Bath time

Evan is growing too big for his infant tub. What is the next step? I know they used to have bath rings that you put the baby in for the regular sized tub, but I think I heard those are now dangerous. Evan isn't sitting up unsupported, so he still needs a little more support before he can just sit in the regular tub. The infant tub says it's also a toddler tub, but it is too small for him now!

6 months old.

Baby products that make my life easier

Here's a list I've made of baby products that people have excitedly discovered from me or that I've excitedly discovered from other people. I don't think these are very common in other lists, because I've just stumbled upon them since becoming a mom. While they aren't necessary, they definitely make my life easier and I'm so glad I own each of these things!

So here they are in no particular order (click on the link to see the brand name, where you can purchase, and a picture):

Battery powered nasal aspirator Matt found this at a drugstore back in October when we were in Charleston and Evan had a really stuffed up nose. We hadn't had luck with a manual aspirator but this one helped so much! It was a little scary to use it at first because I was afraid we'd suck Evan's brains out, but it isn't that powerful. ;-) I thought it was funny that this particular brand's aspirator plays music to "soothe" babies while you are sucking their boogers out...but it's actually come in handy. We didn't need to use that until recently when Evan hasn't wanted to stay still long enough for us to do the job, so we play the music and it distracts him! He also likes to lick the clear little "booger catcher" while we do it. lol!

Saline spray I had never heard of using this to help loosen up nose mucus until asking around, but this stuff is awesome! We use it almost every day along with the aspirator. My pediatrician recommended it as well.



Saline wipesThis is my newest discovery. I had heard moms on the message boards talking about them before, but I didn't think they were necessary. Evan had a cold a couple of weeks ago and I could tell his nose was sore from all the wiping I was doing with tissues and wash clothes. I saw these in the store and bought them on a whim. I'm glad I did because they clean the nose better and it's gentler than using a wash cloth.



Pacifier wipes A friend of mine has these and I was stoked that they exist! Like all moms I have problems with pacifiers falling on the ground when we're out in public and I can't always go wash it with soap. So I just pull out one of these to wipe it off and we're good to go. You can also use this to clean toys and other things that are dirty and that will immediately go back into baby's mouth.



Biodegradable disposable diaper sacks - My SIL used these when she was at my house one time. She mentioned her bags were biodegradable. I would never buy plastic sacks that weren't biodegradable because I think there's enough plastic bag waste out there as it is. Now I know these don't immediately break down in the landfill, but at least they won't still be polluting the earth in a thousand years. I use these fairly often, mostly to put dirty diapers in before I throw them away out in public or at someone's house, but I also put wet clothes and dirty burp clothes in them too so that they don't make a mess in my diaper bag. In that case I can always use the bag again after I come home and remove the clothes. It's a shame that BRU and Tar.get don't sell biodegradable sacks, but all the drugstores I've been to sell them.



Gripe water A lady who works at my chiropractor's office told me about this. Once again, I didn't think it would be that great of a product. However, it's amazing! When Evan gets the hiccups (and it seems like he always does around naptime or bedtime), we give him this and they immediately go away! I don't even give him the full recommended dosage. The best thing about this is that it is all natural, so I don't worry about giving it to him regularly. This also helped when he had bad reflux and would sometimes cry when we laid him down. I don't give this to him every time he has hiccups or gas, but I do if it's interfering with his sleep or if he seems in pain.



Diaper bag with stroller attachment I have the diaper bag that is pictured and I get compliments on it ALL the time. Many of my mom friends seem fascinated with the stroller attachments. I just leave the stroller clips on the stroller handle all the time so that all I have to do is snap the bag on after I unfold the stroller. Then I have the bottom pocket compartment of the stroller free for other things and my diaper bag is easily accessible. This diaper bag is a little expensive, but in our case it was completely worth it!

Peek-a-Boo!

