The idea I had in my mind for 9 months of bringing our new baby, Lilli, home for the first time was rose- tinted. For some reason my pregnant, nesting brain focused on cleanliness. You know, important things to a newborn baby like scrubbing the kitchen floors spotless on my hands and knees at 11pm, scraping and re-caulking the shower because it was looking a little yellow, or vigorously vacuuming out the car on a hot July afternoon as my husband handed me more and more quarters. Maybe it was my way of distracting myself or passing time…? Anyway, what I really should have been planing for was how to take care of myself for the next 6 weeks. I knew I’d be “healing” but I really didn’t fathom I’d be completely immobile and confined to bed for my first 2 weeks with her.

Considering it was our first baby, we were fortunate to have had a pretty quick and easy labor, no medication or interventions. However, another thing I wasn’t prepared for: like 95% of first time mothers I had to be stitched up. Of course, I didn’t feel much at all the first 24 hours because I was in a trippy haze of immense relief, oxytocin and adrenaline. But when I woke up the next day, I felt it in places I never expected. Holding onto that birthing chair was like doing 1000 dips on equalizer bars and my arms never got such a good workout. As for the other body parts: let’s just say I no longer recognized that area and had already made my peace*. You aren’t allowed to wipe with toilet paper (nor would you want to… eep!) so the most amazing feeling was to refresh with a soothing stream of water. I did this with a peri-bottle and it got everything so clean without any friction necessary. The clean-factor was undeniable and I didn’t think I could ever go back to just wiping off with toilet paper. And that’s why I wish I’d had my bidet for postpartum healing!

Now that we’re 5 months in, Lilli is starting solids here and there. We wanted to do babyled weaning but we just weren’t patient enough to wait for the 6 month mark. So far she’s had a few bites of sweet potato, carrot, raspberry, strawberry, dragonfruit and avocado. Now that she’s on solids, we needed to start pre-spraying the diapers off a little whenever she has a dirty one.

In a previous post about cloth diapers, I wrote about how my husband accidentally blasted a diaper with a sprayer I bought and got some splashback. In his face. Yep – no pressure control. We returned that sprayer. Pressure control is very important for diaper spraying. And thinking back to my postpartum days, I would have enjoyed being able to adjust pressure too for fear of blasting my delicate bits off.

So now we have a new sprayer that meets all of our needs (and more!). It’s stainless steel and easy to install (about 10 minutes). We did have to replace our stiff plastic connector hose to a bendy braided metal version. We just picked a universal one up at our local Wal Mart for only $6 and it was simple to switch out. Once that is replaced, everything else just screws in easily according to the instructions. I’ll admit I really struggled getting the t-valve screwed into the toilet connection and here’s why: there are left hand screws… did you know that? I’d always been taught righty-righty, lefty-loosey. So naturally when our toilet’s threading wasn’t lining up clockwise, I was trying to jam it a little. Even my husband was like “Babe, STOP, this isn’t happening. It doesn’t fit.” That’s what he said, but nevertheless, I persisted. Eventually I turned it counter clockwise and it started screwing in perfectly. I felt very silly. So there’s a little pro tip for you: lefty tighty, righty loosey sometimes applies.

Once everything was connected, and the sprayer was resting in its fancy new holster, I turned the water back on and flipped sprayer’s “on” valve. I aimed at the tub and let it rip. It really has some strong pressure if you hold it down at full force. It made me realize I could use it for the dog’s baths! We don’t have a removable shower head, so the most pressure they get is from a cup of water being poured onto their coat.

Later that day I decided to try it when I went to the bathroom. The very first time it was surprising all around in temperature, pressure and overall sensation but as I kept using it I don’t even think twice about. In fact, it’s pretty refreshing! I did some research on bidets and found out that they are common in many places around the world like Asia, parts of Europe and South America. In fact, 76% of Japanese households have a bidet. It may seem strange to Americans, but to many other countries it’s actually strange and gross to wipe something like feces off with a piece of paper. Think about it. Imagine cleaning dirty hands without any water, just wiping off with paper. Read more about cultural differences with regard to bidets here. An added bonus is that we are already saving a ton of toilet paper by using our sprayer as a bidet which helps me meet my goals of being more eco-friendly in 2018!

In conclusion, we’ve been pleasantly surprised that our new diaper sprayer has so many other positive uses. Now I wonder how we got on without it. So if you are planning to cloth diaper or are interested in using a bidet, I’m teaming up with PurrfectZone Diaper Sprayer/ Bidet company to give away ONE package kit. You will receive a full sprayer kit which includes the stainless steel sprayer and everything you would need to install and holster your sprayer with. No plumber necessary.

Enter the giveaway HERE.

If you’d like to purchase a sprayer, here is the link to PurrfectZone’s Amazon listing.

The sprayer is regularly $39.99 but right now it’s listed at a discounted price of $31.97. On top of that (for a limited time) you can use the code PZTHIRTY for an additional 30% off!

I received this product in exchange for my honest review. The content and opinions expressed here are all my own.