearing "security", shopping for diapers in a country where I don't speak the language, and deciding to go out on a wing and a prayer, and tell my wife about my infantile underpants.

Probably the hardest thing I have had to do, while diapered so far, is stomp into my bathroom in the midst of a jolly good row with my wife, change into a diaper with teddy bears all over it (because it was the only one I had in there), and then reenter the fray with another good quip burning on the end of my tongue. Thankfully, rows like this are not a common occurrence, and to her credit, my wife engaged me on the topic at hand, and didn't mention or gesture towards my ridiculous underwear. 

I've had leaks, been trapped in my diaper by circumstances, had to fake going pee at a urinal in front of a colleague, because there was no way for me to undo my onesie discretely; I tucked the front of my shirt into my diaper once, I've had a couple of snow storms in my pants when an elastic let go and sodden fluff began migrating out. I've had a neighbour take a decidedly long and direct look at my lower half while I was walking past her with my dog (I think she knows something, although what she thinks she knows, I have no idea); I've had one daughter walk in on me, causing me to dive behind my bed like a stuntman - I still don't know what she saw - and my other daughter found a diaper in a trash can that I had to explain. I've walked a supermarket before discovering a crescent of wetness at the back of my leg, and I've swapped my office chair for a leather one, because it's my test lab for new diapers, generally, and there have been some unexpected results from time to time. I've even had my wife ask friends if my pants look too big, and, she once briskly taped me into a diaper with packing tape, thinking she was being helpful. I even wore a big crinkly diaper, under a costume, to a Halloween party at an ABDL outlet, which was both terrifying and thrilling, and which, as an aside, confirmed for me that there are many of us, and that many of us are a lot less shy than I am. 

What's the plan for the coming year? Assuming I survive this mini-apocalypse and don't run out of diapers, my plan is to soldier damply on, crinkle-crinkle-crinkling my way into the future, one diaper at a time. To paraphrase the credo sometimes used by addiction support groups, I don't need to be diapered forever, I just need to be diapered today. 

Thanks everyone for your advice and your words of encouragement. 

Cheers. 

[oznl]

TS Eliot told us “What we call the beginning is often the end.  And to make an end is to make a beginning.  The end is where start from”.

I’m not entirely sure what the rest of that poem was all about.  It went on a bit.  With more brevity, David Byrne said “We’re on a road to nowhere, come on inside”. 

I actually get that one a bit better.  It may indeed be a road to nowhere but it’s certainly a road less travelled.  I’ve never been in a traffic jam on this journey.

Presumably there are a bunch of readers who have been permanently diapered for decades laughing at us for thinking 12 months is a milestone.

What queer fish we are!

Happy birthday!

[Stroller]

Happy anniversary Sherri!  You're about a year ahead of me at night, but I'm about six months ahead of you during the day.  What a ride eh?

Edited April 7, 2020 by Stroller
I can't count...

[Little Sherri]

From the 'be careful what you wish for' file... after telling my wife about wearing diapers, and gradually expanding my self-imposed boundaries from plain white ones, to the point where I could wear printed diapers comfortably in front of her, and then cloth diapers with printed plastic pants, I did secretly harbour the thought that she might take more interest in them. I never imagined a world where she wanted to wear them, or help me wear them - that, I know, is not on the agenda, and I'm not completely sure in any case that I would want that. But I do get a bit of an exhibitionist "thrill" when they come up, however briefly (pun intended) in conversation, such as when she asked me if I needed her to pick some up for me at the drug store, or when she's made the odd unsolicited wisecrack about them, such as informing me that she gets priority for the bathroom in the morning, because "clearly you can wait." Or when I'm putting a pair of pants on over a diaper that I don't wear frequently, and I've gone over for a quick look in the mirror, she's said "you can't tell", or "too snug."

This week she announced that she had picked up something for me, and then pulled a big fluffy bath mat from a bag, a replacement for the one in our bathroom that lies beside our soaker tub. The one that had been there is about 6 feet long, and I've been using it as changing table for myself, but it's not particularly plush. I guess she figured out that that's where I self-diaper, and she spied a plusher option in a home store (before those stores closed... thanks, Coronovirus), so she bought it with me in mind, which was really nice of her, although, in truth, I wish I could just do it on the bed. But marriages need some boundaries and some mystery, don't they? Her watching me put a diaper one two or three times a day might unintentionally further erode some underpinning of our union that was already seeing some wear and tear. 

However, after having expanded my horizons to the point where I can wear any diaper I like in front of her with nary a glance, no pink seahorses or tan ponies can phase her, this morning I was undone, ironically, by a plain white diaper. Specifically, the tattle-tale wetness indicator on a white plastic Depends. I have a bag that I'm burning through - I picked them up on impulse when I saw them on sale for what worked out to less than $1 a diaper at a grocery store, and figured that, during this slowly-unfurling apocalypse, having extra diapers in stock, even low-rent ones, couldn't hurt. I think I've mentioned before that if I put a baby diaper in them, their capacity rises to "acceptable", and, they do kind of remind of of the Pampers I grew up in - white, no stretchy parts, plastic, rising higher out back but relatively low up front, and, the front waistband will fold over the top of the elastic of whatever pants or shorts I'm wearing, just like when I was a kid. 

Well, I wore one to bed, and it was only moderately damp this morning, so I went about my business brushing my teeth and such, while my wife got up to get ready for a doctors appointment. I grabbed a pair of jeans to throw on over them, since Depends are fairly loud under pajama or athletic pants, and of course the kids are trapped at home now,  just as we are, so I don't want to go crunch-crunch-crunch while I walk about. I hiked the jeans up and was about to zip them shut when she said "You're not going to change that?" I paused, and directed a quizzical glance at her - I wasn't entirely sure what she was talking about. She hasn't ever commented on or questioned the state of my diaper up to now. In past instances I've waltzed by her in an absolutely sodden cloth diaper, with nary a glance.

 "Eh...?" 

"I thought you'd want to change THAT"; she waived vaguely in the direction of my lower half. 

"These are clean. Why, is there a stain on the back or something...?" I still thought that perhaps she was questioning my choice of pants. 

"Your diaper - those lines on the front are all smeared. Doesn't that mean it's wet?"

There I was, not having even had a cup of coffee yet, possibly being thrust into yet another pivotal conversation. I had told her, originally, that I wore diapers to bed, and then I had let her discover, somewhat gradually, that I basically had a diaper on all the time these days, to the point where I've been undressing in front of her at the end of the day, wearing one diaper, and then retreating into the bathroom to put another, distinctly different diaper on. She has seen them in the trash, so I assume she knows that I'm not just wearing them because I like what they do for my silhouette, but, we've never talked about exactly what goes on inside them. 

"Yes, well, it's barely wet - I am going to change it later."

"Well, if I woke up in a wet diaper, I would change it, but, to each his own." 

