The Changed Times

Yesterday was such a treat for me. My daughter-in-law, (who is six months pregnant and living with us) and I went BABY shopping. Actually we went to get her registered at Babys R Us and Target. What a trip.
I can remember the days way back when, when the biggest decisions was Breast or Bottle. There was not a whole lot of other things that need to be decided. Now we have to decide disposable or cloth. First, I am not sure if one could find cloth diapers today if they wanted to use cloth. Not too sure why anyone would want to but there may be some of the more environmentally minded people who would like to go through the experience of cloth diapers.
It really brought back to mind the days almost 32 years ago when I had my first child. Disposable diapers were not really big then. We even had diaper services back then. This was a service that would come to your house and pick up the dirty cloth diapers and leave you clean ones on a schedule. All you had to do was find a place where you could store a bunch of stinky smelly soiled diapers for about a week that would not be offensive to anyone residing within a two mile radius of your home. I actually looked into that service but never did treat myself to it due to monetary constraints.
The days of taking that dirty diaper to the toilet and rinsing it our before you put it in the diaper pail is something I think every set of new parents needs to experience. That in itself was an art to be mastered. You had to hold the diaper just right so that what was deposited into the diaper fell into the toilet bowl and not on the floor beside the bowl, you had to make sure your grip was strong enough as not to let the whole diaper fall into the toilet but most important you had to make sure that when you hit the flush handle you did not see you tail end of the diaper disappearing down the hole. Once the diaper was properly rinsed there was always the step of wringing the diaper out so as not to have the dripping wet diaper in the diaper pail. Which brings me to another difference.
Diaper pails. I can still remember my pale green plastic little pail with the white lid, that never fit tightly. This little lid had a little protrusion at the top that was for some little solid air freshener discs that one would insert so as to keep the putrid smell from getting too bad. Really makes me wonder - The diaper pail was usually in the baby's room - putrid urine and feces smell intermingled with fresh pine smell - Who needs lamp berges?
Who else out there has stories to tell about the advances in Babyology. Might be pretty interesting. Please comment and let the world know.