As a first time parent, I was elated to have given birth to a boy. Brock was healthy, gorgeous, and I had no idea what I was doing. I read the books but my baby brain took control and siphoned out the majority of what I read to make room for the cravings and responses I had to come up with for strangers who felt it OK to rub my belly just because it stuck out like the Hindenburg (FYI: just rub their bellies back). When Brock arrived for the first few months I thought I was going through an excessive amount of diapers, washing more onesies than seemed normal, and quite frankly couldn't figure out what I was doing wrong. Until one day, a friend of mine who'd had a son about a year before me said to me the simple phrase that would change my world: "W*eners down!". I hope that's not wildly inappropriate for this community. HOW had I NOT thought of such an obvious thing?! It simply had NOT dawned on me that if you point it down, perhaps he won't get wet from head to toe! The first time I put it into action, it was as though I could hear the song, "A Whole New World..." playing when I went to change him. The lights from heaven shown down around me, and the hills were indeed alive with the sound of music. The child's outfit was DRY. It was DRY like the Sahara. Of course, I hid the fact that I didn't know this nugget of information before I was told, and when friends of baby boys complained, I would say with the confidence of Ghandi the phrase that should be printed on the front of diapers for these miniature garden hoses. It's simple. It was and is probably obvious to many more brighter shining light bulbs than this girl, but I'm going into the birth of my next son (in August) armed with this knowledge like the leader of Mensa. 

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