Mama's Must-Haves {Baby Edition}

I did a 'must-have' post waaay back when Isabella was just a few months old, and, I haven't done one since.  So, I figured it was about time that I did another edition of my favorite things that I couldn't live without.

I always love when other moms/bloggers do posts like this, whether it's baby things, beauty products, etc...I love them all!  Hopefully I can help another mom out there, since there are SO many baby products out on the market today, with about a million different choices for each product. 

Here are some of my favs...in no particular order:

The Boppy Pillow

Yep, I still LOVE this pillow.  I know most people either love or hate the Boppy, but, I definitely wouldn't be able to live without it.  I still use it every day, multiple times a day while nursing Isabella.  And, the Husband actually uses it while feeding B, too, to keep her propped up. 

Johnson's Hand & Face Wipes

I LOVE these wipes!  I'm a huge germ-a-phobe, so I use these wipes multiple times a day....in the morning right after she wakes up, to clean off the sleepies; as soon as we get home after daycare, you know, to clean off all the daycare germies (yuck!); and the many occasions we go out in public, and people feel the need to touch her hands/face.  So, I always make sure I have a pack in my diaper bag.  I know they're a little pricey for wipes, but, they're worth it in my opinion...for peace of mind.  Oh yeah....And?  They smell deliciously like baby.  I love the smell.

Fisher Price Laugh & Learn Jumperoo

Isabella L.O.V.E.S this thing!  It's probably one of her favorite toys yet...out of the 3029 that she already has.  ;)  She's honestly been using this since she was about 4-5 months old, and still loves it to this day.  She was a bouncing machine yesterday!  It really is the cutest thing ever.  And?  This wonderful toy gives this mama many, many minutes to do whatever I please...eat, clean, blog...you know, all the important things.  Hey, whatever keeps the baby happy, keeps mama happy!  ;)

See exhibit A:

(Sorry, I can't get the video turned the right way!  :(  )

  

California Baby Shampoo & Body Wash

After hearing/reading about all of these baby products with carcinogens, formaldehyde, and all kinds of other chemicals that shouldn't be in baby products, or ANY products, I decided we would be better off paying a little bit more, and be comfortable that we were using the best/safest products for our baby.  And, honestly, it's so worth it!  I've had this big bottle of shampoo/body wash since mid-November, and it barely looks like any has been used.  And, Isabella gets a bath every night.  Love this stuff!

Earths Best baby food

Before Isabella was born, I was so gung-ho about making her pureed food.  And, I did make her food for the first few months...bananas, avocado, sweet potatoes, pears, carrots, plums, etc.  But, then, work/life got crazy...and, honestly, I got a little lazy.  I admit it.  

The thing I love about this baby food, is that I know exactly what's in each jar I give Bella. The simple ingredients are right on the jar...Organic Carrots, Organic Apples...and that's it.  No additives or anything crazy.  It makes me feel good knowing I'm still giving her safe/organic meals each day.  And, the best part...she LOVES them!  Every single new jar she tries, she gobbles up!  That makes this mama very happy.  :)

And, that's it for this edition of Mama's Must-Haves.  I'm sure I'll have another post of favorites soon enough, especially when Isabella starts walking and becomes a toddler.  Eeek!

Isabella's first Christmas!

We had such a great first Christmas with our baby girl.  And, for the first time since I was, like, 10 years old, we stayed home on Christmas all. day. long.  Literally, in our pj's ALL day.  It was absolutely perfect.  (Well, other than a little drama from my own mother, but, what else is new?)

And, I'm pretty sure we decided that, after this year, we'll be staying home on Christmas Day from now on.  Besides the fact that it's also my birthday (and I should get whatever I want.  ;)  Kidding.), it really is just too much to drag a baby all over the place in order to please everyone else.  I'm sorry.  If you want to come see us/her, you're more than welcome to come here.  The end. 

My dad and his parents ended up coming over for dinner/gift opening that night, and we all had a great time!  No stress, nothing fancy...it was so relaxing, for once.  Hubs made an amazing meal (what else is new?) and Isabella was spoiled beyond belief by her grandpa.  She loved it!

