Was it Crazy of Me to Try?

Several years ago, I was babysitting two kids: a newborn and a two-and-a-half year old. The baby had really horrible acid reflux and needed to be held constantly. The toddler wanted a sandwich -- a PB&J sandwich.

So, with one hand, I managed to remove a twist tie from a bread bag, cut a slice of bread in half, open a jar of peanut butter, spread the peanut butter on the bread (one handed!!), open the jelly and spread it as well, and assemble the sandwich.

For a long time, I used that story as my "greatest feat ever accomplished with a child" example.

Until now.

Jack and I ran a few errands this morning and went to a storytime class at the local library. It is another blistering hot day (above 90 degrees) and he has been drinking water like crazy. As I loaded him into the car at our last stop, I thought to myself "should I just change his diaper now or wait until we get home?" The diaper was soaking wet but the car was very hot and he was getting crabby as it was nap time. I decided it would be easier to just get him loaded into the car seat and drive the 2 miles home and then to change his diaper there.

We arrived home and he was fast asleep in his car seat. No problem, I thought to myself; he never stays asleep when I remove him from the car seat. Alas, this time he stayed sound asleep. I entered the house and Shergar went nuts -- yelping, crying, begging for attention. Surely, I thought, Jack won't sleep through this. He did. I set him in his crib, on his belly (the way he likes to sleep), and thought "I'm sure he'll wake as soon as I move my arms out from under him." Nope, he kept right on sleeping.

So I had a real dilemma. Do I let him continue sleeping even though I know the diaper is about to burst past capacity or do I attempt to change him, risking that I wake him and that the nap is ruined? I decided to leave him as I kept thinking about the parenthood mantra "never wake a sleeping baby." But then the guilt set in. He took a very crummy morning nap and so I figured he might sleep a while. And wouldn't it be cruel of me to leave him in that wet diaper which was likely to only get more wet as he slept?

After a few mintues of debating with myself, I tiptoed back in his room and slowly, very slowly removed his wet diaper. This was an exercise in precision: I felt as if I were dismantling a bomb. I had to slide my hands under his belly (once gingerly unsnapping his onesie) so I could unstick the tabs from the side of the diaper. Then I had to ever-so-slowly slide the diaper out from under him while trying not to let the sticky tabs stick to his legs or tummy. Getting the diaper off was the easy part (relatively speaking). Putting a new diaper on him was incredibly tricky. I think it's on well enough to capture anything that may be expelled during nap time. But I'll definitely need to adjust it once he wakes up.

He's been down for a little over an hour now and I am so glad that I ended up changing him. Wowie, was that tricky though!