marking his territory

Notice the droplets on the drawer in the background, as well as on the slippers.

The sprayed-slipper-look is not exactly the fashion statement I was going for.

It is a well-known fact that baby boys sometimes pee while they are getting their diaper changed.  Despite not coming with instruction manuals, there are some warning labels attached to little boys (as in, ALL your friends will tell you about it!).  And "CAUTION:  may release urine when not ideal" is one of them.  We felt prepared.

But our little guy has upped the ante and taken it to a whole new level, daring us to be able to keep up.

First of all, he sometimes poops as well as pees during diaper changes.  Yesterday he did so while ALSO spitting up at the same instant, and I just wasn't sure which end to clean up first.  This morning he pooed all over Scott's finger while Scott was putting diaper rash cream on.  Scott did not appreciate this, but was impressed by the force with which the poo left Jed's bum.  He described it as "explosive".

Second of all, he usually picks the worst possible time to let the urine fly.  Everyone says that the reason baby boys pee when you take off their diaper is that exposing their skin to the cool air triggers that reaction.  But Jedidiah waits until the diaper change is almost finished - which at this point takes a little while because we have to put petroleum jelly on his circumcision, diaper cream on his bum, and be careful with his umbilical cord - to let loose.  I'm not sure what the trigger is at that point, but the timing is pretty consistent.

Jedidiah's first appointment with the pediatrician was on Monday.  Everything looked wonderful - no trace of jaundice (there had apparently been a tiny bit at the hospital, according to the report - though no one ever told us), and he had started to gain back some weight (which alleviated some of my fears about not doing the nursing thing right).  After the pediatrician checked him over, and answered some of our questions, she left us alone in the room to gather our things and go home.  Scott changed Jed's diaper (his 3rd in less than 2 hours), and sure enough - right at the very end, Jed let loose a steady stream of urine that went EVERYWHERE.  Usually it's a pretty straight stream, like a single fountain - but this time it better resembled a sprinkler that is designed to cover as much of an area as possible.  I'm pretty sure it hit all 4 walls.  We cleaned up as best as we could, and exited the scene of the crime as quickly as possible, trying not to attract attention to ourselves.

We've decided that he's just marking his territory - he's done this every new place he's been - at the hospital, in every room of our house that he's been changed in, and the doctor's office.  He also spits up on everything that comes near him, so he clearly feels the need to claim ownership over anything he can.

I think he's picking up bad habits from our cat.