Another ABUniverse Order

ABUniverse is known for selling disposable diapers designed for adult babies and others who refuse to grow up, and now they offer a type of disposable diaper that has one tape per side, much like baby diapers. They call it the Super Dry Kids diaper.

One of the things I have said repeatedly over the years is that an adult disposable diaper doesn't look or feel babyish if all you do is enlarge the diaper in two dimensions and use the same size tapes. This is why I like thick disposable diapers -- I'm bigger than a little baby in three dimensions, not just two, so my diapers should be bigger in all three dimensions too, and that means thickness. And then there are the tapes. The reason why adult diapers have two or even three tapes per side while baby diapers only have one is that they use the same size tapes, rather than using tapes that are proportionally larger, so they have to compensate for the fact that they don't hold the diaper together right by using multiple anchor points. I have always wanted to try an adult disposable diaper that had a single large tape per side.

Well now I'm going to -- I ordered some of these new diapers from ABUniverse. The problem is that I ordered them on November 1, and today is November 16, and they're still not here. When I ordered, I got an email saying that they would ship no later than November 4. Now, I did select FedEx Ground to save shipping costs, but I don't think that's why the order wasn't picked up until November 10. Maybe there's a lot of demand for these; I don't know. Anyway, they were supposed to arrive today, but FedEx had some kind of delay, so I guess they'll finally be getting here tomorrow.

Another thing that ABUniverse has been doing is dressing up some Abena Abriform X-Plus disposables with some nursery-print taping panels. This is sort of overkill, because Abena uses those two-piece refastenable tapes, but these are my favorite type of disposables, so I'm trying out some of those too. Tomorrow should be an interesting day.

I hope everybody is doing well and staying happy!

Ordered from ABUniverse

I recently ordered from ABUniverse and am only semi-satisfied. I ordered their "boy theme" and "girl theme" bibs -- I think the "girl theme" one is very cute as pictured on their web site. But that's not what I got. As you can see in the picture I took, the "boy theme" bib (the green one) looks just like the one on the ABU website, but I'm not sure what the other one I received is supposed to be. It's just the "boy theme" bib with a purple background instead of green. Both bibs are just Little Tykes toddler bibs that I could have gotten from a store. And neither one is that cute white one with the flowers and butterflies and sunshine that ABU has pictured on their site. 8:-( I want my bib. I've emailed them. (The dark shape in the lower right of the photograph is my knee -- sorry.)

On the other hand, their Extra Thick Overnight Diapers are just as they appear on the website. They are cute, and nice and thick, and they smell nice too (I got the scented version) -- oddly, the scent is more obvious when they're wet. They seem to leak very easily, however -- perhaps there is a problem with the elastic. So I don't use these for daily use, but only when I feel like looking cute when my diapers are visible. Here's a picture of one (sorry, it's a little blurry).

More about musical diaper alarms

After hearing about these in the early 1990s (they probably went back to the 1960s or 1970s), I finally saw a musical diaper alarm in operation at an AB party. Seems somebody changed the birthday boy's diaper and slipped the diaper alarm in without his noticing, then next time he wet, little electronic music started to play, and he was very embarrassed, and everybody giggled.

And after that, I haven't seen one or seen anybody selling one for about 15 years. Occasionally I've seen somebody post a derisive article about how they're available in Japan or China, saying something like, "Oh that's a good idea, putting electricity in a baby's diaper," or, "Some lazy parents will do anything to avoid checking their babies' diapers." (Hello? This is probably a 1.5 volt DC cell at maximum, the kind that people put in their hearing aids, and what if it's a daycare center that has 30 babies in diapers?)

Well, a recent study has showed that using a musical diaper alarm can significantly help children with potty training. So there. Now if only I could find one to buy for myself ...

Back home again

We're back from Duckon -- I built a blinkie! It took forever to get home, though. A 10-mile stretch of I-65 was under "construction," by which I mean the road was narrowed to one lane, but I didn't see any actual work happening, so it took us about 40 minutes of stop-and-go traffic to go those 10 miles.

I wet my night diapers last night (that makes 3 out of the last 4 nights), and although I usually sleep on top of a protective pad just in case, there was a leak that got the sheet wet. The problem is that the pad I sleep on is a chair pad -- it's really too small for this. I should really get a bed pad. In fact, I've ordered one online. It will probably be here next week. Then I can use the chair pad when I sit in chairs and leave the bed pad in the bed, and the bed will be better protected. As will the chairs.

I wonder if some ABs don't wear diapers at all but instead use reusable or disposable bed pads and just relive their bedwetting experiences. I'd be surprised if there wasn't anybody who did that.

Hi from Duckon

I am currently posting from Duckon, a science fiction convention near Chicago. If you don't see me online, that's why. The hotel the convention is in has free wi-fi in the lobby (which is why I can post this) and free high-speed Internet for guests. But we're not staying at the same hotel. The one we are staying at has high-speed (wired) Internet in the rooms, but it costs $13 per day. Sigh.

My wife wants me not to wet my diapers at the convention, but says it's OK to wet them when we're back at our hotel. I reluctantly agreed to this -- I think it's a setback on my road to needing diapers all the time, and I did agree to drive her here as a big favor to her. But she got really upset about it -- mostly she talked about the odor issues, but I don't think that's really it. So when we're away from the hotel, I'm trying to go potty frequently so I don't wet myself without thinking. In the hotel room last night, I wet my diaper three times while I was asleep (and she said she didn't smell anything). But when I say I wet my diaper three times, I don't mean that I flooded it -- I don't wet very much at a time anymore.

Anyway, if you don't see me online this weekend, it's because I'm not going to be able to be online much. We're driving back Sunday afternoon and will be back Sunday evening.

Here we go again with the antibiotics

Well, the doctor said there were red and white blood cells as well as epithelial cells in my urine test, and those are usually a sign of some kind of infection, so it's back on Cipro for a couple weeks, but at least that will make the weird odor go away and make my wife happier. Normally she can't smell my wet diapers unless I go without changing them for hours for some reason.

Happier wife = happier everybody. 8:-)

Return of the infection?

Some of you might know that I've been having problems with a recurring bladder/prostate infection over the past 2 years. Antibiotics clear it right up, but it keeps coming back. The first symptom is that, well, my wet diapers start smelling really bad. First time it happened I wasn't in diapers but I noticed that odor when I used the potty, and weeks later I started having aches and a fever and went to the doctor, so I started paying attention to that early warning after that. I've had all kinds of tests and they can't figure out why it keeps coming back, but my wife (with her preternaturally acute sense of smell) hates it when I'm in diapers that she can smell, so it's doubly in my interest to keep it under control.

That's the summary of what has gone before. Well, over the last couple weeks I've started smelling that smell again, and now my wife has too -- I was hoping it was just my imagination or something I ate. I'm going to have to call the doctor again tomorrow. I wonder if they'll put me through all the urinalysis and stuff or whether they'll just give me antibiotics. They haven't figured out what caused it before; I doubt they'll figure it out this time. And we're going out of town Thursday through Sunday ...