My mom bought THIS book for Evan for Valentine's Day! So cute. :-)

diapers 'n' wipes

Diapers we like:

(Wal- Ma.rt brand)

The Pare.nt's Choi.ce brand is the best deal. I'm so impressed with these diapers and they are super cheap! Hug.gies we buy in bulk at Co.stco if there's a coupon. I've only used Pam.pers when our neighbor gave us some that her granddaughter had outgrown, but I really like them. However, not enough to spend money to buy them over one of the other brands.


Diapers I don't feel strongly about one way or another:

(Tar.get brand)

I liked the pattern on these diapers a lot. I was excited about using them because they feel and look nice, but they are SO wide!!! They were huge on Evan. We used a couple but then had to wait until he was close to the upper weight range. Then we used them, but they were getting too short for him and were still too wide. We had to overlap the tabs and unfortunately the tabs don't stick to each other well. However, these diapers fit my SIL's son perfectly and he's a thick baby. So I don't dislike these, but they aren't for us.

We haven't tried any diapers that we haven't liked yet!


Wipes we like:
Matt likes the Cos.tco wipes the best, but I think they are about the same. Either way, they are both nice and thick and soft.


Wipes we don't like:
I was so disappointed at how thin and slimy they were! You'd think they would make better wipes. We bought a jumbo pack because I had a coupon, but we only used one of the packages inside. I'm going to donate the rest to a crisis pregnancy center because they are more trouble than they are worth for us. I don't like to think of myself as a diaper or wipe snob, but I guess I am one!!

Anyway, these are the only brands of diapers and wipes we've tried so far.

White Christmas

Our trip to Arkansas went very well! Evan was great, didn't fuss at all. We stayed on our schedule really well the entire time. While we drove we'd stop at a fast food restaurant when it was time to feed him. I'd nurse him and then we'd put him on the table on his blanket and play with him for awhile. Then Matt would either order us a meal (since Evan's eating times line up with our meals) and we'd eat while Evan stayed on the table. Then we'd hold him for a little bit and then pack him up and go. By then it would be his nap time. His afternoon feeding wouldn't line up with our meals, but then we'd do the same thing except just order a snack or milkshake instead of a meal.

Evan also did really well while we were staying with my grandparents. He napped better than normal and he was really laid back. I was afraid he'd be super fussy like he was when we visited my mom's parents back in October, but he wasn't. The trip back wasn't so smooth, we had to make some unplanned stops (including pulling over on the side of a back road in the middle of nowhere in Alabama to change his diaper in the car!), but it could have been much worse.

Evan experienced his first snow and his first Christmas on the same day! How cool is that!? I couldn't believe that it snowed while we were there. The day we arrived it was great weather, very warm. But of course the temperature dropped that night and it rained the entire first whole day we were there. That turned to snow overnight and on Christmas morning there was a couple of inches of snow on the ground! I am not a snow fan AT ALL, but it was a fun experience for Evan's first Christmas and while we were on Christmas break since it didn't interrupt our everyday lives.

Evan received lots of presents of course. I can't even list them all, but most of them were clothes, little toys that he can play with now (and put in his mouth), and sippy cups (he got 3 of them, lol). Some other fun things were traditions that my mom started for him. My parents made a donation in his name to an organization that purchases and gives things to 3rd world countries. So Evan donated 5 ducks to a family in Africa. My parents are going to do that in place of a present every Christmas. He received his first Christmas ornament in his stocking from Nana. Every year he will also receive a Christmas book from Nana. :-) My parents also bought him an exersaucer that we have yet to assemble. I think he's about ready for it though, he's holding his head up really well.

Things that have been going on with him lately......

• His eyes are changing. At first I thought they were turning green in the middle, but now I think they are a light brown. The brown(green?) color is expanding and taking over more of the blue though! I'm so excited to see what they end up looking like!
• He is rolling over from his back to his tummy. He did it for the first time yesterday. :-)
• He is standing. I still hold his hands so he can balance, but he supports all of his weight. He can't do it for very long, but he just did it yesterday for the first time.
  