With that, I zipped up my pants and hurried out to feed the dog, make myself coffee, and go check my emails. But I wonder now whether she's going to pay more attention to the state of my diapers, moving forward, and what, if anything, I think of that. I feel somewhat judged, but I guess I've brought it on myself. Though I have to point out one more time, just for a laugh, that I have stood in front of her in comically-swollen disposables that hung half way to my knees, and in pendulous plastic pants that were opaque with condensation, and their humidity never dawned on her. But a few smeared blue dashes on a 90%-dry Depends have piqued her interest.

[oznl]

Mmm, that's interesting.  I'm not sure how I'd feel about having my wife micro-manage my underwear ?  It may have been a probing question of course: "why are you not changing if you find yourself wet"?  As I recall there never has been a complete leveling with respect to personal motivations here.

This working from home thing is certainly moving my change times around as I've the luxury of conducting nappy changes based on explicit requirement rather than chronological opportunity.  If my night nappy was a BetterDry, it goes so far into the next day (as it does) that it's not worth using a "super-nappy" for the remainder of that day, I'll just use a Molicare until that evening (assuming I'm not in cloth, which I've been in a LOT lately).

[Little Sherri]

11 hours ago, oznl said:

  If my night nappy was a BetterDry, it goes so far into the next day (as it does) that it's not worth using a "super-nappy" for the remainder of that day, I'll just use a Molicare until that evening

I've noticed this myself as well, for my super-nappies, as you put it, which for me are BetterDry's, Rearz Barnyards and Rearz Elites. I am at the point where on days when I wear one of those to bed, I can coast through 3 or 4 PM the next day, then put on a Prevail that will take me through to the evening, when I can put on another super-nappy. The only issue is that those super-nappies get too big to hide, so with everyone home all day, everyday, and with the weather warming up (well, water is no longer a solid at ambient temperatures, anyway), I have to sequester myself in my office, or wear my absolute bulkiest clothing, to be able to operate in an at-75%-of-capacity super-nappy with some presumption of stealth. 

Yesterday I put a Rearz booster, my last, into on of those cursed $1 Depends plastic diapers, and forgot about it, almost to the point of disbelief. I put it on at about 8 AM and thought that it would take me through to the afternoon, but I got busy, kept going, stepped out of my office and went on an hour walk with my daughter and the dog along a nearby walking trail, got home from that, ate dinner, started tidying up, and realized that the diaper was hanging really low, but it was after 8:00 PM - could I stretch it through to when the kids go to bed, and then change into my night diaper? I made it all the way to 10 PM. As a side note to that, when I dropped my trousers and walked past my wife in THAT diaper, on the way in to take a shower and get a new diaper on, she made nary a comment, I guess because it was so wet that the wetness marks were completely obliterated, though it's swollen status was inarguable. 

 

[oznl]

Try those lard-compressing pants for day use.  They really do a lot for visual, as well as acoustic stealth...  To me, a BetterDry is a bit obvious on me even before it's seen any action although at night in bed, I don't care.

[Little Sherri]

I had intended to try that, but it would appear that my window has closed, given that now all of our shopping, with the exception of pharmaceuticals and groceries, needs to be accomplished via ordering ahead and curbside pickup. I am thankful to the fates that I had become a bit of a hoarder when it came to diapers, so I still have quite a lot of them in inventory, plus I have managed to pick up a few bags of terrible drugstore diapers that I've come across that have been on sale recently - when the cost is less than $1 a diaper, even if I can only get a few hours out of one, arguably I'm ahead. Despite all the "progress" I've made with my wife, I still haven't had to have a case of diapers show up at the door via UPS or whomever. Given that my entire family lives on the main floor of the house for a good part of the day right now, I'm not sure how it would go down when a 1 x 2 x 3 foot box arrived and was carried in. What's in the exciting giant box? Oh, nothing. Certainly not three bags of size-large printed diapers. Mind your own business. 

[BlakeJordan]

Try those lard-compressing pants for day use.  They really do a lot for visual, as well as acoustic stealth...  To me, a BetterDry is a bit obvious on me even before it's seen any action although at night in bed, I don't care.

How do you get around the compressing pants limiting capacity/absorption rate? I find that I’m much more likely to have a leak as the urine can get pushed out before it absorbs, or the max capacity is reduced, making them impractical a point defeating if I need to go a long duration while out without a change?

—I’ll admit though that I drink a ton of water because my body doesn’t hold onto liquids And has troubles maintaining its electrolyte balance- so it could just be me- lol!

[oznl]

7 hours ago, BlakeJordan said:

How do you get around the compressing pants limiting capacity/absorption rate? I find that I’m much more likely to have a leak as the urine can get pushed out before it absorbs, or the max capacity is reduced, making them impractical a point defeating if I need to go a long duration while out without a change?

—I’ll admit though that I drink a ton of water because my body doesn’t hold onto liquids And has troubles maintaining its electrolyte balance- so it could just be me- lol!

They aren't THAT tight on me so "compressing" is probably a slight exaggeration.  It's more the case that my nappy is held gently against me in places where otherwise, there might be an air gap between me and padding.  If anything, this seems (for me at least) to lower the incidence of leaks.  If I am in some position that I'm peeing on myself, it can't run very far across my skin before encountering padding whereupon it's absorbed.

I don't think absorption rate is really an issue because after more than a year of 24/7, I don't pee normally anymore.  It's high frequency/low volume drip and dribble kind of thing.  My nappy has just plenty of time to get used to changes in the weather.

I guess I also have typically male fat deposits.  My beer winds up forming a belly (lock-down is really not helping this)  but my bum isn't big at all.

It's still warm down here (although we are seeing 18C at nights now which is nice) and the humidity has drained away.  I've noticed that this has hit pee volumes.  I'm probably not hydrating enough as I worked yesterday (painting up a ladder).  I put on a molicare before dinner last night and come bed time, I just couldn't see the point of changing it and so pulled on some Babykins terry/waterproof pants over the top and slept in it.  By the next morning it was fairly wet with dark pee but had not leaked.  I would not normally get 12 hours out of a nappy like that.  I will make a point to drink more today.

 

[Little Sherri]

Well, as far as I've gone with my spouse to get to this point, you'd think I'd be fearless now, but I still had a "gulp" moment last night when I pulled a Rearz Princess Pink from my diaper drawer. I am trying to be pragmatic and equal-opportunity when it comes to my baby pants during this weird situation, so I resolved that I would wear whatever came to hand. I haven't ever bought a case of them, only a couple of sample packs at a warehouse sale almost two years ago now, but I'm trying to avoid reordering by mail, if there's a chance that I could pick up an order in a few weeks, so I'm drawing down all reservoirs, including the odds and ends. 

I've worn all kinds of absurdly printed diapers in front of my long-suffering spouse at this point, but those ones are really, really pink, so I thought that I would take the bull by the horns, so to speak, and announce it myself, rather than facing the possibility that she would say nothing, while quietly wondering if I were going to commence cross-dressing at some point (not in the plans...). So, I said "Hey, check these out - I had a couple of these in a multi-pack I bought on sale. I didn't want to waste them, so here I am."  She looked up and had a laugh, so at that point I felt free to just go about my business, and I picked up a book and got into bed and sat there for probably an hour on top of the covers, in my big pink diaper, feeling slightly self-conscious, but also relishing that I was able to wear that diaper and just go about my business. 

