I'm not so funny anymore

I used to be funny. I mean really funny. I could just look at Emily and she would start smiling. If I smiled back she would giggle and if the word "Boo" came out of my mouth we had full on belly laughs. You have no idea what this did to my self-esteem. I was Queen of the mommy world. I could do no wrong. I was a super hero, my power was to make crying babies laugh and my uniform was spit-up.


Well those days are gone. She could care less if I look at her. My smile usually makes her cough and if I play peak a boo she looks at me like I have 2 heads. I have lost all of my super powers and I am just a normal mom.

This will not do. I need to be super mom again. So I am pulling out all of the stops and I dont care what I look like in public. Yes, if you see me you may think I need to spend some time in a psychiatric ward but really I am super mom in disguise.

You can find me in Wal-mart pretending the stroller is a race car.

You can find me in line at the grocery store pretending to be an umpa-lumpa.

You can find me in Best Buy dancing, skipping, singing and doing squat jumps.


And while all these things may be crazy. I do not have the screaming baby in the store. I would rather have people stand back because they question my sanity than to deal with an inconsolable screaming baby.

So next time you see me or another super mom like me. Give her a smile, wave or even join in on the fun because she knows she looks nuts but she is willing to do that to make her baby happy. That is a super mom.

SNOW!

It snowed when we were in Houston so we missed it. That means this past week was Emily's first snow. It was really pretty but cold and mostly a mix of snow/ice/sleet.

I wanted to take her out in it for just a minute. I did not invest in a snow suit this winter (and I am glad) because Emily is never really outside. She is only outside in the cold when going between a building and a car. Most of the time she is in her carseat during this and they cant wear snow suits when in a carseat. I did not want her to be cold so I decided layers were the way to go. I put her in a onesie, a light cotton pajama, a flannel pajama and her coat over top. She looked like that kid from A Christmas Carol. Add a hat and we were set.

I ran out, put her in the bumbo, took a bunch of pictures, then ran back inside. We were maybe outside for a total of 90 seconds. I may have gone overboard with the layers. We would have stayed out longer but between the time I decided to take her out and when I was finished layering her up it started coming down hard and turned to ice/sleet, which hurt. Here are the results:

Mom, Im not impressed

Hey! Its a slider!

Snow in the face!

And finally a happy one :)

Packing for an infant

The first weekend our good friends got married. We were very excited to attend the wedding which was in Houston.

On the other hand this was the first trip we were taking Emily on and it was going to be her first time flying. I was crazy anxious. And of course my way of dealing with this: planning. Yep I am totally my mother daughter. 4 weeks before our trip I started making lists. I continued to tweak and change my list. I asked other moms I knew, I ran the whole thing by my mother, I read the whole thing off to my husband (who was not listening).

My list was 4 pages long. yep. 4 pages. One for me. One for my husband. One for Emily and One page with all the baby things that needed to be in our carry-on. I excessively worried about my lists because it was the only think I could control. We flew after Emily's bed time and I was sure she was going to scream the whole time and flying just makes me nervous anyway so I concentrated on what I had a direct effect on. What we packed.

We were flying Southwest so we had free checked bags which is the way to go when you are traveling with baby, they need a lot of stuff.

Here is what I packed and then what I learned:

Emily's checked bag

Checked bag:

- Lotion, body wash, Emily's medicine and dropper in ziplock

-2 9oz bottles

-1 5oz bottles

-Bottle brush

-4 pairs of socks

-4 sets of pajamas

-1 sleep sack

-2 pairs of pants

-1 2-piece outfit

-1 long sleeve onesie

-8 short sleeve onesies

-2 pacifiers

-1 thermal blanket

-1 blankie

-1 flannel blanket

-1 lovie

-1 book

-1 travel case of wipes

-4 bibs

-4 burp cloths

-2 ziplock bags

-1 coat

- wedding outfit (dress, onesie, tights)

- 2 pairs of shoes

-sleep sheep

-1 hat

It looks like a lot of clothes and it is but Emily has major reflux so we go through a lot of outfits a day. Also, we used disposable diapers on this trip and she tends to leak with those. 

Emily's Carry on

Carry on bag (diaper bag and backpack):

-2 pajama outfits

- 1 8oz bottle with powdered formula in it

- 1 5oz bottle with powdered formula in it

-Tylenol and dropper

- 1 shirt for me

- 1 ziplock bag

-1 lovie

-2 pairs of socks

-pacifier wipes

-diaper pad

-2 pacifiers

-1 taggi book

- 2 onesies

-1 hat

- 2 5oz bottles with prepaired liquid formula (in cold bag)

- 10 diapers ( i think i stuffed a bunch in extra places too)

-travel wipes

-2 burp cloths

-1 bib

- copy of birth certificate

-blanket

- J.L. Childress carseat bag

We also took: 

snap and go stroller

Ergo carrier

Carseat

carseat base

On the way there we gate checked our carseat and stroller. On the way back we checked it, this is the way to do it. I carried Emily through security in our Ergo, she slept the whole time. The carseat bag got bad reviews but I am happy with it. I paid $12 and it is dirty and has 2 small holes but I would rather the bag have them than the carseat. My in-laws arrived before us so they bought formula and diapers which was very helpful and I did not have to pack it. We ran out of the formula when I was packing to fly back. I ended up buying the ready to feed 8oz bottles. These are so much better for traveling. All you need is standard nipples, it is faster through security because they are sealed and you can trash the bottles once they are empty. 

