Baby Essentials

I hesitated to call this list "Essentials", because what is essential to one person may not be for someone else. In fact, I found that some of my favorite things when Brooklyn was a baby have been all but ignored this time around. Different babies = different needs. For example when Brook was a baby, I loved the sleepers that had the little fold-over sleeves because she was forever scratching herself with her long fingernails. Emma hasn't even needed a single clipping of her nails yet, and has never scratched herself so I've only folded her hands into the little sleeves a few times, usually at night when her hands get cold because she hates having them swaddled.

So consider this a roundup of my favorite items for the newborn stage - you decide for yourself which ones are essential or not!





1. Receiving blankets/burp cloths.

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When I was pregnant with Brooklyn, my mom sewed us about a dozen huge receiving blankets, and she made us another set when Emma was born! On any given day, you will find these strewn all about the house; we use them for E.V.E.R.Y.T.H.I.N.G.


 - To tuck under her chin when she eats; she's a messy eater and gets milk all over her clothes otherwise

 - To lay over my shoulder when I burp her, or when she's sick and her nose is running. Keeps my clothes clean :)

 - We have a receiving blanket rolled up inside her carseat. The infant head support is still too large for her, so this helps fill in the gap and makes sure she fits nice and snug inside.

 - We also use a second receiving blanket to tuck her into her carseat. She tends to be quite warm, and using a heavy blanket means that she just gets overheated and fussy.

 - When Brooklyn was a baby, her lamp was too bright and we used to drape a receiving blanket over the shade for middle of the night diaper changes. Not sure I'd recommend that, as it could be a fire hazard but in our sleep deprivation it seemed to do the trick.

 - I also lay one down on her change pad if I expect that it's going to be a particularly messy diaper change. We have two removable change pad covers that are washable, but it seems like in those first few weeks we were spending more time changing and washing those covers and they were rarely ever on the change pad for diaper changes because they were always in the wash. A receiving blanket is easy to lay down first and much easier in my opinion to toss in the wash. Keeps my fancy covers clean and looking cute :)

 - Who needs expensive swaddle blankets? Ask the nurse at the hospital to give you a quick tutorial on how to get a tight wrap, and a receiving blanket works quite nicely.

 - The large receiving blankets make perfect nursing covers!



 I could go on all day, but let's just say we find them very useful and I would recommend having a lot of them, especially the really large ones.




2. Cloth wipes.

Source: lebabyshop.com

Even if you choose not to use cloth diapers, having a few cloth wipes on hand is a really good idea. If baby gets a diaper rash, a soft damp cloth is so much gentler on their sore bottom than a chemical filled, scented cold disposable wipe.

I have also learned that they get the job done so much faster. One cloth wipe ( I just use baby washcloths, but any soft material cut into squares will work) can do the job of 3 or 4 disposable wipes. They really do clean up messes much faster and easier!




3. Fisher Price Cradle N Swing

We have most of the typical baby gear . . . a vibrating bouncy chair, a jolly jumper, a bumbo chair, a playmat. But the place where both my girls have spent the most time is definitely this swing. In fact, the first two weeks Emma slept in her swing all night long. She seemed to need to be snuggled, and if she wasn't in our arms she would just cry. Laying her down, even swaddled, in a flat bassinet or crib just wasn't cutting it for her. Our swing is contoured on the sides and has an infant head support, so she feels like she is being held when she lays in it. Those first weeks when she was so teeny and new, the swing seemed to be the only place she felt safe. Everywhere else she would throw up her little arms in alarm as if she felt like she were falling.

I love this swing specifically because it plugs in. Swings that only run on batteries can cost a lot of money if you are constantly needing to buy replacements, as most of them use 4 D batteries at one time! We love that we don't have to keep purchasing batteries, but we have the option to use batteries if we need to (it's great when the power goes out!) I also love that it has the option to swing in two different directions and it comes with tons of options for sound effects and music.




4. A sling or wrap.

I have a Peanut Shell  classic sling and I highly recommend it simply because it's easy. No tying and wrapping, no adjusting of any straps or anything. Just fold it in half, slip it on and baby goes right inside. Easy peasy.

 When you have a new baby you will find yourself saying things like "I can never get anything done around here" and "I didn't get anything done today".

 Well, this sling is how you get "anything done".