I'm going to be wearing it again tonight, because I tossed and turned until well into the early hours, finally fell asleep, and awoke to my alarm clock having had maybe a few hours sleep at most, and I woke up completely dry. Princess Pinks are definitely at the large end of the spectrum, and loud, and unlikely to go unnoticed under my trousers with everyone in the house, so I reluctantly took it off and put on one of the plastic Depends that are only good for a few hours. Changing out of it will give me an incentive to run this afternoon. 

That got me thinking about the timing of my diaper use in general, and whether or not it's "natural", or entirely artificial... let me explain. Particularly these days, I'm trying to cut down on the number I'm using, and being at home pretty much all the time tends to help with that, in so far as I can push a diaper to pretty close to its limits, since I'm down the hall from a new one at all times, and I'm never going to be on the highway three hours from here if I cross the line and dampen a pair of pants at the leg gathers or whatever. But, I have found myself timing out my diaper use, thinking, "Let's push this one a bit further, because then I could make my next one last until tomorrow.." etc. The one time that I can wee when I'm not in a diaper is when I'm going #2 - I take whatever diaper I'm wearing off for that - so I've occasionally held it for a bit to go to the washroom for the other task, thus preserving some diaper capacity. Not being able to wear my largest diapers very often, because everyone is around, is causing me to try to get by using two medium diapers, or a medium and two slims, in a 24-hour period. 

But this feels like I'm cheating a bit. I know that kids certainly don't pay any attention to the timing or rate of their diaper decimation - my eldest, for example, was famous for preferring a nice clean dry diaper before letting lose a double-barrel blast that rattled the windows and necessitated an outfit change. The incontinent presumably don't try to time out their use, although I imagine that for people who are only functionally incontinent, due to immobility, but who otherwise have control of their faculties, timing things out is probably critical. I recall chatting with a fellow here who suffered from some kind of immobility issue, and he had someone coming twice a day to change his diaper, once in the morning and once around dinner. If I were in his shoes, I would definitely be timing my deposits as best I could, so that I didn't have to spend most of an 8-hour day, or a 16-hour night, with a load on board. Though I'd imagine someone in that situation would discover, as I have, that it's best to give in to circumstance, and wet as you need to, because saving it up and unleashing infrequent deluges, probably quadruples the possibility of a leak. 

Although to be fair to myself, while I'm not being true, perhaps, to the habits of my pre-potty training days, if anything, I'm way more relaxed now with respect to using my diaper than I was when I was an older kid. Although I might have had a diaper on several hours before I went to sleep, depending on the circumstances, I practically never used it, back then, if I was awake, and I always tugged down the front of my diaper, and went pee in the toilet, right before I went to bed, although while it undoubtedly reduced the volume I could produce in the night, it rarely eliminated the eliminations completely. 

What do you folks do? Those of you who have a choice, anyway? Do you just go when the need strikes, and schedules and inventory be damned? Or are you strategic? Part of me wishes that I could just forget that I have a diaper on. I get there, on occasion; sometimes I'll go a couple of hours without it crossing my mind, although, when that happens, I often get tapped on the shoulder by the reality that my physical fitness in that department has suffered, and having forgotten my diaper, I've also forgotten to use it, and after 45 minutes or so, I'll get an urgent email from the nether regions. Whereas if I'm cognizant of the need to keep the taps open, then, paradoxically, I'll be almost unaware of what's happening, sometimes dribbling blissfully for minutes at at time, once I allow things to commence.

I used to think that I was headed back toward autonomous nighttime wetting for sure, but lately I have started waking up dry, on the nights when I sleep deeply. It's probably been a couple of months since the last time I wet my overnight diaper with no recollection of kicking off the process. So I wonder if maybe I need to be stricter about being less strict,  paying less attention to what diaper I'm wearing, and what time it is, and how long until my next one, and would it make sense to wet this one when I want to run in an hour and then take a shower, and I'm not going to strap back into a damp diaper after that, and all those other considerations. Maybe I'm overthinking this. 

[oznl]

It’s really been a bit over a year making sure that as far as possible, my bladder remains empty.  This has been a pattern of high frequency (every few minutes) / low volume (drips and dribbles) use that occurs as far as possible, irrespective of diaper status.

It is new-normal that my dry diaper gets dripped in a little quite soon after it is put on, sometimes even as I’m taping it up.  I’ve noticed that my capacity to partially switch off my continence in this way whilst still episodic, can at times get VERY good.   It’s almost like NOT leaking now sometimes requires active concentration, a reversal of the previous state of affairs.  I make no effort to control or store pee at all.  A reward for this is that diapers seem quite predictable in this use-case and even at the point of failure, they degrade gracefully, commensurate with their gradual dampening. 

I also have a range of different diapers of different capacities and will choose based on the likely terrain between this change time and the next one.  No sense wasting a “super nappy” for what is likely to be a 3 hour shift.

In short, I manage my diapers to deal with pee and I don’t manage my pee to deal with diapers.  What will be will be, hopefully I’ve chosen my garment wisely but the risks are low and if I’m out, I’m wearing insurance anyway (plastic pants).

The potential downside to this strategy is that I may well be provoking dependency.  I have no idea in what shape my continence is (for pee at least) because I simply haven’t used it.

As an aside, it's also been my experience that my degree of diaper habituation does fluctuate somewhat day to day or week to week.  It's not a straight-line thing but there is a trend.

[BlakeJordan]

