Two Months

Dear Dayne

To my shock you have been in our life for two months already.  It seems like time is flying by and I'm grasping at each moment before it slips out of my fingers.  You are getting so big and showing us your personality more and more each day.  You are a morning person, when you get up you're full of smiles and coos.  Mom & Dad may not be morning people, at least what you consider morning, but we're learning.  It's hard to be upset when you wake us up at 6 AM on a weekend with coos and babbles then smile at us when we peek into the bassinet.  We have learned to have a family nap time on days like that. 

I think you are the cutest little boy on this planet, I'm biased because I'm your mom but family, friends & strangers agree that you are pretty darn adorable.  You're trying so hard to laugh, you test it out and it comes out more like a raspy cough but you're getting there.  You LOVE to smile at people and it usually results in them melting into a puddle of goo at the sight.  And you've mastered rolling over to your side.  I'm sure a complete roll is just around the corner. 

We find you many times with your three middle fingers in your mouth, you love to suck on them.  I think you've given up on your thumb and are pretty satisfied with the fingers or a pacifier.  You're up to 5-6 oz per feeding, you're growing like a weed!  Last week you gave us anywhere from 6-8 hours at night - this past weekend you went back to your 4-5 hour shifts.  But you're pretty good about falling right back to sleep after a feeding & a diaper change. 

You're in size 1 diapers finally - you surprised us by staying in newborn longer than we had thought but it seemed one night you just grew and anything with the word newborn in it no longer fit.  You're in the 0-3 clothing for length - you're getting chunkier but still not filling out the clothes width wise just yet.  You're getting better with your neck control, if we hold you upright over our shoulder you lift your neck up and swivel your head around checking everything out.  Tummy time though...you can stand it for a little bit and then you're fed up.  You'll either roll to your side or cry until we flip you to your back, where you prefer to be. 

We celebrated our first Mother's Day - you are the best gift I could have received, you are the reason I'm a mother in the first place.  But to top it off, you & dad bought me a hanging basket of flowers, some flowers to plant in our gardens and a Pandora necklace with your birthstone charm.  We went on a walk Mother's Day morning, I power walked around the nature center while you checked everything out as we zoomed by.  Every time a bird called your eyes would widen and you'd try to figure out where the sound came from. 

You follow our cat, Ani, around with your eyes now, she interests you much more.  You like to grab onto things whenever you can and bring them closer to you.  Everything goes into the mouth when you can manage to get it there.  With the amount of drool you're producing lately I think you're in the beginning phase of teething.  You love to fling your arms and legs around when you're happy, your whole body is in motion as you express your joy. 

You make me smile every day, you make me sigh in happiness with my blessing of you, I miss our yesterdays, I treasure our todays and I look forward to our tomorrows.  Having you in my life has brought me more joy than I thought was possible.  You show me the world through new eyes, you make getting up at 2 AM rewarding.  The reward is feeling the weight of you in my arms, the warmth of your breath as you coo on my neck and the sound of your contented sighs as you drift back to sleep.

I love you so much baby boy!
Love,
Mom

Ozone Socks

I discovered Ozone Socks when I entered a sweepstakes to win two pair of my choice.  I was lucky enough to win, I was sent two beautiful pairs of socks.  This company was founded in 2000 by Laurie Mallet - who grew up in London, fashion capital of the world. She believed that socks were one of the untouched fashion areas and aimed to tap into that market.

Her companies socks are little pieces of artwork you are able to wear on your feet.  They're fun and quirky - something people will comment on when you take your shoes off.


I won the following:

I love the thickness of these socks, perfect for wearing every day shoes while running errands or hanging out.  They both had a cute cuff too - another artistic detail.  They washed well and I didn't notice any shrinkage either.  I'm loving that I get to throw these socks into my regular rotation with the other plain jane white socks I'm usually sporting. 

Munchkin BPA Free Formula Mixer

I laughed when I first saw it, I even commented to my friend who was with me "Why would your waste money on this?"

A formula mixer - instead of shaking the water and formula together you insert the mixer and it stirs everything in the bottle.  I rolled my eyes and moved forward.

Then our son was born and I found, like most moms, life doesn't go as planned.  Things you said you wouldn't do - you do.  Items you thought were important to have - aren't.  Things you laughed at - well, they're not so funny anymore.

