The Trixie Update

I’m discontinuing Diaper Telemetry in the near future. There are a bunch of reasons, but the biggest is that Trixie is getting better and better at using the potty. Recently there have been several times that we were able to put a ‘used’ diaper back on because it was completely dry. Therefore the diaper count no longer corresponds to bathroom habits, which undermines its previous usefulness.

I’ve also decided to leave a little bit of ambiguity in the system. I used to think it would be funny to know exactly how many diapers we went through, and ruthlessly exploit that number in the future. Trixie would grow tired of hearing “Because your mother and I changed [Total_Diaper_Count] diapers when you were a baby — that’s why it’s my turn to play PlayStation 5!”

However, I now think that Trixie might appreciate it if the final number is never nailed down. It’s true that we’ll know the minimum, but beyond that it will be anyone’s guess and not a numerical constant of the universe.

Additionally, right now I don’t have any plans to post Potty-training Telemetry. It’s my current opinion that potty-training is an art (and it seems to vary greatly by child.) We first introduced Trixie to a little, baby potty back at 10 months. Over the last 8 months, there have been tiny success stories followed by weeks/months of nothing. In short, progress has not been linear. Most of our success has been a function of correctly anticipating — without ever pushing the issue — when something might happen based on the diaper charts.

At this point Trixie still wears a diaper all the time. That’s a lesson we’ve learned about a dozen times, most recently a few weeks ago. I’m sure we’ll learn it again at some point. But she also uses the potty maybe 2 or 3 times a day. We’re almost at the point that she sometimes comes and gets us, instead of us having to ask.

When it goes well, she gets stickers — which she absolutely loves (although I think she might actually be happier if we just let her play unsupervised with the roll of toilet paper.) My new biggest fear is the look of awe and fascination in Trixie’s eyes as we flush the toilet and say bye-bye. I know I’m going to find my wallet or cell phone in there someday.

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Back in September of 2003, as we changed Trixie’s 500th diaper, we took the opportunity to estimate how many total diapers would be changed as the one year mark rolled around. I’m happy to report that we were able to hold our diaper usage fairly close to the best-case projection at the time. I expect us to have changed 2,472 diapers by the time Trixie’s birthday rolls around 10pm Saturday night. This is only a couple dozen diapers more than 2,448, which was based on the seemingly unreachable goal (during those dark diapering days) of maintaining an average of 6 diapers a day. In short, a year of diapering turned out to somewhat easier than I expected.

The other issue related to diapering is Trixie’s introduction to the potty last month. I haven’t given many updates about potty training, mostly because it’s wildly unpredictable, the results mixed and I haven’t pursued it diligently. We initially just wanted Trixie to get familiar with the idea of sitting down in the bathroom, but she surprised us by actually using the potty for a couple of days in a row. She then surprised us further by using the bathroom floor for a couple of days in a row, which lead to us giving up for a while.

I decided to get back on the horse this week. To my initial disappointment, she didn’t do anything in her potty. But then she did walk over to the real toilet, unroll about 20 feet of toilet paper and pee all over the floor while pounding on the seat. Is this progress? I’m not sure. We have all the ingredients of a successful bathroom visit — the toilet, the toilet paper and the peeing — but the way they were all mixed together, you can’t help but think that something went horribly wrong.

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As reported last week, we had only intended for Trixie to get used to going in the bathroom with us and get familiar with the new potty. She surprised us by actually getting very familiar with the potty — four days in a row. This was only a once-a-day event, but we were pretty excited. I was positive that she had made the physiological association and was well on her way to enjoying “on demand” bladder control skills. Turns out I was wrong. Either that or she actually does have full control, but just has a different agenda from the rest of the household. On day five, I sat her down and nothing happened. OK, no problem - no pressure. I’m still happy. Our record was still 4 and 1. But that’s not the final score.

As I was getting the bath ready, just 30 seconds after she got off the potty, Trixie promptly crawled over to the middle of the bathroom and peed all over the floor. I’m not sure what to make of it as far as potty training goes, but in my opinion, peeing on the floor is a much bigger problem than changing a wet diaper. As a result, my enthusiasm has been tempered a little for this endeavor, but we haven’t given up. I just might have to throw down some newspapers or cat litter. And, in case anyone was wondering, this was not counted as a diaper leak.

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Trixie totally just peed in her little plastic potty.

We’ve only had the potty about a week. The idea was that we would get Trixie used to going into the bathroom and sitting down with us. (She always follows us in there anyway.) And so she just sits on it with her clothes on and hangs out.

Today, however, we were getting ready to get in the shower. (Side note: She takes a shower with me now because 1) she has a good time in there and 2) it means I don’t have to waste precious personal time showering during her naps.) Anyway, I sat her down on the potty naked and - BAM - there she goes. I was so shocked and surprised I didn’t know what to do next. I have no idea how you’re supposed to properly dispose of a plastic container full of pee so I just stuck the whole thing in the fridge so I can ask Jenn about it later.

I’m sure today’s potty party was a fluke, but I’m still excited. A guy can dream right? Trixie says, “No”. While I was busy making plans to burn our remaining diapers on a bonfire tonight, she waited until we were out of the shower and she had a new diaper on — and then she let loose a horrible mess. Maybe it’s not quite time to get rid of the diapers.