Well, as far as I've gone with my spouse to get to this point, you'd think I'd be fearless now, but I still had a "gulp" moment last night when I pulled a Rearz Princess Pink from my diaper drawer. I am trying to be pragmatic and equal-opportunity when it comes to my baby pants during this weird situation, so I resolved that I would wear whatever came to hand. I haven't ever bought a case of them, only a couple of sample packs at a warehouse sale almost two years ago now, but I'm trying to avoid reordering by mail, if there's a chance that I could pick up an order in a few weeks, so I'm drawing down all reservoirs, including the odds and ends. 
I've worn all kinds of absurdly printed diapers in front of my long-suffering spouse at this point, but those ones are really, really pink, so I thought that I would take the bull by the horns, so to speak, and announce it myself, rather than facing the possibility that she would say nothing, while quietly wondering if I were going to commence cross-dressing at some point (not in the plans...). So, I said "Hey, check these out - I had a couple of these in a multi-pack I bought on sale. I didn't want to waste them, so here I am."  She looked up and had a laugh, so at that point I felt free to just go about my business, and I picked up a book and got into bed and sat there for probably an hour on top of the covers, in my big pink diaper, feeling slightly self-conscious, but also relishing that I was able to wear that diaper and just go about my business. 
I'm going to be wearing it again tonight, because I tossed and turned until well into the early hours, finally fell asleep, and awoke to my alarm clock having had maybe a few hours sleep at most, and I woke up completely dry. Princess Pinks are definitely at the large end of the spectrum, and loud, and unlikely to go unnoticed under my trousers with everyone in the house, so I reluctantly took it off and put on one of the plastic Depends that are only good for a few hours. Changing out of it will give me an incentive to run this afternoon. 
That got me thinking about the timing of my diaper use in general, and whether or not it's "natural", or entirely artificial... let me explain. Particularly these days, I'm trying to cut down on the number I'm using, and being at home pretty much all the time tends to help with that, in so far as I can push a diaper to pretty close to its limits, since I'm down the hall from a new one at all times, and I'm never going to be on the highway three hours from here if I cross the line and dampen a pair of pants at the leg gathers or whatever. But, I have found myself timing out my diaper use, thinking, "Let's push this one a bit further, because then I could make my next one last until tomorrow.." etc. The one time that I can wee when I'm not in a diaper is when I'm going #2 - I take whatever diaper I'm wearing off for that - so I've occasionally held it for a bit to go to the washroom for the other task, thus preserving some diaper capacity. Not being able to wear my largest diapers very often, because everyone is around, is causing me to try to get by using two medium diapers, or a medium and two slims, in a 24-hour period. 
But this feels like I'm cheating a bit. I know that kids certainly don't pay any attention to the timing or rate of their diaper decimation - my eldest, for example, was famous for preferring a nice clean dry diaper before letting lose a double-barrel blast that rattled the windows and necessitated an outfit change. The incontinent presumably don't try to time out their use, although I imagine that for people who are only functionally incontinent, due to immobility, but who otherwise have control of their faculties, timing things out is probably critical. I recall chatting with a fellow here who suffered from some kind of immobility issue, and he had someone coming twice a day to change his diaper, once in the morning and once around dinner. If I were in his shoes, I would definitely be timing my deposits as best I could, so that I didn't have to spend most of an 8-hour day, or a 16-hour night, with a load on board. Though I'd imagine someone in that situation would discover, as I have, that it's best to give in to circumstance, and wet as you need to, because saving it up and unleashing infrequent deluges, probably quadruples the possibility of a leak. 
Although to be fair to myself, while I'm not being true, perhaps, to the habits of my pre-potty training days, if anything, I'm way more relaxed now with respect to using my diaper than I was when I was an older kid. Although I might have had a diaper on several hours before I went to sleep, depending on the circumstances, I practically never used it, back then, if I was awake, and I always tugged down the front of my diaper, and went pee in the toilet, right before I went to bed, although while it undoubtedly reduced the volume I could produce in the night, it rarely eliminated the eliminations completely. 
What do you folks do? Those of you who have a choice, anyway? Do you just go when the need strikes, and schedules and inventory be damned? Or are you strategic? Part of me wishes that I could just forget that I have a diaper on. I get there, on occasion; sometimes I'll go a couple of hours without it crossing my mind, although, when that happens, I often get tapped on the shoulder by the reality that my physical fitness in that department has suffered, and having forgotten my diaper, I've also forgotten to use it, and after 45 minutes or so, I'll get an urgent email from the nether regions. Whereas if I'm cognizant of the need to keep the taps open, then, paradoxically, I'll be almost unaware of what's happening, sometimes dribbling blissfully for minutes at at time, once I allow things to commence.
I used to think that I was headed back toward autonomous nighttime wetting for sure, but lately I have started waking up dry, on the nights when I sleep deeply. It's probably been a couple of months since the last time I wet my overnight diaper with no recollection of kicking off the process. So I wonder if maybe I need to be stricter about being less strict,  paying less attention to what diaper I'm wearing, and what time it is, and how long until my next one, and would it make sense to wet this one when I want to run in an hour and then take a shower, and I'm not going to strap back into a damp diaper after that, and all those other considerations. Maybe I'm overthinking this. 

For me this where “adult” meets “abdl”. I know that in a perfect world I would not have to track such things and have a caretaker take control and remove that burden and responsibility off my hands. It’s certainly one of those things that prevents full satisfaction, even wearing 24/7.

Lemme put on my adult hat now... for me I do a combo of things. When I know the environment and the activity I just plan and schedule accordingly. These heavily relies on have a large sample of past experiences and having those past experiences being consistent without variables.

For instance I know that on average I will need between 3-5 changes after waking up and before going to sleep. The variability can be drilled down to a granular level for my most frequent type of days be it a at home work day, an at work work day, a lounge day, errand/home maintenance day, or a day that involves social gatherings.

These each affect my opportunities for changing, when the first change of the day occurs, and what I’ll be wearing. It also affects when I’ll be drinking, and when I’ll be eating. And of course what diapers I can wear and with what clothes so I can navigate life.

My biggest variable is whether I’m on keto diet at the time (drug resistant epilepsy) or not (pots;difficult maintaining electrolyte balance- made worse without extra water in the body-needed to bind to and isolate glycogen stores. A bit esoteric, but the difference is stark. On keto I can drink over a gallon a day and still be thirsty, when I have carbs in my body to help with a pots flare, I still drink a ton, and it gets held onto by the body, leading to a slower rate of saturation for any diaper for a few days while glycogen stores are being built up, with the exact opposite occurring when those glycogen stores are used up and the body, not needing to keep the extra water sheds it as urine.

So basically I take the situation for the day I know I’m likely to be in, adjust +- one diaper based on being keto or not and then I know how many diapers I’ll need for the day, along with what type of diaper.

My ace in the hole to reduce the cognitive effort is keeping on hand a Northshore or three booster (I buy their size small booster as the oz/per item piece is around 1/4 of their medium and above. That is I can get 4 small boosters each that consistently hold 12 oz for 2/3 the cost of one large booster than consistently holds 28 oz for me.

I keep a few of these boosters with me just in case my planning went to hell and want/need to stretch a diaper to get back onto schedule. I will either untapw the diaper and add the insert, or if need be just fold the insurrection and slip it front or back. You can also cut the insert in half which gives you more placement options and put only the amount of extra bulk you need, only where you want and need it. (Side sleeper technique as well).

If with all of this I’m still not sure and want to play it safe, I’ll throw on a pair of Gary wear active briefs as a last catch effort.

Mayo address your main point, being an adult involves being financially responsible. I personally try to reframe that perspective of timing to timing what we make the body do when not incontinent, such as limiting liquids at the movies, alcohol right before bed if we want to sleep through the night. I would bet that you could even plan with your eldest if you knew the general time, and chosen a diaper on the low absorption and low price side.

The only way I know how to defat all of this is through a very conservative and safe changing schedule that using strict times and a combo of diapers and covers, plastic pants, Gary wear, and onesies. Rework the wardrobe so every outfit works with the one diaper combo you will use at every stage of its absorbency/life.

For me I chose a similar path with Northshore megamax with boosters and either Gary wear, a onesie, or compression garment. This combo allowed me to change 3-4x a day, avoid most rashes, rarely leak, and best of all “feel” dry 90%+ of the time. While I rarely use them to capacity I do almost always never have to worry about position, what the day or diet looks like, and gives me a huge window of popularity to change. Yeah I had to rework my wardrobe but that wasn’t a huge deal, and much less obvious than the shape of my hips and groin changing day to day or worse hour to hour.