 Even at her fussiest, I can pop Emma in here and she calms right down. I also really like that I can get in my snuggle time and watch her WHILE I get things done; sometimes I feel guilty if she lays in her swing for too long because she's all alone. The sling lets me have my hands free but we are still getting in some good bonding time as well. Win win!



5.Gumdrops pacifiers

Source :doubledutymommy19.blogspot.com

Brooklyn wasn't too picky with her pacifiers; we had several different styles and she took anything. Emma was much more particular. We had bought a package of these and she used them a few times during her first few weeks. I bought another package of Gerber pacifiers that had a contoured nipple and she would choke and gag whenever we offered her one. I tried a Nuk, and she had the same reaction. Instant gagging and choking. Back to the rounded Gumdrop pacifier, and she latched on happily. They are the clear winner for this little girl!

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6. Live Clean Baby products

Source: makeupandbeautyblog.com

I've tried it all, from Burt's Bees to fancy organic lines to Aveeno to Johnson's. And this stuff beats them all hands down. It's super gentle, smells great - SO MANY baby products smell like great grandma's perfume, why is that? and is natural. Best of all, it's very inexpensive - I get mine at Walmart and it's reguarly on sale too!



7. A good stroller

When Brook was born, we were given a hand me down travel system. It was fine, honestly, but I really wanted a stroller with big tires. Our little town has a lot of rough curbs and big pot holes and I also did a lot of walking on gravel and muddy roads and the travel system really struggled. It was also gosh darn ugly to boot. When a neighborhood cat decided to start peeing on it, that was the end for me. I could not get the cat pee smell out, so we bought a used sit and stand stroller. I loved it, but again it had tiny wheels and was so long that it was really awkward to steer, especially in the mall or a store.

I also had a double jogger stroller that was given to me 3rd or 4th hand. Last summer I finally just sold all three strollers, and bought a used Phil and Teds E3 with a doubles kit. It was almost $400 used, which seemed so silly to me for a stroller. But honestly, it was worth it. Every time I use it, I say "Thank GOD we finally have a good stroller." What a difference in how it pushes and steers!

I've talked to several other moms who have had similar experiences. They wasted hundreds of dollars buying different strollers trying to save money but never finding a good one. Then finally they bite the bullet and splurged on a high end stroller. In the long run, it would have been cheaper to just buy a high end stroller to begin with!

I highly recommend splurging on a good stroller, whether it is Phil and Ted's or not. I am a huge fan of buying used and making do with what you have, and with all the other baby gear (play pen, high chair, jolly jumper, toys, and clothes) aside from carseats. I still say that you get the most bang for your buck by purchasing gently used. But don't waste your breath on that $80 bargain stroller from Walmart - find a high end stroller on Craigslist or Kijiji and get it! You won't regret it, and you can re-sell it down the road for a good portion of what you paid for it.

An Ombre' Dresser

Remember when I gave myself a deadline to finish 3 projects that had been lingering in the garage for way too long?


Well, I'm happy to report that I finished one! The dresser is finally out of the garage and in Brook's room where it belongs.


Last week I dug out my paint swatches, spread them out across Brook's bed and chose one that matched perfectly to the pink in her bedspread. A quick trip to the paint store while the Mister gave the dresser a light sanding and a coat of primer, and we were in business!

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I painted the bottom drawer first, and then poured some paint into a paint tray and added a splash of white. A quick stir and I painted the next drawer. Another splash of white paint, stir, and repeat.

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It's not perfect, but I am pretty pleased with how it turned out! It was a good way to step outside of my comfort zone, which is white, white, and more white.

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Organizing Baby Things, Part 1

Babies come with a lot of stuff.


And they grow so fast - meaning almost as soon as you've organized one size of clothing, diapers, shoes, and hats suddenly overnight they have outgrown it and you are packing those things away and bringing out larger ones. It's a constant cycle.


And it's not only clothes! Babies go from swings and bouncy chairs to jolly jumpers and walkers. A highchair to a booster chair. Bottles to sippy cups, milk to solids . . . their first years seem to be a constant rotation of supplies and gear to meet their ever changing needs.


I thought I would do a series of posts sharing how I organize and store all of our baby things, and give you all of the little tips and tricks I have learned along the way!


Our first stop is Emma's dresser.

