Baby Stuff I Love

Apparently I'm not loyal to any one brand. These are some of my favorite brands of baby products.

Boppy pillow: Works great for breastfeeding, bottle feeding, and propping up the baby while he or she is learning how to sit.

Boppy Bare Naked Pillow

Avent bottles and training cups: I love that the nipples are marked with a number indicating how fast the flow of milk is, unlike other nipples which you have to guess at. I also like the wide mouth of the bottle because I don't spill the formula when putting it in the bottle. I used the training cups when Princess was transitioning from a bottle to a sippy. The handles and sippy top screw onto the bottles as well so I didn't have to take a bottle AND a sippy cup when we went out.

Philips AVENT BPA Free Infant Bottle Starter Set

Nuby sippy cups: The soft top makes the transition from bottle to sippy easier on baby.

Nuby 2-Pack 8 oz No Spill Cup with Super Spout

Mam pacifiers: Louise's cheeks and chin broke out everytime she used a pacifier until I found the Mam pacifiers which have dimples on the underside and holes for air ventilation.

MAM 2 Pack Start Orthodontic Silicone Pacifier, Colors may vary

Jeep stroller: I LOVE my jeep stroller. I got an all terrain jeep stroller as a gift for Louise and I used it a lot. It's big and roomy with plenty of storage, has an mp3 hookup, and can navigate rough terrain which is a must since I live out in the country.

Jeep Liberty Limited Urban Terrain Stroller, Spark

Members Mark baby wipes: Reasonably priced at Sam's Club, and the packages come with a pop up lid so you can use them straight out of the package or refill your wipes case with them.

Member's Mark Folded Moist Wipes, Case Pack, 8/90 Count (720 Wipes)

Carter's clothes: Cute clothes, reasonable prices. Need I say more?

Carter's Boys Firetruck 3 Pc Shorts Set 2 in 1 Outfits

Carter's Pink & White Love 3-pc. Bodysuit Set

Sassy toys: Sassy makes some really cute baby toys with bright colors.

Sassy Illumination Station

JJ Cole Diaper bag and pacifier keeper: After going through 3 diaper bags which ripped after a few months of use, I splurged and bought a JJ Cole Mode Tote Bag in the cocoa tree design. I haven't been disappointed. It's heavy duty, comes with shoulder straps, hand straps, and stroller straps, a large changing pad that folds up really thin so it's easy to carry with, and is roomy enough for all the junk I carry around with me. I also like the pacifier keeper JJ Cole makes. It's a good size, straps onto any bag or stroller, and has a velcro closure that makes it easy to get to the pacifier.

JJ Cole Mode Diaper Tote Bag, Cocoa Tree

What are some of your favorites for baby gear?


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Survived Month One!

Little Man is a month old this week and still not nursing well. He eats nonstop, which Princess is thrilled about because that means she can pretty much do whatever she wants, and I can't stop her until Little Man stops eating for a few minutes. Because Little Man eats so frequently and has a VERY hard time nursing anywhere other than home, we've been pretty much housebound since he was born. I'm giving him one more month to start nursing better and less often before I start supplementing with formula. I've given him a few bottles so far, and I enjoy feeding him that way. Nursing, on the other hand, feels more like a chore right now and I honestly don't enjoy it. So much for that bonding experience.

Little Man is a great sleeper. He takes a long nap in the afternoon at the same time as Princess which gives me a little downtime, and he only wakes up once at night to eat. The only problem is getting him to sleep. The long nap in the afternoon is usually his ONLY nap all day and he fights it like crazy even though he's so tired he can barely keep his eyes open. Bedtime is a fun event that starts around 6 pm when Little Man starts getting tired. It stretches out into a marathon of nursing/crying that doesn't end until almost midnight. He's been doing this for several weeks now.  Princess was hard to get to sleep too, but Little Man is worse and started at a much younger age than his sister.

Okay, enough of the griping. I have some observations about baby clothing to share.

1. Pockets.
Seriously. Why in the world do baby clothes, starting at newborn sizes, have pockets in the pants? Every once in a while, I'll run across a fake pocket that doesn't actually open and is for decorative purposes, but most of them aren't like that. They're real, honest-to-goodness, stick your hand in 'em, pockets. It makes me feel as if I should provide my one-month-old with a wallet filled with diaper coupons, a stroller license, and maybe some monopoly money.