I certainly may be the exception here as I do have physical issues that intermittently keep me bed bound (stand up I faint) for days a time and this setup keeps me feeling dry and my bedsheets actually dry.

Nonetheless I hope It helps

[Stroller]

14 hours ago, Little Sherri said:

Maybe I'm overthinking this. 

Well maybe.  Personally I've let go of any concept of controlling how I use my nappies, and that's worked really well.  Apart from when I need my (usually) daily poo - when I feel that urge I head for the bathroom.  Other than that, wetting pretty much just happens, often without warning and without me expecting it.  And I usually change my nappy 3 times during the day, but that's not related to whether I've just wet or not.  Once in the morning after my poo, once around teatime, once at bedtime after my shower.  And I really don't think about it.  I'm careful when I'm changing or showering, to avoid wetting the floor, but in practice the only risk is usually when I'm brushing my teeth, & the sink's just there if I start leaking.  I can't imagine being any more relaxed about it.

[Little Sherri]

15 hours ago, oznl said:

In short, I manage my diapers to deal with pee and I don’t manage my pee to deal with diapers.

I think that this is in line with my "goals" as well. I'm happiest, or at least at my most content, when I don't have to pay attention to it. 

 

14 hours ago, BlakeJordan said:

Rework the wardrobe so every outfit works with the one diaper combo you will use at every stage of its absorbency/life.

This pretty much drills down on what I have failed to do; I have a couple of articles of clothing that can work as camouflage over a larger diaper, but most of my day-wear is not sized to fit over anything but a slim diaper, and I have not done what you and @oznl do with respect to plastic pants and compression garments. This stems at least in part from vanity - I dropped a lot of weight (about 120 lbs) over the past decade, and so have happily resized my wardrobe, giddy at being able to buy pants off the rack again. After I embarked on this voyage of putting myself back into diapers, I went up one size when buying new clothes, but I don't buy a lot of new clothes, and even when I do, one size provides a bit more leeway for my diaper-butt to go unnoticed whilst wearing something discrete, but, if I were to put on a size L BetterDry or a Rearz Elite, with a desire to walking about in the world, I would need to go up at least one more size, and that doesn't take plastic pants into consideration, either. So if I'm naturally about a size 36, and I start strutting about in size 40 trousers, the difference is notable enough that people who know me well would raise an eyebrow. As an aside, I already had my wife call attention to my wearing pants in size 38 at a social gathering - she asked a friend's wife to confirm her opinion that my pants were too large. What I could not say in that moment was "Because I've got a goddamn diaper on - THANKS!!!"

This has become more noticeable to me now that everyone is home ALL the time; before the end-times kicked off, I used to be able to get two or three work-from-home days a week where my kids would be at school, and I could wear whatever super-diaper (to borrow a term) I had gone to bed in, until well into the afternoon, because only my wife had to put up with what it did to my silhouette. Then, I'd put something slim on, make dinner and spend the evening, and once they went to bed, I was back in a big puffy diaper. On the days when I left the house for work, I'd typically wear a slim diaper and a onesie that looks like a t-shirt up top, and put a backup diaper in my briefcase (brief-case...).  However, now, I'm having to strain the inattentiveness of my kids by wearing medium-duty diapers when I can, but often, depending on what we're up to, I just have to throw in the towel and put a "work" diaper on. 

Maybe I should just go all-in, super-size all my trousers, and be able to wear what I want, when I want, with a resultant diminishing of my need to think much about if and when I wet. Perhaps I'm being too hard on myself - I went from secretly wearing diapers at night and on business trips, to wearing them all the time, and with the full knowledge of my spouse - maybe that's a lot of ground to have covered in a year, and if it takes a bit longer for me than it has for others to get to the point where I don't have to think about the going-ons down there, well, everybody is on their own path, aren't they? The only rules here are my own. Well, so far. I could see my spouse interjecting at this point...

Speaking of my "brief-case", do any of you employ dedicated diaper bags? I always just use either my laptop bag or a backpack I have, depending on if the destination is professional or casual. The only thing I put in either of them that would be related to my plastic underpants are a couple of diapers, disposal bags, and, depending on the circumstances, occasionally, a back-up pair of pants, although the performance of my regular diapers is something I understand almost innately now, so leaks are not that common. But they do happen, just, mercifully, usually as I'm on my way home, rather than on my way to a meeting or whatever. However, I must confess that I've seen some diaper bags online that have provoked slight envy, although, given the age of my children, carrying a leatherette bag festooned with cartoon characters would be difficult to explain. Maybe it's better to always look like I'm just about to head out on a survivalist hike. 

 

[BlakeJordan]

This pretty much drills down on what I have failed to do; I have a couple of articles of clothing that can work as camouflage over a larger diaper, but most of my day-wear is not sized to fit over anything but a slim diaper, and I have not done what you and [mention=18701]oznl[/mention] do with respect to plastic pants and compression garments. This stems at least in part from vanity - I dropped a lot of weight (about 120 lbs) over the past decade, and so have happily resized my wardrobe, giddy at being able to buy pants off the rack again. After I embarked on this voyage of putting myself back into diapers, I went up one size when buying new clothes, but I don't buy a lot of new clothes, and even when I do, one size provides a bit more leeway for my diaper-butt to go unnoticed whilst wearing something discrete, but, if I were to put on a size L BetterDry or a Rearz Elite, with a desire to walking about in the world, I would need to go up at least one more size, and that doesn't take plastic pants into consideration, either. So if I'm naturally about a size 36, and I start strutting about in size 40 trousers, the difference is notable enough that people who know me well would raise an eyebrow. As an aside, I already had my wife call attention to my wearing pants in size 38 at a social gathering - she asked a friend's wife to confirm her opinion that my pants were too large. What I could not say in that moment was "Because I've got a goddamn diaper on - THANKS!!!"
This has become more noticeable to me now that everyone is home ALL the time; before the end-times kicked off, I used to be able to get two or three work-from-home days a week where my kids would be at school, and I could wear whatever super-diaper (to borrow a term) I had gone to bed in, until well into the afternoon, because only my wife had to put up with what it did to my silhouette. Then, I'd put something slim on, make dinner and spend the evening, and once they went to bed, I was back in a big puffy diaper. On the days when I left the house for work, I'd typically wear a slim diaper and a onesie that looks like a t-shirt up top, and put a backup diaper in my briefcase (brief-case...).  However, now, I'm having to strain the inattentiveness of my kids by wearing medium-duty diapers when I can, but often, depending on what we're up to, I just have to throw in the towel and put a "work" diaper on. 
Maybe I should just go all-in, super-size all my trousers, and be able to wear what I want, when I want, with a resultant diminishing of my need to think much about if and when I wet. Perhaps I'm being too hard on myself - I went from secretly wearing diapers at night and on business trips, to wearing them all the time, and with the full knowledge of my spouse - maybe that's a lot of ground to have covered in a year, and if it takes a bit longer for me than it has for others to get to the point where I don't have to think about the going-ons down there, well, everybody is on their own path, aren't they? The only rules here are my own. Well, so far. I could see my spouse interjecting at this point...
Speaking of my "brief-case", do any of you employ dedicated diaper bags? I always just use either my laptop bag or a backpack I have, depending on if the destination is professional or casual. The only thing I put in either of them that would be related to my plastic underpants are a couple of diapers, disposal bags, and, depending on the circumstances, occasionally, a back-up pair of pants, although the performance of my regular diapers is something I understand almost innately now, so leaks are not that common. But they do happen, just, mercifully, usually as I'm on my way home, rather than on my way to a meeting or whatever. However, I must confess that I've seen some diaper bags online that have provoked slight envy, although, given the age of my children, carrying a leatherette bag festooned with cartoon characters would be difficult to explain. Maybe it's better to always look like I'm just about to head out on a survivalist hike. 
 

