Vanity Sizing for Babies and the Crazy Mothers Who Love Them

As a somewhat unusual girl, I've often been a little off the beaten path when it comes to milestones in my children's lives. For example, when the kids get too big for the baby nail clippers and I have to use regular ones, I tend to get a little misty. I'm weird like that.

One thing that has always been a tear jerker for me is when my kids grow out of the swaddler sized diapers. We have always used pampers, and when Sam, Lulu and Maggie were little they only made the swaddler diapers up to size two. Once they were too big to squeeze into the size two swaddler diapers, then we had to get into the size three cruiser diapers. It's not a huge deal, but they look different, and for some reason (like I'm a little crazy) it would make me emotional.

Now Fred is growing like a robust little boy should. That is to say, he's not a teeny little thing like he once was. He's been wearing the size two swaddler diapers for a while now, and they were starting to get a little snug. Plus his tiny butt crack would sometimes stick out of the back, and that is not good at all. I was starting to mentally prepare myself for the inevitable graduation to the size three pampers cruisers, which wasn't going too well, when I discovered that they are now making pampers swaddlers in a size three!

A part of me is relieved. I can still put a soft little white diaper on his tiny bum and pretend like he was just born last week. But another part of me is conflicted. I mean, he's crawling properly now, so shouldn't I get him the cruisers out of principle? Am I being emotionally manipulated by P&G somehow? Is it because babies are being born at record sizes and companies want to get in on that market?

The thing is, all of my other kids wore cruisers at size three, and I like consistency for my nonsensical made-up emotional milestone bullshit things, so cruisers it is!