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by Noelle

Dec 29

First Baby – Lessons Learned – Clothing @ 5.5 Months

by Noelle

Five and a half months down the line, and a LOT of baby clothes have found their way into this house.  In this time, and after several months of preparation BEFORE the baby was born, I have picked up a few tips:

  • Do not listen to people when they tell you the baby will only be in Newborn size for a couple weeks, if at all.  It may be true for some babies, but not all.  Mine spent over 2 months in size Newborn.  I was scrambling to get her things to wear.
  • Do some simple math.  Calculate the expected age the baby will be when they reach the size of the item.  If you have a 6 month sized onesie in your hands and it’s short sleeved, but the baby will be 6 months old in January, don’t buy it.  I have a large collection of clothing like that.  It’s inappropriate for the weather at hand.  (It’s freak 15degrees outside!)  Bums me out.  Yes, layering can be an option.  The thing is, if the baby can’t sit up by herself yet, do you really want to be wrapping her in 6 layers of clothing to get it worn?  Are multiple onesies worn together really that comfortable?
  • Don’t buy outfits with snaps in the back to fit a child who can’t sit up on their own yet.  They are extremely difficult to get on that child.  Once they can sit up, though, that should be a non-issue.
  • Read the tags.  If it says “Line Dry”, please put it back.
  • Zippers on footed sleepers are the Devil.  For that matter, so are snaps.  Who invented the sleeper design and made it such a jigsaw puzzle to put together on a squirming child?  Not Good Planning.
  • Think about the size/age of the child, and the place available for storage.  Buying a size 3T item for a 5 month old is probably not a good idea.  Unless the parents have a ton of room to store items for 3 years until they can use them. 
  • Be practical.  Don’t be taken in by the cuteness of an item.  Really, sleeveless puffy vests aren’t practical on adult women.  Are they going to be practical on an infant?

All in all, I am so far most annoyed at myself for buying size 6 month clothing that’s got short sleeves.  Nothing seems to layer well.  But oh well.  I can’t get the money back, and I was taken in by the cuteness factor before she was born.  She’s my first baby….I’m still learning.

Baby

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Dec 9

Making Time….

by Noelle

I’ve been having so much angst the last few months over my fear of loosing myself to the roll of Mommy, that I decided to look for a resource to help me figure this whole thing out. 

You guessed it.  I bought a book.

Making Time for Mom-Me.

So the book is supposed to coach us moms on how to not loose ourselves in the roll of mom.  It’s supposed to teach us to love ourselves, how to not be doormats, and how to make time to take care of ourselves. 

You know what it taught me?  I’m not doing so bad. 

Reality Check.

You’re going to laugh…but I apparently have the mindset already to keep this from happening.  Who’d have thought that my general crankiness, my “I’m not going to be the only one doing this” attitude, had me on the right track?

Every time I went through a checklist or exercise in the book, I found I was pretty much doing OK.  I know how to say no.  I don’t take on more outside tasks than I can handle.  I have no intention of ever cooking more than one meal for dinner.  Hubby and I share the household chores already, because I told him when we got married that I was signing onto a partnership, not servitude.  I’m not planning on having my kid signed up for so many activities that it’s all we do.  I even have taken time out for me regularly.  I get my blogs in.  I get my emails and Facebook activities done.  I stop at Weight Watchers once a week. 

So what’s my problem then?  Why all the angst?

Guilt.  I feel damn guilty scrapbooking/gaming/exercising  when I’ve already had Hubby watching DC for several hours so I could do all the chores.  It’s all in my head.  Guilt.

So what does this mean then?  I think ultimately, it means that I just need to chill and keep following the path I’ve laid out so far.  It’s an ok path for me.  And I need to relax on the guilt.  Hubby actually likes to hang out with DC.  So I shouldn’t feel guilty, especially when he’s shoving me towards my craft desk and telling me to go scrapbook. 

Relax.  Chill. 

Heh.

Can I do this?  We’ll see.  I think I’m going to sign up for a 13 week online scrapbooking class starting in January.  That’ll be a good test.  Relax…Chill…

Interesting

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Nov 22

First Baby – Lessons Learned – Essentials @ 4 Months

by Noelle

1.  I take back what I said about the Mobile.  Completely.  Ours has a remote control that we keep on DC’s dresser near the door.  When she’s fussing in the middle of the night, and she should be sleeping through the night, we crack open the door, push that button, mobile comes on and she’s back to sleep shortly there after.  Didn’t even know we responded.  Loving that.

2.  Swing.  Totally….Love…Swing.  And so does she.  She naps in it alot here in the evenings.  She’ll sit there and talk to the fishies in the swing’s mobile, she’ll hang out and talk to us, and it puts her right out when she’s tired but fighting sleep.  The swing is the New Mom’s Best Friend at this stage. 

3.  Bundle Me – We live in NE Ohio.  It’s cold now.  This Sherpa fleece-lined bunting thing goes into the carrier and the straps come through it.  You put baby in, you zip it up around, and shazam!  Snug as a bug in a rug.  She doesn’t even need much of a coat.  We’ve got a hooded sweatshirt and a stocking cap on her.  No snowsuit required.

Before I get any flames, though, let me tell you.  YES I read the horrible reviews online for these things.  The reviews saying it wasn’t safe, etc.  I will say this.  First of all, I discount all reviews where the reviewer obviously does not have a grasp of the English language.  Same with all reviews written in ALL CAPS.  Of the remaining reviews…there were many that said when you took the bunting out it caused the straps to loosen so that it was unsafe when baby was put back in.  To these I say….Is it the college degrees that HC and I have, that made us think MAYBE it was a good idea to re-tighten the straps EVERY time we put baby back into the carrier?  No?  Maybe HC”s degree in Engineering made us think of that?  Hmmm.  So I discount those as user ignorance.  Finally, the ones stating the straps don’t come straight through the holes on the bunting…HC checked it out when he put the bunting in the carrier.  The straps and holes line up fine.  Since those reviews are from 2006, possibly the company changed the design.  But it’s fine now.

AND I LOVE IT.

4.  Exersaucer….with stipulations.  You must make sure your kid’s feet will touch the ground before you buy it.  We got her this cute one, but she doesn’t weigh enough to bring it down to where her feet will touch.  Oddly, MommaCat’s saucer that she bought has the same issue, different brand.  So DC is in a much older, borrowed saucer that is apparently shorter.  The interim saucer.  Whatever…she likes it, and it caused her to realize she has feet.  Now she’s all about laying on her back, sticking her feet in the air, and either grabbing them or trying to grab things with them.  Quite funny.

5.  Highchair – I like ours, because it has extra padding in it to really cradle a supported sitter at this stage.  What I dislike about it, is that it’s like a freakin’ torture chamber trying to get her in and out of this thing.  Right shoulder strap slides into right waist strap, which then connects to center connector.  Repeat on Left.  Make sure baby doesn’t wiggle out while you do.  Then snap in sub-table, which is extremely hard to snap in and even harder to open.  Then slide tray on top.  Tray connects easily.  Just watch those little fingers….hers AND yours!

So there…that’s what we’re working with right now.  As always, we’ll see how things progress.

Baby Interesting

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