2. Belt Loops.
How many newborns do you know that wear belts? To be honest, my skinny little baby boy could do with a belt to hold his pants up, but I haven't come across any belts that are small enough for a baby younger than 2 years old. Maybe I should market a new line of baby belts and take advantage of the otherwise pointless belt loops stitched onto many pairs of baby pants.

3. Snaps.
Yes, I'm thankful that baby clothes isn't inundated with tiny buttons instead of the easier option of snaps, but still... I can't count how many times I've wrestled a screaming baby into an outfit, fought with a myriad of snaps around the neck and legs, and realized when I get down to the last snap that I'm one off. I have no idea what would be a better alternative, but all those snaps still annoy me. My favorite outfits are the sleepers with an easy (and fast) zipper from foot to collar, and a onesie I found at a garage sale that has a strip of velcro instead of snaps in the crotch.

Growing Pains

I've heard so many people say that they worried they wouldn't love their second child as much as the first only to discover that when the second one came along, their love expanded exponentially to include the new baby. I wasn't worried about that. I loved my baby from the moment I found out I was pregnant. And when Little Man was born, I fell in love with him even more. To be honest though, I really didn't start liking him until four days after his birth. I know that sounds terrible, but he was born screaming mad and the next couple of days were spent either trying to get him to stop screaming or trying to get him to nurse which made him scream even more. There really weren't too many opportunities to bond during that time. At one point, while we were still at the hospital, I handed Little Man over to Hubby so I could take a few minutes to use the bathroom. While locked in the luxurious closet sized hospital bathroom, I could still hear Little Man voicing his indignation at being born, and I thought to myself, "What have I done?"

On top of Little Man's anger and eating issues, Princess came down with a cold the day Little Man was born and obviously didn't feel good. Try telling a two-year-old that Mommy can't rock her when she's sick because her new brother needs to be fed or calmed down again. I felt like I had just ruined her life by bringing this new kid home.

On Saturday, Hubby took Princess to his mom's house to give me a break. As soon as they walked out the door, I started an email to my best friend telling her how I felt about my son at the moment and expressing the usual mommy guilt over such feelings. She wrote back to tell me that while it was true that my love could grow to include another child, nobody ever tells you that it could involve growing pains. She also pointed out that while I'd known Princess for over 2 years, my relationship with Little Man was still brand new and needed time to develop. She knew exactly what to say to make me feel better and that afternoon, as I spent one-on-one time with Little Man, I finally bonded with him. It helped, of course, that he finally started getting over his four day long temper tantrum directed at being born and started learning how to nurse.

Today, Little Man is 9 days old and I am thrilled to be his mother. He's a good baby who only gets up once a night to eat and is learning to tolerate his big sister invading his space every second of the day. I actually wish she didn't like him SO much, but hey, at least she's not jealous.

Unsolicited Advice: Never say no when someone offers to help you out with something after you've had a baby. Giving birth is kind of a big deal and requires time to recover. Make sure you don't prolong your recovery by overdoing it after birth.

Happy Birthday!

Well, I didn't have to be induced like I thought. On Monday, I started having cramping and occasional contractions and right after I went to bed that night, the contractions got regular and pretty painful. By 3 am, we were heading up to the hospital, and Little Man was born at 11:42 on Tuesday morning. Everything went well except for when my epidural wore off just as I hit about 9 centimeters meaning that the new dose they gave me did absolutely NOTHING. Even though labor was harder this time because of my epidural only working for about 3 1/2 hours, the recovery is SOOO much easier! With Princess, I tore really badly, probably because she was a forceps delivery, but this time I really didn't tear much at all. Last time, I couldn't even get out of bed until the day they kicked me out of the hospital, but this time I was up and out of bed of my own free will just a few hours after giving birth.

We came home yesterday and spend our first night at home.  Princess spent the night at Grandma's house again so we only had Littlel Man to worry about. Up until last night, he hadn't had any interest in eating yet and I hadn't been able to get him to nurse. Then at 1 am, he woke up crying and was actually hungry. Still working on latching on and nursing, but at least he's eating a little better now. He'd been sleeping most of the evening and hadn't wanted to wake up, but 27 seconds after I laid down to sleep, he was up and upset that nobody else was. Really though, the night wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. Hubby says that Little Man cried a lot last night, but I'm curious as to how he would know as his vigorous snoring seemed to indicate that he was sleeping while I was up all night with the baby. Because he isn't nursing well yet, every time the baby got hungry, I would have to try to get him to nurse (which makes him REALLY mad most of the time) and then give him a bottle of expressed milk from my last pumping. After getting him settled back into his cradle, I would pump another bottle, wash the pumping supplies and lay back down only to have Little Man awake again.

