3 Month Gear List

Another list!

3-Month List of Things I Love (In no particular order, just as I think of things while I should be working instead):

1. Oballs. These are great for little fingers and hands to hold. Baby loves holding and shaking and eating these. This was the first toy he grabbed with two hands and the first he intentionally brought to his mouth. The brand also makes other shapes!

2. Links/Rings: Such an easy toy to throw in a bag, attach to the car seat, or dangle from something. So versatile and baby loves the different textures on his mouth.

3. Kirkland Diapers: We did a diaper raffle at my baby shower and so we have used all sorts of different brands of diapers. I've found these have been the best diapers at containing blowouts! He has yet to leak out of one of these. I may actually need to get a Costco membership!

4. A&D Ointment: I said I liked this before and here I go again. Recently we've used this on his cradle cap and it cleared up very fast!

6. Fisher-Price Sit Me Up: We started sticking baby in this a little over a month ago. The high back of the seat makes it easier for smaller babies to use. A baby has to be a little bigger with better neck control for something like a bumbo seat, but the Sit Me Up let baby see the world from a new perspective and he loved it. He would get cranky being on his back all the time so this allowed him something new. It also was great for mom to get stuff done in the kitchen while he sat and watched.

5. Fisher-Price Space Saver Jumperoo: I registered for this jumper because the smaller profile. We have a smaller house and have see how much room jumpers can take up at my friend's houses.  Baby is 16 weeks old as of two days ago and recently started loving to stand (when held, obviously. He isn't that advanced haha) and last night started boucing while standing so it seemed like the perfect time to open the jumper! He is just barely tall enough for it right now (He was 25 inches at 3 months, don't know what he is now), and has just enough neck/upper body control. It's not something we can just plop him in to contain him yet. He still needs help and supervision, but he loved being able to stand bounce and was reaching for all the toys above him, though getting frustrated and mad he couldn't actually reach them. As he grows I think he'll love it more and more!

7. Toy straps/tethers: These are the ones I have from Amazon. They make it so easy to attach toys to things! I attach his oball to his glider and to his car seat. I attach toys to his playmat so when he flings them I don't have to go running for them. They will be great for attaching things to highchairs so baby can't throw things around restaurants.

 

Tether toys to the elephants nose!

8. Books: Little Blue Truck is my favorite. It's a fun story to read and the story has a good heart.

Beep Beep Beep!

9. Full Size Bath Towels: After years of reading blogs and baby recommendations and registries I decided to register for full sized towels and not baby towels. But of course we received quite a few baby towels at our shower. I decided to try them because, why not? Well I'll tell you why not. Because they are very thing and not absorbent. When we would take Baby out of the bath and wrap him in a baby towel he would cry and cry because he was cold and wet. I finally switched to the full sized towels (one lovely person did buy them for us!) and since then he hasn't been nearly as upset after his bath. The towels are much warmer and really dry him off well. Get full sized towels.

10. And of course. The greatest baby toy of all time:

When he gets fussy or I need a few minutes to get something done I plop him under the ceiling fan. Works like a charm every time.

16 Weeks - Breastfeeding

This Saturday Baby will be 16 weeks old! Some days I can't believe it has been this long. There are times I look at him and think oh my goodness this baby is mine! He is the best baby. Everything changes so fast I try to soak up as much as possible.

We've had some challenges for sure. Breastfeeding has been a very tough process for us. For about 10 weeks I was exclusively breastfeeding, but Baby wasn't gaining weight. He was in the 50th percentile at birth, then went down to 20th percentile at his 2 month checkup. 2 weeks after that he was down to the 6th percentile. For 2 months his normal feeding sessions would last about 40 minutes, 20 per side. But then around the end of December he started going longer and longer, the longest I let him go was an hour and 15 minutes and he was still unsatiated and crying when I took him off the boob. I made an appointment with an LC and she said his latch was fine and positioning looked good. We did a weigh/feed/weigh and he took about 2 ounces in 30 minutes. She thinks I just have a low supply. The LC recommended feeding him for 30 minutes, because going longer than that won't be very helpful, and then supplementing with formula. She said to start offering an ounce at a time until he is ok. She also suggested pumping after every nursing session, pumping every 2 hours at work, not going more than 3 hours between feedings or pumps, and taking fenugreek supplements (3 pills 3x a day) to boost my supply. 

I tried these suggestions for a month and have seen no increase in my supply whatsoever. I have also tried every other suggestion on the internet to boost supply including: oatmeal, blessed thistle, moringa, blue gatorade, brewers yeast, flax seed, chia seed, fennel seed. Nothing. I still pump one ounce after nursing and 2 during a stand alone pump session.

My last ditch effort is going to be stopping birth control I started on the mini pill after my 6-week check up. The mini pill isn't supposed to affect milk supply which is why it is prescribed for nursing moms. In some rare cases it can, though. And seeing how I've ended up on the 'rare case' side before (i.e. infertility.....), I might as well try. Looking back at my logs my supply started decreasing a few weeks after starting the pill so I might as well try!

....It's not like I actually needed it for the 10+ years I was taking it before....why would now be different......

8 Weeks Old

Baby H is 8 weeks old!

It's crazy how fast babies grown and learn. 5+ weeks brought us Baby's first smiles and also Baby's first rolls from tummy to back. At 7 weeks he started sleeping for longer stretches at night. We put him to bed around 9pm and he will sleep for 4-6 hours before he wakes up to be fed again. He will then sleep for another 2-3 hours before waking again. It's game changing! getting longer stretches of sleep has been amazing. He does have days where his sleep isn't so good (like last night when he fussed most of the night) but knowing he can go longer is great, especially because most of the time he does. 

Items I love for Baby:
1. Mam pacifiers: These were the only pacifiers he would take to begin with.

2. Halo swaddles: We stick him in a body suit and a swaddle for bed every night! We use the fleece kind since it's winter and cold where we live.

3. JJ Cole Car Seat Cover: This thing keeps baby nice and warm during harsh Midwestern winters

4. Chicco Viaro Travel System: I love the three wheels of the stroller; the maneuverability is excellent. I have a friend with the Chicco Bravo (4 wheels) and when I pushed her stroller I found it so much harder to control. The click system makes it really easy to put the car seat into the stroller and the car seat base. It's also easy to get baby strapped in and then out of the seat pretty quick. The stroller isn't too heavy or hard for me to get into and out of the car. I'd definitely buy this again!
 
5. Diapers: I like Huggies the best so far! They fit Baby the best. Pampers have leaked/blown out quite a few times. Unfortunately we have mostly Pampers from our diaper shower. We'll just deal since I don't want to take a ton of boxes of diapers back when it really isn't too bad.

6. Wipes: Meijer baby wipes! They are the softest and wettest! The only thing I don't like about them is they stick together in the pack so when you pull one out you pull 5 out.

7. Diaper Genie: I registered for this on a whim. I had heard a lot of negative reviews saying it didn't do anything. I ended up getting one for our shower and we love it! Our nursery doesn't smell and it's super easy to use. The good news is Target's Up and Up refills fit and cost waaay less.



8. Gas Drops and Gripe Water: YES! We use both of these fairly regularly. They definitely help with gas and fussiness!!!
 

9. A&D Ointment - We first use the A&D ointment on Baby's circumcision and it healed really really well. Then we started using it for diaper cream. I tried Desitin since that seems to be what everyone uses but I hated the small. The A&D works really well and keeps his bottom perfect! I also have used it on his dry scalp/craddle cap and it cleared up so quick.

P.S. It's now 15 weeks post-partum and I'm just getting to post this.....I'm terrible at upkeep....