Fisher Price Rock 'n Play Sleeper

We bought this item after a friend suggested it for portable places to sleep and keep the baby.
It was AWESOME.

Ben slept in it for the first 2 months of his life when we needed to put him to sleep in the living room, or split up to maximize parental sleep and when we traveled. He was super comfy in it because I really believe most infants don't like being flat on their backs. We had a pack and play that had an infant napping station that was shaped to cradle his body and this item mimicked that. So, when we traveled to my parents house, I had a safe comfy place to put him in without having to take down and pack up the pack and play. (Because of the napping station attachment it made the break down and putting back together of the pack and play way more complicated)
We also are short on space in our car as we have 2 kids now - so overnight trips require maximizing trunk space.

Sadly, he never liked to just sit in it when he was awake - but I think that's because he couldn't see over the sides and he was very alert from day one and always liked to be able to see EVERYTHING. In fact, we had to take him out of his infant car seat and put him a rear facing convertible after a month of him SCREAMING every time we put him in the car or used it as a stroller. As soon as we switched it (after a friends suggestion) he was a different kid because he could see out and that made him happy.

I have heard that some people put their babies in it the first few months for sitting while awake and just wish we had been able to do that as well.

As you can see from the picture above - we HAD to rig a mobile to be able to sit him in there awake and that usually only lasted 5 minutes max before he started yelling to get out.
(I think he's 2 weeks old in that picture - 3 at the most)

So, if you are low on space and need to travel or want somewhere to place the baby in a second room during the day - get this. It's the best $40 we spent and gave us VERY sound sleep for the first 2 - 3 months of his life:)

Teething Bling

I'm not gonna lie - this is another one of those baby products that I thought was dumb when I first heard about it and here is why. I thought,

"Why would you want to encourage your child to chew on your jewelry"

So, with my first kid - I didn't give it so much as a passing thought other than - wow, that's another useless item.

Then I had Ben - Ben likes to pull on my necklace ALL THE TIME. Katie NEVER did cause she was a bottle baby and just never really found my necklaces. I think Breastfeeding puts him in a position to want to hold on to something there. He also likes to chew on things - which Katie didn't do that much of either - so I thought - wait wasn't there a necklace made specially for kids like this that I could buy - so I looked it up and ordered one!

I ordered Teething Bling in their BEAUTIFUL Coral color and it just came in the mail today. Ben is sleeping, but I can't wait for him to wake up because I think he's gonna love it. They also make bangle bracelets which I admit, I thought was useless even after ordering the necklace - but my husband pointed out to me how much Ben grabs and chews on my hand and wrist - so again, clearly these moms are smarter than me and figured it out and are making money off of it. Kudos to them!

YAY Smart Mom jewelery for creating a safe teethable toy/fashion accessory for us both to enjoy! I will post a full review once he has gotten his gummy gum gums all over it!

P.s. something is wrong with blogspot at the moment and I can't flip my pictures - I will remedy that later:)

Starting Solids Early

I am going to be 100% honest here, I always looked down on people who started their babies on solids at 4 months. In my defense - my doctor with Katie was very strict about not starting until 6 months, so of course, I agreed with her.

Fast forward to now - Exclusively breastfeeding for 4.5 months. (this kid has only taken 1 bottle EVER and it was 1/4 of a bottle and he was sleeping)
Anyway - The new standard is to start between 4 and 6 months. The idea being that if your child isn't ready to eat - they will let you know because they won't be good at it. Makes total sense.

So, we went to our 4 month appointment and I already had the rice cereal in the cabinet at home because I was ready for him to start eating. I Figured if nothing else, maybe it would help him sleep a little longer at night if he got a little cereal. That was all I hoped for. I figured he would practice for a month or 2 before he was ready to actually eat.

I was wrong - he took to the spoon from day 1 and ate his cereal like a CHAMP! I'm talking, opening his mouth for more and reaching for the spoon.

Rice cereal, Barley and Oatmeal - Check.

The downside is he prefers it with Breastmilk over water as do I for the nutritional benefit. I tried formula to see if I could get a break - and he rejected it whole heartedly.

So, I try to pump so that at least one of his 2 cereal servings a day can be with formula - makes me feel better about starting him on food so early.

Clearly he likes it and his tummy can handle it and he's super interested in food. Katie was not.