Anyways, I really can't think clearly right now and I'm starting to get really tired so I think I'll take advantage of the fact that Little Man is sleeping and join him for awhile.

Fun Online Stuff Recommended by MOI!

Yes, I am posting twice in one day. Apparently consistency is not my thing because I can go several weeks without blogging and then write a couple of entries in a row.

I just wanted to share some cool stuff I've found on the internet and tried out.

Parents magazine is promoting reading to your child with a program that runs through May 31st. All you do is sign your child up online and fill out a log each day with how many minutes you read to your child that day. At the end of the program, you could win a $50 Barnes and Nobles gift card. I'm kind of a HUGE supporter of parents reading to their children and instilling a love of reading in them so a program like this is pretty cool. Don't forget to also check your local library for a summer reading program. Most of them start in June and are free with prizes and incentives to get kids to read. The one at our library goes from birth to 12th grade, but you'll have to check to see what ages your local library allows to sign up.
www.parents.com/raiseareader

If you shop online at all, this site can save you some money. You simply sign up (for free) and then access any number of a ton of online shopping sites through their site. When you buy something online, you get money back (usually ranges from 1% to 6% back), and they send you a check every so often. If you combine this with other coupon code sites (think free shipping or money off your order) such as retailmenot.com or coupons.com, you can save some decent cash just by shopping online.
http://www.ebates.com/

This is my latest find online and one I'm already hooked on. It's like ebay, but you don't use money. It's free to sign up and free to list auctions. Instead of using money to pay for things, you use credits. You earn credits to buy things that other people have listed by selling stuff you don't want anymore or by watching for "extra credit" activities you can do such as posting an auction on Facebook, being an active participant on the site, etc. The only money you might shell out is to pay for shipping, but a lot of sellers offer free shipping.
http://www.listia.com/

Surprise!

Yesterday was my due date. I'm still here. I'm pretty much expecting to have to be induced, but hopefully I'll be surprised.

Speaking of surprises...my sister had her baby. I don't remember if I mentioned this, but she was due to have a baby girl April 10th while I was due to have my baby boy yesterday. We figured that was perfect. We'd swap baby clothes and neither of us would have to buy much more than a few bibs and pacifiers. We'd gotten all the baby clothes out of storage, and each of us had filled our baby's dresser drawers with gender appropriate clothes. Or so we thought. On Friday, at 13 days overdue, my sister had to be induced. I have to be honest, her hubby is a bit of a joker so when he called me at 8 pm that night and announced "It's a boy!" I insisted on speaking with my sister before I could actually believe that she had given birth to a 9 pound 14 ounce baby BOY. My first thought was...well, I'm not actually sure because I was so positive she was having a girl that I was in shock. My second thought was "Oh shoot." Prior to finding out what the genders of our babies were, my sister and I had agreed that she got first dib on the boys clothes if we both had boys and vice versa. So, 4 days before my due date, I found myself packing up all the clothes and baby boy stuff and giving it back to my sister. She was nice enough to return the newborn size clothing to me since her bouncing baby boy was already too big for them, but other than that, all I had were a few pieces of miscellaneous clothing I'd picked up because I thought they were cute. To a woman who's 9 months pregnant, it was devastating because let's face it, when you're pregnant everything is worse than it needs to be. I must have complained about it to enough people though, because less than a week later, I now have everything I need plus offers for more.

Unsolicited Advice:
Don't ever assume an ultrasound will be 100 percent correct in predicting the gender of your baby!

Who Stole My Feet?

I miss my feet. Yes, I still own a pair of feet, but they're not the ones I had "before." Right now, I can't even see my feet most of the time because my stomach has obscured the lower half of my body. When I do catch a glimpse of my feet, it's a shock for me to see them because they aren't the same feet I had a few months ago.

