Babies have minds of their own!!! Was supposed to be induced on Monday January 30th, but doc decided we had to deliver yesterday Jan 24th, 2012 due to some blood count issues. SO...... We welcomed our little baby girl at 5:34pm weighing 7 pounds 11 ounces. 20.5 inches long. Mom and baby are doing great!
Happy Baby Thoughts.
R
Wednesday, January 25, 2012
Monday, January 23, 2012
Pardon me Ma'am but your child is licking the grocery cart.....
I really don't like germs. I'm not a complete germaphobe but I used to think I was pretty close. I also hate feet. I hate getting pedicures because I think it's weird that someone would touch someone else's feet. Gross. I don't even like looking at feet. Just reminds me of germs.
When it comes to my kids, I have changed my stance over the last few years. I used to sanitize everything. Carrying around WetOnes, wiping the table, never letting them eat anything off the floor or a dirty table. My husband claims that germs will strengthen their immune system. Who knows. When going to the grocery store, I had a shopping cart cover. I didn't get the fancy Floppy Seat or Boppy Seat, I think we settled on the Eddie Bauer one from Target. Worked okay... didn't fit all shopping carts.. but it worked sort of how I needed it to work. I think we used it maybe 4 times. It was just more work to remember to bring it with you, hold the child with one hand, then put the seat on, put the kid in and go. I must say that the expensive ones do look pretty cool. If I had to do it again and if I know what I know now, I guess I would have passed on this product.
I was talking to a friend of mine the other day about the FLOPPY SEAT. She is a mom of three and said, "You know... I have one but we returned it. I never used it. Now when I see other moms in the store with little babies in the FLOPPY seat, I think "Good for you Mom, Good for you for using it because I just can't be bothered with it". That's kind of how I feel. It's probably a great product, but for me, its more trouble than its worth!!!
I shop at the grocery store usually after school drop off weekday mornings or Saturdays when I can sneak away. Our grocery store is always packed with older people who love making comments about my kids. I try NEVER to take my kids to grocery store but sometimes it's unavoidable. I have the kids who are trying to crawl out of the cart and asking for balloons. If I have BOTH of them with me, God help me because sometimes I want to cry because I don't think I'm going to get out of there alive. One time at Trader Joe's... my kids actually FLIPPED the cart. I told them to sit down, but they didn't listen and they actually flipped it. Talk about embarrassing. I used to love going grocery shopping with just one kid in the infant carrier. They would just sit there and I would give them a bottle. It was nice. They didn't move and didn't talk back and rarely did they cry because I planned out their bottles and feeding times in advance. Then they had to come out of the carrier which made it harder. I remember when I had only my second child with me and she literally was CHEWING on the handlebar of the cart. I had already wiped it down (like I still do) but a lady came up to me and said "Ma'am, do you realize your kid is chewing on the cart???"... I just stopped and said "Yep, I know. Thanks". She looked at me like I was insane. I wasn't insane, I was just a tired mom who wanted to get through the store without a meltdown. It really was either that or have her scream. I chose the lesser of two evils. I know there are tons of gross things on that bar, but really.... I have to pick my battles and this was definitely not going to be one of them.
I guess what I'm trying to say is, as time goes by and your kids get older you get a little more lackadaisical when it come to germs. You don't freak if they drop something and pick it back up. You don't hose them down with Lysol when they go play with other kids or go to the gym Kidcare. You realize that they will live. It's kind of like letting your kid jump on the furniture knowing full well that they are going to fall off. You know that something is going to happen but it's not going to hurt them that much. They just have to learn. It will be okay.
As for me, I'm going to skip the shopping cart cover this time, but if you have the patience and time and drive to use it, go ahead! I have a good friend who uses one because it has a shoulder harness on it and she needs that because her son actually wiggled out of the shopping cart belt and flipped out of the cart and landed on his head. Okay, that would probably get me to use it. My plan in life is just to never take my kids shopping at a grocery store again! I like it better that way.
