Stuff Newborns Like

Let's be real.  Newborns don't need much, no matter what the lady behind the registry counter at Babies R Us tries to tell you.  Aside from a milk source, diapers, a few blankets and onesies, and a place to sleep, they are creatures of basic needs.  Less is more.  At least that's what I'm trying to tell myself as we leave the newborn stage behind and enter the next phase of parental consumerism (read:  toys/jumpers/exersaucers/things with batteries.  Apparently we American parents are obsessed with over-stimulating our children).  That said, there were some real life-savers during those first few months, so let's discuss our seven faves. 

1) Moby wrap:  A blessing and a curse, really.  The blessing is that it's like holding your baby all the time -> happy baby.  The curse is that you now have two free hands and no excuse for why yesterday's dishes are still in the sink.  So beware:  Your baby might love this.  Mine did, which is why our house was spotless.  

Notcleaning

Evidence

2) Moses basket and rocking stand:  Loved that I could take the basket off the stand and carry her around the house if I needed to take a shower or get on the treadmill, which happened approximately once (the treadmill, not the shower.  Although some days it may have been hard to tell).  And transitioning her to a crib was easy - put basket in crib.  Done.

Baby in a basket.  Precious, no?

3) Chicco car seat and stroller frame:  If I could keep her in this car seat/stroller forever, I would.  It is lightweight, collapsable with one hand, and rides very smoothly.  I take it everywhere and have been known to push the limits of the under-basket storage at Target (who needs a shopping cart?  Maybe the lady with three gallons of milk schlepping down the aisle in her stroller frame).

4) Bebe Au Lait nursing cover:  All nursing covers are not created equal, my friends.  This one has a cute print, an adjustable wire neckline for peeking at baby, and pockets!  (Friend:  "What are the pockets for?"  "Me: ...")

5) Those long newborn nightgowns with the foldover hand cuffs:  I applaud any parent who could keep those teeny hand mitts on their child for more than 4 seconds, because I could not.  And since I could not have my baby's mug looking all scratched for her newborn photos, these gowns were great (also good for quick nighttime changes).  Just make sure to pull their hands out every once in awhile to remove the massive amounts of lint that they will hoard in their tiny fingers (Husband:  "her hand kinda smells like a belly button").

6) Snugabunny swing:  Oh my word, the swing.  Magic.  She spent pretty much every nap in this.  In fact, she's in it now...  You hear that?  Three hours of delicious silence, which I intend to make the most of by researching all 18 uses for Dr. Bronner's Magic Soaps in between reading Sephora reviews.

Please unwrap my hands so I can explore my face with my tiny talons.

7) Boppy pillow:  A million moms have sung the Boppy's praises, so I'll keep this short.  It accompanied us during every single feeding for the first three months.  A good tummy time trainer.  Your baby will like it.  If not, it doubles as a neck pillow on long flights. 

Hold that head up, gurl.

Maternity Leave Recap

Yes, maternity leave came to an end.  Let's recap.

Welcome, tiny human

I can tell that we are gonna be friends

No more photos plz

It has been a wonderful 3 1/2 months.  She is a calm, even-tempered little lady who started sleeping through the night at 8 weeks and hasn't looked back.  Her favorite things are the hanging minions on her activity mat, Sophie the Giraffe, and eating her swaddle blankets.  She also enjoys laughing at Dad, being worn by Mom in the Moby wrap, and scouring the clearance rack at Carter's.  She makes our job easy and we are so thankful to have her in our lives. 

The one downside of maternity leave:

This is spring

staring out at this view all day.  Yes, Dino, it is April, and yes, it is still snowing.  We've all been getting a little stir-crazy in here, which is why the return to work brought a welcome change.  (Not pictured:  The 839 new emails waiting for me when I got back.  More on that next week.)

I'll leave you with link to my wonderfully imaginative aunt's newest book, Stripes of All Types.  As you can see, her beautiful illustrations captivate even the youngest of readers.

  


 

  

Why We Cloth Diaper

When I was pregnant with Babygirl, I was like a lot of soon-to-be moms in that I looked up pictures of nurseries on Pinterest, drooled over clothes that I would never buy at Baby Gap, and spent countless hours researching the best detergent for cloth diapers.  Oh wait, that last one doesn't ring a bell with you?  Feel free to stop reading now, because it's only going to get weirder.

We've thought about getting her into cloth diaper modeling, but it's just so competitive

PROS
1) They are better for the environment
Had to get that one out there, because I know that this is The Reason a lot of people use them.  I was shocked at how quickly we filled an entire trashcan full of diapers within the first few days of bringing Baby home.  The average baby goes through 8,000 diapers before being potty-trained, and those diapers sit in landfills for centuries.  AHHHH.  Pretty compelling evidence.  Still, the big sell for me was that

2)  They save you $$$$
Especially if you plan to have more than one child, cloth diapers pay for themselves and then some.  We registered for them through Target and were gifted quite a few before Baby was born.  And because we use adjustable-sized diapers, we have all the diapers we will need until she is potty-trained.  

3)  They are not what you think
I know what you are thinking.  The ones your mom used that you have to fold and pin.  Those require needles and they scare me.  The ones we have for Baby are ca-UTE and come in colors like pink that hubs pointed out may not be practical for our next child.  Like if he were a boy.  Like saying that boys don't wear pink.

Boy wearing pink

CONS
1)  You will have to deal with... you know
Luckily my real job often requires me to deal with poop, so the idea of dealing with my sweet baby's poo ain't no thang.  Maybe you are not so lucky to have a job such as this.  This might be an Issue for you.  

2)  You will have to do laundry
Maybe you are like me and you love doing laundry.  As in, the putting-dirty-clothes-into-the-washer-and-pouring-detergent-on-them part.  It's the rest of the process that can be so very painful.  If I could find one chore to outsource, folding and putting away laundry would be it.  That said, about every other day you will find yourself confronting the washer.  But the fact that you are not spending $30 on a box of diapers might juuust lift your spirits enough to finish the task.  

3)  They are not cheap
These babies are made to last, so if you are not committed to the process, you could end up spending a lot of money upfront.  But you could always sell them on eBay!  (No joke - moms are rabid for other kids' used diapers.)

So there you have it.  The good and the not-so-good.  We use Bum Genius 4.0 diapers and they've come out squeaky clean every time.  We also use flannel cloth wipes (because at this point, why the heck not) and a spray wipe solution of water, coconut oil, and lavender baby wash that smells aMAzing.  The scent alone is enough to distract you from what you are actually doing.

In other news

I was standing at the sink, hearing birds chirping and my first thought was, "who turned the bird noises on the baby's swing?"  It did not immediately occur to me that those could be ACTUAL birds.  

And that got me pretty freakin excited.  Happy spring!