Losing my grams has brought a lot of tears and sadness to our family. However, it must be mentioned how grateful I am to have our little girl to help us all through this hard time. Her love and laughter and babbles and baby hugs seem to bring a lot of sunshine into these dark days.
Since I’m definitely going to forget, I thought I’d take the time to blog about my favorite, must-have newborn items. As the days go on, I can see this list changing, but these are the things that totally saved me over the past three months.
1. The swing! OH magical swing. We received ours as a hand-me-down from my sister and this thing is a godsend. Judge away, but sometimes, I’ve gotta put baby girl down and get some stuff done. Not-to-mention the fact that she really loves hanging out in the swing. We put it near a window so she can look at the light or wherever really. It definitely calms her and me. This is an item she still loves (thankfully!!).
This isn’t our exact swing, as ours is at least 5 years old, but it’s Fisher-Price and looks pretty darn similar to this one.
2. The Maya Ring Sling. So, I was all about the baby wearing. It’s the perfect way to get babes to chill out and take a napski while mom finishes dinner. At first, I tried the Moby Wrap, but when your baby is howling and you’re trying to get dinner ready, there’s no time for fabric origami. I also tried the Ergo Baby with the infant insert, but a) that thing is so big and bulky, we’d both be sweating bullets and b) it was a whole ordeal to get her in the infant burrito insert, then in the carrier. Long story short, neither option was quick enough. Then came the maya ring sling, which my sister found for me at a garage sale (best $20 spent EVER). It was so simple to throw on and totally calmed the nugget. Whether I was making dinner, walking around the house, or enjoying a 3-4 hour bridal shower, this thing REALLY came in handy.
The magic sling.
3. The Bob Motion Travel System. I really wanted a bugaboo stroller. Yes, I’m talking about that $1000+ piece of equipment. After a few (understatement of the year) arguments with my husband, I decided that it made more sense to spend $1,000 on a bazillion baby necessities than on a baby luxury. SO, I went to BuyBuy Baby and tested out all of the strollers. I fell in love with the BOB and have been so happy with it. It’s easy to use, so easy to maneuver and not too giant.
The BOB.
4. Aiden & Anais Swaddle Blankets. I use these things for everything (except swaddling). I have at least one in every room. They’re perfect for wiping up spit up or drool or milk if I decide to spray my babe in the face, they’re great to drape over the car seat to protect C from the sun, they’re a nice blanket to lay on or keep the little one warm. They’re the perfect all purpose blanket.
I probably have at least 12 of these.
5. The Boppy Nursing Pillow. The Boppy was such a godsend in the first couple months. For the bazillion hours spent nursing, it was perfect to prop baby up on. Not to mention the fact that I was so dang nervous with her in the beginning. The Boppy made me feel like my fragile little nuglet was safe and supported without giving me a total dead arm. Now that I’m working with Charlotte, the Boppy is once again one of my “must haves.” It allows me to work while she eats… And when she’s not using it, it’s super comfortable as a back rest.
Tiny babes sleeping on the boppy after a good snack.
6. Trail mix and my giant water bottle (with a straw). This is something I didn’t know would be so crucial. If you’re breastfeeding, those first few weeks bring a hunger and thirst like nothing I’ve ever experienced. I’m talking about a lightheaded, dizzy hunger. Your body is working hard and with all the baby care, it’s not always easy to go make a snack. I kept trail mix next to my bed, in the nursery, in my purse, in the diaper bag. Any place I might suddenly be attacked with a surge of hunger.
7. My nursing cover. Mine was the bebe au lait, which I thought worked very well. This thing allowed me to leave the house and provide 24/7 flood service to my babe. In not going to like though, I really do not enjoy breastfeeding in public.
8.HALO Sleepsack Swaddle. Our hospital gave us this as a little gift, and we really loved it. Not to mention, the little one loved it. And she was such a cute little burrito in it. We had a Summer Infant one and it SUCKED… velcro never stayed together and got caught on everything… and an Aden + Anais one, which we returned because it had snaps instead of velcro… that makes no sense at all.
Tiny person in the Halo sleep sack swaddle thing.
