Two men and a baby

chase  ·  Sat, Nov 28, 2015

On the way home from Oregon today, my uncle Jeff and aunt Kathy and Misty and Milo and I stopped at Costco, as per a long-standing Thompson family Thanksgiving tradition.

I carried Milo all over the store in the carrier, and after we checked out, we decided to get lunch. I was chowing down on a slice of pizza when we noticed that Milo had thoroughly soiled her outfit and the carrier, so before she soiled anything else, we decided to change her. I carried her to the restroom while Misty followed with the diaper bag.

We’re always looking for changing tables in men’s rooms, more out of curiosity about how common they are (hint: not very) than anything. Costco happened to have one, so I volunteered to do the dirty work. But Jeff was already there (he had gone earlier to use the facilities), so for what will likely be the only time in my entire parenthood, I had help changing a diaper in a public men’s room.

Jeff has a daughter, but she’s in med school, so it’s been a while. He folded down the changing table just fine and quickly figured out the right way to lay the changing pad, but when I laid down a very giggly, ecstatic, squirming Milo, it became clear he wasn’t sure how or whether to help. He tried to hold her in place, but of course he didn’t know whether a forceful grip would upset or hurt her, so she mostly still moved the way she wanted to.

Again, this was a diaper blowout, so there was poop on her back, and we were trying not to transfer it to the changing mat as we removed her clothes. We also tried to keep her hands and feet off the poopy clothes after we set them aside on the cramped table. We were about 95% successful.

Our Kodak moment was when we had the new diaper on her bum and it was time to dress her. Owing to our 5% failure with keeping the changing mat clean, we didn’t want to dress her lying down, so I actually asked Jeff to hold her up in the air while I wrapped and snapped her new onesie around her. It was dangerous, awkward, and inefficient.

And hey, it worked!