We opted for a long dresser instead of a changing table. I am still so grateful that we made that decision when buying our furniture during my first pregnancy four years ago: it has served us so well! A changing table is so limited in its use - before you know it, your toddler has become potty trained and suddenly your changing table has become a useless piece of expensive furniture and you now need to find a new place to store all of the things you had once stashed on its shelves.


Not so with a dresser. This piece can grow with Emma for the rest of her years growing up, or it can be repurposed somewhere else in our home down the line. It would make a great tv stand in our family room, or a buffet style server in the dining room. It could even function in the entryway as a place to store hats and scarves and drop our keys.


We topped the dresser with an inexpensive changing pad, and all of our diaper changing supplies are kept in the top left drawer so we can easily access everything we need without having a lot of clutter all over the top.

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This drawer holds all of her diapers ( we use disposables until she can fit into our cloth diapers, more on that later) and anything else she might need during a diaper change or getting ready for the day. I keep Vaseline, a pair of baby nail scissors, baby lotions and diaper cream along with a pack of Scentsy Newborn Nursery wax that I use in her Scentsy warmer - it smells just like baby powder! There is also a stack of baby wash cloths that I get wet and use in place of disposable baby wipes. Much softer on her sensitive little tushie and cheap too!

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The other top drawer holds all of her onesies on the far right. In the middle I have all of the hats that currently fit her at the back, and a stack of bibs at the front. It's never too early for bibs - I've learned they work great to protect her clothes from all of the dribbles and spills during feedings so I spend less time scrubbing out stains from around the neck of all of her outfits. On the left are some teeny tiny tights at the back, and in the front I cut down an instant oatmeal box to contain her tiny baby socks. Maybe not the prettiest storage solution, but I love cutting down empty food boxes to create my own drawer organizers because it's free and I am usually the only person to see the inside of my drawers anyway!

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Below her diapers I store all of her clothes, which right now consists of about a dozen newborn size sleepers and two teeny tiny newborn dresses that she wears to church on Sundays. I cannot wait until she grows big enough for pants!!! 

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Underneath her clothes are the receiving blankets. A whole drawer full of receiving blankets? Yes ma'am! These puppies are essential to me, especially during the first few months. I use them to swaddle her when she sleeps, to tuck around her in the carseat when we go out and a heavy blanket would be too warm, to drape over the carseat to keep the sun out, to lay down on the change pad to protect my white covers when I know she's had a big blowout. They make the perfect nursing covers too!

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On the right side, I keep our cloth diapers. Emma is still so small that these diapers go up to her armpits, so we are using disposables until she grows a little more. I have a mix of Fuzzibunz and Bumgenius and I cannot say enough about how much we love our cloth diapers; I will do a post in the future all about them.

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Below that is a drawer full of blankets. I also keep her crib sheets and spare change pad covers at the back.

Stay tuned for more posts on organizing all of that baby gear! Up next - the diaper bag!

Tiny Baby, TONS of Stuff

Meet baby Emma! She graced us with an early arrival on February 11th, and we have been enjoying some much needed family time for the last few weeks. Our little peanut has been a very easy baby so far and I am enjoying being a momma to a newborn once again!


Along with a new baby though, comes new stuff. A LOT of new stuff.


Which is fun! I mean, who doesn't like opening presents? And getting out all of Brook's old baby things and reminiscing has been really special. I love having pink and purple take over my house!


But I am not a clutter person folks. I have a serious aversion to too much stuff. I am famous for walking around the house with a giant garbage bag and not stopping until it is full. We regularly take truckloads of things to our local thrift store and re-use shed at the local dump. My rule is, if I haven't used it in the last 6 months or I don't LOVE it - it goes. I am pretty ruthless in the clutter department.


So to have a constant stream of gift bags, dishes full of food, cards, and flowers comes along with a wee bit of anxiety for me. I appreciate each and every gift, don't get me wrong! But I cannot believe how much "Stuff" has moved into our house along with this tiny little 6 pound bundle.


The baby swing sitting in the middle of our living room, I can handle. The playpen taking up every square inch of free space in our bedroom, it's ok. The carseat and stroller now filling my entryway, whatever. But the stack of three dozen gift bags and the mountain of tissue paper - ACK! The row of empty casserole dishes and tupperware waiting to be given back to their generous owners - drives me nuts. The piles of special momentoes that I don't have a box to put in yet...eek!


