Our top 10 baby stuff list...and shedding

Evaluation of the "baby stuff" so far....

1. The rocking chair we bought for the nursery is quite funny. If you are a loyal blog reader you remember seeing a picture of the lay-z-boy chair with bright spots all over it -- well.... sitting in a chair that has spots with a newborn is like giving the newborn crack. EG stares and stares at the spots and she has since she was able to focus. To go to sleep she buries her head in our arms so she can't see anything. It is a great chair and we used it all day long.

2. We couldn't live without our maya wrap/sling thingy. EG gets slung up at least once a day if not more and she loves it. It is a very calming place for her and very comfortable for us.

3. We also love the sleep sacks. Halo is a good brand, but Carters makes a nice one too. She sleeps in one every night. They keep her very warm and safe.

4. Always choose Carters clothes. They are super soft, cute, and well made and affordable. They do shrink after the first wash, but do well in subsequent washes. She really doesn't wear anything but Carters.

6. We loved our Arms Reach co-sleeper. We debated/fought over whether we needed it or not. It was GREAT. EG outgrew it quickly because she sleeps with her arms straight out and she kept hitting the sides. We sold the co-sleeper on Ebay and got most of our money back as well.

7. The pack and play. We have a two story house so having a changing station downstairs and a place to lay her down on the first floor is great. We will be sad when she outgrows the changing table portion of the pack and play.

8. Playtex drop-in bottle system. No worries about chemicals because they are never reused and never heated. We serve room temperature bottle at our house. Again, there are lots of expensive, fancy bottle systems out there, but these work great for us.

9. Graco Travel System. Lots of people we know have very fancy strollers, but our little Graco does great. She is big enough to actually ride in the seat section now too. We used it everyday when the weather was cooler. We hope to use it even more when the weather breaks again.

10. Bouncy Seat. I think it is made by Fisher-Price. She sits in it and kicks the toys and it plays music. She loves it. She can only handle it for about 5-10 minutes, but she has a blast playing with it and she is so funny to watch when she kicks. At first she wanted nothing to do with it, but now she loves it.

10+1. Jujube diaper bag. This was our gift to ourselves. It was expensive, but it is worth every penny. It is Teflon coated so everything wipes off, and it looks very classy. That was important to us since we'll be carrying it for a few years. I have checked out all of our friends' diaper bags at play dates and many of them are falling apart. We literally throw ours in the car, stroller etc. and it still looks like new.

Things that we didn't find useful at all....I am sure some people love this stuff, but we didn't.

1. The damn Graco Swing. EG can't stand it. We try about 3 times a week to put her in it and she wants nothing to do with it. It only makes her cry.

2. While it is tempting to buy baby clothes for friends and family, I will probably try to avoid it. EG was given many beautiful clothes, but except for a few special occasions we put her in onesies. They are so easy and if she spits up or it gets dirty, we don't care. I am glad we have so many friends having babies because some clothes she has worn little and some not at all, so we will pass these along to others.

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Shedding

As a pregnant woman you are blessed with the best hair of your life. None of your hair falls out. It becomes thick, shiny, and full of volume. It is great hair especially for woman like myself who have thinner hair. However, this hair is not yours to keep. You must give it back to the universe to pass on to the next pregnant lady. It is one of the final parts of giving up being pregnant. My pregnant hair is falling out. I will never in my life have that great thick hair again. I will miss it, but not enough to be pregnant again...ha!

Smiles

Words, words, words

I got this idea from 2 moms.

I love words. The number of times a word is used determines its size. I love seeing which words we use most to describe our life. Just enter your web address or add words of your own here.
m

Wow.

It happened.  It finally happened.  It might never happen again, but for one moment in time it happened.  

EG slept through the night.

She went to bed a little late at 8:00 p.m. and didn't wake up until 6:10 a.m.  It was crazy. M and I both got up all night to check on her, but she was fine.  She was sleeping peacefully.  We are very proud of her.  She did a great job.  We obviously hope this continues, but we also know that it could have been a fluke.  We will keep you updated. 

E-

Our Cute Girl

She is cooing. She is smiling all the time. She is learning some cause and effect. She loves to bury her face in our arms when she is tired. She slept from 7:30 p.m. last night until 5:45 a.m. this morning with only one waking around midnight to eat.

We are working on a routine for EG. We don't believe in schedules for babies, but we do believe that a routine is best for everyone in the family. We have been tracking our movements for about a week now and this is our "routine"....which means that everyday is different, but it goes something like this...

