Shopping Tips for Baby Shower Gifts

Here are a few things that I've compiled as a list of helpful hints when shopping for a baby shower or the parents to be.  I know, I'm only expecting baby number two and some of these things should seem to be common sense, but I thought I'd type them up anyway!

• Always start with the registry (this goes for wedding gifts too), even if there isn't a store location convenient to you!  Odds are that you can still purchase something off of their registry (just from a different store or using online shopping).  As a person who read many reviews when registering (both for wedding & baby registries), it is always good to assume that the parent(s)-to-be have a reason for choosing X product or brand.  Never assume you know better than those who registered, remember new products come out all of the time so they may have newer information.
• If the new parents left items off of their registry that you enjoy purchasing for new babies or you feel are a "must-have", then feel free to purchase it!  Always include a gift receipt (this goes for all gifts) in case the parents have already purchased or received something similar (hence why it wasn't on their registry).
• Avoid the urge to go crazy over newborn or 0-3 month sized clothing (its okay to get one outfit because they're so cute & tiny) because everyone gets sucked into the teeny tiny clothes.  A great option are onsies the 12 month to 18 month range because they can be layered up or left alone depending on the season.  Believe me, parents will be grateful to have some 12-18 month size onsies once they realize baby has completely outgrown the 9-12 month clothes!  Maybe I just randomly shrank onsies, but I know Jack seemed to fit fine in something one day & the next couldn't squeeze him into it!
• Find out if the parents have chosen to use cloth or disposable diapers and get them some that they can use!
• Maybe go a little more unique and give the gift of memories.  My good friend Brooke (owner of Cherished Moments Photography) offers gift packages for either maternity shots or newborn sessions!  Her newborn sessions are done in the home in the first week (or two) of baby's life outside of the womb and are a beautiful way to capture those early days of baby being a part of your life!  Feel free to check out her website linked above or her business' Facebook page.

Now onto my most recent newborn purchase, and it wasn't for our baby number 2!  I mentioned a couple of weeks ago that I purchased a baby shower gift for a good friend of mine.  Well, Jack and I went to Texas last weekend for her shower and now I can spill the beans about what we got for Baby E!  (I failed as a blogger and didn't take a picture of the actual purchased items, but I've linked them.)

• Two wet bags; because she & her husband registered at Babies R Us and I knew they were planning on using cloth diapers I asked her if there was anything cloth diapering related that she couldn't register for and this is what she mentioned.  I got her a large Planet Wise hanging wet bag for everyday storage of dirty diapers (it even has a dry storage for clean diapers) and a smaller Bummis wet bag for packing in the diaper bag!
• Two newborn all-in-one diapers; she already has built herself a great stash of newborn prefolds and diaper covers because she's so economical!  I wanted to get her some newborn diapers because a) they're so cute and b) I wanted to splurge on her a little.  I choose two GroVia Newborn All-in-Ones, in "Ice" (a light blue) and the "Nature" print.  Selfishly, I can't wait to hear how they work for her to see if I should purchase some for our baby #2.
• Flushable diaper liners or as my husband calls them "crap catchers"!  This was Matt's idea for the baby shower gift.  Newborn poop isn't a big deal (especially breastfed poop) for cloth diapers, but as soon as baby starts solids its a whole other ball game.  These will hopefully be helpful at least for their diaper bag in the future!

I hope you've enjoyed this post!  I love buying baby gifts and have a number of other baby showers to go to in the coming months for which I can't wait to purchase baby gifts!

Jack's New T-shirt!

With spring and summer starting, my son is out-growing all of his clothes!  I may have had one or two items in 2T or 3T, but I seriously need to go shopping.  He's officially out of all 18 month clothes (which he could barely pull of shirts) and his 24 month clothes are getting snug.  Great... I love shopping for his clothes most of the time, but I was most excited to make this purchase:

Forgive the blurriness of the picture but he's quite difficult to catch in pictures these days...

And in case you can't read what his t-shirt says... it says "BIG BRO"!!!!

We're proud to announce that Jack is going to be a big brother this fall.  Our due date is approximately October 26, 2011 (just in time for one of my favorite holidays).  Baby is looking healthy and growing right on track.  Here are some adorable pictures of our 8 week ultrasound:

Pumpkin's head is down in this photo, and the longer & thinner part up at the top is the umbilical cord!