When I was pregnant with Princess, I did not have water retention. I was kind of hoping that this pregnancy would be the same, but it's not. Maybe it's because I'm carrying a boy this time, maybe it's just because every pregnancy is different. A couple of weeks ago, I noticed that my feet looked a little...bigger. Not a big deal though because I could still fit into all of my shoes and they really didn't hurt much unless I was on them all day. Now however, the swelling has kicked in for real. I can barely walk in the morning when I get up, and shoes that fit me at 10 am are too small by mid-afternoon. My sister (the one who is also pregnant and is due this week) is thrilled that this time around, she's not the only one with water retention. Yay. I've been trying to drink plenty of water and put my feet up periodically because I've noticed that even in a sitting position, my feet keep swelling up. I now have one pair of shoes that isn't too small for me. I want to cry because I just bought an adorable pair of Skechers that I won't be able to wear for a while because they're too tight.

I'm not bragging, but my feet used to get compliments. Their main flaw was being flat, but if you overlooked that, they were nicely proportioned feet. Now I can't even look at them. When I see my feet, I have the feeling that they're actually somebody else's feet that somehow got attached to my ankles (which by the way, don't look so hot either right now). Hopefully this baby doesn't decide to be as late as his sister was so I can have my feet back soon.

I love being pregnant. No really, I do.

My House is Being Taken Over By Toys!

As I desperately tried to cram Princess's beanie babies, teddy bears, and other stuffed animals into the medium sized bin I'd long ago allocated for stuffed animals, a thought crossed my mind-I needed to go shopping for bigger storage containers. The stuffed animals were overflowing into the doll bin which was overflowing into the box of board books which was overflowing onto the toys shelves which were overflowing onto the floor of my living room. You get the picture.

How did we get so many toys? It's my personal theory that toys secretly procreate in the dark of night, multiplying their numbers so sneakily that you don't even notice it happening until one day you realize that your whole house has been turned into a giant playroom. Of course, the grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins, and even I am guilty of keeping Princess entertained with an endless supply of new toys to play with. My big pitfall is thrift store and garage sale shopping. My experience usually goes something like this:
"Look at the practically brand new, adorable toy that reminds me of my own childhood and gives me warm, fuzzy feelings inside! And look, it's only 50 cents!! I must buy it for my own child so she too can experience childhood to its fullest!"
I get home and hold my breath as I hand the latest acqusition over to Princess, anticipating shrieks of joy. She takes it from me, examines it briefly, and drops it to the floor so she can play with the the empty lotion bottle I forgot to throw away earlier.


As I contemplated what type of storage bins I could find that would contain the evergrowing population of Princess's toys, the solution hit me. The answer was to make the toys fit into the space we already had. I grabbed a garbage bag and started digging through the stuffed animals. I still haven't figured out why stuffed animals are such a popular gift to give children when I don't know a single child who actually plays with them. Occasionally, Princess will go through the bin and look at each one before wandering off to play with something else, but that is the extent of her interaction with her stuffed animals. So, it was relatively easy to downsize those. Then I started in on the rest of her toys. That was a little more difficult because I didn't want to get rid of toys that were gifts from relatives, but I managed to fill the garbage bag and off it went to Goodwill.



My new worry is that I'm due to have our second child next month and it's a boy. Which means a whole new set of toys geared for boys. I'm not one of those people who insist on toys being gender specific, but I don't think my little farm boy is going to want to play with dolls and other girly stuff ALL the time. He's probably going to want tractors and cars and the relatives will be more than happy to supply him with plenty of those. Another child also means twice as many birthday and Christmas presents for me to find space for. I'm hoping to convince relatives that, instead of giving a bunch of smaller stuff to each child, they can give one bigger gift to both the kids. But we'll see...



Unsolicited Advice: I recently remembered one of my favorite things to play with when I was a kid and decided to recreate it for Princess. When my parents moved back to Minnesota from Florida, my mom filled a cake pan with white sand from the beach. She didn't take it out very often so it was a special treat to get to play with it and it was perfect for when we were stuck inside all winter. Not having access to beach sand, I decided to use white rice to fill my cake pan. You could also use dry beans, oatmeal, gravel, etc.

Third Trimester Joys

Let me just take a moment here to whine. Actually, let's be realistic. Let me just take an hour here to whine.

