I volunteer in the nursery at my church occasionally during the Sunday services. Most of the parents of babies rotate responsibilities in the nursery and work alongside a wonderful nursery director and an amazing high school girl.
It’s a job I actually really enjoy. Yes, I host and attend a lot of playdates with other babies during the week and have two of my own, but it’s fun to see how the babies interact away from their mamas, to watch their personalities shine and I’ll admit, a little fun to play with toys my daughter doesn’t like.
Recently, I was in the nursery on an ordinary Sunday. A friend and fellow cloth diapering mom (who also happens to be our associate pastor), rushed in with her three-month-old daughter in an infant carrier. She set down the carrier and said “she just ate, so she should be fine. She is very chill, likes to watch the other kids. She might sleep a little. And I don’t think she should need to poop. But if she does, she’s in a cloth diaper and clean diapers are in here (gesturing to her diaper bag and wetbag stuffed inside).” And then she left.
And you can guess what happened approximately five minutes later, right? Yep. Big, loud, squirty, breastfed poop.
The nursery director looked at me with a sort of panic in her eyes that I’d never seen from her and said “Uh-oh, she’s in cloth diapers.”
At that moment, I felt like all of the struggles with cloth diapers were worth it. I nonchalantly said “We do cloth. I’ll take care of it!”
Relief swept over the room and I proceeded to change one of the largest, runniest breastmilk poops I have ever seen.
Even though it had been a while since I’d changed a prefold or maneuvered a Snappi, I wasn’t afraid of it like the other caregivers. I rocked that prefold. And I rescued that nursery (in my mind anyway!). It didn’t hurt that the baby really was (and is) the most chilled out baby and she barely squirmed while I searched to the bottom of the diaper bag for a fresh cover.
I’ve thought about this moment a few times since it happened. I’m happy I was there to save embarrassment or possible harm to the sweet baby.
And note to self: Always carry a back-up all-in-one or pocket diaper in my diaper bag for these situations!
What have you learned about cloth diapering in short term childcare situations?
Sarah is a mom of two and blogs about her adventures in motherhood, cloth diapering and everything in between. Catch her “Cloth Diapering Unwrapped” series on the FuzziBunz blog every Tuesday.
