Baby Registry: Bath Time

Alrighty, round two of the registry stuff and probably one of my favorite things to have registered for.

Bathtime!

I know kids don't always like getting baths and I'm ready for the screaming of an infant and the tantrums of a toddler, but let's be real most of the time bath time was a blast. At least for me it was. I always got to play with toys, and my mom would give my sister and I crazy soap hairstyles and beards. Don't act like you don't know what I'm talking about, I bet all your parents have pictures of you in the tub with some "Cindy Lou-who" hair going on :) 

I'm really looking forward to creating these memories with baby and of course snapping photos to embarrass the crap out of him/her once they are older.

1. Leachco Flipper 2-way Baby Bather: When it came to deciding on what to do for an infant tub I really wasn't sure what to do. Some people have exclaimed they are an absolute must, while others have said they are a complete waste of money. I won't lie at first I was not all about getting anything for bath time like this because I figured we would just bathe baby in the sink like parents have done for a really long time. However, I decided to do some research on infant tubs and quickly realized that maybe our sinks were not really deep enough to bathe baby in. A lot of the infant tubs that go into the sink wouldn't have fit as our sinks aren't very deep so I'm not sure a baby could really fit into one either. Upon realizing this I knew we'd have to use the tub and I knew we'd definitely need something for in there. The Leachco flipper got some of the best reviews for in-the-tub bathing because it's a good quality product, is easy to use, dry and store, and it can be used for your growing child!  We did receive it as a gift from my sister and I will just say it's pretty adorable.

2. Safety 1st Rubber TempGuard Ducky:  This product was rated at the top temperate readers for bath time, but most of reviews I'd read said there are many other alternatives that are just as good. The important thing is to find one that is good quality to ensure the temperature is accurate each time and it won't poop out on you. One of those things I wasn't really sure about getting since tons of people have gotten by without them in years passed but again once realizing we were going to have to bathe in the tub I knew temperature would be an issue. I tend to like my showers/baths pretty hot and have no idea what is going to be to hot for a kid that can't tell me "Ouch! Hot!" like all the kids I've babysat for have in the past. This is merely one of those items that will put me at peace and reassure me.

3. Aden + Anais Hooded Towel and Washcloth Set: Baby Bargains rated Aden & Anais as one of the best brands out there for things like towels, bibs, etc and they highly suggested registering for some hooded towels over regular towels (this is so you can keep baby extra warm by keeping the heat around their head from escaping). So really this purchase is a double positive! Plus all the different prints are really stinkin' cute!

There are several options when it comes to hooded towels. Most people don't have to many issues with other brands expect for the quality. I'd read many of the cheaper brands started to fall apart and lead to the parents having to buy more. Baby Bargains also suggest Pottery Barn hooded towels because of their quality and how soft they are for baby's skin, but let's be real they just can't help how cute those are either!

4. Munchkin Scoop & Drain Bath Organizer with Munchkin Sea Buddies: So these aren't really things that I researched on or even had on the registry but we received them at one of my showers and I realized I should have put on the registry because 1. the scoop and drain organizer is a good idea and 2. what kid doesn't need some bath toys? Am I right, or am I right? The organizer is very easy to "install" and both things are very easy to clean. There are several organizers out there but after receiving this I noticed that this specific one would have been the one I choose because of the size. Some of those organizers are massive! 

 

5. Johnson & Johnson Shampoo & Body Wash/ Honest Company Shampoo, Body Wash & Lotion: I think it's safe to say that most people know and love the Johnson & Johnson brand when it comes to their babies and kids. It's been a top, trusted brand for years! I also, added some shampoo, body wash, and lotion from the Honest Company. If you haven't heard of this company it's was founded by Jessica Alba and is a company the centers around supplying and creating non-processed, green friendly products for kids and mommies! I honestly don't know anyone personally who has used these products but the reviews I've read have been positive so I wanted to give the brand a shot! A clean kid is a clean kid and with their products being made from natural plants, etc there doesn't seem to be to much risk of rash or other skin reactions.

Have any of you used Honest Company products?  Thoughts?

So there you have some of our bath time registry items. 

Is there anything you would suggest, recommend, or absolutely not buy? 

Happy Monday! 

32 weeks...and counting!

How far along 

32 weeks!

BabyO is the size of a jicama...

... WTH is a jicama?

Best moment this week?

We've had two baby showers this month that were awesome!

I enjoyed seeing friends and family, but I won't lie and totally admit it was fun to start getting things for baby. 

Sure, Kev and I had bought some things here and there but we've been blessed to be gifted with so any other things we need and want.

It makes me more excited, and nervous to think that the time to meet our baby is so close! 

