Letting go of the Baby Monitor

When is a good time to let up on the baby monitor?

When she was first born I was sleeping in the room right next to her. So I used the monitor more for visual needs than to hear her. And it was located right next to the pillow.

When I moved back into the master bedroom I would keep the monitor screen on (you have the to make it black because the screen is VERY bright) and the volume on 3. I would still lean over to check the screen to make sure she was okay and to see if she had moved.

When she started pulling herself up we had to relocate the monitor to the wall. And now, at almost 11 months, I am starting to turn the screen off at night, like I said, that thing is BRIGHT! And I turn the volume on 2 sometimes if her sound machine is making too much noise for me.

She is a pretty good sleeper. We have a few sleep set backs, you can read about our 4 month sleep regression and we had another one late last year. It only took one time of letting her cry it out for almost 10 minutes and then she just slept through the night.

I'm not sure when parents take the monitor down for good...maybe when they are 3ish?

Anybody reading have older kids? When did you take the monitor down? 

Miraflex ~ Baby Glasses

I had put Alana on my eye insurance during enrollment because her doctor had noticed a little crossing of one eye at her 4 month check up. She had already told me to make an appointment the with pediatric ophthalmologist because she had a lot of gunk in her eye and may need her tear duct opened up. After she didn't need her duct opened up I kept the appointment because of the crossing.

But then the crossing went away.

And then between months 10 and 11 months one eye started crossing again. I sort of panicked. I called the ophthalmologist immediately knowing he gets booked up pretty quickly. I was able to get an appointment 2 weeks out but told them if they had an afternoon appointment open up I'll take it. And they did! We were able to come in the next day!  

Alana did great during her visit, even the doctor commented on it. I was so amazed at how they handled her and got her attention so they could get her prescription.

Alana is farsighted (which means she can only see stuff far away). So when she was holding stuff close to her face she would focus so hard her eyes would cross. Then they would be so tired that one would stay sort of crossed.

Enter Miraflex, the no metal, unbreakable frames for kids and babies. Alana literally has the smallest size they make.

The first afternoon we put them on her she hated them and kept taking them off. But we distracted her with playing and toys and she seemed to do really well. And by the next day it was not an issue, she was keeping them on all the time!

I am a little sad that she needs glasses at such an early age. But glasses are inevitable for her since I have glasses, well contacts, all 4 of her grandparents have glasses and so does at least one of her uncles. But I am thankful that there isn't too much of a struggle to get her to wear them (I'm 100% sure there would have been if this started at age 2 or 3).

Did you have glasses when you were a kid? Or do your babies have glasses?

Picking the Right Sippy Cup

There are so many trial and error products you go through when you have a baby. I am sharing with you another one today...the sippy cup.

At Alana's 9 month check up her doctor told us that we could start to introduce her to a sippy cup. So we did. First we tried the Tommee Tippy sippy cups that have a hard spout, she didn't like it at all! So after a few weeks I called a friend and asked her what she did. She told me there are transition sippy cups that are sippy cups but with a spout made from the same material as a bottle nipple. The hunt for one of these was on!

I found the NUK brand transition sippy cup. She sort of would drink from it but not really. So one day, in an effort to get her to drink from it, I took a sip from it. It was actually really hard to get the liquid out! So I went to look for another brand, one with more flow. And I found the Philip Avent. And its perfect! She just drinks her snack from it right now but we're working our way up.

What sippy cups do you use? Did you get a winner on the first try? 

Trial & Error – Baby Products

So when you’re pregnant its really easy to get overwhelmed with all the baby stuff that is out there. You’ll have friends telling you one thing, thank them for their help and advice, and then you’ll walk into Buy Buy Baby and go, “what the f---!” because there is SO much stuff for babies! And I think these are also trial and error type products. Here are a few items that I have had to buy a few different brands till I found one that I liked and worked well.

Car window shade: So I have a really odd shaped window in the back and I thought that this Brica Stretch-to-Fit Window shade would be prefect because it would be any shape that I wanted…well it didn’t really work. The suctions just don’t stay on the window and if you need to really stretch this thing the suction cups just slowly move to where they are comfortable (the elastic will pull them back together).

Then I bought the Munchkin White Hot Static Cling Shade. While this doesn’t cover my whole window it stays on and provides her shade most of the time. It’s “HOT” decal will tell you when it’s too hot in the car and you may want to turn on the AC before you put your little on in there. I noticed that it was saying “HOT” when it was about 80-85 degrees Fahrenheit. Which really isn’t that hot for us here in Texas.

Bath tubs: When I first saw the 4MOMs bath tub I wanted it but I swear the price tag said $150. For that price, I don’t think so. So I bought her a mesh chair to put in the sink. Well it didn’t quite work in our sink, our sink was too small. So my mother-in-law bought the flower thing for us. The hospital said they didn’t recommend this for newborns and to wait until she could hold her head up. So I finally said okay, lets buy the 4MOMs tub. It turns out its only $50 (I am thinking it was stocked in the wrong place when I first saw a $150 price tag). And with a 20% coupon in tow the tub was mine! Alana LOVES this tub and LOVES bath time! She splashes so much that we had to move her mini tub into the bath tub.