That's where I found myself last week as I ran into the store to buy a formula mixer.  A formula mixer!  I brought it home and showed my husband who promptly rolled his eyes and gave me a look that said "Really?"

Let me explain what brought me to this moment.  I found that shaking the formula made a lot of air bubbles, those bubbles contributed to our sons screaming episodes as he tried to pass the gas those bubbles caused.  I also stared at the bottle in amazement an hour later after the bubbles had gone down and realized there was a good oz of formula left in there.  Maybe that is why he was so angry after the bottle was done, he was needing another oz and it was stuck in the bottle in the form of air bubbles.

I explained this to my husband and said "For $6 what is the harm in trying?  If it works - great, if it doesn't - no harm no foul!"

I used it for the first middle of the night feeding and was pleased to see very few air bubbles as a result.  I checked the bottle the next morning and noticed there wasn't a lot of formula left over either.  The next night I heard my husband in the kitchen making the bottle and heard the whir of the mixer, I had him on board.

We sent it with our son to my mother in laws house during the day to have her use it as well with his bottles to see if constant use brings down his gas issues. 

Pros:

• Small enough to throw in the diaper bag to take with you on the go
• The whisk detaches for easy cleaning
• Mixes water and formula very quickly
• If you warm the formula prior to mixing, the whisk will turn white if it's too hot for baby.
• Priced very well.

Cons:

• Awkward power button placement - it kind of makes your hand cramp up.

So my overall review?  They work fantastic with the Dr. Brown bottles as far as reducing the amount of air bubbles left over.  With Avent and the Nuk bottles - I didn't really notice that big of a difference in the amount of air bubbles caused from shaking vs. stirring.  Great addition if you're using Dr. Brown!  Otherwise - it's "eh" for me.  

The NUK

One of the best parts of being pregnant for the first time is registering for all the items you & baby will need.  When I decided to finally tackle this milestone I took it pretty seriously.  I asked questions in online forums, asked my mom friends, read magazines and books.  What was the best, the safest, the easiest?  I took my best friend with me to register instead of my husband.  She was a new mom herself and was able to help me navigate the aisles of the store.  Plus my husband really had no interest in registering.  I found that out when we were registering for our wedding shower after he sighed loudly for the fifth time and asked if we could just do this online? 

As my friend & I approached the bottle wall I felt confident.  I had researched!  I knew which bottle I was going to add to our list.  I registered for the 4 oz and the 9 oz bottles and the extra nipples in the different flow types.  No need for explanation there, I was confident with the bottle choices.

At my showers I received said bottles which I promptly took home and sterilized.  I cleared out a spot in our kitchen cabinet to store all of these bottles all the while dreaming of the sweet feeding times I'd share with my child any day now.

Sometime later, after my son was born and we returned home from the hospital, after I admitted defeat in the quest to breastfeed (my supply was nil) I reached into the cabinet and pulled out a bottle.  I carefully filled it with water to the correct oz level, added my formula and stirred it together.  Finding a comfy spot on the couch with my son I tilted the bottle to his mouth and was horrified to see formula leaking out.  That stuff isn't cheap!

I had to interrupt his feeding time much to his dismay (and mine as my eardrums were being pierced with hungry screams) to wipe up the mess and attempt to figure out why the bottle was leaking.  After a few different attempts to screw the top on differently I was finally able to feed him - minus the formula I had lost.  This would happen on and off for the next few weeks.  As you can imagine it made the middle of the night feedings all that much more fun. 

Then through the mail one day I found out I had won a newborn NUK bottle set.  I sanitized them and brought them out for the next feeding.  My son & I both fell in love with them right away. 

I have yet to have a single leak from their bottles in any feeding and they have this wonderful NUK® Air System that vents the bottle and reduces colic.  My son was very gassy with the other bottles and you could hear him gulping down air with each suck.  The nipple also allows him to latch on better whereas with the prior bottles he made a smacking noise with each motion.  Their orthondontic nipples promote healthy teeth formation and are shaped like mother's breast during feeding which makes them ideal for breastfeeding moms who switch from breast to bottle and back again. 

I love them so much I ran out and bought more.  My best advice for moms registering for bottles - register for a few and see which one works best for you and your child.  I am now stuck with a ton of bottles I probably won't use and am replacing them with the NUK collection.