gDiapers days 3 & 4- The Flood

Day 3- The Flood

Georgia had just woken up from a perfect morning nap. Two full hours of sleeping gave me some great time to clean the kitchen, make the beds and enjoy a lovely cup of coffee and then she woke up at just the right time to get her ready to take her to her hip doctor appointment, which by the way was the best hip appointment we've ever had. She received a perfect on the x-rays and we don't have to go back in until she is 15 months old, that means January. The longest stretch between appointments we've been allowed so far and the closest thing to an "all clear" we could have gotten.

The day was lovely and the picture of perfection.

Until it all went down, or didn't.

It was day 3 of my gDiaper trial and I was sold. Loving these flushables and the sheer cuteness of the Little gPants. Everything had been so easy for three full days and I was proud of my diaper find. Then in the matter of minutes a too close for comfort catastrophe.

Rip. Rip. Swish, Flush...flush. Followed by the tell tale phrase "Go down! Go down! Ah crap, go down!!" and I reached for all of the towels in the bathroom in a flash. The gDiapers flushable refill was not flushing and the third story toilet in our 101 year old craftsman style house was seconds from overflowing. I reached for the plunger and shoved it quickly into the bowl.

Splash! Whoosh! Then the sound of way too much water flooding over onto our tile floor, the tile floor on our top floor. And it was still running!

I did the first thing that came to mind and grabbed that little thing that stops the water from running and in a MacGyver type moment grabbed for the only things I could reach, a hair ribbon and a pair of scissors. I tied the hair ribbon around that thing inside the back of the toilet, wrapped it around the scissors and hooked the scissors onto the handle and then quiet. It had worked! The water was stopped. It has since been pointed out to me, by both my mom and my husband, that I could have reach down and turned off the water. But that didn't occur to me at the time and I prefer a little MacGyver in my life anyhow.

I dashed out the door to the linen closet and pulled out literally everything it was holding and threw it with great force onto the flooded floor of our third story bathroom. Praying all the way.

Reaching for the trash can, I tossed all of its contents into the sink and began to scoop out as much water as I could and throw it into the bathtub. It was effective and I was able to lower the water level enough so that each plunge of the plunger did not splash more water out onto the sopping wet towels.

Plunge. Plunge. Plunge. Plunge. Faster. Then slower.
It wasn't working.

It was time. Time to reach into the bowl and see what I could find.

What I found was that a small bit of the inner liner of the refill had found a secret place to hid within the layers of the outer liner and once flushed had formed a gel ball that was lodged securely in my toilet.

First I tried with my bare right hand, up to the elbow in toilet water, and with each grab and tug small ineffective pieces came out in my fingers. Next I tried with my bare left hand with the same result. Before the end of my half hour escapade as the Bare Handed Plumber I had tried the swish stick, scissors, tweezers, and lots and lots of pleading prayers to Jesus.

Finally, with a new fangled technique of bare right hand work and a spinny pully moved I created with the swish stick the gel ball budged. Again I pulled and twisted. Two more times of the pull, twist, pray approach and it was free! We were all free!

Flush went the toilet!

And not a moment too soon since Georgia was more than done with her independent play time in her room around the corner.

I soaked up all remaining standing water, rolled all of the wet towels up into my bath mat and walked the nearly 50 pounds of wetness down the three flights to the laundry room, already preparing myself for having to tell Daren that I had I flooded the tip top bathroom in our house. Side note: He took it pretty well.

I believe that The Flood was cause by a combo of user error and product. Daren and I have decided to walk the flushables downstairs to the lower bathroom for the remaining days of the trial just in case. No diaper is worth a ruined house and the cost of a remodel or mold removal.

Day 4- Falling in Love again
I love these stinking gDiapers. Mostly because they don't stink! They go away and I love that. Plus they are crazy cute on Georgia's little baby body. I don't know how feasible it is to actually walk each diaper downstairs to flush them for the rest of our diapering days, but its what I'm doing for the time being.

Now is the time you check to see if there is snow in Hades, because I, part of the "I will never ever in my whole life use cloth diapers" team, am seriously considering trying out the pure cloth diapers for the second week of this trial. The cloth diapers are really where the true savings are. I may pick up one pack of the cloth inserts and give it a go.

Plus, I figure if I love them great and if I hate them, well then at least I will know firsthand what I'm talking about when I proclaim that cloth diapers suck.

Here goes nothin'....