Bottles: Bottles can be hit or miss for your baby. I had asked for a starter kit of Tommee Tippee and Dr. Brown bottles. I only got the Tommee Tippee ones at my shower. So that is what I planned on using. Well, with Alana arriving early and being in the NICU when it came time to bottle feed her at night when I wasn’t there the nurses said to get some Dr. Brown bottles; they pretty much laughed in my face when I said I had Tommee Tippee. They tried to mask it by saying those were better suited for older babies. So now I have 4 Tommee Tippee bottles sitting on a shelf in their shrink wrap. I will probably use them in a giveaway on here at some point…or re-gift at a shower.

What are some of your experiences with baby products? 

Baby Travel Essentials + Giveaway!

Today I am hosting my first giveaway! :-o How exciting! I wanted to host it before Thanksgiving because I am so thankful for all the gifts we received while I was pregnant and after. These are great products and I really hope you enjoy them!

So whats included?!

• Travel size Babyganics daily moisturizing lotion
• Travel size Babyganics pure mineral sunscreen (SPF 30)
• Travel size Johnson's Baby Head to Toe wash
• 4oz (120ml) Munchkin Latch bottle
• $5 Wal*Mart gift card

So enter below! You have one week, good luck!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

(for US residents only)

Baby Products We Didn't Use

There are going to be a few products that you'll buy or get as a gift that you just won't use. Or you'll use once and it's not what you thought and you'll move on. Here are some of the items I didn't use:

Booby Ice Packs - Lansinoh makes these ice packs for your boobs for after breastfeeding. I never used them. I never really fed Alana from my breasts, I just pumped so maybe that is why but my boobs never hurt enough for me to pull these suckers out. I now use them in Alana's bottle cooler bag for daycare.

Angel Care Monitor - I really liked this monitor as it will go off if there is no movement in your baby's crib (movement = breathing). These monitors have a sensor pad that you put under the mattress and if there is no movement after 20 seconds then there is a loud beeping. It all sounds good except when you have an infant (and your SIDS fears are at an all time high) your baby is getting up every few hours. So you will walk in there half asleep, pick up your baby, make it halfway to the kitchen and then BEEP, BEEP, BEEP. SHIT!!! You're running back into the baby room because your sleepy self forgot to turn the monitor off. Or at least that's what happened to me. I think I might use this more when she can roll over from back to front but until then it just sits there.

10/14/2015 Update: We are starting to call this thing a false alarm monitor. When we first used it when she started sleeping through the night the battery on the monitor for the parent had started to go out...has the SAME beep as the actual sensor. Then the other night Alana has curled up in the corner of the crib and the monitor could not detect her. So it went off. I ran to her room as fast as The Flash and she was fine...and I'm pretty sure I broke my toe on something while I was running through the house...

Sleepers - You can buy these at Carter's or any other place that sells baby clothes but I found a product that I like better - Kickee Pants! I like Kickee Pants better because the material is SUPER soft, they have both feet and hands covered. And the feet are actually lined so they stay warm! Sleepers seem to come in all different shapes and sizes and it might be hard to find a brand that fits your baby perfectly.

What products did you not like or use?

Kickee Pants vs Regular Sleepers

Sorry I have been away - first I was sick with a cold and then Monday night I got a BAD stomach bug that lasted a little over 24 hours...no bueno!

Back to our regularly scheduled blogging... Kickee Pants vs. Sleepers Whats a sleeper? Check it out here. Now I want to tell you why I love Kickee Pants so much!

1 - They are made from bamboo and spandex which make them fit any baby wonderfully! Some sleepers seem to come in odd sizes and just fit my baby wrong - some are not long enough and very wide. 

2 - The footies are lined with felt to keep your baby's feet warm. Baby's feet always seem to be colder than any other part of their body so I find this added touch comforting. While regular sleepers do have footies they are not lined for extra warmth. 

3 - The hands can turn into little mittens so your baby's hands stay warm and they don't scratch their face while they sleep. Most sleepers don't have this option - gowns do (but gowns, at least to me, don't offer the warmth the lower 1/2 of the baby body needs). 

I recently did have a quality issue with them, one of the suits came out of the wash with one of the arms completely ripped off, like it had been cut. I contacted their customer service and they gave me a credit for their online store. I will state that they asked where I had purchased it from (it was a gift) and I had a feeling that if it had not been from their website they may had made a fuss. To me it's their product and they should take responsibility for it, no matter where it was sold. If our Toyota had a recall I'm not going to take it to the VW dealership we bought it from to get it fixed, I'm going to take it to the Toyota dealership...duh!

Have you tried Kickee Pants? Do you love them?

Snot Sucker

I have done some pretty gross things in my life (mainly stuff to assist and take care of my dogs - including helping one little wiener dog get rid of some nasty worms...use your imagination) and now I can add snot sucking to the list.

When Alana was sick a few weeks ago the doctor recommended we get the NoseFrida versus using the bulb syringe to suck the snot out of her nose. Babies don't know how to blow their nose yet so they will sneeze it out or they need help. I had seen this item before when I was looking at registry stuff and I was like "yeah, right!" and when telling a co-worker about it he said his wife swore by it!

My husband did it the first time and then I had to bite the bullet. NoseFrida does have a filter and the snot in no way even gets close to your mouth but the concept it just disgusting and laughable!

But I will say that it works great and much better than bulb syringe!