Another picture of how big baby is these days!

For some reason these pictures, from approximately the same time we had an ultrasound with Jack, baby looks bigger or we could see more in these pictures compared to his ultrasound.  Just an interesting observation, but baby's measurements confirmed our due date and a couple of days at this stage are a big deal for baby's development.

As far as me, being about 10 weeks along I am dealing with standard 1st trimester sleepies and nausea.  Nausea isn't too bad most of the time, but I am wearing Sea-Bands [almost] around the clock that have helped to take the edge off.  Other than that, I'm feeling great and already outgrowing normal clothes... supposedly pretty typical with 2nd (or subsequent) pregnancies.  I am still kind of in regular clothes, but those days are certainly numbered as I'm using my belly band to keep my unbuttoned pants up!

And with all of my posts I've had in the past on NFP... yes, it does work :-)  We're so excited to be adding to our family and look forward to the excitement yet to come.

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

To all my Irish, and those who wish they were:
Happy St. Patrick's Day from Natalie, Matt & Jack!  Here's our adorable wee one:

Its kind of hard to read, but his shirt says "Mom's Lil Irishman"... LOVE it!

Someone is Ready for Summer!

Luckily I cleaned out his clothes and found two bathing suits that will fit him this summer!  Swim lessons, here we come... in a few months!

DIY Grippy Socks

I recently read an article over at I am Momma-Hear Me Roar on how to make grippy socks using standard socks and puffy fabric paint.  Here are the steps I took to make some for Jack:

Supplies:
Socks in your child's size:  I bought some from WalMart similar to those found here (in fact, I think they're the exact same size but I bought them in smaller than a 12 pack).  Cost per pair = $0.73
Puffy paint:  I know you can get bigger bottles, but I got the smaller ones for ease of handling in my small hand.  Cost per bottle = < $1; I estimate this boils down to $0.05 per pair for paint, depending on how much you use on your design
Cardboard:  I just remember fabric paint always going through fabric when I've used it in the past.  I decided to use empty cardboard toiletpaper tubes because it ended up being about the perfect length to fit into Jack's size sock.  Cost = free because they would've otherwise been thrown away

Total estimated cost per pair of homemade grippy socks = $0.78
Store bought grippy socks = $2.00 at Gap, $1.50 at Old Navy or $1.00 at Target

Photos of the process:

Tubes from toilet paper roll, each tube cut into thirds.

Put the outside of the curve against the sole of the sock, where I would be painting, to make sure to smooth out the fabric.

Before painting (they are previously worn/washed)

My color palate of puffy paint!

After (still wet)!  I just had fun and played around with different shapes.  I will probably see which ones help Jack the most before repeating this process on more socks!

 I had a lot of fun doing this!  I will possibly get a little more creative in the future with the designs to show a bit more of Jack's personality, but I wanted to start small.  You could probably apply the same concept to knit adult socks to make grippy slippers!

Busy busy!

Man, I can't believe I haven't written in almost a week! This week has gone by fast... thank goodness! Work has been extremely busy these days... both good and not so good reasons.

Things have been going well, nothing too new to discuss though! I'm going to post the link to my "personal site" for the Columbus Heart Walk that is going on a week from Saturday that we're participating with through my company. After everything we went through with my mother-in-law last winter, we find this cause so very important to us and our family! Heart disease is the number one killer of women. We have a family history of heart problems on both sides of our family, my grandpa & both of Matt's grandpa. It is definitely something I worry about, not only for us but for our children. If you feel so inclined, please donate to the cause here. I found out today that Scotts was the first company in the Columbus heart walk that reached their fundraising goal and is currently 9th in top fund raising for companies the total of teams! Any contribution is GREATLY appreciated and really will make a difference!