This post ended up becoming a very detailed guide on how to rework a wardrobe, and i decided to leave it lengthy and detailed for anyone that needs it.


Reworking you’re wardrobe takes time. I would suggest tackling it using the 80:20 rule. In all likelihood 20% of your wardrobe you wear 80% of the time and/or 20% of the stuff you wear causes 80% of the issues, but also happens to coincide with what you wear most often.

Start by examining the stuff you actually wear (before you went full time. ). This should give you an idea of what your favorites are, the cuts, the types of things you wear most often, and what your before shape was. It can also help to see what items can be still used, even if it requires a modifier (like a long untucked shirt. Some Gary pants, a onesie, etc etc ) remember that it’s okay to have different categories. By that I mean I have loungewear, sleep wear, errand wear, and semi professional/professional wear (can’t really exercise due to health intolerances).

Many of those categories have much more flexibility simply due to how and when and where those clothes are used. There is a difference between loose fitting as a style and too big.

Now, out of that 20% of clothes that you wear/would like to wear most often (assuming the fit works for what body shape your after without a diaper). Try those on with two (double diapered) of the diaper you would normally wear for each item (as described by category above).

This should mimic a worst case fully used, bloated and swelled diaper. Remember to try different movements, positions etc like crossing the legs, bending over, reaching, walking, etc.

Set aside stuff that works, in two categories- the stuff that works and matches the body shape your trying to mimic, and the stuff that “yeah it’ll hide it well enough, but looks like an off the wrack suit; kinda awkward, not flattering but also not unflattering.

For the latter category, see if you can get it to the “just works” but trying other items with it to cover up the problems. Start taking note of what the common problem areas are, if it’s truly a size/waist thing or if it’s just a cut, style, position...this will be helpful later.

I like to start from the “professional/work” attire first and usually do tops and bottoms separately throwing in jackets, coats etc as needed. I of course have a standard bottom that I’m using as my worst case “if I can make an outfit work with these yoga pants/slacks/shorts” it’ll work with any other bottom in that category. This usually involves using longer tops that would not need to be tucked in, or adding something over it like a coat.

When you find a top, even if it’s just one that works with your worst case scenario make a note of why it works, and compare it why other stuff doesn’t. This could be the brand, the cut, the length, the color, of the college covers the onesie or not, if it helps to minimize the transition from diapered waist to body etc.

Now reverse the process, with your worst case top (that you really use, and want to use for this category). For bottoms that don’t work, you can try onesies, Gary pants, etc etc- if you haven’t already, but again take note of the bottoms that do work and why. What makes them different from everything else? Can the “works but not flattering or unflattering “ be pushed to flattering if paired with a different top or additional item? For the bottoms that just don’t work for your goal of body shape and use, again note where it’s lacking, see if there are patterns such as waist is never an issue but the same cut, same brand but a different length all of a sudden moves the crotch down and, perfect!

For anything that doesn’t work in this category I move it down the line, over and over. Meaning I start with business at the top of requirements, as that is most strict, but instead of tossing it, I will move it “down” to another category such as errands, work from home, social, loungewear, sleep wear.

The goal at this point is to figure out your style, and create outfits that match the body shape your going for. As you lost weight this can be a great opportunity to rework your wardrobe to put more of an emphasis on parts of your body that your proud of, may have tried to hide before, basically your aesthetic assets. You may be surprised to find that even without a diaper your go to outfits don’t really emphasize your work and assets and they may have been trying to cover them up previously, intentionally or not and thus fall into the “not flattering but not unflattering category” even if they are/would be go to outfits. This can happen due to change in body shape and the brain keeps compensating for things that are no longer an issue, even when buying new stuff.

Okay, at this point you hopefully have gotten through all of the 20% of stuff that you wear/would like to, moved items around as needed, hopefully have some new go to outfits in each category and have started to see repeated patterns of what works and doesn’t work based on different variables for each category. You likely also have soome individual items that work on their own but are misfits and not a full outfit. This is finally the point where you should have an idea of what you need to make that top, or bottom an outfit- if you could find the appropriate matching piece.

Once you’ve gotten to this point I would suggest looking at the rest of the 80% of your wardrobe and trying to find those missing pieces, as well as quickly trying on everything once using the worst case senecio (assuming there’s a chance that you would maybe want to possibly wear that item.).

Set aside anything that you would never wear again ONLY because you don’t like it. You can take all of those items to your thrift store. At this point separate but don’t throw out the items that are on the edge simply because they don’t perfectly match the shape your going for, but you do like them. Those are nice for laundry days and will be of use later on a day to day basis.

Thrift store time!
Time to donate and explore. You may want to take your notes of the patterns you saw for stuff that worked and didn’t work, as well as pictures for items that are missing an item to complete the outfit. You want to start at thrift stores, then outlet stores, and finally the stores you buy from regularly. The HUGE benefits of thrift stores and some outlet stores are they carry tons of different brands, sizes, styles, cuts, etc. it’s not unlikely that you find a few specific brands, cuts, or different styles that work great with diapers, are your style, and fit your need. The same goes with outlets.

Do not despair if you can’t find a perfect replacement. That’s the icing on the cake. The point is to very quickly find the brands, cuts, and styles that work for your new thinner diapered body in each of the categories. Once you have that info you can buy from those brands new as needed.

