37 Week Checkup

Filed Under Baby Gear, Doctor Stuff, Second Pregnancy, Week by Week | 1 Comment

Today at my dr’s appointment, she said, “Congratulations! You have a full-term baby!” Thank you, God, for letting me carry this baby for 37 weeks. I am always convinced that I am going to have an early unexpected delivery for some reason. I am trying to enjoy these last few weeks with Baby Boy inside me. Even right now he is thumping. I think he has the hiccups. His heartbeat has been consistently around 140 at every checkup.

I am starting to really look forward to meeting him, to holding him and kissing his little face and rubbing his peach fuzz hair against my cheek. It’s going to be so soon. While I’m not completely ready, I’m ready enough. My heart is full of love and hope and nervous flutters. My bag is (finally) packed. His clothes are all washed and put away. The baby swing a friend so kindly loaned us is waiting in the living room. Grandma has been sleeping with her cell phone next to her at night in case she needs to come watch Bailey. Our fridge is empty, so I need to take care of that. Or else Jonathon can…. whatever… that is not a priority right now. My big priorities are relaxing, snuggling with my daughter as much as possible while she is still my only visible child, and trying to be nice to my husband.

And the good news? I am now at 3 centimeters- a welcome change from the HALF centimeter last week! Yay for progress!

Rockabye Baby Lullabye CD

Filed Under Baby Gear, Music | 2 Comments

A few weeks ago I was sent a great CD by Rockabye Baby. This company makes lullaby cd’s with instrumental, soothing versions of familiar songs. You can choose which artist you are interested in, and get a whole CD of “their” music.

The one that I chose was The Beatles. The CD includes songs like “All You Need is Love” and “Penny Lane.” Instead of singing and guitars and drums, the music is made by bells and what sounds like perhaps a xylophone. I was curious to get the CD and see what it was like. I wasn’t quite sure what to expect but I was very pleasantly surprised. The music is so relaxing and doesn’t get on my nerves like some kids songs that I hear over and over. Bailey seemed to like the music too. She is not used to sleeping with music on but she still didn’t try to stay awake to sing along or anything, since it was just instrumental. We will probably use this CD in the new baby’s room once he is born.

We might order a few of these, too, so we can have a variety. I like the idea of playing music for babies. Rockabye Baby has a really wide variety of artists available, including Metallica, U2, Bob Marley, Nine Inch Nails, Queen, Green Day, Coldplay, and Led Zeppelin. The CD prices are comparable to what you would find in a retail store and the shipping is really reasonable.

Free Stroller Sign

Filed Under Baby Gear, Freebies, Sick | 6 Comments

You know how when you have your really cute baby out and about in the stroller (okay, so maybe if your baby isn’t cute you don’t have this problem, but I have this problem, lol) everyone wants to TOUCH THEM? Especially when they are small, and especially their hands? It’s so gross. I used to carry Bailey in the sling a lot and I noticed that she got touched less.

Now that she is bigger, we use hand sanitizer a lot. She learned this “Squishy squishy squashy, give your hands a washy” song from Barney. If I give her a squirt of soap or sanitizer she will scrub while I sing that. (Yes, I am quite aware of the evils of hand sanitizer. I’d rather have her sniff a little alcohol here and there, than end up getting pneumonia. Sue me.)

However, someone on a board that I belong to shared this link. If you visit that site* and click on “Get a helping hand” over on the right, you can sign up for a free stroller tag. It looks like a stop sign and says “Please wash your hands before touching me.” Some people think I am a little too bold with stuff like that, but I think it will make people who aren’t thinking (yes, YOU old ladies with the snotty kleenex in your hand) think before they touch a baby. I might use it now, but I will definitely keep it to use for any future children we might have. No, I am NOT pregnant.

*For some reason the direct link to the sign up form doesn’t work, so you’ll have to go through the main page first.

And the baby picture? Just an excuse to post an old picture of Bailey that I love.