9. Comfy yoga or maternity pants, hospital undies, nursing tops or stretchy tanks, and button downs / cardigans. This was so important. I had a c-section, so any low or even normal rise anything (underwear or pants) were an absolute no way. I literally took about 30 pairs of the free hospital undies they give you. They’re really not that bad… except they look like a diaper. But man were they crucial for avoiding the scar. Same story with the pants. As for the tanks, I lived in nursing tanks for a month, but then I started feeling more confident and was able to just wear nursing friendly shirts… mainly, stretchy tanks with a cardigan or button down over it.
10. My husband. Holy crap, I would not have survived without him. Beyond just those first couple weeks where everything hurt and I needed help lifting her, etc. But just everything. I mean, I literally did not change a single diaper… not a one… for just about 2 weeks. That’s at least 140 diapers, people. And he’s still just so amazing and helpful and hands-on. He takes her in the mornings, we switch off night feedings, he does research when I’m so tired I can’t think straight, he still changes diapers without complaint, he takes her on walks, he listens to me gush about her every night and watches every single video I take of her. Best of all, he loves her to pieces.
As I mentioned in an earlier post, I was a little confused about how to calculate Charlotte’s age in months. Without much thought, I assumed it worked like pregnancy. 4 Weeks = 1 Month. Not the case. SO, seeing as how Charlotte was born on July 16th, today she is officially 3 months old!
With that said, happy 3 month (or 13 week) birthday, sweet princess!
The past three months have literally been so incredibly full of love, I can’t begin to explain it. I absolutely love watching this little person grow and change and laugh and love. She’s the sweetest little nugget ever.
Over the past week, she’s again making big changes. She officially LOVES the paci. This might not seem like a big deal, but it’s crazy to me. We have tried to get her to even like the paci just a little and it always ends with gagging, so to see her instantly accept and love on the paci is a miracle.
Wubanub PACI!!!
She’s still waking up 2 or 3 times per night to eat, which hubs and I switch off taking care of. He feeds her pumped milk from a bottle and I breastfeed her. She is warming up to the bottle, but still does not get as relaxed as she is on the breast.
I have been testing out “airplane” with her for the past week or two (aka I lift her in the air so she’s flying) and this week she is just starting to show signs of enjoying it. The day where she loves it is coming.
Other than that, she’s still loving her toys and getting so good at grabbing them. In fact, today she grabbed her wubanub (paci with a stuffed animal on it) and got it in her mouth twice! She was so proud. Unfortunately, with her pride came an excited swinging of her arms, which pulled the paci right out of her mouth.
Oh! And how can I forget… she LOVES shoving her fingers/hands in her mouth. She’s quite talented, no??
Mmmm… fingers!
And now her 13 week pictures (from yesterday)…
Taking pictures is so booooring…
Wait! HOW OLD AM I??
That’s crazy! I’m such a big girl!
And cute as pie!
No, I am not talking about the water guns… I’m talking about my out of control milk maids. It’s so random, but last night I was telling a friend about how a few weeks ago, Charlotte was minding her own business, eating a milk snack when she backed off for a break. To her surprise, my boobs didn’t get the memo and literally sprayed her right in the face. She was so surprised… nobody enjoys milk in the eye.
Now, fast forward to today. I woke up totally engorged. (Sorry for the TMI if you’re reading this, Grandpa.) Anyway, I had fed Charlotte last night at 10:30 pm and decided not to pump after. Typically, my routine is to put her to sleep around 6:30 with a big milk snack and then pump before bed (around 10). Since we’ve been doing bottles at night and my husband had the first shift, I slept until 6:30 am (thank you, sweet girl, for choosing not to wake up more than once last night). Anyway, I woke up at 6:30 really needing to get rid of some milk. I fed Charlotte, but unfortunately, she wasn’t as hungry as I needed her to be and I was in a rush to get ready for work and didn’t have time to pump.
Once we got to work and got settled, I proceeded to feed the sweet girl again and holy smokes. My boobs were literal weapons. Not only were they releasing excessive amounts of milk at extreme speeds causing the poor girl to keep choking, but they were out of control spraying everywhere. All over her face, all over me… it was a mess. I was literally trying to block the milk spray with my hand and of course, I didn’t have a burp cloth with me so I’m wiping excessive amounts of milk on my jeans, sweater, etc. and using my white shirt to wipe up the milk that was overflowing from her mini mouth. Oy. All the while, I’m trying to make the situation peaceful so she would go down for her nap.