Here are a few {hundred} pictures throughout the day on Christmas and Christmas Eve, and also a few from the weeks leading up to it...

 Opening her very first gift!

More excited for Fozzie Bear than presents

Opening gifts on Christmas Eve (she did have socks on...she just rips them off now)

Clapping for all her gifts!

Me and my peanut

Being a little mischievous on Christmas morning  :)

Cheeeese!

All her loot! 

Hanging her 1st Christmas ornament with daddy

Blurry, but so sweet

Getting ready to open all of her gifts from grandpa!

Love that silly face  :)

'Stop, Mom!  No more pictures!'

We had such a great holiday this year.  And, I'm even more excited for next year, when Isabella will really be able to get into it and we'll be able to see the magic of Christmas through her.  :)

Diet Coke no more

Yep, I did it.  I quit Diet Coke.  I've been a die-hard DC fan since, I don't know...I was 5.  And, I finally gave it up.

I recently came across this article, and it really just sealed the deal for me. 

I mean, I knew that soda in general wasn't good for me.  And, I also knew that diet sodas were just as bad as regular, with all the artificial crap in there...but, they just tasted SO good to me.  Like, I literally crave Diet Coke sometimes.  It's bad. 

But, as of today...I've been DC free for 5 days now.  That's HUGE, people.  This is coming from the girl who used to have at least one glass/can of DC a day.  Usually more like 2-3 glasses...especially if I had it in my fridge at home. 

I'm really hoping this will make me feel less bloated throughout the day.  It really is amazing to me the difference in the size of my stomach from the time I wake up, to the time I go to bed.  (I'm a huge salt fan, too, so that doesn't help!)  And, maybe if I'm lucky, I'll even lose a little weight.  ;)  We will see!

Now, I just hope I can keep this up and don't slip!!  **fingers crossed**

Baby #2 talk

First, let me preface this by saying, I am NOT pregnant.  This post is just me talking about all my thoughts/feelings on baby #2, and when/if we will have another. 

Now that I've gotten that out of the way...  ;)

If you follow a lot of blogs, or are on Twitter, I'm sure you know by now that there's a serious baby boom out there on the interwebs.  Nothing like the thought of a million squishy little newborns that I'm going to be seeing in a few months to really get my ovaries to start aching.  For reals. 

Even before having Isabella, whenever anyone would ask me how many kids I want, and how far apart I want to have them, I would automatically say we would 'start trying' when my first was around two years old.  I don't even know why...that just seemed like the perfect answer, and a good age gap between kids. 

But, now?  Now that I have this perfect, amazing, angel baby?  I want 47 more just like her.  But, at the same time, I always think "This is too good to be true.  Easy pregnancy, easy newborn, easy baby.  My next pregnancy/baby is going to kick my ASS."  I mean, I get can't this lucky twice, right??

And, don't even get me started on my conversation with the hubs the other night.  You know, when he told me he doesn't know if he wants to have anymore babies, since Isabella is so great.  He thinks she's perfect and we should just keep things the way they are, since they're so good.  Yeah.  You can just guess how well that conversation turned out.

Anyways...back to the baby boom and my baby fever.

It's really starting to hit me....HARD. 

I mean, I know there are SO many factors as to why would we shouldn't can't have a baby right now. 

The top two reasons why...money and space. 

To be honest here, we have way too much credit card debt that needs to be paid off before we even think about more expenses...daycare, diapers, clothes, etc.  I definitely think that's Hubs' main concern.  And, once we take care of that situation (in about 2 years or so, we should be debt free...thank the Lord!), then I think he'll have a much different mindset on baby numero dos. 

The second issue...space. 

We are seriously already BUSTING out of this house.  No joke.  We live in an 864 square foot house, with only 2 bedrooms.  And 4 rooms total.  You do the math.  (Oh yeah, and we can't move for at least another year or so, since our house is worth over 50K less than what we bought it for.  Awesome.)  Every single inch of this house is filled with junk stuff.  And, ever since Christmas, and with Bella's first birthday coming up...this house honestly looks like Toys R Us threw up inside of it. We don't have the room for anything else...especially another little person!  I mean, where would we put him/her??  Kidding.  Sort of. 

