Things I love

In the short months that I have been a mom, I have found a few things that I LOVE and either couldn't do without or wouldn't want to do without.

1) Boppy pillow. This thing saves my arms from getting tired holding Jacob. Both Justin and I love it and we use it anytime we are holding him, not just when we are feeding him. We have one that we keep upstairs and one we keep downstairs.

2) Bibs with waterproof liners. These are actually not so easy to find (even online). Sometimes when Jacob eats, he doesn't lose a drop but other times there is an almost constant dribble as he eats. The plastic type bibs will be good when he moves on to solid food, but I have to have bibs that are absorbent for the times he is dribbling. We have lots of cute bibs that match some of his outfits but these soak through really fast and soak his clothes too. The bibs with waterproof liners are great - they are really absorbent, but his clothes don't get soaked just the bib. I have found some at Target and I was given some - I can't help but find it strange that I couldn't find any of these at Babies R Us.

3) Padded changing station. We had a changing pad that came with our diaper bag, but when we tried to use it to change Jacob's diaper he slid all over it which doesn't make for very easy diaper changing. We went back and forth about whether or not we would buy this, but it is fabulous. And I know that it is way more comfortable for Jacob when we have to lay him on a countertop or a changing station in a public restroom for a diaper change.

4) Formula dispenser. I love these! I know that these are mainly to carry in the diaper bag to prepare bottles when you are away from home. I use them for that too, but I also prepare Jacob's formula at night before going to bed so that I don't have to measure it out when he wakes up in the middle of the night. The less I have to do in the middle of the night, the better.

5) Pacifier clip. Jacob seems to only like the Soothie pacifiers (the ones the hospital gives). We had other pacifiers and pacifier clips that we had gotten before he was born, but he doesn't really care for them. The Target closest to us carries the pacifiers, but not the clips so we didn't even know they made clips for Soothies. When we were at Justin's brother's wedding, we lost one of Jacob's pacifiers and the next day we were at a Target there and saw the clips. Now I don't know what we would do without it. It is so nice to not have to wash the pacifier everytime it falls out of his mouth since it never hits the floor.

6) Cradle swing. We are really lucky that Jacob sleeps pretty well at night, but he does not nap well. If we try to lay him down for a nap, he screams and cries. I once tried to let him just cry it out but after 20 minutes I couldn't do that to him anymore and had to pick him back up. He doesn't nap great in his swing, but he does nap ok even though only for a very short time (long enough for me to write this blog entry!)

7) Sling and Baby Bjorn. It is hard to get anything done around the house wearing either the sling or the bjorn, but it is great for going shopping since Jacob is still too small to sit in the shopping cart and I don't like to take up room in the cart to put his carrier in the cart and I don't feel comfortable attaching it to the top of the cart. If he needs to nap or seems tired, we use the sling. If he seems wide awake, we use the Bjorn.