Sunday, October 28, 2012

Lesson 16: Two Diapers at Bedtime (and other tricks of the trade)


Lesson #16: Put Your Baby to Bed Wearing TWO Diapers

Last night I was talking with some mom-friends who were all sharing their nighttime diaper woes - i.e. trying every size, shape, and variety of diaper out there; but still, somehow, waking up to a soaked baby every morning... Apparently, it is a common problem; but I think we might just have this one figured out folks. (Yes, I realize I just totally broke the cardinal rule of parenthood - I'll pay tonight, I'm sure.)

Anyway, if there is anything important to Jeff & I in life it is sleep, so solving a problem that kept our boy from sleeping as long as possible, was priority A1A from the very beginning. We, too, tried lots of things to stop the overnight leakage; but the only thing we have found that works is to put Sam to bed wearing two diapers. There is nothing fancy or complicated about this approach.  We use the same size/absorbency/etc. as we always do, but we double up at night.  Plain, simple, and EFFECTIVE. 

I can't remember exactly when we first started doing this; but, it has been a long time (my guess is that he was around 4 months old).  Since then, the only times he has woken up wet are on the rare nights when we "chance" it to see if perhaps he has outgrown the problem.  So far, it's a no go. 

Before I shared this with my friends last night, it never occurred to me that we were doing anything novel; but they were super impressed (haha, the things you get excited about in motherhood), so I thought I'd share it with you too.  Hey, no one likes changing sheets every single morning. 

It's the little lessons too.

Here's a bonus one for you: Layer your baby's bed: mattress pad, sheet, mattress pad, sheet so you can simply strip off the top two layers after middle-of-the-night "accidents" instead of having to totally change the sheets. (I never particularly liked this one, because I still thought it was a lot of work; but, it is good in theory.)

What "little lessons" or tricks of the trade do you rely on? Please share!
P.S. Today is the last day to enter my Boy Oh Boy giveaway...  Please go enter HERE for a chance to win an adorable custom print!


This post is part of a series for 31 Days of Change hosted by The Nester. To see my other "lessons," click here.

12 comments:

  1. Is this a boy thing?! I have never, ever, ever, ever had a diaper leak or get too full overnight or anything like that.....crazy!

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  2. Two words... Huggies Overnights (in a size up from their usual daytime diaper size).

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  3. Both of my babies 2 years and 9 months have filled their diaper no matter what we did. I think the overnight were the worst because they usually busted and I still woke up to wet babies and sheets. I use the 2 diaper trick but I use 1 regular size and 1size bigger because it will cover the regular diaper and it covers my belly sleeper a little higher.

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  4. I may have to give this a try. Luckily (knocks on wood) we haven't had major leakage at night, yet! I'm sure it's coming though!

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  5. My guy started leaking through around 3-4 months, and because we cloth diaper, I tried all sorts of tricks until I finally gave into the (way too expensive) Pampers nighttime diapers. It's rare for him to leak now, and I think that's usually caused by human (Mommy) error.

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  6. We use the Pampers overnight diapers... I agree, they are way too expensive! But, we only have to use one each night, and usually they work wonderfully!

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  7. We use the overnight diapers too, and its not a boy thing, my daughter used to use the "nighttime diaps". Occasionally they would leak out of these if they peed lot and slept on their bellies the whole night. Two diapers, we will have to test that out - we'll have to wear the "big boy" pjs that night ha ha

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  8. This is one of the reasons I'm so glad we used cloth diapers. We definitely had our bad nights, but we could just add an extra insert into the diapers, to make them more absorbent. It was great.

    One of our tricks (not diaper related) is to base meals partly on how much time/energy we had. What I mean is that we kept the messy stuff (yogurt, peanut butter, oatmeal) for evenings, because the girls were headed to the bath right after supper. For breakfast, we'd stick with dry cereal, fruits, veggies, etc. Lunch would depend on the day/schedule. This is still how we approach meals, though not as strictly, because at 2 1/2, meal times are much tidier than in those first 6-8 months of eating finger foods/learning to eat with a fork and spoon.

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  9. not exactly related- but the crib sheets reminded me of it- everyone needs these kinds of sheets- best ever-
    http://www.cloudsandstars.com/

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  10. The honest diapers absorb quite well so it's not a big mess when you change them. I'm not going to say its 100% dry but it's close enough and that makes my life a lot easier. The more dry the diaper, the less wiping and irritating I have to do on his little skin! This baby seems to have a tougher skin than our daughter did, too.

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  11. No words can explain how happy we are right now; we just had our first baby. These tips will definitely help us since it’s our first time to have a baby in the house.

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