So, why is it, when I know all of these things and the fact that it's just not going to happen right now, that my head/heart will not stop screaming at me...  :::chants::: 'Baby, baby, BABY!' 

:::sigh:::

Can't we just win the lotto or something?  That would solve our money AND house issue.  Seriously, can someone put in a good word to Publishers Clearing House or something?  I'd love to be their next million! dollar! winner!

No?  Not so much? 

Hey, it doesn't hurt to dream/pray.  ;)

8/9/10 months!!

Isabella Grace...HOW are you 10 months old already?!?!  Stop growing, please...stopitnow. 

And, an even better question...how is it that I'm already having to plan my baby's first birthday party already???  :::breathe, breathe:::

Bella has grown up so much in the past three months...it really is amazing.  She's like her own little person now, and has such a personality already.  I absolutely love it.  She's at SUCH a fun age now.  :)

Isabella - here are all the exciting things that have been going on these past 3 months:

~  You have TWO teeth right now!   I felt them coming up around October 25th (and I only remember that exactly because it was the day before your cousin Bennett was born!)  It's the two bottom teeth, and they both popped up at the same exact time.  Other than that, you're still gummy...which I love.  You still look like my lil baby.  :)

~  You LOVE to clap AND wave!  All of a sudden one day, you came home from school (aka: daycare) and starting clapping like you'd been doing it for months.  Ha!  It is TOO cute.  And now, whenever anyone says 'yaaaay', you clap afterwards.   And when we say 'bye bye', you wave.  Too cute!!

 Waving at Daddy

~  You're still exclusively breastfed (go us!), and you eat about 4-5 times a day, depending on how late you sleep in the morning.  I've been getting worried lately, though, since I'm pumping just enough milk (and sometimes a little less) to give you three bottles for the next day.  I've been having to take some milk from my freezer stash, and I'm just hoping we can make it until your first birthday!  *fingers crossed*

~  You're still on stage 2 'solids', and we give you Earth's Best organic jars.  We tried stage 3 jars a few weeks ago, and they were just too chunky/thick for you.  You gagged on every bite...haha!  You LOVE pretty much everything else we give you, though.  The only thing you still hate, and have since the first time you tried it, is avocados...which actually makes me really sad, since it's such a good fatty food for you to have, and would help you get some chunk on your bones!  You're my long and lean gal.  ;)

We've also been trying to give you some finger foods (Cheerios, puffs, etc), too, but for some reason, you don't want to put anything in your mouth yourself!  How many babies do you know that won't put anything in their mouth?  My strange child.  :P  You'll pick up the Cheerio, examine it, play with it, and then throw it back down on the tray or on the floor.  And then, you proceed to whine/cry until we put it in your mouth for you.  You little stinker. 

~  You still loving blowing raspberries at everyone/everything.  It's the cutest thing ever.  And now, whenever we do it to you first, you'll do it right back at us.  I love it! 

Her typical 'blowing raspberries' face

~  You love standing up while we hold your hands, and your new favorite thing is walking all over the place with daddy or I just holding on to your fingers.  You're getting so much stronger every day! 

My big girl! 

 ~  You're finally sleeping through the night again.  *knock on wood*  You went through a phase over the past couple of weeks where you would wake up at 1am-ish, almost exactly, and cry until we came in there.  I finally decided to stop taking you out of your crib, walking around with you, taking you into bed, and all those other things I was trying to get you back to sleep  (I tried letting her cry-it-out for a night or so, and it was awful.  She didn't sleep, I didn't sleep, and I felt horrible.  So, I don't do that anymore.)  Instead, all I do is go into your room, pat/rub your back until you calm down and start getting sleepy again, and then leave the room.  It took about a week or so, but, now if you do wake up in the middle of the night, you'll only cry for a few seconds, and then you go right back to sleep on your own.  Such a good baby!  :)

