24/7 startups, and unexpected pitfalls?

[Little Sherri]

I had a conversation with someone that got me thinking... the question at hand was, when was the last time you had your diaper changed by someone? I had to really think about it to come up with an answer, for a few reasons. Those of you who have read some of what I've posted here before will know that I wore diapers for much of my childhood, but, primarily to bed. I didn't have issues with staying dry during the day, other than in circumstances under which I might reasonably be expected to fall asleep, such as on long trips. So, other than when I was really young - too young to remember - I didn't have my diaper "changed" very often; usually, I'd be put into one sometime between dinner and bedtime, and take it off in the morning. 

However, if the question is, when was the last time you were diapered by someone, I could answer that I do have recollections of that happening, although as I got older, I generally put them on myself, only asking for help if I ripped a tab or something. So, my memories of having it done for me are foggy and far back, but, they exist. 

One notable exception that I do recall was a diaper change in a hotel room when we were in a hurry to catch a flight. It stands out in my mind because it was long after my diaper change days were past. We were in Florida, and I believe that we overslept our alarm or something - for whatever reason, we had to rush to check out, rush to the airport, return a rental car (a glorious Chrysler wagon with wood on it), and catch a flight. I was in bed, waking up to my parents pulling suitcases rapidly from the closet, and emptying drawers into them, throwing us bananas and saying that we'd find something to eat when we got to the airport, and exhorting us to get dressed and to collect our belongings. 

I hopped out of bed and went to dig out daytime clothes, and then my mom sent my sister to the bathroom and said "Come here" and indicated the end of her bed. I walked over she said "Hop up" and patted the bed with her hand, so I clambered onto it and sat, still not knowing exactly why, and then she said "Lie back" and pulled my t-shirt up from my waist. That's when I figured out what was going on. She pulled a diaper out and said "Lift your bum", and then slid it underneath me. Her technique hadn't changed at all from when my brother and I were toddlers - she liked to slide the new diaper under us while we were still in the old diaper, so that there was less chance of the bedding being fouled if a kid chose that particular moment to let go. Although being seven or whatever, there wasn't much chance of that happening while I was wide awake at 8:00 in the morning, but I guess old habits die hard. 

I was a bit in shock at this development - all week, I had been taking a diaper into the bathroom with me and changing myself - but time constraints had forced her hand, apparently. She pulled the tabs off the front of my overnight diaper, expertly rolled it up and tossed it into a garbage bin, and then quickly pulled the front of the new diaper up over me, pulled the tabs snug, and then said "Get dressed." There was no time for indignation or complaint. I pulled shorts on, swapped the t-shirt I'd slept in for a fresh one, kicked sandals on and was herded to the car with my siblings. I believe we made the flight. 

Other than that, I have no adult experiences with being changed or diapered. I'm theoretically interested in experiencing that, but I have no idea how that would come about, since my wife has shown zero interest in the process. I suppose I could go looking for a commercial "nursery" of the type I have heard other people talking about, but I have no idea how one would find such a place, and, I'm not sure I want to "pay for it", with all of the security considerations and potential for blowback on my marriage if my wife found a line on a credit card bill that went back to "Mother Missy's Playroom", and assumed I was engaging in extracurricular activities beyond the swapping of my baby pants. Getting my diaper changed is something I may have to wait until I'm in my twilight years to experience again, probably by an exasperated and overworked practical nurse or PSW. Hopefully I'll still have some say on which products they use...

What about you folks? When was the last time you were diapered by someone? And was it a dream come true, a non-event, or, awful?

[BabyJilly_S]

Never had it done, but I do have a "little" side so it would be nice to experience it. Doubt it will ever happen though.

[WBxx]

2 hours ago, Little Sherri said:

What about you folks? When was the last time you were diapered by someone? And was it a dream come true, a non-event, or, awful?

Just getting the knack of sleep wetting in my twenties a girlfriend (now wife) often diapered me at bedtime so as not to be impacted by my “fun”.  I rather enjoyed it.

[oznl]

On 11/3/2021 at 1:01 AM, Little Sherri said:

Rearz has introduced a 7000 ML diaper called the Mermaid Tale.

The Mermaid’s Tale: some kind of off-beat joke by Rearz relating to a body more or less permanently saturated by salty fluid?

My experience to date is that the ISO rating of an adult diaper is usually around 300% of its safe usable capacity.  By that calculation, a 7 liter nappy MIGHT last 24 hours.

I’d had half a plan to try a Tykables “Camelot” 7000 ml nappy to see if I could get 24 (at home) hours out of it in the name of science.  Although expensive (nearly A$5 per nappy), a “one nappy per day” diet would still work out cheaper.  In the way of COVID-times however, it’s been out of stock for months at the sole supplier who sells them downunder.

I doubt it would be a practical daily driver but I remain curious.

8 hours ago, Little Sherri said:

What about you folks? When was the last time you were diapered by someone? And was it a dream come true, a non-event, or, awful?

I don’t think I can recall having my diaper changed.  I can vaguely recall watching my younger sister have her diaper changed by our grandmother and with the chronology at hand, it was possible I was also diapered at that time.  If correct, I’d probably either just been changed or was next in line but my visual memory stops there.  I would have been slightly younger than 2.

Part of me would be curious to experience this (more curiosity than desire I think) but it won’t happen.  It would cross a line of unfaithfulness to my beloved in her mind and, to some small extent, also in my mind, even though it wouldn’t be a sexual thing.

[Little Sherri]

14 hours ago, oznl said:

I doubt it would be a practical daily driver but I remain curious.

This is why I've decided to try them - as you said, in name of science. Also because I wonder if the graphics will cause my wife's eyebrows to raise. But the issue for me with 24-hour diapers remains my inability within most 24 hour periods to operate unobtrusively with something the size and weight of a dead wombat stuffed into my pants. They come in at about $4.15 CAD per unit so if I could operate on one diaper a day, there would be a cost advantage, though it would be somewhat offset by the need to buy a lot of flowing robes, and perhaps, to identify as a monk. 