So, I apologize to all the moms I scoffed at in the past for feeding your babies food at 4 months. I now agree, that some babies truly are ready for it!

SWADDLING

O.k. this post is mostly for preggos or new parents but I really felt a need to write about our experience with Swaddling because it has changed our life.

Dramatic I know.

I don't think Katie liked being swaddled - although to be honest I didn't believe in it much back then and no one I knew really did it - so we didn't really try it aside from the first few days home with the receiving blankets like they did at the hospital.

Ben was another story. Swaddling is the only way he will sleep well. I am SO Happy that there are SO many products out there for swaddling and I figured I'd review some since we have tried a bunch.

1) Receiving blankets - they only work the first few days home because they are usually not big enough or tight enough and once your little one can move - forget it - they are useless.

2) SwaddleME by Summer -
these were awesome the first few months.
They come in light cotton fabrics AND heavier fleece fabrics for colder weather.
They have Velcro for closing and they are so smart, they actually put extra fabric near the velcro so that when you wash them, you can attach the fabric to the velcro so the velcro doesn't ruin other items in the wash! (I LOVED THIS FEATURE)
They also come in a crazy array of fun colors, prints, etc...
These worked for us until about 3 months and we literally could not leave home without one. We had to stop using them once Ben started trying to roll over in his sleep because he would wiggle himself out of it just enough that the part that wrapped his arms actually ended up by his face - which clearly is not good. So, sadly we had to retire them for awhile until he settled again.
They even have a hole in the back so that you can put them into your car seat or stroller - although I never figured out how to do this because Ben only needed to be swaddled when sleeping flat - I do know people use them in the car - so I'm sure that feature is handy as well.


3) Miracle Blanket -

This item was brought to my attention from some fellow moms, and although I have never used it - I think if I had known about it in the beginning, I would have just bought these because you don't have to replace them for bigger sizes and they eliminate the babies ability to get out of the swaddle and wake themselves up or get suffocated by moving around in the others ones too much. However, they do require a wrapping skill and I think in our situation with Ben, it would have been a little difficult some times to put him in one while he was dosing off...

4) Halo Sleepsack with swaddle

- someone mentioned this one to me and for the first week I loved it, then I found it to be the most annoying thing on the planet because for some reason it just didn't fit right. Ben was moving around more so it was a bit harder to get on and the sheer amount of velcro to close it makes so much noise, it inevitably woke him up if we had to adjust it - which we always had to do to make sure it was tight enough.

I did like the fact that for 20 something dollars you get a sleep sack AND Swaddle and that once you no longer need the swaddle part, that part is detachable and you can still use the sleep sack.
So, I will use the sleep sack part once he has broken the swaddle dependency.

5) The Woombie -

The people we are renting from left us some hand me downs and in that bag was the woombie. I thought it looked crazy but washed it anyway just in case and let me tell you I'm glad I did! Its a little awkward to put on, but Ben likes it the best!

Yes, it looks kind of like a straight jackety thing - but let me tell you these people are RIGHT on in terms of keeping baby happy. The shape and elasticity of the fabric means he has some wiggle room but he feels safe and secure and cant jerk himself awake. Which means he sleeps great - because he can move around to get comfy but his little arms and legs don't jut out since he's too young to have total control of his limbs. He wore it all last night and slept the best he has in days!!! Hes also napping in it now and is sleeping SO well! I love this thing
I wish I had had these from the beginning:)

The website has all kinds of super cool stuff including this AWESOME looking napping station thingy that would have been perfect the last few days with the heat wave as we could have brought him into our room without having to set up the pack and play or sleep on the couch - which is what I did for 2 days so he could stay in the AC in the pack and play. They also have these woombie with legs and I think we are going to NEED those in a month or so when we start to transition him out of the full swaddle. Genius - I swear.

Just goes to show you that even if you think something won't work or looks funny - TRY IT! All babies are different and there are a ton of products out there - not all of which are worth your money. If you can borrow some of these to try them on your little one before you invest - I suggest you do that. I will save all mine, so if you are interested - just tell me! But, I have to say - Woombie all the way!!!!

Sorry, I gotta run, he woke up and needs some cereal - but I just wanted to share some Swaddling reviews - because like I said, swaddling has saved our lives. I know we don't get that much sleep from him, but the sleep we do, we get thanks to swaddling!!!!

