Number 2

Saturday, June 21, 2008

Last night was family date night. Tonight was girls'/guys' nights out...sort of. I went up to Fort Lauderdale to hang out with some law school classmates. Mom does not like to be alone if I go out, so she called up another mother from church who has a son a little older than Caleb. Caleb does not stray very far from the food source, so he spent the evening with Mom and her friend. Mom said they had a good time with one minor incident. The top picture is a photo of Caleb before going out to dinner.
The bottom picture is a photo of Caleb after dinner. Astute observers will note that Caleb is not wearing the same outfit in both pictures. One might ask why that would be important. I'll tell you, but I must give fair warning to those with queasy stomachs to just enjoy the pictures and move on without reading further.

First of all, I should give a little background to the story. Before I became a parent, I never imagined how much I would care about baby poop. I have quikcly learned what an important topic it is. Mom recently forwarded to me an email from one of her many subscription services about parenting and babies called (I kid you not) "The Scoop on Poop." The point of the email is that as parents, we have to pay attention to the presents Caleb leaves us in his diaper as poop is an indicator of his health. One of the questions the email asks is "Are your baby's bowel movements stinky or sweet?" I'd like to meet the person who would describe their baby's poop as sweet. My kid's sure isn't So this article wants us to pay attention to such things as color, odor, consistency and frequency. Normally, I would be gossed out, but I read the article with rapt attention. It was all very surreal. (It actually reminds me of this famous scene from the sitcom Scrubs. DISCLAIMER: Only click the link to watch the video if you have no problem with crude, adolescent, middle school boy humor.)

It also reminded me of way back in the hospital when we were fretting over Caleb's jaundice problem. The doctors kept telling us that he needed to have a bowel movement because the bad stuff that causes the jaundice problem is passed out through poop. So we anxiously awaited for that first poop and were so thrilled when it finally came because it meant our little boy might get better. After we got him home, he became pretty consistent. Just about every diaper was dirty and had something in it. That all changed last week, much to our chagrin.

Last week before we went to Naples, Caleb's pattern changed. Suddenly, we noticed several diapers in a row that were wet with no signs of poop in them. I became very concerned. Mom consulted her baby books and resources and they all said that around this time, it is not uncommon for the frequency of bowel movements to slow down. I was discussing this with a friend who has a little girl a couple of years older than Caleb and I expressed my fear of what awaited us when Caleb finally had another movement. His response was than you can only hope for one thing: containment.

So last Thursday, we are at lunch for my birthday and Caleb is in his carrier on the table. we hear a sound and we assume that Caleb is simply passing gas. It wasn't more than a couple of minutes later that Mom said she could smell something really bad. So I took Caleb to the bathroom for a diaper change.

I laid out the changing mat, laid Caleb on it and unsnapped the onesie snaps. If lifted his legs to push the back of his shirt out of the way. When I set his legs back down, I noticed something running out of the front of the diaper. With much trepidation, I pulled back the tabs and opened the diaper. What I found was probably one of the grossest things I experienced in my life (and yes, I watched Caleb being born.) Caleb had fille his diaper completely. Fromt the front to the back, there was not a white spot between the liner that is supposed to prevent leaks. Caleb's genitals, rear end, hips, upper thighs and lower stomach/bach were cover in a green, goo. (Happy Birthday Daddy!) There is no other way to describe. And what I was looking at did NOT smell sweet. It took me three wet wipes to get him all cleaned up. The goo had gotten on his clothes, so I undressed him and took him out of the bathroom in nothing more than a diaper and his sandals. Mom had a change of clothes in the diaper bag and put those on him.

Throughout the weekend, Caleb went back to irregular movements, but he had a really bad gas problem. He would pass gas and we were worried about whether it was affecting the people around us. I was actually worried about whether Caleb was having a gastrointestinal problem. Mom assured me that we did not need to call the pediatrician to say that Caleb had bad gas.

Well, she was right, Caleb is getting back to normal in the sense that if he passes gas, we are not worried about our neighbors fainting. However, his bowel movements are not frequent, so when he has one, it is a doozy.

And that explains the change of clothes tonight. Caleb decided to have a movement--in a restaurant again. Apparently, he got it all over himself and Mom had to change his clothes. Not the most conducive dining envorionment. Mom said they still had a good time.

So that was Caleb's evening. I appologize for any crudeness and I appreciate you letting me write about this. This little mini-phase was definitely an experience and I am glad it is over. And it is good to know that Caleb is developing properly and beginning to resemble some characteristics of a little man, even the gross ones. This is a part of being Caleb's Dad and I appreciate you reading this far if you have done so.

P.S. (If you really did read this far, I want to make a comment about the second picture in the post. Caleb is getting very wiggly. As you can see from the photo, it is hard to capture a good photo of Caleb being still. Most of the time, his arms and/or legs are a blur. Guess we'll have to work on the parenting skill of getting pictures when our kid is not sitting still.)