Cure for the wiggles

For the longest time, Haley was like a turtle when she was on her back. She could do nothing but kick her legs and flail around until someone came along and rolled her over. Try as we may, she could not get down the skill of rolling from her back to her stomach no matter how much we worked with her.

A few weeks ago, she finally got it down. While I'm really glad she mastered the roll over, I now have a bigger problem. Before she could roll from her back to her front, I had no problem changing her diaper. She had no choice but to lay there until I was finished since she knew couldn't go anywhere. Now that she knows she has options, she won't stand to be on her back. The minute I put this kid down on her changing table, she immediately begins to struggle and try to twist herself onto her stomach again. If you were thinking, "she's just a baby, it can't be that hard to hold her down and change her, I challenge you to come to my house and give it a try.

Just the other night, she had a particularly vile diaper that needed changing. So I scooped her up and laid her on the changing table. As soon as I took the tabs off of her diaper and began to wipe, Haley realized what was up. She immediately began to squirm and then realized that she could grab the railing on her changing table to help her get to her stomach. Now, this would have probably been a heck of a lot easier to handle if it had only been a wet diaper, but we're dealing with poop here. I don't care what others may say, poop doesn't get any easier to change. I still fold the wipes over several times in order to avoid contact with the poo. It's gross. Enough said.

No matter how much I tried to hold her legs down (while trying my best not to touch the poop of course), Haley somehow twisted herself around so that her face was flat on the changing pad and I was holding her feet in the air as she continued to struggle. It was quite a sight, and could only be compared to a naked wheelbarrow - you know, the exercise where someone holds your legs as you try to walk forward on your hands? This is where I frantically yelled for my husband, who promptly came to my rescue.

After that little move, I needed some kind of solution for the wiggling child. Haley loves books, so today I grabbed one of the board books out of her bookcase and gave it to her as I laid her down on the changing table and braced myself for another one of her little squirm-a-thons. But then, nothing happened.

She lay on her changing table the entire time without a single escape attempt. That book captivated her for the length of the diaper change AND a clothing change. Thank you, Dr. Seuss, for one less day of being covered in bodily fluids. Now that's the gift that keeps on giving.