~  And, speaking of sleeping...you are 100% DONE with the swaddle!!  And, you've been done since a little after 8 months old.  While the swaddle was great when you were little, and it definitely helped you sleep better/longer...it started getting to the point where I was going in your room and re-swaddling you 53 times a night.  So, I knew you were over it.  And now, it's so cute to see you sleeping like a baby!  Crazy positions, your little bum sticking up in the air...I love it.  ;)

~  But, the main reason you starting sleeping without the swaddle...you got your first 'real' sickness a few months back.  :(  At first, you had double pink eye, which wasn't too bad, and you didn't seem too uncomfortable.  And then, a week or so later, you ended up with a double ear infection.  It was SO sad.  You were so tired, that your head barely even hit the crib before you were asleep.  But, thankfully, the antibiotics worked quickly, and you were as good as new after just a few days.  

My poor baby, getting over pink eye

~  You LOVE your animals...Bailey, Roxy, and Fozzie Bear.  Every time you see them, you get so excited and make all kinds of cute noises to get their attention.  And, they love you, too! 

Monthly pics!   

These are REALLY starting to get tough!  Ha!

My future little cheerleader  :)

Hanging out in her little rocker

 Typical  ;)

I honestly cannot believe how quickly these past ten months have flown by.  We love you SO much, baby girl, words can't even express it.  XOXO  :)

Well, you have to start somewhere, right?

Honestly, though, I don't even know where to start.  I think that's why it's been over a month since I last posted.  First, it was just me being tired/lazy most nights after working all day and *trying* to get to bed early.  Then, Christmas craziness came and went.  And now, here I am, already into the second week of 2012, and I still haven't blogged.   

I was just saying to some friends on Twitter tonight...I feel like I have SO much to write about/say, but, at the same time, nothing to say at all.  It makes no sense.  And, I know I've lost a few followers along the way, and even though it's my own fault, it still makes me a little sad.

So, I'm going to do what I do best...

Pretend like nothing ever happened, that I haven't been MIA for months, and jump right back into blogging like I did before Isabella was born.  Post at least 2-3 times per week.  I can do it.  That's my goal.  And, since I've told you all my goal, I have to keep up with it now.  If not, then I'll be a failure.  And, I HATE to fail at anything. 

So, as all of you (those of you who are still here!  thank you!!) as my witnesses...I'm back.  Officially. 

Isabella said she missed you all, too...

Santa's lil helper  :)

I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday season and a Happy New Year!!! 

Playing catch-up

So, as I sit here right now...there's a mound of dishes on the counter that need to be washed (including about 7 bottles, which I'm pretty sure will be the death of me), the whole house needs to be vacuumed since we decorated for Christmas yesterday and there's little bits of sparkles, needles, styrofoam, dog/cat hair, etc EVERYwhere, and there's probably 3/4 loads of laundry that should be washed.  

But, for probably one of the first times ever, I'm saying 'screw it.'  I want to blog.  I need to blog.  

I have all of these thoughts/ideas swirling around in my head, and if I don't get them all out, I'm going to forget it all (ya know, because I have absolutely NO short-term memory.  Seriously.)  And, I feel like I'm in one of those cycles where if I don't just get back into the swing of things (aka blogging more often), I'm never going to do it.  

I DO NOT want that to happen.  Honestly.  I know my lack of blogging may make you think otherwise, but, I do miss it.  Like, a lot.

So, I'm going to sit here stressing out and try not to think about the 39022 things that need to be done around the house.  Because, let's face it, that's what I normally do (stress out, I mean.)  I feel like I can't do anything for myself, until all those other chores are done.  And, I feel like I have to get it all done while Isabella is napping, because I feel guilty doing it while she's awake and wasting precious time we should be spending together.  

ANYways...now that I've written a book already, let's get to my actual blog post, shall we?  ;-)  This is the part where I just spew out random thoughts and hopefully not bore you to tears.  

~  Guys, my baby is going to be 9 months old next week.  9 months!  She's almost been here as long as she was in my belly.  That just seems insane.  Mainly because, the 9 months I was pregnant seemed to go on for. ev. er.  And, these past 9 months with my baby girl, have gone by in the blink of eye.  For reals.  I don't get that.  And, I would really appreciate it if time would stop going by SO quickly.  K?  Thanks. (And, I know I still need to do an 8 month post, but this slacker over here waited too long to do it (mommy fail), so I'm just going to do a 8/9 month post together...sometime next week.)