This week was our last monthly appointment. Although, going to the doctor isn't my favorite thing scheduling bi-weekly and weekly appointments makes me so excited to know that baby is almost here!

 

Maternity Clothes?

Please see above... 

Stretch Marks?
None! 

Movement?

Omg yes, unless my mom is around...baby is play games with her already lol.

It's turned into more pushing than quick jabs and we've started to actually see the movement.

It's awesome...and semi-freaky lol.

 Food cravings?
Nothing in particular.
I'm still eating anything and everything that's put in front of me.

What I miss:
Sushi. I just want some sushi dang it!

Symptoms?
My feet, particularly my heels hurt really badly, but my feet aren't swollen so I'm guessing that's just more about the pressure from the weight gain.

Sleeping still isn't up to par but I'm almost used to it at this point.

I suppose this isn't technically a symptom but the waddle has started lol. Sometimes it's worse than others because my feet hurt but I feel like I'm waddling most of the time lol.

Workouts:

Yoga.

This week was the last week but since I have a dvd I'd really like to stick to it until baby is born.

 

Gender Prediction?

No idea, I really have no feeling at to whether it's a boy or a girl at all.
We had a poll at one of our showers to see what people thought and no joke it was 13 to 13!
The fact that it was 2, 13's and the baby is due 2/13 is to much of a coincidence...even for me!

Sleep?

It's been a little bit better but like I said I'm getting pretty use to not sleeping through the night.

What I'm looking forward to?

I'm pretty excited for Christmas! I can't believe it's less than a week away.

We are having another shower in January and having our maternity pictures done so those are two more fun things to do before baby is born.

Now that there is only about 2 months left until we finally get to meet our child my patience is wearing very thin. I just can't wait to finally see our little one and hold them!

Wisdom or other thoughts?

Nothing to stellar to share or advise on that hasn't already been said at some point.

The feeling of having a child is so much more real now then it's ever been, and I am starting to get more nervous.

Mainly nervous about giving birth, but honestly a little nervous about becoming a parent.

It's a whole new responsibility and I do believe Kev and I will be great parents, but not knowing what to expect makes me nervous in general. 

Happy Friday!

There Just so Much to be Thankful for!

There is so much in my life that I am thankful for and I'm blessed to include my health as one of them.

Last week I had a fellow blogger, Heather, reach out to me to ask that I share a little bit of her story and something I am thankful for.

Heather is an 8 year survivor of mesothelioma. Mesothelioma is a type of cancer you can get from the exposure to asbestos in the home or workplace. When Heather was diagnosed was only 36 years old, had just given birth to her daughter, and was given about 15 months to live. If you read about mesothelioma that is usually the life expectancy given to those diagnosed. However, with a brand new daughter and an amazing support system between her family and team of doctors Heather knew that giving up and letting this illness beat her was just not an option. She has beaten the odds by leaps and bounds, and continues to spread the knowledge of this disease to others in hopes they will not give up either because 'With Hope, the Odds don't Matter." 

Heather explained that if there is one thing that being diagnosed with cancer has taught her it's to value life and everything in it. This time of year is a difficult reminder for her as she was diagnosed in November those 8 years ago, but it's also that time of year that most of us are being reminded to be thankful for everything we have. Heather made it a goal one year to list something she was thankful for everyday in December, but this year she has taken the idea out to the blogosphere to include other bloggers.  That is where I come in and get to share something I am thankful for.

I have so much to be thankful for but I believe the most important piece are my family and friends. If I had nothing in this life but this amazing support system I would still consider myself to be an extremely blessed person

My family, Kevin, and his family have taught me so much about life and love. Everything from learning how to ride a bike to being part of something so much bigger than yourself. My admiration for so many of my family members continues to grow and I only hope to be half of the person that so many of them are. The beauty of family is that we all bring something a little different to the table, but share the same unconditional love that bonds us forever.

Then of course there are my friends. I've always been blessed to have a very solid group of friends. I had an unwavering group of girl friends in high school that stuck together through thick and thin. I find that to be rare because usually there is some kind of drama that will tear a group apart but that never seemed to happen with us. We were there for each other and I feel very blessed to say that we still have this unbreakable bond today.

Then we have my group of friends from college and have carried through to this day. These friends have become part of my family. We have been there for each other in ways you would believe and expect your family to be there for. They are a group that has pushed me to be a better person overall. Even Kev and I's parents have comment on how blessed we are to have such a good, strong, supportive group of friends. They've helped us create this "home away from home" as we transitioned from high school to college, and then college to what I like to call "real life" and without them I'd be lost. 

It's an amazing feeling knowing that I have all of these people in my life that love and support me. I know that no matter what happens I'll have others to rejoice in my accomplishments and pick me back up when I fail.

