The Diaper Diaries: Day Five

J rockin' his Happy Heinys pocket diaper. (in Silly Monkeys print). He got the okay to start eating and is currently watching Zorro and eating a whole hamburger patty! He is one happy boy... but he still maintains his desire for "pretzels, bowl, please"!

We took J down to the garden here at the hospital. He enjoyed the fresh air and throwing pennies in the fountain! He was tired though by the time we got back to the room and slept for a couple hours.

Some of the clowns here at the hospital stopped by again and blew bubbles for J. We heard from J's nurse today that there is a small chance that J could be release late tomorrow night or early Monday. So we are 'kind of' excited here.

Today he wore: Happy Heinys and FuzziBunz Perfect Size.

What came in helpful for us:

Deo-discs (which we put in the wet bags to keep down the odors)

Wet bags (I don't know what we'd do without a wet bag and one with a handle to hang on the door handle.)

I do have a question for the moms who use a wet bag: Do you have problems with the handle webbing pulling out of the seam?

The drs are planning to cap J's epidural tomorrow morning and we'll see if we can keep his pain under control with oral meds. Then we should be able to get rid of his catheter (which J dislikes).

Please pray that everything will go smoothly with the epidural capping and that we'll be able to take the catheter out. Thank you for all the prayers for J. We really appreciate them!

The Diaper Diaries: Day Four

J has done very well today. He hasn't need extra pain meds at all today and went for a couple rides in the wheelchair! His big thing today has been 'Home'... We would pick him up and he would sign 'Home'. "Sorry baby, we can't go home yet... you need to do this, this and that." and J would sweetly say "oh!"

We changed J from a hospital gown to his favorite shirt. He was so excited to see the ducky on it! The Child Life Specialist here stopped by this morning and said she was going to bring by a surprise later. She came back a little later with a super soft green blanket that J has apparently decided to take with him everywhere!
We also hung up J's Safari animals from Fandangling on the bed and IV pole. J loves having them near and twirling them around by the ribbon!

Diapers:

He used Happy Heinys, Thirsties Fab Fitted and AppleCheeks today.

I was kind of wishing that the Happy Heinys had leg gussets. Especially since now things are moving through, his stool is pretty liquid-y. However, with the aplix tabs the Happy Heinys are excellent to use over his incisions.

We washed diapers last night and I was really disappointed to see that the Thirsties Fab Fitted aplix tabs stuck to the AppleCheeks diapers and we got a bunch of fuzzies when we pulled the aplix tabs off the AppleCheeks. I haven't had a single problem with the Happy Heinys laundry tabs and that makes me wish that the laundry tabs for the Thirsties Fab Fitted were bigger.

He's in a AppleCheeks diaper for tonight. I particularly love the AppleCheeks since I know that if he has liquid-y stool it won't go out the sides of the diaper and make a mess. His nurse tonight loved the Bummas and the Happy Heinys print diaper (Silly Monkeys). She was impressed that we were using cloth diapers and wipes for J.

What's come in helpful for us today:

The Aplix tabs of the Happy Heinys (allowing us to keep it loose for J)

Bummas (cleaning around the foley catheter gently)

AppleCheeks (keeping the mess in the diaper and still allowing us to keep it loose enough for J)

If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to ask! Thank you for all the prayers and please keep them coming!

The Diaper Diaries: Day Two

Today, J had his surgery to get rid of his ileostomy. He went into surgery late, but he was back in the room as of 8:50pm. He wasn't in any pain, but he was feeling okay enough to ask for something to eat! He's currently settled watching Superman and snuggling his momma!

J wore Fuzzibunz and Thirsties Fab Fitted today. We put him in a Fab Fitted for going to surgery and made sure to let the nurses there know not to throw the diaper away. The group of nurses taking J back were fine with the cloth diaper. But I did notice that the nurse who brought him back wasn't quite sure about cloth diapers and labeled them as 'undergarments'.

They did put J in a sposie down in the OR, that looked remarkably like a chux pad cut in the shape of a diaper! He's back in a Thirsties Fab Fitted for tonight and his nurse (same from last night) remarked that the Fitted looked very comfortable and that it would be easy to keep it loose so it wouldn't press on the incisions.

J was NPO (nothing by mouth) from 10 pm last night and started to beg for apple juice as the day wore on. Thankfully, some of the clowns were making their rounds on the floor and kept J amused for 45+ minutes. We got a couple pictures of J dancing and a video... He's dancing with Momma in the picture above.

Just for clarification, I'm J's sister and I usually come along when he goes to the hospital or clinic to handle most of his cares (diapers, ostomy bags, etc...). We're taking turns staying with J at the hospital and coming back to the Ronald McDonald House. Didn't want y'all to think that just one person was staying with J and running back and forth doing everything... Frankly, that would be exhausting with everything going on and we do try to have a family member with J all the time.

We're not washing diapers tonight, since he didn't go through many today. We will definitely be washing them tomorrow though.

What came in helpful today:

Thirsties Fab Fitted... primarily because it was soft and there were aplix tabs so that we could loosen it or tighten it, depending on what J needed at the time.

Thank you for all the prayers for J's surgery. We appreciate them so much!

Introducing The Diaper Diaries and an update on J's surgery

As some of you know, J is scheduled to have surgery to get rid of his ileostomy (not a colostomy) tomorrow... providing of course that everything is good with his intestines. J has had a ileostomy since April 2007, just a couple months after being diagnosed with leukemia.

Today, J was admitted to the same hospital that he's been coming to for chemotherapy. We've unpacked all his stuff here and now, we're just waiting.

J is going to be wearing cloth diapers through the hospital stay. We brought our entire stash of 35 diapers with us. During his stay, we (or I) will be taking pictures and posting daily about using the cloth diapers in the hospital.

I will be adding a tab on the navigational bar that will link to all the Diaper Diary posts.

If you have any questions about using cloth diapers in the hospital, etc., just leave a comment on this post and I'll do my best to answer them.

Wordless Wednesday - Saturday morning's project: Hooded Baby Towels!

You can find more Wordless Wednesday posts at:
5 Minutes for Mom ~ Go Graham Go! ~ Jolly Mom ~ Look What Mom Found…
~ Mom of 3 Girls ~ Momma Findings ~J. Leigh Designz
Momspective ~ The Shopping Mama ~ Table for Five ~ Two of a Kind…

A boy and his dog

J loves to dress-up in a suit and tie. We got some pictures of him the other day. I was hoping to get a picture up yesterday for Wordless Wednesday, but.... I didn't!

We are now cloth diapering full-time with J! I find I am enjoying it! lol! We stripped the cloth diapers for the first time and it took forever to get all the soap bubbles out (4+ washes without soap!). Currently his favorite diaper is the One Size Bumboo diaper from BabyKicks that I won at Dirty Diaper Laundry. The size range is from 7 - 30 pounds and J weighs 40, so the fact that it fits him (on the largest setting, I will admit) is rather amazing.

I know posts about giveaways on the net have been lacking lately, but hopefully I'll start catching up with all the giveaways going on right now.

Thank you for visiting Happily Southern and I hope you'll stop by again!