Wake up between 6-7 a.m., eat, play, eat a little more, and then back to sleep for 45 minutes. This pattern of eat, play, eat a little more, then sleep plays out through the day. Her sleep times vary from 15 mintues to 2 hours. At 6:45 p.m. we give her a bath, dress her for bed, read a few books, eat a little more, rock and then off to bed for the night.

Here is a new pic.

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A Normal Life?

In the beginning of raising your first child all of your normal days are gone. There is no time for TV, reading, talking, or cooking. We ate Culver's cheeseburgers and milkshakes more than a few dinners in the beginning. We didn't read anything except babybooks for weeks. We have TIVO and it just filled up. The conversations revolved around forumla versus breastmilk for weeks.

Then slowly, very slowly, things start to return to us. The baby goes to sleep in her own room and you can read before you go to bed. You actually begin to count on reading before you fall asleep again. You find that during nap time you actually talk to your spouse and do fun things. Yesterday during a long 2 hour nap, M and I made curtains (okay -- she made them, but I ironed everything). We giggled and laughed and talked the entire time. It was us. It was who we were before EG, and it is nice to know that it is still there. We are also getting much better at eating real food as opposed to Culver's all week long.

The TV watching is humorous. I like to watch more TV than M does. EG and I start every morning with a bottle and two episodes of Sex and the City (Tivo-ed) and then an hour of the Today Show. After that we turn off the TV. We might watch a cooking show or something like that during lunch. At night we always watch the national news and then reruns as we put EG to bed.

Once EG is in bed we indulge. When EG was born we realized that we would be at home a ton and needed something to do while waiting. Waiting is what you do with a newborn. You wait for them to wake up. You wait for them to finish eating. You wait for them to fall alseep. You wait and watch TV. So, we rented DVDs of TV series that we have never seen. Each night after EG drifts to sleep we watch an episode or two. Over the last 8 weeks, we have seen the entire series of "Big Love" and "Weeds." We were addicted to each. I think it was an hour of normalcy in our crazy unplanned and unstructured days. We are going to start "John Adams" next.

I love that "our" life is finding its way back into our "family's life." I love that EG has provided us with oceans of love and oceans of challenges. I can't wait to see what the next 8 weeks brings...

E-

Pics of our girl

An Infant

The term newborn is applied to babies until they are two months old.  EllaGrace is two months old.  She is now considered an infant, not a newborn.  She is growing up.  Here are some of her latest highlights...

For over a week now she goes to sleep every night at 7:40 p.m. on the dot.  We give her a bottle, rock her, put her in her sleep sack, check her diaper, then rock a little more and when she is drowsy, but not asleep, we place her in her crib.  She looks around and she might kick and coo for a few minutes, but shortly she will demand her nuk and put herself to sleep.  It is awesome and amazing.  

She can't do the same task at naptime quite yet.  She still likes to be held for naps.  Her grandmother who goes by the name "Ninna" came this past weekend and held her for 2 days straight.  I don't think this helped the nap issue, but they both totally loved being together all weekend.  We actually missed her due to the kidnapping.

EG also loves to play now.  M and EG play all the time.  They are very cute together.  They place the face game -- which is just where they make faces at each other.  They play peek-a-boo and raspberries.  I love to kiss on her and make her smile.  I also love her morning smiles that I get as I feed and change her each morning.  She is still in love with her mobiles as well.  She still hates her swing.  What a waste.

Tomorrow are her 2 months shots .. yuck.  We are hoping she handles them well.  

We also had our first babysitter last week.  Our excellent co-worker S came and babysat while we went for a bike ride and lunch.  EG slept almost the entire time.  She also was babysat by her Ninna Friday and Saturday night.  We got massages and saw a movie Friday night and Saturday night we attended an excellent wedding reception.  It wasn't easy to leave her, but we know it is good for us to do things without her.  We are working on it.

I will post pictures soon....

E-

7.5 weeks old

EG is starting to make a lot of progress in the sleeping area.  She is now sleeping in her crib every night and for some naps.  Yesterday, for the first time, she was able to be put in her crib still awake and fall asleep on her own.  She did it once at naptime and then she did it at bedtime as well.  It was amazing.  We really hope this is a skill she is learning and that it wasn't a fluke.  She also slept for three hours and forty minutes last night until waking to be fed.

M and I are still splitting the "shifts" at night.  M takes anything before 3am and I take everything after 3am.  It works out well because I can't stay up at night and M has a hard time getting started in the morning.  However, if EG is good during M's shift, she is up with us in the morning - which rocks. 

EG is also much more interactive these days.  She smiles, coos, and loves to play face games with her moms.  M does a great job of teaching her new things like playing the "stick out your tongue game."  Which EG plays all the time -- even by herself.

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