Happy Baby Thoughts :)
R
When it comes to my kids, I have changed my stance over the last few years. I used to sanitize everything. Carrying around WetOnes, wiping the table, never letting them eat anything off the floor or a dirty table. My husband claims that germs will strengthen their immune system. Who knows. When going to the grocery store, I had a shopping cart cover. I didn't get the fancy Floppy Seat or Boppy Seat, I think we settled on the Eddie Bauer one from Target. Worked okay... didn't fit all shopping carts.. but it worked sort of how I needed it to work. I think we used it maybe 4 times. It was just more work to remember to bring it with you, hold the child with one hand, then put the seat on, put the kid in and go. I must say that the expensive ones do look pretty cool. If I had to do it again and if I know what I know now, I guess I would have passed on this product.
I was talking to a friend of mine the other day about the FLOPPY SEAT. She is a mom of three and said, "You know... I have one but we returned it. I never used it. Now when I see other moms in the store with little babies in the FLOPPY seat, I think "Good for you Mom, Good for you for using it because I just can't be bothered with it". That's kind of how I feel. It's probably a great product, but for me, its more trouble than its worth!!!
I shop at the grocery store usually after school drop off weekday mornings or Saturdays when I can sneak away. Our grocery store is always packed with older people who love making comments about my kids. I try NEVER to take my kids to grocery store but sometimes it's unavoidable. I have the kids who are trying to crawl out of the cart and asking for balloons. If I have BOTH of them with me, God help me because sometimes I want to cry because I don't think I'm going to get out of there alive. One time at Trader Joe's... my kids actually FLIPPED the cart. I told them to sit down, but they didn't listen and they actually flipped it. Talk about embarrassing. I used to love going grocery shopping with just one kid in the infant carrier. They would just sit there and I would give them a bottle. It was nice. They didn't move and didn't talk back and rarely did they cry because I planned out their bottles and feeding times in advance. Then they had to come out of the carrier which made it harder. I remember when I had only my second child with me and she literally was CHEWING on the handlebar of the cart. I had already wiped it down (like I still do) but a lady came up to me and said "Ma'am, do you realize your kid is chewing on the cart???"... I just stopped and said "Yep, I know. Thanks". She looked at me like I was insane. I wasn't insane, I was just a tired mom who wanted to get through the store without a meltdown. It really was either that or have her scream. I chose the lesser of two evils. I know there are tons of gross things on that bar, but really.... I have to pick my battles and this was definitely not going to be one of them.
I guess what I'm trying to say is, as time goes by and your kids get older you get a little more lackadaisical when it come to germs. You don't freak if they drop something and pick it back up. You don't hose them down with Lysol when they go play with other kids or go to the gym Kidcare. You realize that they will live. It's kind of like letting your kid jump on the furniture knowing full well that they are going to fall off. You know that something is going to happen but it's not going to hurt them that much. They just have to learn. It will be okay.
As for me, I'm going to skip the shopping cart cover this time, but if you have the patience and time and drive to use it, go ahead! I have a good friend who uses one because it has a shoulder harness on it and she needs that because her son actually wiggled out of the shopping cart belt and flipped out of the cart and landed on his head. Okay, that would probably get me to use it. My plan in life is just to never take my kids shopping at a grocery store again! I like it better that way.
Happy Baby Thoughts :)
R
Sunday, January 22, 2012
Most important website for Moms
BabyGearMama PLEADS with you to register at this website. It's all about RECALLS on baby gear, toys or really anything related to children. Please please please please sign up for these alerts. Whether or not you are an expecting mom or a new mom or an experienced mom... you need this. I have already had a few things that I owned recalled (such as one of our ride on toys, a car seat and a crib) and it tells you what is the recall, how to fix it and shows you a picture. Choose the list that says "CHILD"
Babies are really really small.....
I forgot how small these baby clothes are. I spent today doing a final walk through on all of the baby clothes to see what we can wash and put in the baby's closet and which ones we need to wait until we meet the little guy or girl. The problem is that we mostly only have girl clothes, not much neutral. Although I went out and bought a few (I say few but I mean like 12 - kept the receipts of course) boy outfits, I'm not really ready to wash them until the big day comes! Did I mention it's 8 days away????? As I'm typing this I'm having major contractions... hopefully I can get through this post before baby decides to make an appearance.
