A lesson in the art of the swaddle

If you talk at length with most new parents they will say that the key to getting a baby to sleep is The Swaddle.  Any baby book/website out there will give you a simple cartoon illustration on how to properly swaddle a baby.  And if you're still not sure, you can always watch the nurses at the hospital do it in oh, say 10 seconds flat.  Easy enough, right?

Wrong!!  I mean, really - you can learn how to swaddle a baby by looking a 4-5 cartoon images?  Or watching a nurse who performs that task a mere 567 times a day?  Not so much.  Especially if you are like me and couldn't get out of the bed the first 24 hours.  Jason did take it up on himself to watch the nurses swaddle Cooper as often as possible and to be honest he was quite proficient at The Swaddle.  I'll even go so far as to admit that for the first few weeks he was in charge of that little duty in our house.  I just couldn't get it right.

But that's not the point of this post.  The point I'm trying to make is that when we registered I chose the standard fleece receiving blankets that most of my friends recommended for the swaddle. 

I folded a few up to take to the hospital so that my baby could be wrapped in something other than the standard hospital blanket.  You know, something with character.  Something cute.

They didn't fit.  No matter how we folded that stinking blanket or how much we pulled and tugged and tucked it around Cooper, it just didn't happen.  One wriggle out of him and boom - he was free.  He was just too big.

But that generic, non-cute hospital blanket that shows up in every single photo of a new baby in the hospital?  Yeah, that fit.  The size was just a little different.  And the fabric?  It just stayed stuck.  I searched high and low for a blanket that was of the same size.  I mean every store and every website.  Nothing.  I swear they only make them for hospitals just to trick parents into thinking it will be easy to swaddle that baby when you get home. 

Just so you know, a blanket may or may not have snuck home with us.  And it worked, for a while.  Until Cooper outgrew it.  Fortunately Jason had added something to our registry that I sort of gave the side-eye to.  But I just left it on there since he really liked it.  To be honest, the photo that came with the packaging was a little creepy and not cute.

I am now here to say that blanket was the best purchase ever.  It's huge.  And stretchy.  And so stinking cute when on my kiddo!  We used it every single day and I would not take an overnight trip without it. 

I became so attached to that blanket that I bought another one that was equally cute.  Besides, they come with some awesome hats.  I'm a sucker for baby hats.

We still use them.  Yes, my kid is 4 months old and we still swaddle.  Why?  Because momma needs her sleep and Cooper only sleeps if he's wrapped up tighter than King Tut.

Weekend recap full of new toys

This weekend, since Jason was in the attic, I asked him to bring down the exersaucer.  I've seen photos of people on the nest who have kids around the same age and are loving this toy so I figured Cooper would get a kick out of it.

Little did I know...my man isn't quite big enough for it yet.  Poor guy - Jason put him in the seat and he just flopped forward.  Fortunately, I've learned almost all of my parenting tricks on the internet and one of them was to add a little extra something to the seat.  Notice a blue & brown blanket stuffed around the kid?  Yeah, that's to keep him upright.  Hey, it works.

He wasn't quite as fascinated with the toys and I'd hoped thought he would be, but he did enjoy the ability to turn around and view the tv.  Lord have mercy that kid will watch anything that is on.  Aunt Sassy - I'm totally blaming that on you...

Also, this is currently one of his favorite toys.  Mostly because it's usually close to where I am and it's the one I hand him.  The Easter Bunny was kind enough to send it via my mom.  Although I think he'd enjoy it more if he could get the whole thing in his mouth.  Cooper gets a little frustrated when he realizes that it's just not going to happen.

PS: a big thank you to Maegan for some hand-me-down toys.  The Bumbo and exersaucer both belonged to Jett.  I was really hesitant to get a Bumbo since Cooper seems to carry his weight in his thighs, but so far so good.  And those stinking exersaucers are $$$!  Man.

4 month check-up

Jason landed the responsibility of taking Cooper to the pediatrician for his 4 month check-up.  I reminded him that he'd get shots, but he seemed ready for the task at hand.  So yesterday I headed to work and left the boys at home waiting for a late morning visit.

He got Cooper dressed and headed out the door.  Coop apparently was very stressed about the shots and fell asleep on the way.

Then it happened.  He blew out the diaper in the waiting room.  We've both kind of forgotten how bad these diapers can be since he usually does it at daycare so when we get a good poop-splosion we're both a little shocked.  This one came out of the diaper and on to the clothes.  Fortunately Jason had an extra set of pjs in his diaper bag so Coop went to school in pjs for the first time.  Hey - at least he was comfy!!

On a side note, I'm going to talk about diapers.  I refused to stockpile before we came home not knowing if we'd be Huggies or Pampers lovers.  The usual rule of thumb is Huggies for boys and Pampers for girls, but Jett was a Pampers baby.  Then when I started asking around there really seems to be no rhyme or reason.  The hospital started us off with Pampers.  We really seemed to have no issues with them so I came home thinking we might be a Pampers house.  Wrong.  I don't know if they changed that sucker every 45 minutes or what because the next day he started peeing out of every freaking diaper until we switched to the Huggies.  I even tried going back to Pampers a few months later, but was never really happy. 

Well, recently I had an opened package of Pampers size 2 that I decided to use just because we had them.  I was pleasantly surprised.  Those suckers hold gallons of pee!  I started to think we'd make the switch to being a "whatever brand is cheapest" household.  Until I found the fault in the Pampers.  Poop.  It just won't stay in.  The few times he's let it loose while wearing the Pampers it's ended up with us changing his clothes.  Guess we're back to the tried and true Huggies.

Ok, so back to the doctor.  Overall Cooper looks great!  Growing, obviously.  Dr. K said we could start solids whenever we're ready but we should stick with either all fruits or all veggies for a while when we do.  And he suggested getting a cookbook to follow.  ((fine by me, I love any reason to buy another cookbook))  He really feels like Coop does have a cold and we don't need to worry about allergies yet, however they could always show up a year or two down the road.  And we were told to get some sunblock before we take him outside for an extended period of time.  Apparently a little kiddo was in just a few days earlier with a bad sunburn!  The parents had been under a canopy but the sun reflected off of the pool and...well, poor baby.  I am going to hunt for some good sunblock for Coop since I plan on hanging around by my mom's pool as much as possible this summer.

As for stats...well, he's still up there!
Weight: 17lbs (between 75 and 90%...yeah, not real accurate)
Height: 27 3/4" (above 95%)

Doing my Civic Duty

Tuesday was election day, so Cooper and walked to the neighborhood polling location to cast our vote. He fell asleep on the way back and I just pulled the stroller in the house and left him. He slept for almost an hour. Tuesday was the day from hell, so there was NO way I was going to wake him up.

FYI - I love this stroller. It's a Baby Jogger, but not really a jogging stroller. It does, however, ride really well and is super easy to push with just 1 hand. I have a feeling that may change when C gets even bigger, but for now - it's easy.

The Frog

Shortly before Cooper was born, Kelly told me I had to get one of these. She said that Eileen loved hers (as shown here) and just knew Cooper would too. So, on one of our 457 trips to Babies R Us before he got here, I picked one up. And then when his cord fell off I pulled that sucker out. Instant happiness.

Anytime we bathe Cooper we pull out the frog and he goes into a serene happy place...just waiting on us to finish what we're doing. As long as we keep the frog warm, he's happy.

So - as Kelly said to us, get one of these! So worth it if you have a baby on the way.