five month favorites

after five months i have some

f a v o r i t e

things that i think all mammas should have.

these are my top ten, plus one:

 

sleep

summer swaddle - it helps keep her hands out of her face and waking her up.

mybaby sound spa - i turn on the rain to help drown out any noises ronnie and i make so we don't have to tip toe around after she's gone to bed. plus, i think its soothing for her.

summer video monitor - i didn't realize how much peace this gives me.  margie insisted i needed it and i cannot thank her enough for splurging on me.

vicks warm humidifier - this is one of the first things we bought b that i never even thought of. it helps if she has a cold and i think it keeps her room a tad bit warmer.

 

 

 

 

 out and about

cloud b sleep sheep - we don't leave home without it.  its brette's sound machine for the carseat.  i also use it a lot when changing her diaper if she get cranky.  she loves the thing.

travel diaper changing kit - besides the sleep sheep and a pacifier, this is the one and only other thing i grab.  inside, i have wipes, diapers, hand sanitizer, an extra onesie and a bib. i just need it and i can provide the food, so we're good to go for several hours.

 

 

 

playtime

baby einstein take along tunes - this little toys does wonders when you want your kiddo to stop crying, to be entertained in a carseat or to get her to move her head side to side during tummy time. i keep it in my purse so i always have it. literally, my fave.

amazing baby feel and learn book - this is my other go-to item when i need to keep brette entertained. she can actually turn the pages herself, so i don't have to do much once i give it to her.  this comes in handy if you're trying to eat dinner.

 

baby holders

boppy - get both the nursing pillow and the lounger.  i use both everyday and for the first couple months, before brette was sitting, i used the lounger pretty much all day.  we have wood floors so i couldn't just lay her on the ground.  this thing is the perfect little lounger for her.  it went inside, outside, to the pool, on the deck. everywhere.

bjorn - i've just started using this within the last couple months, but it allows me to get some bonding time with brette without using my arms.  i can walk the dogs, vacuum the house, go shopping all with her on me. she loves it and so do i.  plus, it puts her to sleep if i leave her in it long enough. a win / win.

swing - at first we used it as something to put her in besides the lounger. but now she sleeps all her naps in it and i literally don't know what i would do without it. (thank you panek's for your donation!)

 

 

 

 

so there you go.

if you're having a baby,

already have a little one at home

or buying for a new mamma,

these are the items i suggest.

 

enjoy!

 

 

 

night night (an update)

i think it's obvious that one of the main

concerns and interests when you have a baby is sleep.

 

how much you're getting.

how much they're getting.

when they get up.

when they nap.

 

its the first thing people ask about.

even strangers.

and it was my main concern too

when i got pregnant.

just how tired was i going to be?

 

and, like you know, we got lucky.

a super sleeper.

she slept through the night under a month old.

yessssss.

but you also know that i have been

battling her with naps for months too.

its a give and take.

but i have two new updates on brette and her sleeping.

 

 

first, the naps.

early on i found that if i nursed her and held her,

she would sleep for hours.

but who has time for that everyday?

so i was trying e v e r y t h i n g under the sun

to get my baby girl to nap on her own.

 

i think we finally got it figured out.

brette was too tired by the time i was putting her down.

say what?!

i know.

i thought it was crazy too.

but when i visited marge she told me that her pediatrician

recommended babies sleep every 2 to 2.5 hours.

so that means, if b wakes up at 9:00am,

i should try putting her down between 11:00 and 11:30.

i mean, hello, i felt like she just got up from

12 to 13 hours of sleep.

there is no way she would be ready to go back down.

i was waiting until 1:00 to even begin to try to get her to sleep.

i just figured that since she was sleeping so late in the morning

we would skip a morning nap and head straight for the afternoon.

no bueno.

so i tried this new method.

and you know what?

it works.

around 11:15 i wrap her and put her in her swing

and she is sleeping peacefully within 10 minutes.

and she sleeps for an hour to an hour and a half.

holy cow.

then when she wakes up,

i wait another 2.5 hours and put her back down

and she sleeps for another 45 minutes to an hour.

no more battles.

no more holding her for hours.

i would have never guessed.

so its true: babies need lots of sleep.

but now, i feel like i am a little more confined to the house.

between feedings and naps,

there is no big span of time to get out and do things.

oh well.

like i said.

its a give and a take.

 

 

 

the second thing has to do with bedtime.

brette started to get fussy when trying to get her to sleep.

it was unusual.

normally, after i nurse her, i wrap her and hold her for a bit,

she drifts off to sleep and that's it.

but around 4 months old,

she started crying after we would get her wrapped.

at first i thought it was something ronnie was doing

when it was his turn to put her down,

but then she started doing it to me too.

it got so bad, that i finally just laid her in her crib

because she was so squirmy and crying in my arms.

when i laid her down she stopped crying

and drifted off to sleep.

whaaa?

i heard that around 5 months you are supposed to start

trying to put your baby down when they are kind of awake

to let them fall to sleep on their own anyway.

so that's what we decided to do.

nurse her, wrap her, and lay her down.

i guess she loves it.

no more crying.

and she's learning to sooth herself

and fall asleep on her own.

i feel like this is some sort of miracle.

i mean, what baby doesn't want to be rocked to sleep?

what a weirdo. (said in the best way possible)

its super simple and easy for us,

but i do miss rocking my baby to sleep.

four months definitely wasn't long enough.

 

bye bye baby.

hello, independent little girl.

 

 

in the name of the father

we had miss brette baptized over the weekend.

we took the baptism class back in august

and have been waiting around to schedule it.

i'm glad we took the time to do it.

it was a special day for us and our family.

 

ronnie wasn't raised in the church

and i was.

something we discussed before

we got married was if he was okay raising our kids catholic.

i wanted to and he doesn't have strong feelings either way.

so it's always just been known that b would grow up catholic.

we've made it a point over the years to try to go to mass.

i wouldn't say we're regulars,

but i do feel better when we go.

this weekend we went on saturday for her baptism

and then again on sunday.

 

um, hello god, did you see that?

twice.

in one week.

we're going to heaven for sure. 

 

here's brette with us, the deacon and her godparents/grandparents.

 

and we had it at our beautiful church - holy spirit.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

we took lots of family pictures with brette in her christening gown,

which was my mom's gown when she was baptized. 

how cool is that?

b wore her gma's 60 year old garment.

(hence the bib. i totally didn't want to be the one that let her kid puke all over it.)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

and some adorable close-ups of brette.

 

 

 

then it was time for the actual baptism.

 

 

my grandma was so happy.  i am in love with these two pictures.

 

 

 

her special blanket from aunt mickie.

 

and our keepsakes from the church.

 

 

 

being this blessed really wore out our girl.

 

 

but she finally woke up for her party back at our house.

 

 

 

i made cupcakes and soup for everyone.

 

 

big day.

big success.

big blessings.

 

lots to be thankful for.



ps- amazing picture, right?  my cousin took them.
thanks, kelly!