~  Thanksgiving has come and gone, and it's finally {officially} Christmas-time!!  I've been DYING to decorate for weeks now, but, of course the hubs wouldn't allow that.  So, we finally decorated last night!  We were busy all afternoon/early evening, so we ended up doing most of the decorating after Isabella went to sleep.  I can't wait for her to see the tree all lit up tonight and see what she thinks of it!  Here's our pretty tree:

~  Did anyone brave the craziness out there and go Black Friday shopping the other night/day??  I did!...for the first time, EVER.  I was so proud of myself.  :P  I think it helps that most of the stores open up at 12am now, because getting up at 3/4am to get there in time for the good deals was NOT my thing.  (Hello...so not a morning person over here.)  

So, my friend and I headed to Target a little before midnight (where there were already hundreds of people in line.  IN-sane.) and only ended up waiting about 15 minutes or so outside before it was our turn to go in.  Not bad at all!  But, I guess if you were trying to snatch up one of the good TV/electronic deals or something like that, it would've been necessary to be there hours in advance.  Not worth it to me, but, to each their own.  

I was going there for just one thing, and if I didn't get it, I didn't really care because I knew I could just order it online for the same price.  It was mainly for the experience.  But, I was lucky, and  got Isabella one of her big Christmas gifts for a great deal!  

I can't wait for her to play with it!  I'm hoping she really likes it.  We also hit up Express, Victorias Secret, and Old Navy.  I got some awesome deals at Old Navy!  I'm pretty psyched about that....even though the worst part about the whole experience was the slowest. moving. line. ever. there, it was still worth it. 

~  We're taking Isabella to Santa next week, and I'm so excited/nervous at the same time.  I'm praying she isn't in that 'absolutely terrified of Santa' stage yet, and we actually get a decent picture.  We'll see!  And, I got her this adorable little sweater dress from The Children's Place the other day for the picture.  And, the best part, it was on sale for $9.99!  Score for mom. 

 

~  Oh!  I almost forgot!  I wasn't going to share this until I did Isabella's 8/9 month post, but, I'm just too excited NOT to share.  

Finally, after 8 1/2 long months...my baby is sleeping UN-swaddled!!  :::does happy dance:::  Hallelujah!!  I honestly thought I'd be swaddling my child in her college dorm room.  Kidding.  Not really.  

And?  The best part?  Is that she's sleeping even better than she was before!  GO Bella!  :-)

~  Oh yeah, and the reason we actually got her to sleep un-swaddled?  Unfortunately, it was because she was pretty sick last weekend.  :-(  My poor baby got her first real sickness after 8 1/2 months.  Honestly, I'm grateful she's been so healthy for this long, but, that doesn't make seeing her sick any easier.  It was so sad.  But, she was just so tired/worn out, that as soon as we put her down in her crib, she was OUT.  And, it's been that way ever since.

I picked her up from daycare last Friday and she just looked so sick.  You know the look.  Sad, watery, red eyes.  Whining/whimpering because she just felt so awful.  I felt so bad for her.  And, she had her first temperature, too.  I immediately called her Dr. and got an appointment that night.  Turned out, she had a double ear infection!  I couldn't believe it.  

And, for the record, she didn't show any signs of an ear infection.  No pulling on her ears, no crying/pain when she laid down on either side to nurse, nothing.  The only thing she had was a runny nose a little bit of a cough.  That's it.  

Needless to say, the next time she has even as much as a sniffle, I'll be making an appointment to have her ears checked.  You just never know!

Ok, that's all from me for today.  Phew!  That was a long one.  My little peanut is babbling to herself in her crib right now, so that's my cue that nap-time is over and it's time to get up! 

And, just because it's been a while...here's a funny pic that I snapped the other night.  Her dad was changing her and getting her read for the bed the other night, and I walk in her room to find this:

My poor child!  haha  She looks so miserable!  

Happy Sunday!!