Freepeats in St. Louis

Filed Under Baby Gear, Shopping, St. Louis | 3 Comments

I just followed another blog post to find a great new baby stuff website called Freepeats. They are in St. Louis, Indianapolis, and Philadelphia. Lifetime membership is free through July 1st, then after that, a lifetime membership will cost $4.95

If you have ever looked at Freecycle, it reminds me of that, only instead of random things like auto parts, EVERYTHING on the site is baby/kid stuff. Everything is free. You post your offer, then change your post to show when it is taken. I registered and I have seen some decent offers on there, like a set of Avent bottles, a boppy, shoes, etc. It’s really not junk. I will have to look through my stuff and see what I can clear out of here. There is also a section for trading formula coupons and such.

Filed Under Baby Gear, Eleven Months | 2 Comments

When we were on our trip to Nashville, Bailey did really well playing in her Pack N Play in the hotel room. She would let us just sit her in there and she’d hang out for at least 20 minutes or so, just reading books and playing with toys. The Pack N Play usually stays at my mom’s house unless we need it to go somewhere, but we thought since it worked so great as a playpen on our trip, that we should bring it home. We set it up in the kitchen so that it wouldn’t make dents in the carpet- I am really freaky about carpet dents- and we have tried putting her in it a few times with some not-so good results.

Here she is playing for the first few minutes and being somewhat content.

Then I was trying to get her to like it again by peeking through the sides at her, but she didn’t seem too impressed

And once that quit working, she just wanted OUT! We have tried this several times but it doesn’t seem to be as exciting as it was on the trip. It works if I need to contain her while I pull something out of the oven (ha, you know I don’t cook that often, we’re talking about frozen pizza here) or run to the bathroom, but that’s about it.

I know I still need to post pictures from our trip and the wedding but I have so many and I am waiting for a time when I can sit down and do it all at once. Hopefully tonight or tomorrow.

Also, don’t forget to enter my AVON GIVEAWAY. Today is the last day to enter and I will draw a winner tonight

Crappy Napper

Filed Under Baby Gear, Sleep, Ten Months | 7 Comments

20 minutes this morning, 40 this afternoon. If I try to buckle her into her bouncy seat in front of a Baby Einstein video for a few more minutes of peace, this is what happens:

Organization

Filed Under Baby Gear, Bailey's Birthday, Church, Daddy, classes | 1 Comment

Friday night I went to a ladies night thing at my church. I know, you are thinking “Exciting Friday night, Tara!” It turned out to be a lot better than I expected. I mainly signed up because my mom and grandma wanted to go. They had snacks and then we got to pick three classes we wanted to take. The first one I chose was about organizing your busy life. Scheduling everything- including a cleaning schedule. I know some people think this sounds neurotic, but it’s the kind of organization I need if I am going to get anything done. We also talked about communicating better with your spouse to divide up responsibility/time with kids/etc. The second class I did was card making. They had a Stampin Up! rep help us make three cards and a gift tag. They are really cute. The last class was a cooking one. The lady kind of drove me nuts who taught it. She was one of those people, who wants you to know that she has money. Like she kept talking about “having the girls over after golf and just putting together a little lunch” and “I try to buy from the Smokehouse and keep them in business” but it was the way she made her comments. It was just kind of funny. But the recipes were good. She made a chicken dish, salad, bread, and banana dessert. Also we got a recipe for a fish soup that I am going to make for Jonathon.

Sat morning Jonathon got up and took some stuff to the bank for me, then went and bought me flowers! Then I got our bedroom a lot more organized and sorted through our closet to pull stuff out for Goodwill. I ended up with two boxes and two big bags! Yay! I need to do a lot of work on the rest of the house and purge every room, but I’m glad I started. Then in the  afternoon, Jonathon went to Lowe’s and got a board to fix our ghetto baby gate setup and bought more lightbulbs for all the burnt out lights in our house. I am glad he finally did this because it was starting to drive me crazy. But I am working on not bugging him/nagging him about stuff that needs to be done. He also picked up Bailey’s big birthday present while he was out!

