Best Buys (for Baby)

After being a mom for just over 8 months, I in no way consider myself an expert. But I have found several baby items I just could not live without. So in the same fashion of "Friday Favorites" here they are in no particular order...

1. SwaddleMe Infant Swaddler - Most babies only use these for a few months. H bomb, however, required swaddling until about 6 months old. But for the first 6 months we could not have lived without this handy little item. Swaddling her would calm her at ANY time, even if it wasn't nap time. She just loved to be swaddled. She ended up breaking herself of the swaddler when she could turn over both ways and it just restricted her. Thank goodness! For a while I was afraid I'd still be swaddling my 6 year old.

2. Carter's Safari Friends Bouncy Seat - Now this baby we just quit using about a week ago when she came over the top trying to get her paci she'd dropped. (No injuries occurred) We started using this on day one, with the vibrating function and sound machine with nature/womb sounds and lullaby music she loved this thing. When I went back to work we'd snuggle her up in there every morning while we got dressed and she'd watch Mickey Mouse Clubhouse. LIFESAVER!  

3. Inchbug Name Labels - Not the cup (we are still working on our favorite cup) but the name label. Between staying in the nursery at church, staying at the baby sitter's 3 days a week and spending time with friends her own age these name labels have come in very handy. They come in a variety of colors and they also have little graphics you can put on them. They are stretchy and are made to transfer from bottle to cup to whatever without losing their shape. I'm sure we will be using these for a long long time.

4. Pandora Radio - OK so this isn't strictly a baby buy (or even a buy at all) but Pandora's Soundscapes and Lullabies station puts our child in an absolute trance. When she passes the stage of "going to bed nicely" and gets fussy and restless this is a real lifesaver. The station combines nature sounds of rain/waves/etc with very mellow relaxing music. It takes her down every time, and sometimes Mommy and Daddy, too.

5. Born Free Pacifiers - H bomb is not particular about anything unless if comes to her paci. The child will not take anything but a Born Free! (sometimes she'll chew on a soothie, but not suck it) This has been a huge hassle since they ONLY sell them at BRU. But we oblige her since she is such an easy baby with everything else.

There they are, MY top 5 could-not-live(ed)-without baby items. I didn't count things like a stroller and car seat because those are a given. These things are more like baby accessories. What are some things you other Moms swear by?

Breathing Treatment CHAMP

We had our first experience with breathing treatments this past weekend. I had really hoped to avoid them altogether but with pneumonia and a double ear infection it was either at home breathing treatments and antibiotics or the hospital. Needless to say we chose to stay at home and do whatever was necessary. A sweet friend let us borrow her nebulizer, which was a good thing since it was Friday afternoon a little after 5pm when the pediatrician broke the news.
The doctor told us the breathing treatments were going to make her "cough like the dickens" and if they were giving her breathing difficulty or if I was too scared to keep her at home he would admit us to the hospital. After hearing this I was a little afraid. Sure I'd taken care of many a pneumonia patient even RSV, flu, and you name it at the hospital. But this was different, this was MY baby, plus I didn't have all the tools available at the hospital if something were to go awry. After lots of praying, and asking for lots of prayer God gave me the confidence I needed to be NURSE MOMMY for the weekend. He also gave her peace, comfort and healing. She didn't hardly cough and didn't even mind taking the treatments. When we went back to the doctor today for our follow up appointment, Dr. Rowlen said her chest was clear of congestion and her ears were almost healed. PRAISE THE LORD! We still have to do the breathing treatments a few times a day for the rest of the week but I think we can handle that.

Daddy giving the little patient her breathing treatment.



She's actually smiling under the mask in this picture.

She was on so much medication I had to make my own makeshift MAR. I also used the Lysol to disinfect every surface in my house plus all of her toys, twice.



Be Mine - Valentine's Day 2011

In our family Valentine's Day is a girl holiday, meaning the girls get presents, the boys buy presents. This year I wanted to change things up a bit and surprise Jeff. So on Friday afternoon (a few days before VD) I called Jeff and work and told him he needed to come home right away, the dogs had gotten out of the fence again and I had a conference call in 10 minutes and couldn't deal with them now. He rushed home. When he got there (after crusing the neighboorhood looking for our 3 dogs and asking all the neighbors if they'd seen them) he found all the dogs in their place. He also found the clues I had left for him.

Clue #1 Introducing him to the game and letting him know to go to the closet next to find the next clue.

Clue #2 The clothes he needed to wear and a letting him know to go to the hall closet next.

Clue #3 His Valentine "present" and letting him know to go to the dresser for the final clue.

Clue #4 - Last clue telling him to grab 2 guns and meet me at the shooting range.

Surplus City USA Indoor shooting range

My Happy Valentine!

 

Yes, I took my husband to the shooting range for Valentine's Day, not the most romantic thing but he had been wanting to go and we really enjoyed it. After shooting for about an hour we went and had a nice dinner at Crechale's in Jackson. He had steak, I had shrimp. It was yummy! This year was a fun break in tradition for V-day, but next year, I'll be ready for my flowers and chocolate again! (p.s. I did get flowers this year, too cuz he's good like that.)

Bang Bang

Lately H bomb has started banging on everything, my leg, her walker, the edge of the bath tub, the table, everything! Sunday she and her granana had a fun time playing "bang on the table". (sorry it's side-ways, I haven't quite mastered the video camera yet. But it was too cute not to share.)

She only took a few breaks from banging on the table to gobble up some banana puffs. She has taken quite a liking to those, too.

Buying with Coupons

For about 6 months now I have attempted "couponing" at the grocery/drug store. I've never really put a lot of time, effort or thought into it but have been able to save around $20 per trip to Kroger and have even been able to get some items for dirt cheap (like formula for $.84 a bottle one time). For whatever reason today was different. I sat and looked up all the sales at Kroger, what I had coupons for and what coupons I had on my Kroger card and stuck to buying just those items. And guess what I saved? $51.19!

I mean, that was almost 1/2 of my total grocery bill! And I didn't buy junk like 14 candy cars, 6 packs of gum and 22 sticks of deodorant. It was real stuff that will make meals for my family these next 2, yes 2, weeks. Of course we will need to go grab milk and bread again next week but other than that we have real meals, breakfast, lunch and dinner!

The LONG receipt due to having at least one coupon or in store credit for EVERY item I bought.

WOW I am addicted. And it took about 10 minutes to print off the coupons ( I use http://www.couponmom.com/ ) and about 10 minutes to look through the Kroger sale paper and jot down what I needed, just a bit longer than making a regular shopping list. I don't for see EXTREME COUPONING in my future but I feel like I'm moving in the right direction. We'll see what next week brings.
And because I can't update the blog without a cute little picture of H bomb her she is