Let's talk about Carter's Newborn clothes. Man... those are small. They can fit my daughter's Bitty Baby from American Girl. Carter's says those clothes fit little ones from 5-8 pounds. We have a few newborn sized clothes but not much. I would probably recommend NOT going out and buying newborn clothes. I would stick with size 0-3 months (by the way... on the tag of Carter's clothes it says 3 months... took a minute to figure out that that didn't mean 3-6 months... size 3 months means 0-3 months... size 6 months means 3-6 months). First of all, you will probably get some as gifts... secondly, you can always run out at the last minute or even while you are in the hospital have someone go for you. If you do a lot of newborn clothes as gifts for showers etc, keep the gift receipts as you may not even need them at all. I am finding clothes that my kids wore MAYBE once. I did not have small babies but they also were not huge. First one was 7 pounds 10 ounces at 10 days early, the second was 8 pounds 7 ounces at 5 days early. They did fit into the newborn sized clothes however I'm sure it was only for what..... 2 weeks????? It gives me heartburn thinking about clothes that my kids didn't wear very much but it's a part of motherhood.... you will have outfits that they wear only once, twice or even not at all. You will have outfits that didn't fit them properly (like the jeans that my daughter doesn't fit into because she has no butt and no hips). They just quietly get folded up and put away in a bin. Again, gives me heartburn so I try not to think about it.
At the hospital, they give you size Newborn diapers. Unless you know you are having a very very small baby, don't go out and buy a ton of those as you have no idea how long the baby will be in those. We currently have two small packs of newborn Pampers because I found them on sale. I like them because they have the curved cut out for the umbilical chord. Not sure how long these will fit the little bambino but again something that you can run out and get at the last minute. We do however have two cases of (each) size 1 and size 2 diapers ready to go. Babies R Us was having a buy two get a $35 gift card at the time so I took a chance. Keep an eye out for those deals. They are great!
As we brought out the little car seat today, I remembered how our girls looked in that carrier. Wow, they were small. I was afraid to change her diaper when they got home... I didn't want to break the baby!! Something that I did splurge on for this baby the third time around is a Snuzzler (not even sure they had them 6 years ago). I believe the laws for the car seats say that you can't put them in the car seat for safety reasons but I wanted to get it for the swing and the stroller. It makes the little baby nice and cozy. I wish they made them in adult sizes. Our full size swing is not really for newborns but I think with the Snuzzler, they can fit a little better and not flop over. Since you can't technically put padding in the car seat, I think we folded up some receiving blankets on either side to make her a little more comfy. That way she wouldn't flop so much around. I think they law says you can't put anything BEHIND the baby (as it would if you put the Snuzzler behind her) so the blankets were okay.
Two more things about newborn clothes:
1. WHY IN THE WORLD DO THEY MAKE NEWBORN CLOTHES THAT BUTTON IN THE BACK????? I think that was the most frustrating thing when I was a new mom. Some of the cute little outfits for girls had buttons on the back. How are you supposed to prop up the baby with one hand... hold her there, and button with the other hand. I had to get rid of those outfits. I tried once by myself and couldn't do it. Poor little floppy head newborn had to sit there while I attempted to button her clothes. Never again.
2. In the hospital they give you those long sleeve tshirts that snap in the front. Stock up on as many as you can with those because they are great because they have little flaps that cover their fingers AND they don't have a crotch snap that covers the umbilical chord.
Getting out baby clothes and getting the nursery makes everything seem so real. I'm very excited for this next week to be over to welcome our new little one. I'm still pretty nervous so of course I keep all receipts and don't really open anything as that can be done at the last minute. And now we just wait. Baby will come when he or she wants... or next Monday whichever comes first.
I would love to hear from anyone who had a preemie baby. I can only imagine their challenges!!! Was there anything else that they had a problem finding to fit their baby besides clothes? If you know you are going to have a small baby, what do you have to do differently????