My stomach hurts from Baby Boy kicking and squirming so much and so hard. My hips hurt and feel like they're falling out of their sockets every time I move. My legs hurt from having to carry all that extra weight around. My feet hurt because I've been wearing non-supportive, slip-on shoes to avoid having to bend over to tie tennis shoes. I've got killer heartburn 79% of the time. It takes me 84 minutes to turn over in bed or get up off the couch. I'm ready for bed around the same time I put Louise to bed. No matter what position I try sitting or laying in, two and half minutes later, I'm uncomfortable again. Judging from my symptoms, it sounds like I might be in my third trimester of pregnancy.

But to be honest, despite the nausea, discomfort, exhaustion, and outright painfulness of pregnancy, I actually do enjoy being pregnant. For a while I can wear clothes without worrying about whether they make me look fat or not, because let's face it, I passed that point around the third month of pregnancy. I like how people are so much nicer to pregnant women, and how just seeing a pregnant woman can seem to cheer some people up. And I love, love, love that there's a tiny baby growing inside of me. Because of my severe asthma messing with basically every part of my life, I somehow assumed that my body wouldn't work right when it came to making another human being. So I was a bit surprised when I found out I was pregnant with Princess, especially since it only took seven months of trying NOT to get pregnant for it to happen. Then I managed to actually carry her to full term (and beyond!) and deliver a healthy beautiful baby girl. Now I'm pregnant again and this time, it took exactly one "oops" moment to conceive. Apparently getting pregnant is not an issue for me.

Unsolicited Advice:
When possible, borrow maternity clothes from a friend or relative or buy them at thrift stores. They're not cheap and you only wear them for a short time really (even if it feels like forever some days) so why spend an arm and a leg on them?

And the Potty Training Stalls

A random observation that I made the other day...when Princess is standing right in front of me hanging onto my legs, I can no longer see her. I also can no longer tell if my socks match unless I'm sitting down. If they don't match, I really don't even care because it was so much work to put them on that there's no way I'm taking them back off again.

It's been two months since we started potty training. Two verrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrry long months. Every single day I have to rinse poopy underwear out in the toilet. Every day. That strikes me as ironic since that is the very reason I chose not to use cloth diapers.

The reason potty training is still going on is because Princess has yet to achieve the final step. She knows exactly what to do on the potty chair and can usually squeeze at least a few drops out to earn her chocolate chip. But she can't tell when she needs to go potty or poop! Kinda a big thing. When we started potty training, she would tell me as she was peeing her pants and would be pretty upset about getting Elmo wet (her underwear of choice). Now, the only way I catch accidents is if I feel a wet spot on her pants or happen to take her to the bathroom at which time I notice that Elmo is not dry.  Princess  will put on a sad face when I tell her that Elmo is wet, but as soon as I put her in clean underwear, she's all happy and smiles again as she declares "Elmo dry!" The only reason Princess doesn't have more accidents is because I know about when she's going to have to go and can usually take her before she goes in her pants. However, while I can tell she's going to need to go potty again soon because it's been a while, poop just kind of comes whenever so I very rarely catch it before I notice green fumes rising from Princess's backside. How in the world do I get her to realize when she has to go so I'm not taking ALL the responsibility for her body functions?!?!? Any advice on this would be GREATLY appreciated!

When we started potty training (and I use the term "we" loosely because, while Hubby was gungho about training her and still is, I'm the one doing all the actual work), Princess used a potty seat that fit over the regular toilet seat. Pretty nifty since I didn't have to rinse out a potty chair. This worked great until I realized that everytime I took her to the bathroom, I would suddenly have an urge to go as well. For a while I would "dance" around the toilet and beg her to hurry up and do her business so I could have a turn. Then I realized that I did have a potty chair stashed in the closet. Duh. Now we both go in there and get our own toilets.Princess  is thrilled because she gets to go potty with mama and I'm thrilled because I no longer have to worry about peeing my pants while I wait for my two year old to use the toilet. However, this has led her to believe that everytime I use the bathroom, she should be welcomed in the bathroom as well even if she isn't using her potty chair. If I dare to close the door, I have to listen to pounding on the door and plaintive cries of "mama, mama, mama." Recently, Princess has decided to be independent when it comes to going potty and if I try to follow her into the bathroom to give her a hand, she slams the door in my face and tells me, "Go away, mama!" How is this fair? My two year old gets more privacy in the bathroom than I do!