Diapering (with tips for boys)

This second time around, I've picked up a few new things about diapering a newborn.

• They make fancy wipe warmers, but what works just as well is to hold the wipe between your two palms for 30 seconds.
  
• I've really come to appreciate the newborn diaper. Our hospital used only size 1. These did not have the little cut out for the umbilical stump. That meant adding the extra step of folding down the top of the diaper at every change.
  
• When you can, get the newborn and size 1 diapers that have the pee indicator line. When your baby is so small, its a little harder to tell when he's wet.
  
• Unless your baby has pooped, clothes are wet from leaking, or needs to roused to feed more actively, don't bother changing pee diapers in the middle of the night. Not only does it take more time to do (thus keeping you from sleep longer), but it wakes your baby up more fully possibly making it harder for him to fall back to sleep. That is why a diaper change is one of the most common tips for a lazy eater.
  

Tips for boys:

• Point the penis down as your pull the diaper up.
  
• If your son is circumcised, use Vaseline to prevent the healing area from sticking to the diaper. There are a few methods for doing this. We smeared a generous glob of Vaseline right to the front of the diaper. Another way we were shown in the hospital is to put Vaseline on a piece of gauze and then put that gauze against the penis. We found that the number of leaking diapers dramatically decreased once we stopped using the Vaseline.
  
• Remember to wipe under the scrotum. Especially with poop diapers.
  
• Even if your son is circumcised, there is still a small fold of skin on the head of the penis. Remember to clean this periodically. We didn't realize it wasn't getting clean until I pulled out a piece of lint from it during bath. Not only gross to witness, but guilt inducing.
  
• For me, I feel more comfortable letting my son remain in a soiled diaper than I did my daughter. When it sounds and feels like he's pooped moments after falling asleep, I just let him sleep. Maybe its the fact that he is the second child, but I think it is mostly that I'm not worried about feces causing him any internal infections. However, do remember that the skin in his diaper area is just as delicate and pron to diaper rash.