Saturday night we had an event for Jonathon’s work. My parents watched Bailey and of course they all had a great time It was nice for us to dress up and get out together too.

One Million Evenflo Carseats Recalled

Filed Under Baby Gear, Recalls | 2 Comments

Link to CNN article:

http://money.cnn.com/2008/02/01/autos/carseat_recall/index.htm?cnn=yes

Amby Baby Bed

Filed Under Baby Gear | 4 Comments

I am thankful that Bailey was never colicky or even a horrible sleeper. Sure, she went through her phases, but I know some people who have to buy special baby beds just to get their kids to sleep! This one was sent to us to try, and I got a few pictures of her in it. It’s the Amby Baby Bed, and the website says that it is recommended for babies who have colic or reflux or who are preemies, restless sleepers, or short nappers. When the baby moves, the bed bounces on the spring that it is suspended from and kind of bounces/rocks them back to sleep. Also, we discovered that you can kind of adjust the angle of the hammock or incline so that the baby can sleep more or less upright in it.

Here is our bed when we first got it set up:

Bailey wasn’t really sure why we were putting her in here. She was busy exploring.


Hi, guys!

And here she is finally resting in the bed.

The website says it is for up to 24 months, however I think that she could climb out of it now, so I would not let her sleep or nap in this bed if I wasn’t right there. I am glad we don’t have sleep issues with her, but for someone with a smaller baby who wasn’t a good sleeper I think this bed could be a lifesaver!

Wordless Wednesday- Tipping Over the Bouncy Seat

Filed Under Baby Gear, Eight Months, Wordless Wednesday | 1 Comment

Bailey does this at least three times a day. For some reason the bouncy seat can ONLY be upside down now.




And it almost always ends like this:

Convertible Carseat

Filed Under Baby Gear | 2 Comments

We did it! Today we went and got Bailey a convertible carseat. She doesn’t “need” it, but we have been thinking about getting one to (hopefully) make our drive to Oklahoma more comfortable for her.

We ended up getting a Graco Comfortsport. This is what we got, only ours is a different pattern/material:
http://www.toysrus.com/product/index.jsp?productId=2858045

It will probably stay in Jonathon’s car, and we are looking at an Evenflo one (a little bit nicer) for my car, which is where she rides most of the time. Once again, different pattern for the one we want. I just don’t have time to search websites for the right pattern to show on my blog.
http://www.toysrus.com/product/index.jsp?productId=2734224

Oh, and for the meantime we are still going to use her infant seat. We will probably have the convertible one installed just a week or so before our trip to Oklahoma in December. That way she can ride in it a few times and be used to it before the long trip.

And she is getting SO ridiculously heavy in her infant seat. I about ripped my arm off trying to swing it into my backseat the other day. She weighs about 16 1/2 pounds but feels like 50 in that seat.

Stupid Stroller

Filed Under Baby Gear | Leave a Comment

We are on our way to BRU to exchange Bailey’s stroller. It’s a Graco Metrolite, and we love it except for this: The little compartment underneath, where the diaper bag and stuff go, well the clip keeps breaking/coming off/getting crooked and it won’t stay latched. Today at the Bot Gardens her stroller was held together with some link a doos. That’s high class, my friends.

But, she looked cute at BG and we had a great time I will post some pics later.

Eff You, Motherhood Maternity

Filed Under Baby Gear, Shopping | 1 Comment

Oh, and by the way, I returned the recalled, lead-infested bib pictured in yesterday’s post. All the plasticky/vinyl bibs at Babies R Us have been recalled if they were that Koala Baby brand. Not sure how far back the recall goes, but when I went in today, they didn’t have any on their shelves at all. I got my whopping $3.99 back and spent it on a diaper bag.