[UPDATE] Just wanted to make sure everyone knows that the fridge part was a joke. We’re getting a lot of new traffic today from The Daily Bikini, and I didn’t want first-time visitors to get the wrong idea about the site. BTW, if you are a new visitor, I recommend the charts and graphs in the Metrics section. It’s one of the more interesting parts of the Trixie Update.

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Our disposable diaper history ends in 2004 and I have to say that I’m glad it’s over. I still think the concept was fun and the actual history extremely interesting, but researching the topic took way too much time. I’m not writing about anything else that I can’t directly observe, namely Trixie.

The problem is that each uncovered fact would take me in a whole new research direction. For example, I found just one tiny, tantalizing fact about how one of the original Luvs designers had worked on the Gemini space program. I thought this was a great piece of information. I tried to find out more about NASA’s contribution to the disposable diaper, and ultimately found nothing — but not before I wasted a lot of time googling.

Now that we’ve looked back on 58 years of disposable history, let’s hear from you. Voice your opinion in the latest poll.
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That’s a lot of diapers. I’m still shocked when I step back and think about the total number she has gone through. It’s depressing.

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In case anyone was wondering, it was a changing table accident.

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As Telemetry watchers have noticed, Trixie’s diaper count brought us into the 20th century this past weekend. This did not pass unnoticed here at TTU. Starting with Trixie’s 1,946th diaper, and the watershed year of 1946, we’ll be looking at each year up to 2004 as the invention of the disposable diaper changes infant waste management forever.

We’ll celebrate what was at first simply the liberation of housewives from the endless chore of diaper washing, then a stunning advance for chemical engineering technology and later one of the bitterest ecological battles of the 1980’s and 90’s. Today, whether we like it or not, approximately 95% of U.S. parents use disposable diapers. Find out how we got here.

Based on current estimates, diaper number 1,946 should be changed sometime early afternoon this coming Sunday, and this feature should run about nine days. But don’t worry if you miss a change, you’ll be able to look at the history up to the current diaper number.

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At the time of publication we are currently enjoying the longest stretch of uninterrupted, leak-free diaper usage in the history of Trixie’s life — 318 hours, approximately 13 days. It’s taken us a long time to get here and the road has not been a dry one.

As new parents quickly discover, new babies go through a lot of diapers. They can use up to 15 a day in the first couple of weeks. In Trixie’s case, we came home from the hospital on Saturday morning, and I was at the store buying our second 40-pack on Sunday afternoon. In that first month we went through 383 diapers. It’s a large number, but that’s not the shocking part. The real issue is the number of those diapers that leaked. And for that month it was 160. Put another way, two out of every five diapers leaked on us. Or in the bed. Or on the couch. Or the crib…

Sometimes leaks cannot be avoided. No matter how well you try to fit the diaper, it’s not going work optimally until your baby gets some booty. That’s right, new babies are very bony (editor’s note: upon reading the comments, it seems that this might only apply to some babies.) Without a butt to hold the diaper in place, the pee is free to shoot anywhere and everywhere. And it did.

Fortunately, after about a month or so, the baby fat gets distributed to the right places and diapers start to fit much better. We believe this single factor accounts for the 50% decrease in leaks during the second month. We also got much better at anticipating, intercepting and changing once we had a couple hundred changes under our belt. Further working to our advantage was the rapid decrease in the daily number of diapers from an average of over 12 a day in the first month to about 6 a day currently.

So we had experience, the daily diaper counts had decreased and Trixie had a butt. Why did we still have a 20%-plus leak rate through the third month? Well, there are 2 kinds of leaks: those that occur while the baby is wearing the diaper and accidents that happen on the changing table. Our problem had shifted to the latter.

I can really only blame myself for this. Early on I had read about the horrors of diaper rash. Babies scream enough as it is; I certainly didn’t want to get her any more ammunition. As a result, I always (even now) let Trixie air out during changes in order to stave off any rashes. Was this necessary? I don’t really know. Trixie has never had any, but who can say if it’s because of the diligent air-drying. So if you see a leak spring up on the accident record, you are probably seeing a breakdown in my reflexes. It’s Trixie taking advantage of my diaper-rash-o-phobia and her love of peeing “al fresco.”

But why have the Leak Record at all? It’s fun and it gives us something to shoot for. It’s like a real addictive video game and we’re always trying to get a new high score.

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Jennifer just hit the jackpot! Just now, she happened to be the lucky changer of diaper number 1,500. What sort of prize did she win? A nice full, non-leaky, non-poopy, perfectly routine, cute little wad of Trixie pee. Trixie also came out ahead with a clean, dry diaper. And I get to set a new one-year diaper target.

Her diaper usage today stands in sharp contrast to those early months. When Trixie hit 500 diapers at 44 days old, I estimated a worst-case scenario of over 3,686 diapers in the first year. We’re happy to see that we will actually come in well below that amount. I now project that we’re going to hit right around 2,000 diapers when July 31st rolls around - just as long as Trixie continues to cooperate.

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