I'd have to go back and pick through this thread to locate the exact date, but, I believe that I have crossed over the one-year mark since I tossed my bag of forlorn and neglected boxer shorts into the trash. They had lived most of the previous year stuffed up high on a shelf in my garage, behind the off-season tires, but the fact that they were there weighed on me, even though I hadn't resorted to them, even on my darkest of diapered days. Obtaining more boxers would cost me $10 and 20 minutes, so it's not much of a hurdle to backsliding, really, but I think of it as being like someone who is on a diet refusing to stock junk food, or, a recovering alcoholic not keeping whiskey in the pantry. It creates a speedbump that could easily be overcome but that provides just enough resistance to require deliberate subversion. Inertia being what it is, that is often enough. So, it felt like a big moment at the time. 

My diaper empire now commands an entire shelving unit in my basement, plus a drawer in our bedroom. I think that I am probably at peak diaper, and can draw a line here and label it "maximum capacity." I have 8 cases on hand, which would allow me to operate for about 4 months if I didn't buy another one. Plus I have my cloth diapers. Big sales seem to be a thing of the past in this inflationary environment - Rearz used to be good for a couple of blow-out sales a year that I would use as an excuse to stock up, particularly on my daily staple "Lil'" series diapers, the Lil' Monsters, Splash and Bella middle-weight diapers that I find to be a good compromise of capacity and concealability for plastic diapers. 

My wife seems to have accepted one shelving unit as being a reasonable accommodation for "this", whereas if I had my druthers, I don't know precisely what "enough" would look like, because I suspect that, subconsciously, every case of 36 or 40 or 60 diapers portends a guaranteed further couple of weeks in diapers. So, it is probably best that someone else is providing at least a bit of a guardrail on this topic. I have seen the epic collections that some of you have. There, but for the grace of God, go I. 

[BedWetMark]

22 hours ago, oznl said:

 

I’d had half a plan to try a Tykables “Camelot” 7000 ml nappy to see if I could get 24 (at home) hours out of it in the name of science.  Although expensive (nearly A$5 per nappy), a “one nappy per day” diet would still work out cheaper.  In the way of COVID-times however, it’s been out of stock for months at the sole supplier who sells them downunder.

 

I think I've said this elsewhere, but I have made a Tykables Camelot last 24 hours. Granted I had the house to myself so I could "waddle" away unobserved, but the one thing that put me off was the overwhelming stench of ammonia. Even when I did one near to 24 hours (it was clean the night before, then changed just before bed the next night), even that was too ammonia like for me as well.

Maybe it's the make up of my bodily fluids, but I can't go more than 12 hours personally. 2 nappies per day suits me fine - I've gone back to ABU Peekabu for this purpose as they are VERY slim, very comfortable and ridiculously absorbent. 

[oznl]

5 hours ago, BedWetMark said:

I think I've said this elsewhere, but I have made a Tykables Camelot last 24 hours. Granted I had the house to myself so I could "waddle" away unobserved, but the one thing that put me off was the overwhelming stench of ammonia. Even when I did one near to 24 hours (it was clean the night before, then changed just before bed the next night), even that was too ammonia like for me as well.

Maybe it's the make up of my bodily fluids, but I can't go more than 12 hours personally. 2 nappies per day suits me fine - I've gone back to ABU Peekabu for this purpose as they are VERY slim, very comfortable and ridiculously absorbent. 

Yes, I also suspect a zillion practicalities will get in the way of the "all day diaper" but, in the interests of science, I intend to try (when product becomes available).  I will chronicle this event and possibly rot my crotch.

The ammonia is not in your pee btw, it's created by bacteria breaking down your pee.  Are you clean and shaved down there?  That helps a LOT with that.

 

[Little Sherri]

9 hours ago, oznl said:

The ammonia is not in your pee btw, it's created by bacteria breaking down your pee. 

 

15 hours ago, BedWetMark said:

but the one thing that put me off was the overwhelming stench of ammonia

Bacteria is definitely the primary driver. I have found quite a bit of variability across diaper brands, with respect to how long it takes for you to start smelling like an untended toddler. I have worn a Megamax size large or a Rearz Elite in large for about 20 hours before, not deliberately setting out to do so, but just ending up there because of circumstance, and the immense capacity of the garments. At that point, both had a whiff of ammonia to them, but nothing extreme. Whereas I used to have some Play Dayz diapers that would start to smell like that after 5 or 6 hours. So I think different brands use different doses, or types, of odor-mitigating ingredients, and the results speak (or smell) for themselves. That said, I don't think the R & D departments were targeting 24 hours of continuous wearing in their design parameters. Although if you're going to market a diaper that can allegedly hold two days of output from the average user, perhaps there is an olfactory, and dermatological duty of care that goes along with that? 

On another topic, drinking leads to bad decisions. Case in point... I ended up at a pub for a more-common-than-they-used-to-be but still-relatively-uncommon mid-week pint with a couple of buddies, that saw me arriving home at around the time I usually shut down for the night. I reached into my diaper drawer on the way to the washroom... and realized that I had planned to restock said drawer, but had been putting it off because it would require opening a couple of cases, and reorganizing the contents of some others, in the basement, and I want to do that when I can give it the time it deserves - I quite enjoy sorting through my diaper inventory. Also, I like to do so uninterrupted, because I want to spread things out and not have to jam them back into boxes in a panic because one of the kids is coming down the basement stairs. The long and the short of it is that I had only two diapers left in the kitty, and one of them was a gym diaper unsuited to bedtime service. 

So, I pulled out the only other option in there, literally the LAST Rearz Lil' Splash that I have in medium. Long-time readers will know that I started out trying to wear medium-sized diapers during the day, on the theory that they concealed better, but, being, as I am, on the bleeding edge of what constitutes "medium" (and Covid hasn't helped), I quickly realized that leakage is harder to conceal than a couple of additional inches of plastic. But one survived the purge, and made it into my rotation. It was late, I didn't want to go to the basement, so, I put it on. And thus was I thrust into yet another nostalgia-triggering moment... walking down the stairs ingloriously clutching a bundle of bedding. I think, based on the small but truly wet crescent-shaped violation of the sheets, that the front of my diaper folded over, pressing a portion of the inner lining into prolonged contact with the bedding. The good news is that this confirms that I definitely wet the bed last night, literally as well as figuratively, because I put that diaper on about 2 minutes before I hit the sheets. My wife witnessed my walk of shame and mercifully said nothing. This experience brought to you, courtesy of beer. 

