AlexDaGator;n269499 said:
Some unsolicited advice:
Everybody is going to give you advice. Don't engage. They are all trying to validate their own choices. It's like discussing politics and religion but worse.
So are you planning to use disposable diapers or reusable?
DON'T ANSWER. It's a trick question. If they disagree with your choice, they'll argue why it's the wrong choice; and if they agree with your choice, they'll argue why its the right choice.
Same goes for swaddling or not swaddling, crib bumpers, pacifiers, breast pumps, butt paste or baby powder, you name it.
Folks are crazy.
Play dumb and use misdirection: "Ah, I dunno, my wife read all the books so I'm sure she'll make all the right choices, hey look at this picture of the little fella!"
Alex.
That's somewhat true, but most of the advice I give is from learning the hard way and doing it wrong, often not knowing I was doing it wrong until I looked back at it. Let me give you an example:
Diaper Genie. Great idea, right? WRONG. For those of you who don't know what one of these things is, it essentially turns your baby's poo into an endless series of link sausage. You simply drop the disgusting, soiled, smelly, aweful diaper into the genie, close the lid and
voilà it disappears into the contraption's 50-ft long plastic bag repository which will coil inside the innards of this device like an elephant's intestinal tract, seemingly never to be heard from again. I used this demonic device for four years before I realized how screwed up my life had become because of it. Even if you're one of those hyper-organized dudes who has everything on a schedule (which I am not), when it comes to the chore of emptying the Diaper Genie (and, by the way, this task always falls on the father), the overpowering stench, the sh!t eating gnats going up your nose, the gagging that accompanies the effort is almost unbearable. When you lack sleep, lack basic reasoning skills, lack any sense of time and space, as all new fathers do, the accumulation of diapers can go on for weeks without you realizing it. At that point, the weight of the "sausage links" alone makes the task of emptying this monster difficult, and if you don't vomit during the process, consider yourself lucky. Whatsmore, it needs to be cleaned out and sprayed with Lysol every time you dump it. The "odor proof" lid on it is so effective that it traps a volatile and noxious combination of ammonia and methane that becomes imbedded in its interior walls.
When I finally realized I'd had it, I threw the gottamn thing, nasty sausage links and all into the garbage pile for trash collection. I can only imagine the vermin that tried to get into it that night and the horror they must have discovered. From that point on, I had a stack of plastic Publix bags next to a very small diaper pale. I wrapped the diapers up in the bags and threw them in the pale. When the pale was full, (about every other day), I simply emptied it into a large trash bag for disposal. This could be the most valuable piece of advice you ever get, Durty. Go forth and do likewise, gent. Go forth and do likewise.