What are you most thankful for?

Happy Thursday!

Links I Love

  1) Ebates! Ebates! Ebates! I had signed up for this site awhile but didn't fully start to utilize it until I was pregnant. I wanted to save some money that I was getting on these maternity clothes since I know I had a limited time to wear everything but they were necessary. However, my love for the site quickly surpassed that and it's been my online shopping life line every since. 

Seriously, just with my holiday shopping alone it's been an absolute God send! If you don't really know how it works I'll give ya a quick run down. 

Ebates is a site that will give you cash back from certain stores, but there are many stores they are partnered with. I won't go into all the details but please read the "how to use ebates" FAQ & instructions before you start going because you do have to go through ebates to the store in order to get the cash back, different stores offer different percentages, etc.

 2) Now if this doesn't bring you some holiday cheer I'm not sure what will :) 

The Story of Christmas told by Kids!

   3) I might be a little bit biased on this one but I'm pretttty excited for the Victoria Secret Fashion Show this evening. I work for LBrands (the company the owns VS) but don't do any work directly related to the show but I know people that to and it's a lot of hard work! So, it was nice to see this article about 16 things you didn't know about the VS fashion show to pop up to give a little behind the scenes look at just a few of the things that others have to do in order to get this event up and running!

4) Hi, I'm Megan and I'm a cinnamon roll addict...and these from Ashley over at The Sweet Season look AMAZING!

 

5) We should all say more nice things, more often right?! The Kid President thinks so with this "20 Things We Should Say More Often" video. I think we should all listen to him more than most of the people actually running this country!

Happy Tuesday!

Baby Registry: Equipment/Gear

Registering has been a bit of a challenge for me. I found it to be much more difficult that registering for our wedding and mainly because you can't just buy whatever looks pretty you have to factor in things like safety, wear and tear, etc.

I feel pretty confident in all of the items that are on the list as I've put in quite a few man hours to research and deciding which options are really the best for us. The amount of options for every single thing you should have is endless.  I think many people know that I am not usually one to research a whole bunch, but I found the researching for baby items was key. Not just to figure out what are the safest items, or the best bang for your buck, but what will work for you and your growing family. 

The main resource I used was Baby Bargains the book & blog! 

It was really helpful in at least narrowing things down and then I relied pretty heavily on the user reviews once I actually looked up the item online.

Thanks to Katie I decided to use Lucie's List for our checklist.

There are things that I ended up putting on the registry that aren't on Lucie's List but not much.

We also did our registry on Amazon, for a variety of reasons.

The first  being I just plain ole love Amazon.

The second being you can add things from other website if you can't find an item you want already on Amazon so you only have one list of people to look at instead of sending them around to 2-3 different baby stores (Babies-R-Us, Buy Buy Baby, etc.)

I felt like there were some really good pricing deals on Amazon vs. the other places so why not try to save friends and family a little bit of moolah!?

I plan on doing a couple of posts about our registry and breaking things down in to groups.

Here are some of the equipment/gear items you can find on our registry!

1. Britax B-Agile & B-Safe Car Seat Travel System:  I spent a lot of time looking into strollers and car seats being that these two items need to be as safe as possible. Baby Bargains highly recommends the Britax brand, and this particular model seems to be a hit with several parents. It's light weight, easy to maneuver, and can obviously easily convert from infant use to toddler/older child use.

2. Fisher - Price Deluxe Newborn Rock N' Play Sleeper & Fisher - Price Deluxe Bouncer: There is also the Fisher - Price Deluxe Swing to complete this little set. According to all my mommy friends this set of items are an absolute must! It's also really hard to know if you really need all three or not because you aren't going to know if baby is going to like swinging, rocking, or bouncing until they are here! However, one mommy, Brandy J, said she used the rocker instead of a bassinet for her little one and loved it! My suggestion would be get all three and sell one/two if ya need to. Better safe than sorry when it comes to soothing baby.

3. Samsung Wireless Baby Monitor: I think the baby monitor was one of the most difficult things to decide on because there are so many options! We decided that a video monitor would give a little more sense of security especially because the nursery is on the second floor, and our room is on the main floor. Baby Bargains and the overall features offered on this monitor is what sold me on this specific product.

4. Graco Pack N Play w/Bassinet: Since my parents and Kev's mom don't live in town we knew we'd need a Pack and Play with some sort of bassinet for traveling around a bit the baby. Graco seemed to have pretty good reviews overall and was quoted to be an industry leader year after year in the Pack N Play field! Why not go with the best right? I suppose it's one of those things we won't know if like it until we really try it but the reviews were all pretty positive so why not try it out :)

Look for another post next week with some nursery essentials.

Happy Wednesday!