[oznl]

9 hours ago, Little Sherri said:

The good news is that this confirms that I definitely wet the bed last night, literally as well as figuratively, because I put that diaper on about 2 minutes before I hit the sheets. My wife witnessed my walk of shame and mercifully said nothing. This experience brought to you, courtesy of beer. 

Ah the miraculous healing power of beer.  Congratulations on getting your bedwetting mojo back.  My suggestion would be to not let up on going to bed wet (as far as is practical) lest you drift back to the bad old days.

I seem to be stuck at 2 - 3 bedwetting events per week, the other nights I can recall waking.

Last night was a bed-wetting night big time.  I must have gone more than once but I've no recollection.  My terry trainers took one for the team (but the bedding remained dry).  Quite annoying because they were clean on that night and I don't think they are salvageable.  1.7 litres into a BetterDry.  At least 3 pints of that would have been 7.5% ABV IPA.

[Little Sherri]

On 11/5/2021 at 8:25 PM, oznl said:

At least 3 pints of that would have been 7.5% ABV IPA.

I shard four bottles of red wine with a buddy last night, including a bottle from Australia, and then I went to bed and had a dream wherein I really had to pee... and then I did, in the dream, and also, it turns out, in reality. It was great to not have to get up in the middle of the night for that... I had to check the sheets for leaks, so wet did I feel when I awoke this morning, but the diaper held - this was a size large, and I generally have far fewer problems in large diapers than in mediums.

[oznl]

4 hours ago, Little Sherri said:

I shard four bottles of red wine with a buddy last night, including a bottle from Australia, and then I went to bed and had a dream wherein I really had to pee... and then I did, in the dream, and also, it turns out, in reality. It was great to not have to get up in the middle of the night for that... I had to check the sheets for leaks, so wet did I feel when I awoke this morning, but the diaper held - this was a size large, and I generally have far fewer problems in large diapers than in mediums.

It sounds like you're well on your way back to the land of bed wetting if not already there!  In my case, by the time I'd "proved" I was wetting the bed, I probably had been for months off and on.

[Little Sherri]

I had a sidebar conversation with someone here that raised a question that I thought I might delve into here. Basically, the question was related to my childhood experiences, but, put more universally, was, "Does any kid really ever want to wear a diaper?"  

The answer, at least for me, is complicated, because, obviously, at some point in the evolution of my psyche, I developed an affinity for plastic underpants, otherwise I wouldn't be posting this to a string that has close to a thousand entries. But here we find ourselves. 

So... when exactly did the switch get thrown? Presumably, when I was a toddler, I neither knew nor cared what I was toddling around in - I was still figuring out what and who I was, and, trying to eat things I found on the floor. Later, at some point, I imagine that I came to a realization that I was wearing a diaper, while other people were not. I have no memory of this, but that's more or less the process - my parents would have said, hey, "big boys" don't wear diapers, let's bring that chapter to an end, shall we? And seemingly, I went along with that - my daytime potting training occurred on more or less the usual schedule, and I was going to kindergarten in underpants like most kids. However, unlike most kids, at some point after I got home from school, I had an appointment with a changing table, and I went back to being a preschooler, wardrobe wise, for the evenings. Even that, I don't think, really bothered me - at least, I have no recollection of it bothering me. I didn't put up a fight about it. 

But then, my brother, three years younger, started his potty training journey, and at some point, around when I was 6 or so, so roughly in first grade, my brother, who was 3, left diapers behind, both during the day, and overnight, leaving me as the only person in the house still wandering around in taped-on underpants. That period coincides with my earliest, foggy memories of such things, and one of the overarching themes of those memories is one of anxiety - I had started to notice and to have to deal with societal expectations in regard to such things, because I was clearly missing what some people thought were important milestones. SO, one could argue that I didn't want to wear diapers, or, certainly, that I didn't want anyone to know I wore diapers. 

But, that period of my childhood also coincides with "positive" diaper-related experiences that I have noted here before, such as befriending a kid my age (named Sherri) who still wore diapers, and with whom I was utterly fascinated. And, sometimes, when it was just me, in my bed, unobserved, my hands would find the side of my diaper, and I'd run them over the smooth plastic, and along the tabs, and I'd feel something... warm and protected, maybe? It was some kind of unnamed, asexual satisfaction. It wasn't a feeling that I minded, or wanted to get away from. But in the cold light of morning, heading to the kitchen in a soggy diaper, I would once again don the mantel of societal pressure, and want out of the thing ASAP, as my brother and sister metaphorically and literally raced past me in their underpants. .

So, there were times when I did not want to be in diapers, and there were times when I didn't mind. I imagine that might be true for some kids, whereas the majority of them probably just want to be like their friends, IE, not having to wear boxed waterproof underwear. Although, taking the breadth of the offerings in the "bedtime protection" section of the local superstore into consideration, maybe the stigma is fading a bit, because evidently the market for these products is robust.

Speaking from personal experience, now as a parent, I had one kid who wanted nothing to do with diapers, and was out of them at age two, and another kid who followed more in my footsteps, in terms of nighttime wetting issues. We went out of our way not to make her feel badly about that, because she comes by it genetically, and as a result, she was often pleased as punch about her gloriously decorated Disney pullups, for a number of years, although I don't think that's the same thing as my secretive childhood keenness for plain white baby diapers. She didn't express any disdain for having to wear them until only three or four years ago, when, I think, social pressures from outside of the family finally started to penetrate the protective bubble that all parents try to sustain for their kids. But I don't think she experienced the same dissonance that I did, around the topic, perhaps precisely because I was so sensitive about it, growing up, so, my wife and I made sure that she didn't feel judged by us. It also helped that our older daughter was always very mature about it, and didn't use it against her younger sibling, like my sister sometimes did. Whereas I think my parents were trying to gently exploit social pressure to pry me out of wearing diapers, which is perhaps the genesis of my feelings about them since then. 

