“What a cute baby:”
Archive for February, 2007
Some Cute Photos
February 28th, 2007To All My Pregnant Friends…
February 28th, 2007Ladies, now that I’m on the other side and officially through Month One of motherhood, here are my Top 20 must-haves:
- A supportive husband who keeps his cool when every other being in the house is simultaneously decomposing.
- The Little Remedies Travel Kit – this has the best baby nasal aspirator, among other useful things.
- The 10-Pack of Koala white terrycloth bibs from Babies ‘R Us.
- Lots of swaddling blankets! Just roll them up and store them in a hanging shoe organizer. Besides keeping your baby all cuddly and happy, you can use them to keep the baby’s head or entire body positioned correctly in just about anything – his crib, carseat, swing…
- Lots of plain white baby t-shirts. Skip the onesies. They just slow you down when diaper blowouts occur.
- Swing. ‘Nuff said.
- Lots of plain white terrycloth changing pad covers.
- Lots of plain white sheet savers.
- Lots of cloth diapers. Even if you aren’t into “CD-ing” as the insiders call it, they’re great for burp cloths, baby bibs, and to cover the war zone of your changing pad cover.
- An ERGO Baby Carrier and Infant Insert. Definitely an investment, but very worthwhile. Levi loves it. I found a photo online of a guy using one to carry a 90-pound woman on his back. You can’t do that with a Baby Bjorn (not that you would ever want to.)
- A temporal thermometer – well worth the $40-$50.
- A glider rocker and ottoman. I resisted this purchase, desperately clinging to the hope of a cute-looking Pottery Barn-esque rocker. However, after a couple of 2 AM feedings, I finally succumbed to practicality.
- An extra (adult-sized) blanket to fold up and put under the crib mattress to keep it at a 30 degree angle. I really wish you could buy a little baby cart like they use in the NICU! It’s basically a jumbo plastic shoebox (minus the lid) on top of a rolling stainless steel cart with shelves. On that one little device you can contain a baby and all of his or her earthly needs.
- If you have a boy, you need to keep lots of Kleenexes and Vaseline next to the diapers. The Kleenexes serve as “pee-pee tee-pees,” though I’ve heard they also sell official products by that name that I haven’t yet tried. Vaseline is for the 1st 5 days after his circumcision (if he got one). Use it liberally – squirt a wad the size of his foot on there w/every diaper change!
- We love our nursery monitors – Graco iMonitor Digital Baby Monitors.
- If you have pets, I recommend the Summer Extra-Tall Security Gate to put in the doorway to your nursery. They let you come and go at will while keeping the animals out.
- Save yourself almost $10 a pop and get Baby All instead of Dreft. Though I bet the occasional use of Tide Free wouldn’t kill the baby either.
- A remote control for the ceiling fan. Very handy!
- A great pair of stretchy jeans that you wore before you got pregnant so you feel a sense of accomplishment as soon as you get back into them after the baby arrives.
- The Nursing Mother’s Companion by Kathleen Huggins, a few good nursing bras and tops, the awesome water mug you get if you deliver at Baylor, a good lactation consultant, Lansinoh lanolin, and a rented hospital grade pump – I’m forever indebted to my Medela Symphony. Plus if you want to go overboard, you can rent this awesome scale that tells you exactly how many CC’s of milk your baby consumed during a breastfeeding session. And if you want to get clinically OCD about it, you can keep track of it all by printing out blank forms in Excel and keeping them on a clipboard on the nightstand.
All you mothers out there, let me know any of your favorite things too!
Watch Levi Grow
February 24th, 2007We’ve added a new album called Watch Levi Grow to Levi’s photo gallery. We’ll try to add a new photo of Levi to this album every day or so to let you watch him grow. As of yesterday, Levi was already up to 8 lbs. 12 ozs. (his birth weight was 6 lbs. 5 ozs.) You can practically see him growing by the day!
Momma’s Little Lineman
February 18th, 2007
Our little champ is weighing in at 7 pounds 15 ounces now at the start of his 4th week of life. In fact, he may already be up to 8 pounds since we weighed him last night. This means that instead of the customary 1 ounce per day, or 21 ounces total, our little guy has gained 26 ounces ounces since birth, not counting the extra five of his birth weight that he had to regain. Needless to say, he’s eating like a little tiger. This is very good, since he was a NICU baby and his eating career got off to a rough start.
Amidst one of Levi’s many meals yesterday, Brad commented how we might be brewing ourselves a little lineman. Not knowing much about football, I said, “Aw, great! There’s hope for an athlete in the family after all.” Then Brad informed me that linemen are the players who are, what shall we say, the comparatively stout guys on the field… or as Brad puts it, “just there to plug up the holes.” Poor Levi! Already getting flack at such a young age. At least it isn’t disturbing his sleep, as you can see.
On a lighter note, I have some good news to share. After less than three weeks since Levi’s birth, I officially donned a pair of my pre-pregnancy jeans. Now, these are my magical, stretchy, “buffet restaurant” jeans, but still… I’m counting that as a victory! And where did I wear them, you may ask? Why, to eat sushi for the first time in 8 months. Yet another reason to celebrate! Thursday was definitely a good day.
Words I Learned
February 12th, 2007I don’t know if men are intentionally shielded from certain words to keep from being totally terrified of having a baby, but I heard some words over the past few weeks that I never knew existed. Here are some words that I’ve learned during Levi’s birth and stay in the NICU that I had never heard before (guys, you’ve been warned):
Levi Comes Home
February 6th, 2007
Today is Tuesday, February 6, 2007 – the day Levi comes home. Levi has been in the NICU for 11 days now. That’s about 10 more than we were initially expecting and 11 more than we would have liked. The NICU is a terrible place and it is a great place all at the same time. It is terrible because you are separated from your baby. Unlike the regular nursery where everyone can come and peer through the window and see your little baby being bathed and swaddled right after birth, the NICU is securely behind two sets of doors. You have to give the secret password to get through the first door and you have to scrub your arms and hands for 1 minute before going though the second. You know how it is completely unwise to separate a bear cub from it’s mother? The NICU is exactly the same thing when it comes to babies and their mothers.
It is also a terrible thing for your baby to be in the NICU since you have to basically live at the hospital in order to feed and see your baby every 3 hours. We live 20 miles from our hospital, so this was especially bad for us. Driving to and from the hospital all the time really begins to get old in a hurry. Luckily, our cousin Kevin and his wife Joanna live very close to the hospital and gave us a key to their place. So we got to go crash at their place in between feedings, and that was a real life saver. » More: Levi Comes Home