Receiving blankets and pacifiers seem to be laying on every suface in the entire house, the laundry baskets are stuffed with tiny puke stained outfits, and the garbage cans are constantly overflowing between the diapers and all of the packaging and wrapping that has come into the house along with all of the new baby gear. Add in a giant  stack of thank you notes that permanently lives on my dining room table so that I can work on them whenever I get a spare minute, and a LOT more mess and clutter from the husband who is home on parental leave and I am ready to have a heart attack wherever I look.


I crave organization in a  bad way. A few days ago I even broke down into tears over how stressed out all this extra clutter was making me. My wonderful husband knew what I needed - not a nap or a massage. Just to clean.


He took the baby from me and kept Brook entertained while I had almost two glorious hours to myself, armed with Mrs. Meyers and a broom. I cleaned my kitchen, folded laundry, and took out the garbage. As much as I like a clean organized home, I usually don't actually enjoy the process of cleaning but this day every pair of socks I matched, every crumb I swept felt like therapy. The tightness in my chest disappeared with every dish I washed, and when I was done I finally felt like myself again.


I never want cleaning or organizing to come before my children. That old poem that says

                The cleaning and scrubbing can wait till tomorrow,

But children grow up as I've learned to my sorrow.

So quiet down cobwebs: dust go to sleep,

I'm rocking my baby and babies don't keep

definitely has a point! My children will never remember if the sink was always full of dirty dishes, but they will remember the times I played with them. And the times I said I was too busy to read a story, or built a blanket fort. I want their memories to be filled with many, many more "yes" moments from their mommy than "no" ones. I don't ever want to be so consumed with the daily drudgeries of running a home that my children miss out on quality time with their mom. 

But I also feel like one of the best gifts I can give my children is a clean, organized home. Space to spread out and play, rather than a space that is crowded with too much clutter. A sofa that always has room for the whole family to crowd onto, not littered with magazines and blankets. Room to run without fear of tripping over things. Freedom to spread out, to create a mess where a mess wasn't already. To grow up with the calmness and peace that comes with being in a space that is also calm and peaceful. I also want to instill the lifeskills in them that come along with having an organized home - time management, responsibility, teamwork. 

It's a balancing act.

  I will continue to clean. I will always make time in my day to sweep the floors and sort the mail. I will still tell my daughter "Not now, honey, I am busy" sometimes when I am up to my elbows in dishwater or making dinner. But I will try to remember that sometimes, that "Not now" needs to be replaced with an "Of course!" and I will dry my hands on a dishtowel and let my frying pan sit until the dishwater has long gone cold because I am too busy playing dressup to care.

Cookies

I have decided to carry on the tradition my mom started with me of making special heart shaped cookies every February.

Growing up, we always made classic sugar cookies with pink and white icing, and topped them with cinnamon red hots. Always.

As much as I loved our tradition, I am the sort of person who is always itching to try something new! I doubt I will make the same cookies every year - I like to mix it up!

I have been scouring the internet for ideas, and have come across so many adorable cookies and techniques!



I love these stained glass looking ones

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These peanut butter cookies with chocolate hearts would be easy for little helpers 

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Or maybe classic sugar cookies with a rainbow of icing colors(although we'd skip the black)

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These are unique and oh so adorable!

And these neopolitan cookies are so pretty!

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Royal icing is always impressive

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I doubt I will attempt anything this complicated with a three year old helper, but, oh...swoon!

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Even something as simple as cereal treats look impressive when tinted pink (maybe some sprinkles thrown in for good measure)

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So many beautiful cookies . . . the options are endless! I am trying to decide which ones we will tackle this year. Hopefully this weekend is full of sprinkles and the sound of my mixer!

It Is What You Make Of It

Valentine's Day is one of my favorite holidays. So many people see it as a holiday manufactured by card companies, but I say it is what you make of it.


As a girl, my parents always made me feel special on Valentine's Day. I  remember every year, coming home from school and KNOWING there was a special surprise waiting for me. That was more exciting to me than trading valentines at school . . . knowing all day long that when I got home, there would be something special waiting on my bed from my mom and dad.


I remember my Valentine presents more vividly than most of my Christmas presents. I think it's because Christmas presents were expected, everyone got them. And a lot of my friends got bigger and better Christmas presents than we did - my parents had four kids to buy for!


 But not all of my friends got valentine presents.