Happy Baby Thoughts to All,
R
Let's talk about Carter's Newborn clothes. Man... those are small. They can fit my daughter's Bitty Baby from American Girl. Carter's says those clothes fit little ones from 5-8 pounds. We have a few newborn sized clothes but not much. I would probably recommend NOT going out and buying newborn clothes. I would stick with size 0-3 months (by the way... on the tag of Carter's clothes it says 3 months... took a minute to figure out that that didn't mean 3-6 months... size 3 months means 0-3 months... size 6 months means 3-6 months). First of all, you will probably get some as gifts... secondly, you can always run out at the last minute or even while you are in the hospital have someone go for you. If you do a lot of newborn clothes as gifts for showers etc, keep the gift receipts as you may not even need them at all. I am finding clothes that my kids wore MAYBE once. I did not have small babies but they also were not huge. First one was 7 pounds 10 ounces at 10 days early, the second was 8 pounds 7 ounces at 5 days early. They did fit into the newborn sized clothes however I'm sure it was only for what..... 2 weeks????? It gives me heartburn thinking about clothes that my kids didn't wear very much but it's a part of motherhood.... you will have outfits that they wear only once, twice or even not at all. You will have outfits that didn't fit them properly (like the jeans that my daughter doesn't fit into because she has no butt and no hips). They just quietly get folded up and put away in a bin. Again, gives me heartburn so I try not to think about it.
At the hospital, they give you size Newborn diapers. Unless you know you are having a very very small baby, don't go out and buy a ton of those as you have no idea how long the baby will be in those. We currently have two small packs of newborn Pampers because I found them on sale. I like them because they have the curved cut out for the umbilical chord. Not sure how long these will fit the little bambino but again something that you can run out and get at the last minute. We do however have two cases of (each) size 1 and size 2 diapers ready to go. Babies R Us was having a buy two get a $35 gift card at the time so I took a chance. Keep an eye out for those deals. They are great!
As we brought out the little car seat today, I remembered how our girls looked in that carrier. Wow, they were small. I was afraid to change her diaper when they got home... I didn't want to break the baby!! Something that I did splurge on for this baby the third time around is a Snuzzler (not even sure they had them 6 years ago). I believe the laws for the car seats say that you can't put them in the car seat for safety reasons but I wanted to get it for the swing and the stroller. It makes the little baby nice and cozy. I wish they made them in adult sizes. Our full size swing is not really for newborns but I think with the Snuzzler, they can fit a little better and not flop over. Since you can't technically put padding in the car seat, I think we folded up some receiving blankets on either side to make her a little more comfy. That way she wouldn't flop so much around. I think they law says you can't put anything BEHIND the baby (as it would if you put the Snuzzler behind her) so the blankets were okay.
Two more things about newborn clothes:
1. WHY IN THE WORLD DO THEY MAKE NEWBORN CLOTHES THAT BUTTON IN THE BACK????? I think that was the most frustrating thing when I was a new mom. Some of the cute little outfits for girls had buttons on the back. How are you supposed to prop up the baby with one hand... hold her there, and button with the other hand. I had to get rid of those outfits. I tried once by myself and couldn't do it. Poor little floppy head newborn had to sit there while I attempted to button her clothes. Never again.
2. In the hospital they give you those long sleeve tshirts that snap in the front. Stock up on as many as you can with those because they are great because they have little flaps that cover their fingers AND they don't have a crotch snap that covers the umbilical chord.
Getting out baby clothes and getting the nursery makes everything seem so real. I'm very excited for this next week to be over to welcome our new little one. I'm still pretty nervous so of course I keep all receipts and don't really open anything as that can be done at the last minute. And now we just wait. Baby will come when he or she wants... or next Monday whichever comes first.
I would love to hear from anyone who had a preemie baby. I can only imagine their challenges!!! Was there anything else that they had a problem finding to fit their baby besides clothes? If you know you are going to have a small baby, what do you have to do differently????
Happy Baby Thoughts to All,
R
Saturday, January 21, 2012
NESTING... The most exhausting & mean trick Mother Nature ever played
I'M NESTING. A lot. For the past several weeks (maybe months), I have been attempting to get organized for the new baby. I have done this "nesting" thing twice before but for some reason (well, two specific little kid reasons), this time it's much more exhausting. I have cleaned the entire basement (twice), organized toys, threw some out, gave some away to charity, gone to Babies R Us several times and bought a few new things, cleaned the nursery (twice), washed clothes, threw out gross newborn clothes with stains, bought outfits at carters.com and gymboree.com (even though we don't know the gender of the baby). I've done it all. Now I'm just tired. Getting ready. 9 more days until my induction. But who is counting, right? Nesting while you are taking care of two other children, just makes the whole idea of nesting just completely insane.... but I guess we can't avoid it. I can barely walk up and down the stairs since my belly is so large and baby is sitting on my hip bone, but for some reason I can sanitize the entire toy room, put away clothes, wash sheets, go shopping for baby stuff, and still make sure my other kids are still alive (so far so good but I still have 9 days left). Of course, I go to bed at 8pm (sometimes earlier). It's nesting & exhausting.