Last piece of this puzzle is a lion and witch. Oh wait, different wardrobe survival guide! The last piece of this wardrobe survival guide is to remember that consistent body shape from one day to the next is key when wearing 24/7. This means that the longer you wear the more your able to push the boundaries of your “normal” shape. All those “on the edge” items I told you to hold onto can be reintroduced as time goes on, first with thinner diapers, and then slowly with thicker ones as needed. Stuff that was moved down to less strict category can be moved back up. This occurs because your diapered butt and groin is no longer your diapered butt and groin, it’s just how your butt and groin look, and your body type. Even if there is a difference on bulge through the day, most everyone will not notice as your taking it back to baseline multiple times a day, most people are in their own world, wouldn’t notice a gorilla walk through the room, and when they do look or notice any difference their brain will likely discard that info before it gets to the conscious brain (I’m totally going to make this obvious now. Stop reading this post, look around your environment without turning your head against every small detail you can find. How many of those details had you not/would not have seen until I called your attention to it?). Even if someone happens to notice something, they are very unlikely to go straight to “diaper” unless they are already aware of what that shape looks like, and the difference between the sound of a diaper crinkle and any other fabric. They then have to further associate that knowledge, once they thought of it, with you, and conclude that is the only explanation. This will almost never happen unless it is a person that has constantly worked with adults in diapers, or knows because you have told them. In either case both examples should have the etiquette and Denny to keep their mouth shut about it. If (when is more realistic) someone does find out, and actually brings it up, they are going to assume you need them and they aren’t optional, leaving it at that.

So again, consistent body shape is the key in the end, and body shape is mailable over time allowing slow changes to your wardrobe that might be obvious today in comparison to no diaper but are not worth a first glance if nudge the boundaries of your body shape over a year or more. Body shapes always change, whether that’s growing up, growing old, weight loss, weight gain, or the fact that styles of clothes change, people wear different styles even in the same day/week which completely changes their perceived body shape. Sure you won’t ever be able to hide your diaper if you strip down, but besides that you can work diapers into your wardrobe just like any other piece of underwear.

PS. A small backpack works great for a diaper bag, and can be super convenient for those presenting as a gender where constantly carrying a purse is not the norm.

[oznl]

3 hours ago, Little Sherri said:

This pretty much drills down on what I have failed to do; I have a couple of articles of clothing that can work as camouflage over a larger diaper, but most of my day-wear is not sized to fit over anything but a slim diaper, and I have not done what you and @oznl do with respect to plastic pants and compression garments. This stems at least in part from vanity - I dropped a lot of weight (about 120 lbs) over the past decade, and so have happily resized my wardrobe, giddy at being able to buy pants off the rack again. After I embarked on this voyage of putting myself back into diapers, I went up one size when buying new clothes, but I don't buy a lot of new clothes, and even when I do, one size provides a bit more leeway for my diaper-butt to go unnoticed whilst wearing something discrete, but, if I were to put on a size L BetterDry or a Rearz Elite, with a desire to walking about in the world, I would need to go up at least one more size, and that doesn't take plastic pants into consideration, either. So if I'm naturally about a size 36, and I start strutting about in size 40 trousers, the difference is notable enough that people who know me well would raise an eyebrow.

Compression pants

Compression pants

Compression pants...

They will rock your world.  I’ve honestly not up-sized my wardrobe much.  For pants, black is my new black and I’ve gone from a 38” waist to a 40” waist.  It’s fortunate it seems that my bum is one bit of me that isn’t overweight.  If anything, a compressed nappy seems to flatten things out.  I also accept that being bear-shaped to begin with may be helping me here.

3 hours ago, Little Sherri said:

@oznlAs an aside, I already had my wife call attention to my wearing pants in size 38 at a social gathering - she asked a friend's wife to confirm her opinion that my pants were too large. What I could not say in that moment was "Because I've got a goddamn diaper on - THANKS!!!"
 

I still think that was some mind-f&ckery game getting played there...  Just my opinion ?

3 hours ago, Little Sherri said:

Speaking of my "brief-case", do any of you employ dedicated diaper bags? I always just use either my laptop bag or a backpack I have, depending on if the destination is professional or casual. The only thing I put in either of them that would be related to my plastic underpants are a couple of diapers, disposal bags, and, depending on the circumstances, occasionally, a back-up pair of pants, although the performance of my regular diapers is something I understand almost innately now, so leaks are not that common.

Back in the days where I used to commute to an office and see other humans, my laptop bag would contain:

• Laptop & power supply
• Three random USB leads that didn’t fit anything
• Handfuls of coins in several currencies
• About 173g of assorted detritus
• A discreet and dignified navy blue, small thin nylon “travel laundry” bag containing a flat-folded spare nappy
• A couple of disposal bags (not habitually employed – used nappies would more often return home wrapped tightly in the laundry bag for domestic disposal).

Plastic pants would be re-used at changing time.  If there was collateral damage that might be rinsed or at worst, I'll go without plastic pants for the home time shift.  The dark colour made it practically invisible and it was also helpfully labelled "laundry bag".  Everybody knew I was a regular at the corporate park gym and NOBODY would have wanted to go ANYWHERE near my laundry bag even if they did decide to rifle through my laptop bag.

In the back of my car was a “crash kit” in an old duffle bag.  This contained a couple of spare nappies, a spare pair of dark jeans, disposal bags and an old towel.  Mercifully, I’ve never had to use it although I’ve come close.

 

 

 

[Little Sherri]

17 hours ago, BlakeJordan said:

So again, consistent body shape is the key in the end, and body shape is mailable over time allowing slow changes to your wardrobe that might be obvious today in comparison to no diaper but are not worth a first glance if nudge the boundaries of your body shape over a year or more. Body shapes always change, whether that’s growing up, growing old, weight loss, weight gain, or the fact that styles of clothes change, people wear different styles even in the same day/week which completely changes their perceived body shape. Sure you won’t ever be able to hide your diaper if you strip down, but besides that you can work diapers into your wardrobe just like any other piece of underwear.

Thanks for the detailed treatise, @BlakeJordan! I think you make a good point with respect to how different something has to look in order to really attract conscious attention. And, I assume that there are not that many people who pay attention to my nether regions anyway - I think I could walk into my office wearing clown pants and possibly make it into a conference room with nobody glancing up. Shape consistency is the key; I just have to give up on my desire for my shape to be consistently athletic. Or borderline, dad-bod, wants-to-be-athletic. One place where that might be an issue is the gym, because I do my workouts and martial arts training sans-nappy, having found no way to go for a 5 mile run or teach a 90-minute class without damaging the diaper, or the diaper damaging me. So I will be waddling into the gym, then emerge from the change rooms looking a bit more svelte, and then waddle back out again later. But I think I am overestimating the number of people who could possibly notice.  

Our current peri-apocalypse setting has spawned a number of jokes about the "COVID-15", being akin to the freshman 15 lbs that everyone gains when they move into residence. This could theoretically represent an opportunity to visually put on a bit of bulk, and then never take it off again... if, that is, I could actually go shopping for clothes, which I can't. I'm fortunate in that I have retained a couple of larger items in my wardrobe, from when I was heavier, although I had used them primarily for lawn care/home improvement projects/swapping tires and such, so they are splotched with paint and torn in places that designers don't prefer. I've got a pair on now, though, and I'm testing the limits of my boundaries, and of how observant my family is, because I'm still in a Rearz Inspire that I put on last night, unarguably a big diaper. My youngest in particular is merciless, telling me this shirt doesn't go with those pants, or that looks too big or too small or isn't my colour, etc. I threw an oversized sweatshirt with a generous hang to it for good measure, and so far, no comments. It's noon. 

