Receiving Galore

It seems that one oft he staple items at a baby shower are cute receiving blankets. I've always been one to wonder what they really are for? It's not like to take them to the hospital to 'receive' the baby with them, and quite honestly when you get home and try to swaddle your precious pumpkin you learn that they are a little lacking. So I came up with some other uses for our plethora of receiving blankets. I'm sure they are not original, but if you, like me, ever wonder what to do with this odd sized thing then here you go.
1) Use as a changing table liner.
.This helps deal with extra "mess" that you may not have been expecting, and keeps the
changing pad clean.
2) Burp rags.
.If you have a little spitter-upper like ours have been, those little things labeled "burp clothes" in the store will do NOTHING for the geisers. So use the blankets instead! You can cut them in two or just use the whole thing folded over. Hey, more coverage means you get to wear YOUR clothes for longer too!
3) Disposable mess catchers.
. Yes, gruesome things do sometimes happen with little ones. For example, our toddler tossed his cookies when we were in the middle of a flight. We mopped up most of the mess with a receiving blanket and then put it all in a zip up baggie. Well, once at our destination, I had NO desire to reopen that bag, so just tossed the whole mess and didn't feel bad about loosing a "good" blanket.

Mommy Moments

They tell you that infants don't smile, and if something crosses their face that looks like a smile it's just from gas. I sometimes wonder where the "experts" get all their wealth of wisdom because I'm here to say that my baby smiles! Yesterday when he was 6 days old he was looking into my face and he smiled at me!!!! My first baby smile! Awwwwww... If I wasn't head over heels in love with him already I would have melted then! He smiles in his sleep sometimes too, and today I was laughing at him while he was eating and he smiled again! So phooy to those people who think that babies don't smile. My darling little lad does, and it thrills my heart to see it!

Boppy love? Not so much

When I was trying to come up with items for our baby registry with my first child one thing that came up over and over was this wonderful pillow called the Boppy! People raved about it to me, and so I registered and was given one of these pillows that is supposed to help support baby while nursing or even bottle feeding, or whatever. One of my friends said that maybe it would help me have that "extra" set of hands mommies are always wishing for. Now they even have Boppys that come in small, medium and large sizes so that everyone can find that perfect fit. I however haven't fit perfectly for some reason. With my first child I only nursed for 3 months due to complications, and thought that my fight with the Boppy was just part of the issues I was dealing with. Now I'm on the second round of nursing life, and realized that it's not ME it's the pillow! Actually it probably is me because of how many people have told me it's wonderful, but for me it just seems like more of a wrestling match to get the pillow and baby all where they need to be. So that's my basic "review" of the Boppy. Now the tip, just use a regular decorative pillow. It's true you'll need some support for feeding that little one, but it doesn't HAVE to be a baby related item. If it doesn't work for you, find something that does. My Boppy has become the baby's support when he's napping in the pack n' play, but for feeding, I just used the pillows we have on the couch.

Which side???

Now that I'm back in the land of the nursing moms I've found that at 2am it's difficult for me to remember which side I nursed last. I have tried to use the safety pin method, but again at 2 in the morning, the last thing I want to do once DS is finished is to have to fumble with a pin. I had several injuries to prove that I'm not so coordinated on a lack of sleep. So this time around I dug out of my jewelery box a stretchy bracelet that a friend gave me years ago. Now I simply switch wrists with the bracelet and voila! I know exactly where we need to pick up at 4:30am!

Baby Bins Work!

Beginning in Baby's room BINS are your friends! There are so many cute options now for storage bins. In our son’s room we have several baskets with cute gingham liners that totally match the “theme” of the room. I put these on the shelf in his changing table to keep diapers, lotion, anti-bac gel, diaper rash cream, etc. in. It keeps things organized without having to be overly picky AND it looks good too. You can find these at Target or Wal-Mart for much cheaper than a baby stuff store. Think small rather than large when going for toy storage. This is a lesson I learned as a nanny. Just because you have a MILLION toys you will NOT play with half of them if they are buried in BIG toy boxes. This is a mistake most people fall into. Get a big toy box and just toss all the toys in there. It does not look organized, and your child honestly will be completely overwhelmed by the mass and come whining to you that they are bored. Again, use small bins or baskets with a few toys in them that can be easily organized (even labeled) and make clean up easy. I also keep the bottom drawers of my son’s dresser reserved for toys now that he can get into them at will. One of the best things you can do for organizing the toys that WILL pile up despite our best intentions, is to rotate toys. Get some medium sized storage tubs and pack away MOST of the toys, every 3 months or so you can get those tubs out and it's just like Christmas again as you swap the toys. It gives your child a chance to see something "new" and exciting even if it's not. :-)

Conquering the Cup

I have read in different articles that one of the problems with the modern "sippy" cup is that it doesn't really teach your child to sip from a cup. Instead, the leak proof features on most of them simply cause the little ones to drink the same as if it was a bottle. I'm all for teaching the wee ones to become independent from "baby stuff" early on. It bothers me to see 3 or 4 year olds walking around with a passi or a bottle tightly clinched in their teeth. But I can also understand the frustration of parents when they don't want to fight that particular battle. Still the earlier the better, and I've got a great idea for teaching the babies to drink from a regular cup without the big mess. Of course you'll always have the occasional "oops" along the way, but who doesn't spill their drink now and then? My son, now 15 months, gets his daily drinks in spill proof sippy cups because I'm NOT willing to mop the floor after every meal. He has started learning that there's a perfect "spot" for his cup on the side of his high chair tray, but he's not always 100% accurate when it comes to setting it up. SO my solution to teach him to sip AND to keep a less sticky floor is to let him sip from a cup in the tub! He thinks this is great fun, and for him it is! I love to watch him experiment with the cup too. Most of it does NOT end up in his mouth at this point, but he is getting it. Right now our lad is only drinking water in the tub, but once he kind of gets the hang of it better I'll add actual beverages to make it more exciting. That way if he dumps juice or milk all down his face and tummy, it'll be supper easy to rinse him off and have a good time. It's working for us, maybe it'll work for you too!

Dishwasher helper

Dishwashers are pretty much the most wonderful invention ever! However when you have a baby everything you use in life shrinks. You're now living in munchkin land, and where in the world are you going to put those tiny bottle nipples, sippy cup valves, and lids, and tiny spoons?? It nearly seems like you'll have to go back to washing everything by hand, but not so! Munchkin has this great product that I've used since my baby was born! It's a basket that fits in the top rack of your dishwasher, and it holds all kinds of great stuff!! There are two compartments, one skinny one on top that will hold nipples and such, and then a larger one on bottom for whatever other random stuff needs to go in there. PLUS there is a dohicky on the side for straws once your lil one gets into those as well! Great! I love this thing! It has to be one of my favorite kido gadgets, cause it makes clean up so much easier!