We recently went through all of Jack's clothes to sort through the things he has grown out of and to see what we had in future sizes. We were lucky enough to get gifts last Christmas from family in Chicago (they do gifts for every baby's 1st Christmas) but the sizes were all 18-24 months for winter clothes. I was so worried at that point because of the rate at which Jack was moving through sizes the season wouldn't match up. Well, long story short those close will probably be perfect for winter and early spring and I'm very excited he'll get to wear them since they're adorable clothes! The cloth diapers that we've been using DEFINITELY make his pants fit pretty snug at this point; we've moved up a size at least in pants and I expect that trend to continue. I also went to Kohl's last night to use a 30% off coupon (on top of their sale prices, of course) and I got some A.MAZ.ING deals! Here's what I was able to get for $62.27:

• 2 pair of pants (1 in 18 mos, 1 in 24 mos)
• 5 shirts/onsies (4 in 18 mos, 1 in 24 mos)
• 1 fleece sweatshirt/pullover (in 18 mos)
• 4 sets of pajamas (1 in 18mos, 3 in 24 mos/2T) <- Yes, I've bought my son 2T clothes and it makes me kind of sad! They definitely look like they'll fit him SOON though, so I bit the bullet.
• That's 12 items (including 2-pc PJs as 1 item) for under $5.19 a piece!

I'm going to be doing a cloth diaper update tomorrow after a week of using the new diapers & we should be getting a few more soon. I've been splitting up my orders because I want to try different types and have gotten GREAT coupon codes for the site that are brand specific or gives you a free diaper after $25 (so I'd want to get as many free as possible, of course!).

100th post!

Wow, I can't believe this is my 100th post! Good times... and yet, I have nothing big to report here, no great topic or recap of my 100 posts. In fact the most exciting post I think I've made was my 99th, the video of Jack walking (check it out here)!

What else is new here? Well, today we started our first day of attempting to use cloth diapers. Even more impressive? Matt was the first one to put the diaper on Jack (he was off work today) and he's being supportive of me wanting to try cloth diapers a bit. I am really intrigued by the ability to save a LOT of money, maybe not over 1 child (especially since Jack is over a year old) but we hope to have more children in the future. After spending nearly $40+ a month on diapers for one child, the fact that we may not have to buy diapers ever again is REALLY exciting for me.

So yes, the idea of cloth diapering when I was pregnant was NEVER an option. I didn't even care to do any research about it, everyone uses disposables. Plus, the only thing I imagined using cloth diapers were the ones we registered for to use as burp cloths (single layer cloth diapers). As Matt said "How could anyone expect this to keep ANYTHING in?" After seeing a few FB friends who used them on their kids (saw them in pictures) I was kind of surprised. I started reading up on the subject to see what was going on, sure didn't look like cloth diapers the way I pictured it!

I did a decent amount of research and found a website that will let you make your own sample package! There are this diapers called "pocket diapers," which are pretty close to an all-in-one (cloth version of the disposable style, aka has a waterproof outer layer), but the pocket diapers dry a lot faster (from what I've read). We placed the order and got our diapers this week... only ordered a few different brands, just to try here & there, as well as the waterproof bag & sample of detergent. I washed and dried the diapers last night, and told Matt he could try one today if he was up to it but no pressure!

So far, this is what I've observed/researched (downsides in red, upsides in green, and yellow is for the items where our jury is still out):

• They are "not your mother's cloth diapers"... very cute options and more importantly very EASY options!
• Definitely bulkier than disposables, but all of Jack's shorts (ok, a khaki pair & PJ shorts since its only been one day) seem to fit fine over the diapers without too drastic of a difference in appearance but he definitely looks like he has a bubble butt. I'm definitely going to look into "thinner" cloth diaper brands, or the ones that seem to get good reviews for being thin. Thank goodness it is summer though, because he looks really cute in a cloth diaper & t-shirt! I suppose if we ever had a girl and she's wearing dresses a lot we won't have to worry about it!
• Diaper changes are just as quick, instead of taking the diaper to the Diaper Genie, we take it and put it in the bag. We are still using disposable wipes... it is kind of hard for me to give those up because they do a great job!
• You need to use special detergent to wash the diapers, and of course I thought this is going to be more expensive especially since we have a HE washer. Surprisingly, the prices I've seen on some popular "cloth diaper safe" are the same cost per load or even cheaper! (Yea! for saving more money!)
• The one size diapers (they can be adjusted to fit babies from 8 or 10 lbs. up to 30 or 35 lbs.) will be great for all of our future children at one point, but from most online articles on the subject suggest getting newborn diapers because of how tiny newborns are. This would add to some extra cost for diapers, but again if we have more than one child use them, it would be more cost effective.
• We still haven't changed a poopy cloth diaper... this will be the real test. We got some liners (very thin layer that you place in between the diaper & baby's bottom) that will hopefully avoid the whole rinsing issue. Another option out there is a diaper sprayer (so you don't dunk in the toilet), you just spray it off before putting in the bag. Again, the poopy cloth diaper will be the number one challenge for us... especially for Matt. Jack has pooped through enough disposable diapers on the both of us, but especially Matt, that if dealing with a cloth diaper after poop is too much, we may abandon cloth diapering. I'm really not sure its going to be that much worse than wiping bottoms with the risk of getting it on your hands, or a diaper explosion all over baby & his clothes.