If I had my camera, I would show you how cool the bag is. In fact, I have been stalking it at Motherhood. I went in one day and decided I wanted it, but I didn’t have my gift card with me so I decided to go back and get it the next day. It had JUST been sold, so they put me in the computer and said they would call me when it came in. Five days later, I hadn’t been called, but I was at the mall so I went in Motherhood. No diaper bag. I asked when they thought they would get it in, and this ditsy blond girl was like, “Oh, I totally just sold that bag this morning!”

Um, clearly they need to order more than ONE of this bag since people obviously want to buy it. And they need to USE their freaking computer system and call people who are waiting (im)patiently for something to come in.

By the way, it was $5 cheaper at BRU. I didn’t even think to look there, because I just thought it was a Motherhood thing. Screw Motherhood- for a variety of reasons.

Slingin’

Filed Under Baby Gear, Daddy, Four Months, Slinging | 6 Comments

Before I had Bailey, I was really skeptical about baby slings in general. I thought they looked really crunchy. Now, I don’t know what I would do without my sling. Bailey absolutely loves being in it, and it’s so easy to use. I think one of the best things about my sling is that it doesn’t have to be adjusted for height depending on whether it’s me or Jonathon using it. Oh wait, except he doesn’t use it.

I have had a ring sling since before she was born. My mom insisted on buying it. I will admit there is kind of a learning curve to using it, but now I am very comfortable with it. I think the best thing about slings is that the baby can be bunched up how they are comfortable instead of just dangling. Also, there is the flexibility to use it facing forwards, backwards, on my hip, cradle position… and if I was really good I could use it to breastfeed and carry her on my back. I’m not that good.

Anyway I ventured out and got ANOTHER sling. Different than my first one. This one is from slinglings.com and it’s awesome! It’s not a ring sling- it’s actually fitted to your size. I had to give them some measurements (I just measured myself using a measuring tape) and then they selected the correct size and sent it to me. At first when I got it, I thought it looked way too small. But once I tried it I realized it was the perfect size. These people really know what they are doing!

The nice thing is that this sling requires no adjusting, and the ring doesn’t have to be tightened occasionally, and the cloth doesn’t ever get twisted around. At first it seemed to loose around the top but then I figured out to flip over the top of the fabric (like in the pic with Jonathon holding her) and it fits much more snugly. Also there is a padded part on the edge of the cloth that makes it pretty comfy.

Here are some pics of me trying out my new toy.

(I know I am wearing it too low on my shoulder, but at that point I was trying to get it tight enough around Bailey so that she didn’t lean back, and I hadn’t discovered flipping the material yet)

I was amazed that Jonathon was so willing to try this. He is terrified of the ring sling. He had one difficult experience trying to use it and he is scared of it now, I think. He was willing to try this sling on right away, and I think he kind of liked it. This is also when we figured out to fold over the top layer of fabric to make it fit around Bailey better.

Also I know this sling is fitted to my size- but keep in mind that my size includes milk boobs and a pudgy tummy- so it fits Jonathon fairly well

I am trying to decide whether to bring my new sling out with us tomorrow. I really want to… but I am wondering if I should use it around the house a little more to get more comfortable with it first. Although I will have the stroller too… (We are going to a childrens zoo type place with my mom and grandma). I always bring the sling even if we have the stroller, because she likes to be up where she can see everything sometimes

Anyway, just curious who else uses slings, and if so, what kind? I am torn between my familiar but more difficult ring sling, and this new and potentially much easier fitted sling.

Borrowed Bumbo

Filed Under Baby Gear | 3 Comments

My friend Kelli loaned us her little girl’s Bumbo seat. Bailey already sat in it today and seems to like it. I think it will be great since we always need “another place to put her.” I feel like she rotates between bouncy seat, blanket on the floor, swing, exersaucer, Einstein mat… although swing has kind of been taken out of the rotation because it’s not on her list of fun things to do right now.

Anyway this is what it looks like- and it’s soft/foamy feeling which I wasn’t expecting.

I laughed because Kelli said Elle grew out of it at like 7 months and it says it can go up to 2 years. I am thinking with Bailey’s chunker thighs she won’t last too long in it either!