Nightime with Newbie - or, the differences between baby #1 and baby #3

Last night was an eventful one for the newbie and I. It also illustrated the differences of parenting baby #1 vs. baby #3.

I stayed up late last night hunting for ideas and gear for the older girls' first kid birthday party (more on this another day). I went up to the Newbie's room--one of has to be close to her at night. If she wakes up and you don't get to her soon enough, you'll both be up all night. She's not the easiest to settle once she gets going.

I was met in her room by a gross poop smell. Cursing Dan for not emptying the diaper pails often enough, I moved the diaper pail from the bedroom. I wasn't about to attempt to empty it at 11 p.m. The room still smelled. I sprayed some room spray. The room still smelled. Then I realized the odor was coming from the Newbie--the dreaded nighttime poopy diaper.

If this were the Doodle, baby #1, I would have woken her up and promptly changed the diaper. With number three, I debated.....wake her up, possibly be up all night vs. leave sleeping poopy kids lie. I'm not going to lie, for a while I leaned towards letting her sleep. In the end, I couldn't deal with the smell so I went about changing her. However, I made a rookie mistake. I didn't put the new diaper on while I was struggling with the wipes. Then, I heard it first, rather than saw it or felt it...the pee. It was up in the air, nicely arched, a fully loaded pee. Her jammies were soaked. The clean diaper lying next to her was soaked. The changing pad was soaked. I was soaked. The wall might have been soaked (I couldn't tell in the dark). She laughed.

Now if this were the Doodle, I would have whisked her to the bath and promptly loaded the soiled clothes and the changing pad into the washer. I would have put a new cover on the changing pad. I might have even taken a shower myself. What did I do last night? I dried the Newbie off, wiped her down with a few baby wipes and put new pjs on. I bundled up all the soiled laundry and put it on top of the diaper pail in the hallway, changed my t-shirt, washed my hands and we both went to sleep. I have no idea where I stashed the changing pad covers, so I didn't worry about trying to locate them in the dark. All good. Newbie didn't care and she certainly didn't seem to be bothered by the late night escapade. In fact, we both had a good laugh about it. If only I was this relaxed with the first two, I might have enjoyed their first few months more.