[Little Sherri]

Well, I've proven that I can wear a pretty big diaper and still get things done out in the world. I didn't set out to prove this, but an issue with my wife's car forced my hand. Her car is only a few years old but it has a lot of electronic bells and buzzes in it, and she loves to sit in it and talk on the phone while she's waiting for the kids at their activities, etc. She also loves to leave the hatch open in front of our house for extended periods, and all of that seemed to be taking its toll on the battery; she's had trouble starting it a couple of times now that the temperatures are getting low overnight. Then, she told me on the weekend that her battery light had come one, a sure sign that something isn't keeping up - generally the alternator. So I told her to take my car yesterday, and I was going to take hers in to the dealership and get it checked. I decided to do that after lunch - they could scan it, order the part, and then I could bring it back for the repair. 

I've said before that I believe that the universe has a sense of humour, and this is further evidence of that contention. I was wearing one of my newly-arrived Rearz Mermaid Tale diapers, with an alleged 7000 ml capacity, and hadn't planned on going anywhere in it, based on how big I thought it would be, but, when I put it on, I found the proportions to be fairly reasonable - it wasn't absurdly big. I think that they've fine-tuned their sizes a bit, because that size-large diaper fit me really well, whereas the Barnyards I have in large are really, really big on me. For those of you keeping notes on such things, I suspect that the Mermaid Tale is a rebadged and gloriously printed Elite Hybrid, which is not a bad thing, although they "only" certify the Elite's for about 5000 ml, which is still plenty, in my mind. For me, the size the diaper ends up being is at least as important as their absolute capacity. I find waddling around with what looks like a sofa cushion lodged in my pants limits my activity horizons to the interior of my house, when the kids aren't home. 

So I'd thought about exchanging the Mermaid diaper for something slimmer, but, it having been a dry night for me, the thing was at about 1/10th of its capacity... and since it wasn't as bulky as I'd thought it would be, maybe I could just nip out and get the car looked at without changing? Why not. I'm a seasoned diapernaut, after all. I could land a plane while negotiating world peace in a diaper, so I can take a car to the shop in one. 

Suitably confident, I left the house mid-afternoon. After about 15 minutes on the road, her dashboard lit up like a Christmas tree, and the power started to drop off. Apparently the alternator was doing nothing, and the battery was about to call it a day. I found a safe place on the shoulder, and called for roadside assistance. They texted me an update as to when my savior would arrive... in about two hours, as it turned out. This was deeply inconvenient. I had planned to have the car looked at, head back home, finish up some actual paying work, and then head over to a buddy's place to help him install a giant chandelier in his front hall, which has a ceiling 20 feet high. Instead, I answered emails on my phone at the side of the road, and then got the car towed to the shop, and by the time that was all taken care of, it was around when I would have headed over to my buddy's place... who, by the way, lived only a few kilometers from the dealership. But, I was still wearing that giant diaper and hadn't planned to be climbing ladders in front of people in it. 

Not for the first time, the teachings of my friends here at DD came to my rescue. In a moment of reason, I had channeled my inner @oznl prior to leaving, and put a compression panty on, because a quick check in a full-length mirror had suggested that it disappeared pretty convincingly under my oversized jeans, except right at the seat of my pants, where there was a visible diaper bulge if I bent over. What I needed to do next was to channel my inner @diaperedboilerman, @oznl, @Stroller, @~Brian~ and so many others of you who operate fearlessly and expertly, while wearing serious diapers/nappies. I called my buddy.

He came and got me. We set up a 24-foot ladder, and while his wife and his brother watched, I clambered up it, and then he passed me tools and materials from off of an upper balcony, while we got the awkward light fixture hung. Then we had some celebratory beers. My diaper expanded. One of the bulbs in the chandelier was deemed to be of a lower wattage than the rest. I climbed back up to it. I felt vaguely like I was on stage - my butt, 15 feet up the ladder, was more or less the focal point for everyone in the room. I survived. My buddy drove me home. I walked up to my bedroom and stripped off my over-wear, and my diaper, while bulging noticeably, STILL didn't seem to be overwhelmed, so I wore just it and a t-shirt until bedtime, enjoying the decadent comfort and gravity-defying tabs that seem to be a hallmark of Rearz' premium products. I wondered if my betrothed would comment on the Mermaid them of the print, which, while painted in unisex purples, blues, and greens, still looked for all the world like a Borbdingnagian-sized version of my daughter's pullups, but she didn't give it more than a glance. When I dropped it to the tiles at the end of the night, it didn't weigh 7 kilograms more than it did when it went on, but, it also didn't seem particularly strained by the load I had put on it, or rather, in it, over the previous 18 hours or so. At just over $4 CAD a diaper, these aren't inexpensive, but, the price to range ratio is favourable. I don't know if they're going to become part of my core lineup, but I think I will enjoy having them as an option. 

[Little Sherri]

Yesterday, I attempted to test a Rearz Mermaid Tale to failure, and I failed to do so. Let me explain: since I started following @oznl's prescription to go to bed wet, in order to hopefully lower any subconscious or unconscious inhibitions to nocturnal liquid transfers, I have had a slight uptick in the diaper rash department, most of which I blame on wearing some low-end diapers my wife bought me, during the day, actually - I wouldn't wear those goddamn things to bed. However, I have discovered that once the skin has been insulted, it remains uncommonly sensitive to chemical irritants for a while afterwards, and the best predictor of how irritating the contents of a wet diaper are, is how long they've been in there. Good products do a great job of neutralizing their contents for an extended period of time, but eventually, as Jurassic Park has taught us, "Life finds a way". So, after my ladder-climbing adventure in a Mermaid Tale, I had seriously considered wearing the sodden thing to bed, because it felt fine and had no odor to it what so ever, but, I was concerned about it reaching a tipping point while I was in dreamland, and rapidly converting from comforting dampness, to a corrosive witches brew, so I decided to freshen up down under before hitting the sheets. 

