Babies Archives - Page 6 of 8

24Jan 2014

Introducing …

by Nicole ⋅ 13 Comments

Miss Blair Alexandra! {aka Jellybean}

Our beautiful baby girl {FINALLY} made her debut on December 31st at 4:03am.

I must admit, I have been more of an absentee blogger than I had planned on – for the past 3 weeks that is. Being a new mom coupled with recovering from a c-section (which was completely unplanned and unexpected) it has taken me longer than expected to get back in front of the computer. While I am not quite ready to tell Blair’s birth story, I am hoping to share my labor and c-section experience soon.

A few new mom tidbits:

I’ve officially been “christened” as a mom … I’ve been peed, pooped and spit-up on!
I feel like a walking zombie during night feeding though I’m slowly adjusting to getting up ~3 times a night to feed the little one … brings new meaning to the word exhausted.
I put a sweatshirt on the other day, realized it had spit-up on it and decided it was “clean enough” to wear given all the other sweatshirts were in the wash.
Getting to shower during the day is considered a significant win (seriously it’s the small things in life!).
The dog has decided the baby doesn’t exist and completely ignores her. Sophi sits on my legs while I feed Blair and has smelled her a couple times, but that’s the closest the dog will get to the baby. On the up side Sophi doesn’t bark when Blair cries (thank goodness!!).

Okay one more picture, because sharing only one just isn’t enough. Oh yes, she is sucking her thumb on her birthday =)

Needless to say the husband and I are completely in love with the newest member of our little family!!! More new mommy tidbits to come in the next few weeks. Hopefully I am able to squeeze in some blogging between naps, diaper changes, feedings and just staring at my baby!

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03Jan 2014

Baby Gear / Registry Must Haves

by Nicole ⋅ 2 Comments

I spent a TON of time researching baby gear in my second trimester. I looked at blogs, read articles and perused friends, friends of friends and acquaintances registries looking for items they all had in common. Although I consulted with the husband on my picks, he pretty much deferred to me since I was doing the research. In all honesty neither of us have ever used this kind of gear before so it kind of felts like a guessing game when picking items to register for. In the end I am pretty pleased with what we chose. But honestly, who would have thought such a tiny little person would “need” SOOO much stuff?!

For the purposes of this post, let’s just take the baby basics/big ticket items off the table, okay? So diaper, wipes, stroller and car seat are “given” must have items for newborns. Given my research, to date, below is what I think we will need for Jellybean …

1 – Boppy Pillow – It is rare to find a baby registry that doesn’t have a boppy pillow on it. Most of my friends who have breastfed swear by it and say the pillow makes it so much easier to support the baby. I was fortunate enough to get a hand-me-over boppy from a friend. I purchased a new and crazy soft cover from Pottery Barn.

2 – Sophie Giraffe – This teether seems to be all the rage as of late. All the babies being strolled down the street have one sitting next to them. I swear it shows up on every Google search for “must have” baby items. While we can’t call the giraffe Sophie, because that is our dog’s name, we are now the proud owners of a “Sophie” giraffe teether.

3 – Thermometer – As a first time mom I’m confident I will be concerned Jellybean is sick. I expect this thermometer will help keep my mind at ease in the coming months.

4 – Swaddle Pod – I like that they have a zipper … place the baby in the pod and zip-her-up … no messing around with trying to do the traditional swaddle for bedtime.

5 – Soothie Pacifier – Have come highly recommended on blogs and from friends alike. We received a couple from some friends who just had a baby girl back in October. They said these pacifiers were a must!

6 – aden + anais Swaddle/Receiving Blankets – It feels like this item is a given.

7 – Bouncing Chair – The bouncy chair seems to be interchangeable with a swing. My friend is kind enough to lend us her son’s swing so I registered for the bouncy chair. I figure we can put Jellybean in both and let her decide which she likes best.

8 – Nosefrida Baby Nasal Aspirator – New and veteran mommies alike rave about this product. I guess it is better than the “ball” nasal aspirators. At my friend’s shower a couple weeks ago a mom said she always gives the snotsucker as part of her shower gift. I figured it is certainly worth a try therefore we purchased one.

My plan is to update my must have list once Jellybean arrive and I actually start using these products. It should be interesting to see what I thought we needed versus what we actually need.

What baby gear/item do you wish you had registered for and/or purchased prior to bringing the little bundle of joy home from the hospital? What am I missing?

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18Dec 2013

Meal Planning for Jelly’s Arrival

by Nicole ⋅ Leave a Comment

I might be 9 months pregnant and extremely tired, however I can’t seem to turn off the planner in me. I’m pretty much “done” planning for the baby. There are a few things left to do at this point, but if they don’t get done before she arrives it will be okay. For example I still haven’t booked a newborn photographer, there are picture frames in the nursery that don’t have anything in them and I haven’t had my car cleaned {yet}. These are not big ticket items so I’m not worrying about them too much. I also haven’t washed any of the baby’s clothes, towels or sheets. Lucky for me, my mom is going to take care of the laundry once Jellybean arrives so for all intensive purposes I consider that “to do” done.