On Wednesday, I went out with the girls to see O.A.R. my favorite band! I've seen them a number of times and only missed last year's concert because it was the Thursday before my due date (Jack's birthday). It was a little step back in time, we pushed our way to be 2 or 3 people behind the gates in front of the stage. I got some decent pictures too, but more pictures that were "ehhh" to "crappy" quality.

Work has still been busy, but I did get out at 3:30 today... we had a company wide early release at 3 so I was able to get out shortly after! Quite a drastic change from the few days a week I was staying til at least 8... one time past 11 pm. There have been others working longer hours and more on the weekends then I have had too, so they deserve a ton of kudos! The group doing this work did get some recognition today at a department wide meeting for all of the long hours and hard work we've done, so it is nice to get recognized when you do work really hard on something.

Tomorrow is a friend's bridal shower! I'm in her wedding in September. We're going to lunch at a restaurant then to her grandma's house for festivities! I love wedding season and feel so honored to be in her wedding!

Jack's 1st Birthday PARTY!

Jack's first birthday party was a huge success last Sunday! I couldn't have pulled it off if it weren't for family! They brought extra tables and chairs, helped with the initial set-up, and helped do dishes after all was said and done! Jack of course got a TON of toys and clothes and was very spoiled... we are very blessed to have such an amazing family and group of close friends.

Here are a few pictures from the party:

In his new rocking chair from his great-grandma... she got me and each of my siblings a rocking chair for our 1st birthdays. Jack LOVES to rock in mine so he was excited to have his own.

Here he is playing with his crayon holder from Bapie and Dza Dza (Matt's parents)

Getting a family picture in, but Jack is too busy enjoying cake!


Here's his cake done by Michelle, owner & baker at Sauer Cakes. We love all that she's done for us (wedding cake, anniversary cake, cupcakes for our baby shower, Jack's baptism cake & now his 1st birthday cake)... the flavor this time was orange creamsicle! YUM!

He also got tones of cute clothes, books and other great gifts but I don't have very good pictures of them. Its kind of hard to photograph that stuff during the opening process, especially when the toddler's opening gifts!

We are so glad everyone who came, could make it and are so thankful for there generosity in his gifts!

My Heart is Green!

So, I absolutely LOVE St. Patrick's day! I don't think words can explain how much this holiday means to me, but I'll try. So my mom's maiden name is Ryan, does it get any more Irish than that? (Okay, okay... put an O' in front of it and it does). While my heritage is only 50% Irish I am 100% Irish in my heart... maybe its my pale skin & freckles or my dark curly hair!

I am bummed I didn't have enough vacation time to take off and spend Jack's first St. Patrick's Day with him. I did manage to run home around lunchtime. Here are a few pictures of my adorable 25% Irish boy... hopefully he'll love this holiday as much as I do!

Jack's new favorite spot standing on his chair looking out the window!

I'm not sure why this is sideways... but its still cute! His outfit has a "My 1st St. Patrick's Day" message on a clover, could there be a more perfect outfit for this occasion as a crawler?!

His bib! Trying to get a good shot, but he was all worked up wanting food!

Holiday Outings!

This weekend has been busy already! Just wanted to post a couple of pictures from out trip to the Columbus Zoo last night to see the Wildlights and from visiting Santa this morning! Enjoy!

Jack and Daddy in Santa's Holiday House at the zoo... taking a break from walking around in the cold to see the lights. His "snowsuit" says "Dad's Team" on it and Matt is really excited about it!

