*pause for reaction*
Those of you who know me, and are well aware of the fact that I rarely use public restrooms myself, will appreciate this story all the more. And for those of you who do not know me all that well, I will take this time to give you a little insight into my somewhat neurotic personality (and I use the word "somewhat" loosely)...
In a nutshell, I am a complete germophobe. I am a freak about hand sanitizer (and especially since Micah was born), insanely long road trips and emergencies are the only things that can even make me enter a public restroom. I grew up never wanting to smell like "outside," or get dirty. And when I go to the restroom, I am that weird person who never touches anything (faucet, door handle, etc.), except with a dry paper towel....literally, I am a freak about germs.
And yet, I found myself at Chuy's hatch chili festival....
...having fun with a bunch of our friends, when all of a sudden Micah decided to have a dirty diaper right in the middle of our happy hour! (The nerve!)
I was in a bind. I could go all the way out to the car, suffer heat exhaustion, and bend Micah in weird ways because he is too big to be changed on the seat anymore, or I could slip into the bathroom that is 10 feet away, and change him really quickly. So I traipsed into the bathroom, Micah and diaper bag in hand, and attempted to make a nasty changing table a germ-free diaper change for the both of us.
I wouldn't set the diaper bag down because of all the nastiness that would get on it, so I kept it on my shoulder the whole time. I of course didn't want to just set Micah down on the changer, so I got my little foldable changing pad out of the bag. And I didn't want to just set the changing pad down on the nasty public changer, so I had the brilliant idea to douse the changer in hand sanitizer, and wipe down every edge, crack and crevice with a couple paper towels. It already started to look and smell cleaner. I put the pad down, put Micah down, and changed his dirty diaper, realizing that I have a new irrational fear that I never would have known I have without this experience...that the changer will break and fall to the ground, taking Micah with it...so when I say I changed his diaper, I mean that I did it on one foot, with my other knee supporting it from underneath, all the while keeping his hands (and mine) from touching anything else in that restroom. And the act of washing my hands with an infant in my arms is in itself worthy of another blog post altogether!
It was definitely an experience. But I did it, Micah survived and doesn't seem to be sick from all the nastiness, and I was able to return to happy hour virtually unscathed. Do I want to do it again? Of course not! But do I feel like a strong, super-mommy for making it as germ-free as is humanly possible? You bet ya!
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