A real milksplosion.
After she went down for her nap, I decided it was time to pump so we could have less dangerous feedings for the remainder of the day. I pumped out 8.5 ounces! Mind you, that was after I had fed her and sprayed milk all over the conference room at work.
Just another day in the life of a breastfeeding momma 🙂
Turns out calculating a baby’s age is not the same as calculating pregnancy. I’ve been doing 4 weeks = 1 month; however, it has come to my attention that such math would make Charlotte 13 months on her first birthday. Urgh!
Unfortunately, this was brought to my attention (thanks, Kate!!) after Charlotte’s three month pics. Whatever! Only a week early…
Anyway, back to the fun stuff. Our photographer was soo patient with us in scheduling our photo session. As I’ve mentioned, the little one’s been napping like crazy and super inconsistently, so scheduling was a bit of a mess. We ended up doing a handful of pics with the whole fam this weekend and then some additional pics of the little one only and cutie pie and momma yesterday.
Guess how many times she smiled for the camera! That’s right, zero!!! She was the stingiest little smiler ever. But of course, as soon as the camera was put away, she was giving them away for free. What a stinker!
Here are some pictures from our wardrobe selection, a couple quick snaps I took yesterday and a sneak peek from our family pics. Thanks to Pics by Nic for a great session! Can’t wait to see the photos!
It seems so unbelievable that it’s already been three months since the first time I kissed my precious little girl. So much has changed since then.
Unfortunately one of those things is not her sleeping habits. While she is great at napping (kind of), she is still waking up twice a night. Last night she was up for 2 hours and ended up milk barfing all over me and the upholstered chair at 4 something in the morning. Thanks, Charlotte! Nothing beats cleaning up milky barf.
This week Charlotte has really discovered her toys. She loves them… And loved shoving them in her mouth (see photos)…
She is also one of the biggest fake criers I know… Take that with a grain of salt. I don’t really know any fake criers.
We’ve also been noticing that she’s not the biggest fan of strangers. She tends to cry when handed off… But usually will eventually settle.
Oh! She is also loving sitting up. She holds onto my thumbs and pulls herself up (with my help of course). It’s so cute!
Did I mention that she’s somehow become even cuter? I love this little monkey… Milk barfs, fake cries and all!
This little munchkin of ours is getting so big so fast. (She’s already in 3-6 months now… as of this week… although everything is a bit big on her.) It blows my mind. The lovely lady is still not sleeping through the night anymore, but is doing really well with her napping. At night, she’s up about twice a night… 11ish and 3 or 4ish. Not horrible. She is still boycotting a bottle, which is a pain in the butt… especially because this past weekend, I came home from the gym to find Mark trying to give her a bottle. He had been trying for 20ish minutes. I decided to try and give it a shot and sure enough, she took the bottle from me. Think she’s trying to tell us something?
Baby Boo has also been pretty weird with her evening nap. She’s usually due for a nap between 4 and 5, but has been refusing it… so I end up either trying to put her down for hours or, I get her to sleep and she thinks she’s down for the night. Ugh. Last night I decided to keep her up, so instead of 1.5-2 hours of wakefulness, she had 2.5. It went really well.
Besides sleeping, this child has been also getting quite the little personality. She absolutely loves to smile and seriously, melts my heart with every grin. I can honestly say that I love her exponentially more every day. She’s so delicious.
I realized today that I never actually shared Charlotte’s newborn photos (or my baby shower pictures – those will come another day). SO, with our 3-month pictures coming up this weekend, it seems appropriate to share some of our favorites. All photos taken by the wonderful Nicole of Pics by Nic and many of the cute headbands and the two hats were made by the fabulous Lisa of Kiki & Bee.
Enjoy…
In photos!
Have I mentioned how much I love my family???
While hubs gutted the pumpkin, the bambino and I got to snuggle and enjoy the perfectly sunny day.
Please note the enjoyment in Charlotte’s face. This sentiment continued into her photo-shoot. Hopefully the photographer was able to get a good, non-crying shot. And of course, as soon as we had officially given up on the chance that she might smile for the camera, she was happy as a clam. Typical.
And for fun… I think Toby is trying to hint at his desire to be Todo for Halloween…
Playing House 