A Story I Meant to Tell

If we ever travel internationally with a child in diapers again (although I am not sure what circumstances would result in that happening) there are two things that I will definitely remember to do.

1) Bring a diaper changing pad - it should be on the list of things that must be packed.  It should not be assumed that it is in the diaper bag.  That is not a safe assumption.
2) When changing a child in a public restroom in another country it is best to bring someone for support if possible.

We realized at the MSP airport that the diaper changing pad was not in the diaper bag.  It turns out that at no airport that we went to can you purchase one, and the only place we were where there were stores that might have had a changing pad was in Rome, but everything was closed on Sunday so we completely struck out on purchasing one on our trip.  Fortunately, I brought my raincoat and so that was our makeshift changing pad for 10 days.  Also fortunately it did not rain, and after several runs through the washing machine I am willing to use my coat again.

Unsurprisingly, outside of the airports and the Colosseum, none of the public restrooms that we went to had diaper changing stations.  So, I become quite adept at changing Madelyn on the floor on my raincoat. 

On our tour in Turkey we had a lovely lunch at a resturant overlooking olive groves.  By the time we got to lunch we had been on the tour for 4 hours and Madelyn's diaper was not clean any longer, so it seemed like the perfect opportunity to take her to get it changed.  I followed the plan that I had used up to that point in the trip, which was to pick the biggest stall available and then use the floor.  What I had not counted on was that the lights were motion sensitive and turned off every 30 seconds if motion did not continue.  And, being on the floor I was out of the range of the sensor, wherever it was.  There was almost no natural light in the bathroom so it was very, very dark when the lights turned off.  Which, in addition to being a challenge for diaper changing when you can't see, also scared Madelyn, so she would cry every time the lights went out.  At which point I would need to stand up and wave my arms until the lights turned back on.  This is where the plan of bringing a support person comes in. That way, someone could have kept moving and kept the lights on while I changed the diaper.  And, who knows what else could go wrong where it would be a good idea to have some help along.

Lessons learned :)