Happy Weekend!

P.s. I will eventually take pics of my actual child in these products - but things are a bit crazy at the moment with 2;)

Positives to Staying Home with your kids

O.k. in the insanity that has been the last 3 months, I have decided to write a blog on the positives on staying home because I do realize that there are a lot, otherwise I wouldn't be sacrificing working in order to do so.

So... here goes

1. You have less of a chance of missing all the firsts... steps, words, crawling, smiles
2. You get to stay in your pj's all day
3. You have full access to your fridge all day and can make whatever you want whenever you want and aren't limited to a cafeteria or a microwave
4. In the summer, you can enjoy some outside time and possible sprinklers, water table or pool fun
5. Your kid gets to set a schedule that works for them- I for one, let Katie nap for as long as she needs to (unless it goes past 4:30 because we like having some quiet time at night without her being awake past 8:00) and we never have to wake her up in the morning
6. You can run your errands during the day (well, when I had one kid I could do that, at the moment I am stuck doing my errands after 8pm when he's asleep for longer than 2 hours at a clip - but I hold out hope that that will change someday)
7. You can clean your house a little here and a little there. (I'm wicked crazy about cleaning and my house is ALWAYS clean. I'm talking lysol wipes on the garbage can opening clean - so this suits me well!)
8. You can cook yummy dinners without having to eat late. (although my meal planning lately has been crap - I will get back to it now that we're settled)
9. You can watch daytime TV - yeah, I said it - I watch Ellen and Rachel Ray sometimes - don't judge
10. You can go on the internet and use the phone without being monitored by anyone but your toddler
11. You can have play dates with your kids friends moms - which can be play dates for you!
    

So, please understand that I do realize there are a lot of perks to being a stay at home mom. I just wasn't expecting that number 2 would be so difficult and totally throw my leisurely lifestyle upside down. Having a kid that won't stay in a stroller makes a lot of the above difficult, but I know that someday - I will get back there:)

Happy Wednesday (I think it's Wednesday anyway)

C-section versus Natural Birth

Pregnancy is a lot of things. Scary is one of them. I was lucky enough with my first pregnancy to have 0 complications and a VERY easy labor and delivery. The entire pregnancy and childbirth experience was perfectly pleasant to be honest even with having to go on pitocin and having my water broken by the doctor.

It's one of those things that once you are there - you have to give up all sense of "control" modesty and everything else you hold dear - because nature and the doctors are going to take control.

My second pregnancy has been a little more typical with more nausea, increase in appetite, mood swings, crying, weight gain, and general pregnancy crazies. However, with all of that, my biggest fear at this moment is having to have a C-section.

Which brings me to my topic for the day. It seems to me that more and more doctors are pushing c-sections and that more and more moms are also opting for them.
I have heard various reasons for this such as
1) convenience for both the doctor and parents
2) timing... people don't want to have to wait through labor
3)not wanting to push a watermelon out of a lemon excuse

Here is my take
A C-section is a surgery. Not a convenience. A MAJOR surgery that includes some serious risks and a very major recovery afterwards.

I am not talking about people whose doctors legitimately think that a C-section is the safer option for both mom and baby. I'm talking about c-sections that are scheduled before you even walk into the hospital. I understand that once you have one, your following pregnancies should be c-sections as well, so I exclude those as well.

Right now, my biggest nightmare is having to have an emergency c-section. I think I would absolutely lose my mind if we went into the hospital and had to be wheeled off last minute. Something about it just totally freaks me out. I seriously think I'd pass out and vomit and have a panic attack (regardless of the drugs they offer me)

My doctor with Kaitlyn was very old fashioned and natural and wouldn't even discuss the possibility of induction or c-sections. He said there was no need because we would deal with it if and when we had to. I respect that. For some reason, it comforted me.

Perhaps it's because I've never had a surgery before - but the thought of it gives me the heebie jeebies and I don't agree with choosing to have a c-section "just because"

But, I also think that all moms should at least attempt to breast feed - so perhaps I'm a bit more old fashioned than I had originally thought before having children.

Anyone have any thoughts or experiences they'd like to share about c-section versus natural birth? Anyone's doctor push them for one that they didn't want? Anyone want to share an experience where they chose an "medically unnecessary" C-section and try to explain to me why that worked best for you?

I want to hear it:)