However, I was curious as to what one of these things can actually handle, so, I put another one on yesterday, and tried to see how far I could get in it. Having gone to bed dry, I woke up dry, so the test really started at about 7 AM, when I had my first cup of coffee, which generally starts making its way into my pants within about 15 minutes. I had the house to myself for most of the day, so I wore just a diaper a sweatshirt until mid-afternoon, when, emboldened by my previous day's experience going seemingly undetected in one of them, I decided to pull some jeans on and ride out the rest of the day, come what may. My one concession to the alleged 7 litre garment was to conduct some of my wetting while reclining, in order to allow the padding higher up at the pack to pick up some of the load. 

At one point later in the evening, lying in bed reading, I actually tried to stop an event in progress, so convinced was I that leakage was inevitable, but as usual, once things start, I can't reliably stop them, so I had to sit there in bad, pretending to stare at my book, while trying to determine if I was about to spring a leak, without alerting my spouse, who was sitting three feet from me. I've already washed the bedding once in the past week because of a diaper leak - I was not looking for an opportunity to do it again. Once the flow had, as far as I could tell, petered out, I gingerly got up from bed, warry of creating press-out leaks, and waddled to the bathroom, my nappy now obviously heavy, but still not overwhelming the fasteners. Once again, it was the bedding-down hour, and once again, I had run out of time before I ran out of diaper. Unwilling to macerate in the sodden thing overnight, I threw in the towel, and changed my diaper (into a breathable Active Air, on the theory that it might help my skin to air out for a bit after 18 hours underwater. 

On a side-note, making that swap also provoked a memory that still confuses me... I remember being up at the cottage as a kid, and getting a rash in my diaper area that actually didn't come from a diaper - it came from being in a wet bathing suit, that was full of sand, for an entire day. The suit had one of those mesh liners sewn into it, made out of some kind of abrasive twine, seemingly. At some point, I complained about it, and so my mom put me into a cloth diaper when we came back from swimming - but only a cloth diaper, no plastic pants. We were still hours from going to bed, so there wasn't much danger that I'd wet the thing, but the episode confused me. I asked her why I had to wear that, and she said "So that your skin can breath." However, I have no idea why an uncovered cloth diaper would breath any better than any other non-plastic garment. It may have been a case of her not having any other underwear options for me other than whatever my sister packed for herself; sometimes if we went up for just a night, I was going to be either in a bathing suit, or in sleepwear, anyway, so I didn't pack anything other than my toothbrush, maybe an extra shirt, and the clothes that I had on for the ride up, which would suffice for the ride back. There was generally a box of diapers for me already up there, and, evidently, at least one backup cloth diaper tucked into a drawer. 

When it was time to actually go to sleep, I was put back into a disposable - there was no way my parents wanted to have to deal with a wet cloth diaper before departing in the morning. Usually, if we were up there for less than a few days, they didn't do any laundry at all, preferring to bring everything back to the city, and use the vacation time to, well, vacation, a concept that, as an adult, I can appreciate. 

[Little Sherri]

I forgot to put this in earlier, on the topic of diaper dreams - I had what was either a dream, or, a thought process that occurred at the cusp of waking up, more or less indistinguishable from a dream. I was lying in bed in the wee hours of the morning (pun intended), when it occurred to me, either in a dream, or in the fog of fading consciousness, that I needed to poop, and that I should get up and go to the bathroom. Then, I had "the epiphany" that used to sometimes occur when I woke up or dreamed of needing to pee... "Hey, I'm wearing a diaper!" I actually started to push a bit, or at least I dreamed I did, when the "protocol violation" alarms went off in my head - I'm not in the habit of pooping in bed, and I don't think my spouse would be pleased with waking up under bedding that I had hot-boxed at some point in the night. My eyes shot open and the "all-stop" command was issued, whereupon I got up and went to the washroom. However this does introduce a new peril to the habit of sleeping in babies' underpants. Maybe my subconscious wants to push the boundaries...

[oznl]

On 11/10/2021 at 2:14 AM, Little Sherri said:

For those of you keeping notes on such things, I suspect that the Mermaid Tale is a rebadged and gloriously printed Elite Hybrid, which is not a bad thing, although they "only" certify the Elite's for about 5000 ml, which is still plenty, in my mind.

Well that would be a bit disappointing.  Although the Rearz Elite Hybrid (aka "Barry" for brevity) is a good diaper, for sheer absorption I suspect the simple BetterDry will meet or beat it, albeit looking like a dead sheep by the end of the shift.  I don't think Barry is up to a 24 hour shift and although Barry is solid, I have had minor press-out leaks at the rear thighs on days of very heavy usage.

20 hours ago, Little Sherri said:

However, I was curious as to what one of these things can actually handle, so, I put another one on yesterday, and tried to see how far I could get in it. Having gone to bed dry, I woke up dry, so the test really started at about 7 AM

If the alleged Tykables Camelots ever do come into stock and I get some, the only way I could have a crack at 24 hours "LeMans" session would be by putting it on for the evening shift before a non-working-weekday and failing to change it the next morning to see if I could make it through until the next evening change time.  Again, more of a curiosity than an aspirational goal.

On 11/10/2021 at 2:14 AM, Little Sherri said:

Suitably confident, I left the house mid-afternoon. After about 15 minutes on the road, her dashboard lit up like a Christmas tree, and the power started to drop off. Apparently the alternator was doing nothing, and the battery was about to call it a day.

I would have said it was the battery rather than the alternator with poor use-cases and cold weather but since it died whilst running I guess not...  The great thing about old-school cars was that the "alternator light" was just a reflection of current flow from the battery to the field coil.  Depending on the fault, that warning light may or may not have worked.

I remember as a teenager driving home near midnight wondering why my dash lights were growing dimmer before the engine started to cough and sputter.  In a flash of transient brilliance, I connected the dots and punched off off the headlights before the motor stalled recovering me enough volts from the battery to drive the ignition coil again.  The old Cleveland V8 in my '76 Ford Falcon instantly roared back into life.  Of course I then had to complete my journey on semi-rural roads in complete and utter darkness...  And yet I survived to type this 35 years later.