 And valentine presents play right to a little girls' heart - pink, frilly, extravagant, and oh so grown-up and romantic! To receive a heart shaped box of chocolates, all tucked into shiny foil wrappers underneath a lace doily at the age of 6 . . . swoon! It made me feel loved, special, and spoiled. I remember pulling into the driveway after school, looking up to my bedroom window and seeing a giant foil balloon bobbing away . . . waiting for me! Some years it was handfuls of heart shaped candy sprinkled and hidden all over my room. One year it was the foil balloon. Other years it was the classic box of chocolates. Every year, on my bed when I got home from school; some special token left to surprise me.

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My most special Valentine memory is the year my dad came home with flowers, not just for my mom but also for my sister and I. I don't remember what sort of bouquet my mom received, but I do remember being given a glass bowl with a floating rose inside, and how it made me feel. Thinking about it now is actually bringing tears to my eyes! My dad is my hero, and he always made the effort to treat his girls with the same care and affection that he treats our mom. . My dad treated me like a princess - he complimented me every Sunday morning when I got dressed up. Opened doors for not just my mom, but also for me. Held my arm when we walked across slippery parking lots. And he bought me flowers on Valentine's Day. He gave me those experiences of knowing what it felt like to be cherished, to be loved and truly cared for so that when it was time for me to enter the dating world I wouldn't settle for anything less. And I didn't :)

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Every year, my mom would spend an afternoon making heart shaped sugar cookies with me and my sister. We always decorated them the same way every year. Pink and white icing, and cinnamon red hots. It was our special tradition and I was always so proud to have those cookies in my lunch bag at school in the weeks leading up to Valentine's Day.

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When I got older, my mom would often make a special Valentine dinner with everything prepared in heart shapes, the table set with a lace tablecloth and candles. The first year after I got married, I invited my parents over for a candlelit dinner and served a heart shaped cake for dessert - our first married Valentine's Day and the idea of going out for a romantic dinner just the two of us never even crossed my mind. I wanted to surprise my parents and do for them what they had done for me every year.


When I think about Valentine's Day, those are the things that I remember. Those are the things that make me get excited to celebrate with my own family. Not an expectation for a fancy dinner out, an overpriced bouquet or a new piece of jewelry. Just the little things. The small gestures of love, the time taken to surprise a loved one just because you want to make them smile.


This year I am bringing back the tradition of making heart shaped cookies with my own daughter. And on February 14th when she walks into her room at the end of the day, there will be heart shaped candies sprinkled across her bed.


And we will sit down to a dinner of something heart shaped, with candles flickering and wine glasses full of juice in front of our plates. Some romantic music will be playing, and after dinner I will relax with my hands on my ever-expanding belly while I watch my husband twirl our daughter around the living room for a special Valentine's dance.


And it will be a million times better than any pair of earrings or fancy restaurant dinner could ever be.

Kitchens Past - Our First Home

When we got married, we purchased the worst house we could find just so we could have a mortgage we could afford. We paid $300 a month, and this disaster of a kitchen became home.

It's hard to tell from the photo, but the cabinets were oddly sized, homemade ones with rusting hardware. When you opened a door, the scent of curry punched you in the nostrils. The walls were painted alternating ; lime green with yellow trim, and yellow walls with lime green trim. There were white lace curtains hung from a brass rod, and brass light fixtures filled with bugs. The countertops were chipped formica, and the tap was almost stuck shut with calcium deposits. The floor was covered with burns and black marks, and the stove was harvest gold and burnt everything we tried to cook.

When we first moved in, we painted the cabinets white, got new hardware, and painted the walls blue. We covered the countertops with some cheap black plastic "refresh your countertop" gimmicky stuff. The backsplash was covered in metal flashing to make it look like stainless steel, and we bought a floor model dented stove from Home Depot with leftover wedding money.

This is the only photo I can find of that time...you can see the painted cabinets with new hardware, and the nasty floor...but not much else.

Then we purchased new laminate countertops and installed a subway tile backsplash.

And later we added some inexpensive moulding to all of the door fronts, and bought a new sink and faucet from Ikea. I can't believe that this fresh little country kitchen used to look like this!

We put the house up for sale shortly after finishing the kitchen renovations - and it sold in 2 days, for double what we had paid for it 3 years earlier! We walked away from that home feeling very proud of what we had accomplished, and itching to do it all over again.