I left this diaper on because I just couldn't bear to part with it this morning when I woke up. As an aside, I am happy to report that I actually did wet the bed, or rather my diaper, last night, probably because I had some beers during a Skype meeting with some friends before turning in. Every night is Friday night now, correct? So, drunk on comradery, and also IPA, I reached for this decadently comfortable diaper, and then hit the sack. I have no recollection of "authorizing" the download, although I probably did, if history is any indicator. I'd say it was only at 15% capacity this morning, though, because these things are huge and thirsty, so, with the conversations we've had over the of the last couple of days in my mind, I dug out some larger jeans and a sweatshirt, and here I am. Admittedly, I have spent most of the morning in my office, but I did have to mediate a dispute between my progeny, and while I attracted some rolled eyes, nobody commented on my wardrobe. I think I could be in this thing for most of the rest of the day. These really are amazing nappies. I've missed them.

 

17 hours ago, oznl said:

They will rock your world.  I’ve honestly not up-sized my wardrobe much.  For pants, black is my new black and I’ve gone from a 38” waist to a 40” waist.

I really do have to take your advice on this, I just have no idea what to buy, and no opportunity to try anything on. It sounds like we aren't that far apart, physically - I think you might be taller than I am if memory serves. I fit into a 36, 38 with a diaper on, if I don't want it to be obvious, and a 40 looks big on me, but does cloak the derriere bulge of a big diaper quite well. I do have a butt, so anything that augments it can tip me into outlier territory, if I don't pay a bit of attention to what I'm wearing.  

[Little Sherri]

Quick drop-in this morning - it's actually been a pretty busy day on the work front. Two notes: one, I decided to put plastic pants on this morning over a diaper combination I have worn many times before - a Depends with a Pampers Babydry tucked in it. The Depend plus the Pampers is a surprisingly reliable combination, good for maybe 6 hours or so, but I wanted to test-drive wearing plastic pants, just to see if they were at all detectable when I'm coming and going around my spouse and kids. They did disappear pretty effectively under jeans... until, that is, the diaper leaked at the rear on both sides just up from the middle. I had to sit through the rest of a webinar with a diaper change pad underneath me, and hope that my kids didn't burst into my office, as they often do, and notice that I was sitting on a pad. When I was done, I took the plastic pants off and rinsed them, tossed the jeans in the wash, and checked the diapers - nowhere near capacity. I put new jeans on and I've cautiously been wearing the same diaper combo for another 90 minutes now, and no more leaks. Very weird. Something about the positioning of the plastic pants precipitated the leak, apparently. 

Secondly, my wife went to Walmart this morning for provisions, and while she was there, she messaged me to ask if I wanted her to pick up any diapers. I was once again damned tempted to say yes, just to see what she came up with, but I don't want a $19 bag of Attends or whatever, or a bag of Depends for Men that cost $4 each, look like underwear, and last 30 minutes. I'm beginning to wonder, though, if this is a covert sign that she wants to do this, because she remarked only about a week ago that she was in awe of my diaper inventory, after stumbling across it while searching the basement for something. So she knows I'm not in desperate need. 

[oznl]

12 hours ago, Little Sherri said:

The Depend plus the Pampers is a surprisingly reliable combination, good for maybe 6 hours or so, but I wanted to test-drive wearing plastic pants, just to see if they were at all detectable when I'm coming and going around my spouse and kids. They did disappear pretty effectively under jeans... until, that is, the diaper leaked at the rear on both sides just up from the middle. I had to sit through the rest of a webinar with a diaper change pad underneath me, and hope that my kids didn't burst into my office, as they often do, and notice that I was sitting on a pad. When I was done, I took the plastic pants off and rinsed them, tossed the jeans in the wash, and checked the diapers - nowhere near capacity. I put new jeans on and I've cautiously been wearing the same diaper combo for another 90 minutes now, and no more leaks. Very weird. Something about the positioning of the plastic pants precipitated the leak, apparently.

I've had plastic pants precipitate leaks where they haven't been big enough for the diaper being worn.  It really does seem to vary by brand.  I've noticed that the ABU Simples with my "Large" Gary PUL pants are a sure-fire recipe for chair humidity.  That ABU Simples leak at the rear leggings for me seems inevitable.  The formula for managing it just seems to be larger plastic pants.  My "XL" ones seem to have enough real estate to close over the breaches.  The inside of them is invariably wet at the end of the day but my pants and chair remain dry.  The leak is never serious, just annoying.

I've never even bothered trying a Depend:  too many horror stories from embarrassed victims.  The Depends + Pampers thing sounds interesting (and inexpensive) but the task of explaining the Pampers to my partner might just be beyond my argumentative ken.

 

[DL-Boy]

8 hours ago, oznl said:

 My "XL" ones seem to have enough real estate to close over the breaches. 

I always have to think twice when reading the last word in the above quoted section before I realize the meaning...  Of course that's the correct spelling and non-US English speaking persons all know that, but sometimes a more US "Hillbilly" spelling makes more sense to those of us in casual reading...  BREACHES = "britches" (sounds like...)

[Little Sherri]

10 hours ago, oznl said:

I've never even bothered trying a Depend:  too many horror stories from embarrassed victims.  The Depends + Pampers thing sounds interesting (and inexpensive) but the task of explaining the Pampers to my partner might just be beyond my argumentative ken.

 

They've always been, in my opinion, a diaper designed for people who are expected to expire in the next 90 minutes or so. However, a local drugstore has had them on sale for about 1/2 price on and off for the last couple of months, and given the strange times we're living in, and my preference for plastic diapers, I've given in and bought a couple of bags, because at $1 a diaper, even if I use them to dry the car after washing, they're not a bad deal. I have to put packing tape on the front to create a landing zone for the sticky tabs, because otherwise they shred the cover. The tabs themselves are surprisingly robust - they survive several cycles of being attached and detached. Then, I tuck the aforementioned Pampers (also on sale) into them, and voila, a middle-weight plastic diaper with a slim appearance. I don't venture far in them, however - my trust is minimal.

Rearz has decided to allow contact-less order pickups again, so in theory I can stock up whenever I want to now. So, I don't need to pay as much attention to "any port in a storm" options from the supermarkets or drugstores. 

I did a workout this morning in my office with a conference call on mute in the background, wearing just a Rearz Inspire - I put a cover over the camera on my laptop for good measure. Just push-ups and sit-ups and leg lifts, but it's been a long time since I did any kind of exercise in a diaper, since I never wore them to the gym in the before-times. I must be going out of my head, though, because I have begun entertaining thoughts of trying to do a run (on my treadmill) wearing a diaper again, wondering, what magical combination of diaper, cream, and cover might allow me to part ways with the rest of my meager stock of big-boy underwear. But I don't think it's in the cards - the last time I tried this, the elastics sawed through a layer of skin, and the diaper was toast at the end, fluff all shaken down to the rear and in danger of precipitating out. Maybe a cloth diaper with no plastic pants... hmmm. Although that's a bit pointless.