Jack and Santa at the Scott's children's holiday party! Its also a sneak peak of his Christmas outfit, but I don't think you can see it very well in this picture. I'll try and post a better picture after he wears it again.

In other happenings, the cry-it-out method has been going pretty well. Last night we had a bit of regression. I don't know if it was all of the excitement with going to the zoo or what, but it took over the initial 15 minutes to go to sleep and then he woke up again at 4:30 a.m.! We brought him to bed with us because we were both sleepy, but he did get 7 hours of sleep straight. Tonight has been successful though, he fell asleep in 3 minutes. Even through he woke up not too long ago, it didn't take any longer than 5 minutes before he was back asleep. Naps today were not good, he wouldn't sleep in his crib but slept on the couch while we did things around the house.

Crying it Out Update

So far, crying-it-out has been working for us! Last night, Jack was asleep in only 12 minutes, tonight after only 8 minutes. In fact, tonight he actually woke up after about 30 minutes and I realized I hadn't given him tonight's dose of antibiotics. We got him out of bed, gave him his meds and put him down again with kisses from Mommy & Daddy. He cried for less than 5 minutes before falling asleep. Last night Jack slept for about 10 1/2 hours

Now, I believe that every baby and every family is different. Which is why I don't have any issues with someone wanting to formula feed, or someone who has their baby in their own crib from the night they come home from the hospital, or someone who does not let their baby cry-it-out. What works for us, may not work for someone else or even our next baby! We try to remain open-minded to trying different techniques to determine what is best for our son and our family.

I am really looking forward to this weekend! Friday evening we're taking Jack to see the Wildlights at Columbus Zoo... we got free tickets through work so it was an easy decision! We won't stay long because it is supposed to be very cold. I need to go and get Jack's winter "coat"/bunting so we can put him in the stroller. Saturday morning we're taking Jack to see Santa at the children's Christmas party at work. That afternoon we get to see our friends Brooke & Greg and their little girls Abby & Izzy, maybe some other friends will join us! I hope that in between visiting Santa and our friends coming over to see the house we can get our house decorated for Christmas finally! (I'm glad we didn't do anything outside before today because we had terrible winds all day today.) I will post pictures soon, I promise!!

Jack's First Halloween!

Our little man was the most adorable monkey I've ever seen! (If I do say so myself!) I love that he doesn't mind hoods or hats because he looks so good in them. His costume was a little big (I bought it a while ago figuring he'd probably grow into it), but I think it looked super cute anyway.


In other news, we get possession of the house this week! My mom helped me finalize paint colors this evening because I was down to a few different paint chips and couldn't decide which were going to look the best. My mom, Holly & I are going to start painting on Saturday because Matt has to work. My MIL is going to watch Jack so we can get a lot of stuff done without him being exposed to yucky paint fumes.

We've also decided on the washer & dryer we're going to purchase. We were down to three different sets and we made the decision based on size. They were comparable in every other aspect. I'll be sure to post my review of them after a few weeks/months of usage! To me, buying appliances has been harder than buying a house. I guess because houses make more sense to me (as far as benefits, features, etc.) than appliances.

I am very excited to finally decorate Jack's nursery. We've decided on a theme: classic children's books. We're painting the wall a solid khaki/yellow color then I am going to paint 9 canvases to look like 9 different classic children's books. Some of the ones I'm going to use are "Goodnight Moon" and "Pat the Bunny". Then in a long canvas I am going to paint the phrase "May Your Dreams Become Your Story" to tie together the book theme with sleep and dreamtime! It has been a while since I've painted, but I usually can do pretty well when looking at a subject. I can't wait to get started... and I especially can't wait to have pictures to share of the finished product.

Trying to Get Back into the Habit

So its been a very long time since I've written! We've been extremely busy around here.

The house is pretty much set to go with closing October 29... we're so excited! In fact, this evening we went to Lowe's to check out paint chips and flooring options. I am very excited to paint. We've never painted our apartment even though its allowed simply because we never knew for sure if we were going to be there more than a year. I just got a few that I thought were close... boy, was I off! Well, not too far but next time I'll be bringing examples of bedding or whatever I'm trying to coordinate with.