[Little Sherri]

5 hours ago, oznl said:

I remember as a teenager driving home near midnight wondering why my dash lights were growing dimmer before the engine started to cough and sputter.  In a flash of transient brilliance, I connected the dots and punched off off the headlights before the motor stalled recovering me enough volts from the battery to drive the ignition coil again. 

This was largely my experience, except that this is a 4-year-old SUV so rather than contending with fading voltage via fading performance, some of the digital systems threw up their hands and said "I quit!". The dashboard lit up like a Christmas tree, notifying me as capabilities went off-line... you no longer have ABS... nor traction control... not sure if you have AWD anymore, either... no airbags... no instruments... no headlights.... and, curtain call. Commendably, like the human body's innate prioritization of the core systems over the extremities, in the event of hypoxia, the car didn't kill power to the ignition system until everything else was dead, and even then, it was a gradual loss of performance. I turned off all the loads I could control from the cockpit and that allowed me to start it again and move it to a better location for being towed, but I knew within 30 seconds that it was going to happen again. Apparently it was the alternator. As to if this is my problem, or the manufacturers, I await further feedback on that. Confusingly, the seat heaters later came on, or at least they indicated that they did, after the car was shut down... maybe this is required by law in cold climates when the vehicle taps out and leaves you on what might be a frozen tundra? 

6 hours ago, oznl said:

Well that would be a bit disappointing.  Although the Rearz Elite Hybrid (aka "Barry" for brevity) is a good diaper, for sheer absorption I suspect the simple BetterDry will meet or beat it, albeit looking like a dead sheep by the end of the shift.  I don't think Barry is up to a 24 hour shift and although Barry is solid, I have had minor press-out leaks at the rear thighs on days of very heavy usage.

I may be wrong about this; I'm not sure. It is built very much like an Elite Hybrid, but they publish more conservative numbers for the capacity of the Elite, and, I don't remember an Elite taking as much punishment as either of the Mermaid Tales I road-tested, although, that said, I do recall getting 20 hours out of an Elite at some point, and also, I recall the press-out leaks toward the end. I was concerned about that very failure mode with the 'Tale, but, it didn't materialize. 

[Little Sherri]

A sudden blast of winter weather coupled with a note from a newspaper article I read this morning had me contemplating diapers, and the environment. The winter weather has me somewhat reluctantly rethinking my preferred home-office wardrobe, which is typically a golf shirt or sweater, over just a diaper. Today, for example, I am in a pink Megamax under a sweatshirt; as a side note, I have blue and white Megamax's in inventory already, but I was inexplicably compelled to want to try the pink and the tie-dyed ones as well, although qualitatively, they feel indistinguishable from each other.  My wife did not blink upon beholding my big pink diaper, but I do wonder what she'll make of the tie-dye motif... but back to the topic at hand. In order for me to lounge comfortably with just a diaper on South of the Mason-Dixon line, while water remains resolutely a solid outdoors, I have to heat my office fairly determinedly, or else my teeth will chatter in meetings. I would have to heat the office regardless, but if I had pants on, maybe I could forgo a couple of degrees, in the name of the planet. 

As to why I like only wearing a diaper whenever I can, I'm not sure. I did not spend that much time thusly attired as a kid; in fact, if anything, I wish I had spent more time in just a diaper - I wish I could have just relaxed and enjoyed those moments, rather than being nearly immobilized by the thought of what other people were thinking about my still being in "baby diapers." We did not have air conditioning, so in the summer, I tended to sleep in just a diaper, but, I was only being put into them maybe an hour before bedtime - typically, we would be dressed for bed, and then allowed to watch one TV show, before hitting the sheets.  So I did not spend many days waltzing around in just Pampers; maybe I'd be in them for 30 or 45 minutes the next morning, but then it would be time to get dressed for school. On weekends, I could stretch that out a bit - BUT, I had to pull some shorts or pants on over my diaper, otherwise my sister would make some comment and my parents would tell me to go get dressed. In the winter, I nearly always had pajamas on - my mom would have been worried that I'd catch pneumonia if I were running around with uncovered legs while the snow flew. So maybe my general preference for having just a diaper on below is an attempt to compensate for all of those missed opportunities when I was in grade school. The psychology of all of this, admittedly, does not subscribe to logic. 

The other environmental factor that came onto my radar today was the sustainability of disposable versus cloth diapers. My thought process was sparked by an article in a generally pro-green-agenda newspaper, that noted that a cloth cotton bag has to be reused 20000 - yes, twenty thousand - times, before the water and energy used in its making gets cancelled out of the equation, meaning that, counterintuitively, plastic shopping bags, if they get reused even once, actually have a cleaner environmental footprint than reusable cotton bags. There is more to a disposable diaper than just the plastic shell, but, cloth diapers also contain a LOT more cotton than a reusable shopping bag. So, could it be that, once laundry water, chemical consumption, and dryer energy, get taken into account, in addition to the energy, water and and emissions associated with making a cloth diaper in the first place, disposables are actually the "green" choice? 

[Little Sherri]

Further proof that the Universe has a sense of humour... I had a funny moment last night with my wife, or at least, it was funny, if slightly uncomfortable, to me... Her and the kids have been watching This Is Us for ages, and while I don't watch it myself, I have absorbed some of it by osmosis. I believe the overarching theme is that crock pots are not to be trusted, but beyond that, there is no character that has died who cannot be called upon to reappear again, if tears are called for. Anyway, there is a story line about a character, Kevin, who plays the role of an actor who had a show, within the show - what looks like a throw-away sitcom of the sort that might now air on one of the Disney childrens' channels. At one point in the show, they are filming a reunion episode of the show-within-the-show, and Kevin's character is facing down the prospect of a humiliating final scene in the episode they are filming; the backstory is that, as an actor, he is trying to put his vapid resume behind him, and get some serious gigs. However, the crappy sitcom on which he made his bones is also what launched him, so he feels compelled to shoot the reunion show, for the benefit of everyone else who worked on it, etc. The show is called "The Manny", and in it, he plays a male nanny. 