The main thing I learned: 

THERE ARE WAL-MARTS EVERYWHERE!

Yes someone tried to impart this knowledge on me but I was too anxious to really listen. Everything could go wrong and you can just go buy more clothes, formula, diapers, wipes, or other needed baby item. This can be done 24/7, stop worrying. 

My Baby is 5mo!

Happy girl

I cant believe she is 5 months old already! This is crazy. She is growing so fast! Her eyes are still blue and we are starting to see some hair grow. She is super long so we are in 6mo clothes. Last week I put the pants she came home from the hospital in on her. They still fit and even have a little room left though they are too short.

Do you have my bottle?

A girl and her dog. best friends :)

We love hair bows!

5 months old with our Hippo!

FOOD!

Having fun in our high chair eating our Sophie!

Emily is now eating food! Yay!

And while most of her food does not look very appetizing it smells and tastes good (I tried it). It is also a really fun mess :)

At our 4 month doctor appointment the Pediatrician said it was alright to start her on solids because we were not breastfeeding (if you are breastfeeding you want to wait till 6 mo). Emily was also showing major signs of interest. We eat dinner as a family and she has been joining us for the past few months. She started staring at our food and following our forks.

We went on a trip at the beginning of February (post to come) and we were in the process of switching her off hypoallergenic formula so we did not want to change her diet right away. So we started after we got back from Houston.

I decided to make my own baby food. I know you probably just read my post about cloth diapers so you are thinking I am a total hippy. And that is fine but again this decision was mainly based on economics.

I found the price breakdown in this article at mint.com.
A 4 oz jar of organic baby food is $1.39. A serving size is 2 oz so that is $0.69 per serving.
A 4oz jar of baby food is $1.05. $0.53 per serving
Homemade food is a little harder to break down as produce cost vary. Here is one example based on what I have paid. I do not buy organic specific produce. But because I made the food I know there are no preservatives added which is my main concern with baby food, I am less worried about pesticides.
I started with sweet potatoes. I paid $0.80 for one large sweet potato. I was able to make 10 servings (i spilled some so it would probably have made more like 12). That come out to $0.08 per serving! That is like nothing.

Making baby food really does not take that much time and if planned correctly you could make enough for one month in about 15 minutes.

I have a baby bullet but you could easily do this with a regular food processor and ice cube trays.

The process is easy:
1. Peal and cut the foods that need it.
2. Boil the foods that need to be cooked.
3. Put in food processor with a little bit of water (use the water food was cooked in)
4. turn on for 3-5 minutes
5. put in containers or ice trays
Your done. Food in the refrigerator is good for 2 days. Food in the freezer is good for 30 days. Using the water the food is cooked in puts the vitamins and nutrients back in the food. More water makes the food more liquid.

So far we have made:
1 sweet potato- 10 servings
2 avocados- 7 servings
3 bananas- 12 servings

Bananas and avocados do not need to be cooked so those are super easy. I still have some bananas in the freezer but I think I am going to make a bunch of food in one big cooking batch later in the week.

I have been converted

Yep, converted. We are now a fully cloth family.

A cloth family? What is that?

We only use cloth diapers.

Yes, I know your response. "EWWWW"

I felt the same before my beautiful bundle of joy arrived. Why would you want to TOUCH and CLEAN poop. That is disgusting.

Then my world changed when my angel arrived. See what non-parent me did not realize is that even when you use disposables you will be touching poop (gasp!) and cleaning poop (the horror!).

I have quickly realized that babies are evil geniuses. They will hold that poop in until the most inconvenient time and then it is an explosion and they are silently chuckling at our frantic cleaning.

No matter how hard you try if you have a newborn you will get poop on your hands, on your clothes, and under your nails. Just hope you are lucky and you never get it in the car seat or your hair.

Once I was past this I was able to see the benefits of cloth diapering. There are many but the one that really drew me was the expense. Most babies are potty trained between 2.5 and 3 yrs. And even then some heavy sleepers need to use pull ups at night, about 40% of children use night protection up to age 4.

The average cost per diaper when bought in bulk is $0.23- $0.31. This is name brand and for sensitive skin (less chemicals). The price per diaper goes up as your child grows. The average baby uses 8-10 diapers a day once they hit 3 months. Newborn to 3 months averages closer to 12-15 per day.

So doing the math and estimating at the higher end of the averages. That would be $0.31 per diaper, 15 per day for 90 days then 10 per day up to age 3 (1005 days). That is a total of 11400 diapers totaling $3534. You also have to remember this is an average. If you child gets sick or has diaper rash on a regular basis you will be changing diapers more often.

Cloth diapers have a higher up front cost and you can obviously pay more for higher end styles but in the long run they are way more affordable. I was able to cloth diaper my daughter for $200 and if I take care of my diapers I can use them for multiple children.

There are other reasons to cloth. The second biggest for us is that my daughter has very sensitive skin. Once she started wearing cloth she has not had one diaper rash (or blow out). The third main reason people cloth is the fact that it is more eco-friendly. Studies have shown that one disposable diaper may take up to 500 years to decompose. That is nuts!

Before I jumped into cloth diapering I did a ton of research and I have tried 4 different types of diapers so I will soon be doing a Cloth 101 post to help you guys who are interested in how this works. There will also be cute cotton bottom pics on that one :)

Game of the Day!

So the new game we are playing today is..... (drum roll)


CHASING THE DOG!

Yay! This kills 3 birds with one stone.


1. Happy giggly baby

2. Dead tired dog

3. Mommy's workout


now we all need a nap :)