I have tried to prepare myself and the husband for the baby’s arrival. We have the hospital bag mostly packed, I’ve gotten a hair cut and have plans to get my nails done on Saturday (super important details … I swear!). One of the last things on my list is meal prepping. A lot of new parents laugh at how they are living off PB&Js and/or takeout. I’m certainly not one to turn my nose up at takeout, however it does get old pretty fast … not to mention expensive.

I have been brainstorming meals that freeze well for about a month. It was harder than I thought it would be to plan. My first problem is our freezer really isn’t too big and my second is/was finding the energy to precook these meals. I did my best to clean out the freezer on Sunday and then I got to cooking. I made some pretty good progress, but didn’t get through all the recipes I had planned.

Completed:

Turkey Chili (=6 servings)
Chicken Tortilla Soup (=4 servings – we ate one serving each for dinner the night I made the soup)
Pesto (x2 – we will need to cook the pasta and add tomatoes/chicken, but that’s easy enough)

Left to Cook/Freeze:

Meatballs
Lasagna

I am hoping to at least motivate to make the meatballs before JB makes her debut. But even if I can’t/don’t, it feels good to know we have a few home cooked meals in the freezer to fall back on when we don’t want takeout and we are too tired to cook.

Did you make any meals ahead of your baby’s arrival? Any recommendations on recipes that are good for freezing?

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18Nov 2013

What’s in a Name?

by Nicole ⋅ 7 Comments

We are talking baby names today … and you know what?!?! With less than 5 weeks until her due date, the husband and I have yet to decide upon a “real” name for our little Jellybean. Friends, family, coworkers and even strangers ask about the baby’s name, to which we respond “not sure yet”. There are folks who think we are fibbing and others who just want us to decide so they can call her something other than Jellybean. While we do have about 5 names on the list of possibilities, a front runner just hasn’t revealed itself yet.

In fact, I actually have serious reservations about picking a name prior to meeting our little girl. My fear is this: we decide to name her Ashley … tell everyone … meet her and she doesn’t look at all like an Ashley, but like a Charlotte instead. Then we have to tell everyone we are switching her name to Charlotte. While the rational side of me knows things like this happen ALL the time and it’s not a big deal the other side gets nervous just thinking about it. Picking a name is a HUGE decision. I mean our baby girl is going to have this name literally for her entire life (well unless she opts to change it).

I have some friends who named their child super early in their pregnancy. They shared the name with everyone or in some cases just a select group of family and close friends. A part of me envies their ability to make a decision, stick with it and not have “buyers remorse” {so to speak} on the name they selected. Often I find people will announce their baby’s name on Facebook after making a selection. Other friends keep it a secret from everyone and only share once their baby’s name once s/he has arrived.

The husband and I have kind of split the difference between keeping the names we like a total secret and sharing them with everyone. We decided to share the name possibilities with immediate family only. For us that includes both sets of parents, our sisters and brother-in-law … actually as I write this I think my sister’s boyfriend knows the names as well, but he is the only exception to the “rule”. He kind of gets an honorary place with the immediate family due to his BF status. Anyways … prior to sharing the names we made our family agree to two things: 1) they will NOT share the names with ANYONE 2) they can’t comment on the names. While I think (and hope) they abiding by rule #1 there have been a few slip-ups with rule #2, which is fine.

The husband and I have tired a variety of methods when picking out baby names. We have gone to baby naming websites, the social security office website and reviewed family names. A lot of the names we liked initially have been in the top 100 baby names for the last couple of years, like Riley and Peyton. We were easily able to find two family names that would be meaningful to both sides of the family, Jean and Patricia, though we weren’t immediately drawn to those names. It was suggested we pick a name stating with J – because of her nickname Jellybean – however none of the J names have spoken to us.

So what will Jellybean’s real name be? I have no idea. Maybe it will be one on the short list or possibly it will be one we haven’t even discussed yet. Honestly I am just not sure, but for now we are “OK” with the big day arriving and not having a specific name picked out for JB. Else, to everyone’s surprise, we will just go ahead and name her Jelly. =)

How far along were you when you decided on your baby’s name? Did you keep it a secret or share with friends/family? Any baby naming book or website recommendations??

**Disclaimer … any names included in this post are NOT on our short list of names for Jellybean. Let let guessing begin!**

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25Oct 2013

{Free Printable} Boy oh Boy Favor Tag

by Nicole ⋅ Leave a Comment

It’s Freebie Friday! I know, I know, usually it’s Photo Friday. Honestly, I just couldn’t find a photo I was excited about this week. Figured it was better to switch it up than share a picture that was just meh. Back in February I shared all the details from my friend’s Little Man / Mustache baby shower. One of my favorite details was the chocolate mustache party favor tags:

The tags were one of the DIY projects I did for the shower:

The chocolate mustache party favors were displayed during the party and added an extra bit of decoration! Double duty items are never a bad thing, right?