The whole episode of the actual show is building toward the finale within the fictional show where Kevin has to suck it up and be a sport, despite his aspiration to shed his type-casting and become Joaquin Phoenix. I was conducting my evening toilette, and walking back and forth to the bathroom, brushing my teeth, and kind of watching the show with half an eye, when they started shooting the scene-within-a-scene, and the Kevin character appeared... wearing only a diaper. The puerile plot twist that the moment had as its genesis was the Kevin character, having misplaced a baby, deciding that to find a baby, you need to "think like a baby", and, presumably, act like one. Hence the diaper. The studio audience within the show within the show laughed uproariously. My wife watched the show. I watched her watch the show, while I stood there wearing only a diaper and a t-shirt, a Rearz Select, which is the single-tape version of their Inspire series, designed to look like vintage Pampers. After the laughter surrounding the character's absurd entry died, he began crawling around on the floor, like a baby, which made me feel strangely embarrassed for him, and by extension, maybe a bit embarrassed for myself, as well - I had not expected for my wardrobe to suddenly be somewhat mirrored on TV, and then the guy started really laying into it, with the overarching story being that this was all supposed to be, at its core, humiliating to the character playing the character.  I watched in silence in my big white diaper, toothbrush in hand, my newly-washed pacifier sitting on my night table, finally saying something sarcastic like "Well this is hilarious, isn't it....?", to which she offered no reply, just a roll of her eyes.

The episode, for those interested, was called "A Manny-Splendored Thing", and originally aired in Oct 2017, according to IMDB. The whole diaper bit is toward the end, and I encourage you to skip everything prior to it - unless you've been following the show, it will be confusing and seem overloaded with pathos. 

[Little Sherri]

I spent much of today in plastic pants over a disposable, which isn't normally how I roll, but, I damaged the leg elastic on one side of a Rearz Select, sliding it down on that side, for the other of nature's callings. My usual protocol for such situations is to open the tab on the left side, but leave the right one fastened, and then shimmy the diaper down and back up, but, I have noted before that occasionally a leak guard or leg elastic gets overstressed and pulls partially away from the diaper, or is otherwise damaged. I'm glad I put the plastic pants on, because I started feeling liquid moving around in them right after lunch, which caused me to go and take a quick shower and change my diaper for the afternoon. I'm in a crappy breathable Tena right now because I plan to do some yard maintenance shortly, in the cold drizzle we are having, and then I'll probably take another shower, and put on a better diaper for the evening hours. 

Were I to open both tabs every time I take a diaper off for a temporary hiatus, damage to the leg elastics would be less likely, but, damage to the tabs would be more likely. Although tab damage can be repaired via tape, whereas elastic damage is irreparable. Maybe I should change my ways in this regard. 

In any case, I quite like the Rearz Select; although it is mostly a "novelty product", with its large single tabs and retro look, it's actually a pretty comfortable diaper, with decent capacity (when you don't blow out one of the elastics), and, it's slim enough to wear under clothing - I have worn one for out for lunch or drinks with buddies, without any concerns. They're moderately crinkly but they go pretty quiet under jeans. 

[BedWetMark]

2 hours ago, Little Sherri said:

 

In any case, I quite like the Rearz Select; although it is mostly a "novelty product", with its large single tabs and retro look, it's actually a pretty comfortable diaper, with decent capacity (when you don't blow out one of the elastics), and, it's slim enough to wear under clothing - I have worn one for out for lunch or drinks with buddies, without any concerns. They're moderately crinkly but they go pretty quiet under jeans. 

Talking of loud, I did something for the first time ever today - I've been wearing 24/7 as I've said before since the first lockdown, but as I've been going to the office once or twice a week recently, I've had to give up on those days; I don't have a large frame and I generally wear clothes that fit closely, so turning up in anything over-sized would look odd, it looks odd on me anyway.

But anyway, I woke up, wet, par for the course most mornings, threw shorts on and a t-shirt, said bye to the family and settled down in my study ... ARGH ... I'd left my laptop charger in the office from the day before and as I'd been working for 4 hours the night before in the lounge, had chewed through much of my battery.

So, I did something I've never done, swapped shorts for jeans and went to the office.  I left my jeans low so they weren't pulled up (looked slovenly, but hid everything well enough), put my trainers on and a hoodie, jumped in the car for 10 mins, walked in, got my lead, walked out and back home. The office was fairly quiet anyway, but still, it was a huge first for me and I just felt like everyone could see me.  In my mind, I may as well have just walked in wearing only my nappy, it was an ABU Peekabu, I could hear it in my head, I could see it without jeans, I just don't think I've EVER felt so self conscious, which probably makes it worse. 

Anyway, back home, jeans off, shorts on, spent the rest of the day merrily wearing that nappy that in my head EVERYONE HAD SEEN ME IN!

 

[Little Sherri]

5 hours ago, BedWetMark said:

Anyway, back home, jeans off, shorts on, spent the rest of the day merrily wearing that nappy that in my head EVERYONE HAD SEEN ME IN!

 

Congrats, @BedWetMark! That is a huge step. It is indeed nerve-wracking; you feel like your diaper is crinkling like thunder and that a spotlight is trained on your gargantuan derrière. I remember many of those firsts - the first time I took the dog for a walk around the block in a "real" ABDL diaper (ahem, under pants) that wasn't slim, the first time I ran into a store in one, the first time I wore any diaper to the office, the first time I wore a plastic diaper to the office, the first time I boarded a plane in a diaper, etc etc. Gradually, I've become convinced that as long as I take reasonable precautions, nobody really cares what I have on under my clothes, but I also know that hubris is the real danger, and the day I think my diaper is invisible to all is the day I get called out by someone...