We took Jack on his first plane ride when we went to Texas the other weekend. We had a crazy trip down there with a two hour layover turning into a 12 hour layover! We are lucky though, because Jack was a star the whole time and only cried once when we were on the plan and only because he was hungry. My good friend Leah got married on the 10th. I got to see my closest friends from high school and they all got to meet Jack! Here's a picture of all of us at the wedding:

Last weekend was Jack's baptism and it was beautiful! My friend Brooke is a professional photographer and as a gift to us took pictures of the whole ceremony. Jack wore a beautiful baptismal gown from my grandmother. I will be sure to post a picture a little bit later.

Somebody's Got a Case of the Mondays...

So going back to work for week two was harder than starting back week one in my opinion! It almost felt as if last week was a temporary thing... until today. I keep telling myself I am lucky enough to have short weeks through the end of the fiscal year (Sept. 30) because of having to use up my vacation.

This coming Wednesday night, Matt and I are going to check out a home (for the 3rd time) that we might make an offer on! Very exciting, nerve-wracking, etc. but nonetheless a good thing. We've asked my parents to come along to help us pick up on any possible issues that we might not notice. They've bought a house or two in their day and it definitely doesn't hurt to have extra eyes on such a large purchase.

This evening I put away some of Jack's first clothes that he has since outgrown. Its not that I hadn't known he didn't fit in them anymore, but I hadn't pulled them out of his dresser until tonight. I didn't think it would be that big of a deal, but it makes me kind of sad to be putting away some of the adorable teeny, tiny clothes that he wore as early as his first day home! I can not believe how big he's gotten at just over two months old! Speaking of, I forgot to update everyone on his stats from his 2 month check-up: 13 lbs. 2 oz. and 23.25 inches long! That's up 5 lbs and 2.75 inches from birth!

First Week Back

Luckily, for me the dreaded "first week" went very fast! Getting to see Jack midway through the day both Monday & Tuesday helped a ton... as well as getting to take a 1/2 day on Friday. My long recovery from childbirth is kind of a blessing in disguise, short-term disability insurance covered all of my leave due to "complications" (my doctor said I have a high pain tolerance, I figured I don't have anything to compare it to). I ended up with 10 of my vacation days (which I had saved to get paid out during my leave) must be used by September 30th (end of the fiscal year)! I'm so happy, I get close to 3-day weeks until then... making my part-time transition time pretty much come true!

For all of you breastfeeding moms out there, you know its not always easy! After the first week or so of tough times I came to really appreciate the bonding & snuggle time while feeding Jack. I didn't realize I would, but I really did miss those times this week. I am still nursing when at home but I am pumping 3 times throughout the workday so Jack can get breastmilk while I'm away. Pleasantly, so far I have been able to keep up with his needs (its always daunting to plan on something that may not come easily). I can already tell it might be tricky getting those three times a day in, but I really want to make it happen!

Well, this weekend we're kind of laying low! Last night we went to the mall, I got a couple of shower gifts for my friends getting married this fall and we also got a couple of cute onsies for Jack from The Children's Place! One saying "Man of the Year" another saying "Dad's New Football Buddy" (you can guess which one Matt really likes).

We cut our night pretty close because I knew Jack was getting kinda hungry but I thought he would be fine until we got home... needless to say the last few lights we hit before home were pretty much torture! He was hungry and screaming, by time we got him home and I was nursing him there were big ole tears streaming down his face. I will always hate those situations, but it wasn't the first and I'm sure it won't be the last.

We get to go house hunting again tomorrow! We got our pre-approval letter finally (we had a verbal amount from the consultation with the mortgage broker before) and it was higher than what we want to spend, but its nice to now have in writing! There are a few houses near old Hilliard that we're going to see and one in North Clintonville just south of Worthington. Matt and I are constantly struggling with making the right decision on this... buying your first home is kinda a big deal! We plan on living there for 3-5 years; our cars are the only things we've made long-term commitments to.... well, with the exception of each other through marriage and our son through parenthood! We're so excited for this new adventure! (Its not like we haven't started anything new in the past couple of years... ha ha!)

Tonight, we're off to my parents' house and out to dinner with my family and my grandma who's coming into town from Dayton. Should be fun, but now I need to get Jack fed and dressed!