I hope you all had a very merry Christmas and a happy New Year!

Baby Games

Some games I like to play with Evan:

• "How big is Evan?" "SSOOO big!" (and spread his arms out)
• "This little piggy went to market"
• the airplane game (where I put his belly against my shins and lay down and lift my legs so he's "flying" in the air)
  
• pretending to steal his nose (this one's his favorite by far, it gets the biggest smiles and even some laughs...don't ask me why. lol)
• holding his toys up and moving them so he can bat at them and follow them with his eyes
• putting his rattle in his hand so he can shake it...or put it in his mouth

3 months old with his rattle

THIS is his favorite toy. He'll lose interest in his other toys, but he's always ready to track this one with his eyes and try to grab at it. This is also the only toy he'll grab on his own, without us holding it against his hand first.

2.5 months old with his caterpillar (yes, Daddy is responsible for making it look like the hungry caterpillar ate through Evan!)

What games do you play with your child and how old is he/she? Any more ideas for games to play with 3-4 month olds? It's always hard for me to think of things to do with Evan during his play time.

Wrap it up

Today I drove Evan over to the school that my mom teaches at so that one of her friends could show me how to use the baby carrier wrap that I made. I tried putting Evan in it the other day and it didn't work out very well. It was actually quite traumatic! Evan slept it off and I went and ate a big bowl of ice cream to get over it. lol Anyway, my mom's friend showed me how to use it and it's really fun! I'll have to see if Matt can get a picture of us using it. I love being able to "hold" Evan without actually using my arms. As a matter of fact, Evan is in it now. I don't believe in constantly carrying babies, but I do like to keep Evan close at certain times of the day and this is a great way to spend time with him without being confined to one arm all the time.

Of course while we were at the school we had to show Evan off to all of Mom's co-workers. She was so happy to do that. :-) One of my good friends from high school works there too and she just found out she's pregnant last week. So it's exciting to have a friend who lives HERE who will have a baby around the same age as Evan. She is my first friend who lives nearby to get pregnant. I have a lot of pregnant friends, just none who live within 8 hours. Oh yeah, and she sees the same group of midwives I go to - very cool!

I've been feeling pretty good lately, but today I'm tired after our outing. A week after Evan's birth I got cold for the first time since getting pregnant! lol Our AC went from being set at 73 degrees during the day to 75. Weird how the pregnancy hormones leave so fast. I also lost a lot of weight. I hadn't even noticed how big I got all around until after I lost the weight. Suddenly my arms and legs are skinnier, and I had never even noticed that they got bigger while I was pregnant! I tried on a pair of my pre-pregnancy pants a week after the birth and they didn't fit. I haven't tried them on again. I think they probably fit at this point since I'm the same size as I was before I got pregnant, but I'm pretending that they don't. I enjoy having an excuse to wear exercise pants all the time!

The other day I went shopping and bought a couple of new t-shirts. My old shirts are definitely too small now! My chest is one part of my body that has become bigger....much bigger. More stretch marks have appeared there and I'm finding it hard to maintain a good posture. The girls are so heavy that it's seriously hard to hold them up! I think I need a better support system. ;-)

Speaking of that, breastfeeding is easier. The pain from the mastitis has almost completely faded. My mom showed me how to breastfeed without a pillow (it's so easy! why did I think it would be hard?). So now I'm practicing for nursing in public. I want to be able to do it smoothly by the time we have our anniversary trip to Charleston on October 9. It would be much easier if Evan would cooperate better, but I guess he's still getting used to it too. He doesn't like to stay latched on and I have to keep maneuvering him back into place, which is hard to do while covered up with a blanket. I really need to try the nursing cover out, so far I've been practicing with receiving blankets covering us. Any tips or words of wisdom on this subject?

Enough about me, I promise that the next post will be all about my beautiful baby and will include pictures!