[Little Sherri]

This is shaping up to be a banner week... apparently, my mother-in-law is coming for a few days. This was portended by a comment from my wife this morning, when she said "Hey, so you're going to have to stop dressing like.... that, for a few days." I had to pause to figure out what she was talking about. I was in pajama pants and a sweatshirt, not an uncommon morning getup. I generally don't pay much attention to what I have on below the equator, because, first of all, nobody is home except my wife, and, second, once I get to my office, usually the pants get folded and left on a chair by the door, and I'm in just a diaper for the bulk of the day, anyway. As I am now. 

Curious, I took the bait: "Dressing like what?"

"Don't pretend you don't know what I'm talking about. Your diaper is showing all over the place. My mom is coming for the weekend - you'll need to put on bigger pants, or a smaller diaper."

I went and looked at myself in a full-length mirror, and, she did have a point. I was (and am) wearing a Princess Pink, in support of my continued campaign, often subverted by myself, to clean up outliers in my diaper inventory. The Pink's are a bulky diaper, and the pajama pants I had on were a bit on the snug side, thanks to pandemic-driven inactivity, coupled with beer. So, I had a definitive diaper bulge, front and back, but also, because my wife was in the washroom when I got out of bed, I just hauled the aforementioned pajama pants on and went to go make the coffee. The diaper was somewhat disheveled by 8 hours of sleeping in it, so the front side panels that are overlapped by the rear wings had migrated upward and were protruding like pink flags over my hips. I tucked the offending plastic back into my pants. There wasn't much I could do about the bulging. At least neither of the options she'd proffered were "not wearing a diaper". She gets points for that. Also, she actually used the "d" word more than once, and she almost never does that. And, it did not go unnoticed by me that she'd said "for a few days", regarding better concealing of my baby pants, rather than "From now on", or something with similar inexorability. 

"Why is your mom staying for the weekend...?"

"Blah blah blah appointment blah blah blah doesn't like to drive blah blah blah bake cookies blah blah. So, cover up your Pampers." There was are. Back to the usual vernacular. 

"Gotcha. Duly noted. I shall endeavor to better conceal my 'Pampers'."

"I'm going to buy you more pajamas for Christmas." 

In other news, there is real possibility that over the holidays, I may end up sharing a hotel room with a couple of buddies for a quick golf trip to warmer climes. I am once again benefitting, and simultaneously falling victim, to my friend who works for a major hotel chain, and his absurd employee pricing options. I could insist that I must have my own room, but then I'd have to accept massively inflated market pricing, and possibly not staying at the same property that everyone else will be at, everything being largely booked up. I'd actually be willing to pay more to have my own space, but, the issue is, it would look weird - we are talking about a 5 night trip at $50 a night in a high-end property, versus probably $400 a night if I go solo on it. Plus, my wife would notice that. $350 X 5 buys a lot of diapers. 

So... how do I manage to wear diapers day and night in an adjoining pair of rooms that collectively house myself and three other guys? I think this is stressing me more than the upcoming urology appointment. I'm pretty certain that the urologist will have seen a few people in diapers during his career. My friends all of have kids, but it's not the same thing. 

Plus, we're renting an SUV using travel points, so I won't have a car there, either. Assuming I even end up listed on the rental agreement as a possible driver, I will still have to cook up an excuse for a solo sojourn, if I want to peruse the local pharmacies for diaper options. Otherwise, I'll need to bring them with me, making me the only guy checking anything other than a golf bag. Maybe I'll investigate how many diapers I can cram into the bottom of said golf bag, although that could make for an embarrassing airport customs experience, if they decide to inspect the contents. "I wipe my club faces with diapers... makes all the difference." 

If anyone has any tips, I'm all ears. At least I'll be able to make immediate use of those new pajamas my wife intends to buy me. 

[Little Sherri]

Further evidence that the Universe has a sense of humour.... cue the laugh track: remember a couple of hours ago when my wife complained about my outfit's poor camouflaging of my "Pampers"? Well, my plan was to run into the house and get changed over lunch, right after a meeting wrapped up. The meeting ran long, of course... and then I heard the sound of a car door thunking shut. Crap. My mother-in-law was on the driveway. No problem - she'd let herself into the house, then go start reorganizing the fridge or something, and I would have ample opportunity to slink into the house unobserved, and put something on over my big plastic diaper. Except... my front door latch has needed changing for a while - it's sticky, and you have to give it a bit of a push to get the door open. Both my kids and my wife said at some point that it wasn't working, and I had to go give them a tutorial on how to overcome the issue. Swapping the latch would be easy, but finding one that matches the rest of the hardware is the hard part, given the age of the house. It's ornate, vintage-looking stuff. So, I haven't dealt with it yet.

My wife had, of course, left for an appointment, leaving me watching my mother-in-law through the window of my garage, trying in vain to open the front door, while I listened to a meeting wind down in the background. I muted my mic, opened the window, and said "Give it a good shove." She gave it an ineffectual push. I watched the cold wind swirl leaves around her. CRAP. I stared at the meeting. Three people had their hands up. This wasn't going to end in the next 30 seconds. I looked down at myself... pink diaper plastic sticking out all around my waist, big puffy bulge up front and in back. I looked around. Blanket? Too weird. I did have a jacket. If I left it unzipped, it would hang a bit out back. But what about the front? It dawned on me that if I carried one of the smaller recyclables bins in front of me with two hands, that would effectively put a barrier between her eyes and the front of my pants for a moment. There was no real reason to do that, but, would she intuit that? Probably not. A plan was formulated. I tucked my diaper in as best I could, pulled the jacket on, picked up a bin, and dashed over to open the door for her, then ran back to my office, so that I wouldn't be the only one still in the meeting if everyone wrapped up. Now, I am sitting here, semi-trapped in my office, planning to at some point go back into the house, again carrying the recycling bin, and make my way up to our bedroom, so I can change my diaper and my outfit.

My wife come home shortly after the episode described above, of course, so now I will also have to contend with what she will think of me running about in exactly the outfit she told me to take off, before her mom got here. Grand. Maybe she'll think this is part of the thrill for me. 

[BabyJilly_S]

I await the outcome of this situation with much interest, with tales of the weekend and diaper obfuscation techniques. That or I'll assume you are now living in your office and didn't make it back inside....