In my quest to get things in my life a little more under control or at least give myself the appearance that I'm doing something constructive and using my brain at the same time (as a stay at home mom for the past 6 years I forgot what it's like to actually THINK on most days), I decided to start this blog. I look around my house and see so much baby stuff. I DREAM of the day on which I can have a garage sale and get rid of all of it. This is our last baby (if you can't figure that out yourself). We have two beautiful and healthy (for the most part) girls ages 5 and almost 3. Our family will be complete. But this baby gear and baby supplies have got to go. It started me thinking.....what stuff did we really need? Did I really need this wipe warmer? What about all these newborn clothes? Did she actually wear this outfit? I can't remember. How do I have 4 diaper bags? Wow, didn't I register for those shades that go in the car to keep the sun out of the baby's face? What happened to those? I could have sworn that both my kids hated to Swaddle Me blanket things, should I try them again? Which bottles did I used to use? Why did I get new ones? Should I get new nipples for my Dr Brown bottles? What did I do with them? I could have sworn we had a mobile for the crib. Did it break? All things that I have contemplated over the past few weeks. Nesting. It will keep you up at night.
Over the past 6 years, I have owned 9 strollers. No joke. Ask my husband. Well, actually don't because I'm sure it's annoying to him. A Graco MetroLite Travel system (my original stroller for which I registered), 2 cheap umbrella strollers, a hand me down Sit and Stand that I never used (it was older and my daughter refused to go in it for whatever reason), a Graco Quattro Tour Single, a BOB Ironman Running stroller, a Graco Duo Glider front to back double that a wonderful friend gave to me when she was done, a Chicco Trevi Twin Side by Side and a Snap N Go Frame stroller. I no longer have the MetroLite (and there is a reason why which will come later in the Stroller section), one of the umbrella strollers broke, and the Sit and Stand was donated to charity. But I still have "Stroller Envy". In a big way. I see all of these Maclaren strollers that look so light and portable yet functional or the UPPAbaby. All the futuristic ones were not really around 6 years ago, or if they were I really missed the boat. Bugaboo... Stokke... OrbitBaby. Wow those are cool. We decided to go with the MetroLite Travel System. Came with an infant car seat, base, and supposedly the lightest Graco Single stroller that they made at the time. I loved it at first, but quickly found out it may have been too light and I didn't like it and we had to switch it out after the insistent urging from my mother to which I am grateful. Had I known the issues I was going to have with this stroller, I never would have put it on my registry!
So bottom line is, we, as mothers, learn through trial and error. I have two wonderful older sisters, who both have four children each. One has four boys and one has four girls. My sister in law and brother have a boy and a girl so we have all the bases covered for opinions from my kin which I appreciate. They have been immensely helpful with gear decisions and they have both attempted to keep my head above water on days in which I just wanted to sink. So some of this info in the blog come from them, or they are tips that were told to me from other moms who came across a particular issue or problem. Some of it worked for me, some of it didn't. I'm going to try and recall what did and what didn't. After all, we moms have to stick together to make sure that we all survive this rocky-life called "Motherhood".
I envision myself sitting at Starbucks with my new sleeping baby in his/her Graco Snugride Infant Car Seat, updating my blog daily.... I have a lot of categories listed on the right side which will list in detail my opinions on different topics of motherhood. For newborns.... for toddlers and the "post toddler drama queen" (we definitely have one of those). I hope it doesn't come down to me sitting on my living room floor in the middle of the night with a screaming baby and me attempting to type away while I am drinking a large glass of wine.... could happen. We will see.
Anyways, I look forward to getting the information up on the blog. I am excited for this new addition and this new chapter in our lives. A third baby. Our last baby. Bring it on. I'm ready as I ever will be. I bought a few new items to replace some old things that didn't work, or were lost, or ruined. Can't wait to try them out and share the results. Trial and Error, right??? That's how we learn.
Happy Baby Thoughts :)
R
In my quest to get things in my life a little more under control or at least give myself the appearance that I'm doing something constructive and using my brain at the same time (as a stay at home mom for the past 6 years I forgot what it's like to actually THINK on most days), I decided to start this blog. I look around my house and see so much baby stuff. I DREAM of the day on which I can have a garage sale and get rid of all of it. This is our last baby (if you can't figure that out yourself). We have two beautiful and healthy (for the most part) girls ages 5 and almost 3. Our family will be complete. But this baby gear and baby supplies have got to go. It started me thinking.....what stuff did we really need? Did I really need this wipe warmer? What about all these newborn clothes? Did she actually wear this outfit? I can't remember. How do I have 4 diaper bags? Wow, didn't I register for those shades that go in the car to keep the sun out of the baby's face? What happened to those? I could have sworn that both my kids hated to Swaddle Me blanket things, should I try them again? Which bottles did I used to use? Why did I get new ones? Should I get new nipples for my Dr Brown bottles? What did I do with them? I could have sworn we had a mobile for the crib. Did it break? All things that I have contemplated over the past few weeks. Nesting. It will keep you up at night.
Over the past 6 years, I have owned 9 strollers. No joke. Ask my husband. Well, actually don't because I'm sure it's annoying to him. A Graco MetroLite Travel system (my original stroller for which I registered), 2 cheap umbrella strollers, a hand me down Sit and Stand that I never used (it was older and my daughter refused to go in it for whatever reason), a Graco Quattro Tour Single, a BOB Ironman Running stroller, a Graco Duo Glider front to back double that a wonderful friend gave to me when she was done, a Chicco Trevi Twin Side by Side and a Snap N Go Frame stroller. I no longer have the MetroLite (and there is a reason why which will come later in the Stroller section), one of the umbrella strollers broke, and the Sit and Stand was donated to charity. But I still have "Stroller Envy". In a big way. I see all of these Maclaren strollers that look so light and portable yet functional or the UPPAbaby. All the futuristic ones were not really around 6 years ago, or if they were I really missed the boat. Bugaboo... Stokke... OrbitBaby. Wow those are cool. We decided to go with the MetroLite Travel System. Came with an infant car seat, base, and supposedly the lightest Graco Single stroller that they made at the time. I loved it at first, but quickly found out it may have been too light and I didn't like it and we had to switch it out after the insistent urging from my mother to which I am grateful. Had I known the issues I was going to have with this stroller, I never would have put it on my registry!
So bottom line is, we, as mothers, learn through trial and error. I have two wonderful older sisters, who both have four children each. One has four boys and one has four girls. My sister in law and brother have a boy and a girl so we have all the bases covered for opinions from my kin which I appreciate. They have been immensely helpful with gear decisions and they have both attempted to keep my head above water on days in which I just wanted to sink. So some of this info in the blog come from them, or they are tips that were told to me from other moms who came across a particular issue or problem. Some of it worked for me, some of it didn't. I'm going to try and recall what did and what didn't. After all, we moms have to stick together to make sure that we all survive this rocky-life called "Motherhood".
I envision myself sitting at Starbucks with my new sleeping baby in his/her Graco Snugride Infant Car Seat, updating my blog daily.... I have a lot of categories listed on the right side which will list in detail my opinions on different topics of motherhood. For newborns.... for toddlers and the "post toddler drama queen" (we definitely have one of those). I hope it doesn't come down to me sitting on my living room floor in the middle of the night with a screaming baby and me attempting to type away while I am drinking a large glass of wine.... could happen. We will see.
Anyways, I look forward to getting the information up on the blog. I am excited for this new addition and this new chapter in our lives. A third baby. Our last baby. Bring it on. I'm ready as I ever will be. I bought a few new items to replace some old things that didn't work, or were lost, or ruined. Can't wait to try them out and share the results. Trial and Error, right??? That's how we learn.
Happy Baby Thoughts :)
R
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