Quick Before I Get Sidetrack'd

Baby Girl has started smiling (relationally as opposed to randomly) and especially likes to lavish her smiles on her doting big sister.

Sunday morning as I got ready for church Baby Girl sat in her comfy chair happily looking around. Little came up and started chatting with Baby Girl, and, of course, Baby Girl smiled and smiled at her.

After a few minutes Little told me that Baby Girl was giving her all the smiles. And then she told her daddy: “I’m all filled up with smiles because Baby Girl keeps giving me all her smiles.”

And my heart melted at the sweet sisterly-ness of it all.

If only they would still be this sweet to each other in the years to come.

Baby girl has a variety of places where she can sleep relax and enjoy the scenery – a swing, a baby papasan chair, a bouncy seat, a pack ‘n play, her carseat – and at different times in her short life has made use of each one. A couple of weeks ago we added another “special seat” to her bounty, and it has become her very own comfy chair.

This is the Fisher Price Rock ‘n Play Sleeper, a seat designed to go from day to night as a play seat, rocker, and sleeper (it meets all industry standards for bassinets). And we use it for all three. Baby girl’s chair travels with her wherever she is in the house – during the day it generally resides in the living room (where we spend most of our time) and travels to the kitchen or my bedroom as necessary, during the night it sits beside her crib and cradles her as she sleeps. We have pretty much put all of our other baby equipment away for now.

There are several things that I (and apparently baby girl) really like about this seat:
~ It is elevated which makes it much easier to get her in and out of and also limits how the older kids can get to her (I don’t have to worry about Boo climbing in on top of her). It is also the perfect height to rock from the couch or bed (although I haven’t used it as a bedside sleeper).
~ The design of the seat is inclined and kind of sling-like. It cradles her and keeps her from slumping like she does in the bouncy seat and swing, but the incline allows her to look around more than she can in the pack ‘n play. I think this seat would have been great for Boo, too, since he had to sleep at an incline to help with his reflux.
~ It doesn’t take batteries. This is one of those weird things, but I like that, one, we don’t have to worry about having a certain type of batteries on hand, and, two, that there isn’t an annoying hum or click coming through the monitor from her room all night long.
~ It is very portable. The swing and bouncy seat are bulky and clunky to move around while holding an infant in one arm. The Rock ‘n Play Sleeper is lightweight and easy to move around. It will slide along the carpet or is light enough to carry easily, and it is narrow enough to fit through doors with no problems. It also folds to make it suitable for travel.
~ It was easy to assemble. Assembly requires no tools, and I was able to put it together by myself in just a matter of minutes.

There are a couple of potential cons – If you have a baby who needs the vibrations in a bouncy seat or papasan chair to soothe them, this seat would not be a good choice since the manual rocking motion is the only motion it offers. Also, it is designed for newborns and infants up to 25 pounds or until the child is able to pull up or sit unassisted, so it doesn’t have quite as much age/weight range as some other baby products.

Matt and I were concerned initially about the stability of the sleeper since Boo has a tendency to hang on things and try to climb into seats with baby girl; however, we haven’t had any issues with tipping even when Boo has tried to get to baby. The biggest downside I’ve found is that it is light enough for Little and Boo to move it around; for the first few days I never knew where in the room baby girl would be if I left the room for a minute.

Overall, I think the Rock ‘n Play Sleeper is a really good product. I would not consider it a “necessity” for baby, but it is definitely a great seat to have around.

Thank you to MomSelect and Fisher Price for the chance to review this product.

Disclaimer: Fisher Price provided me one Rock ‘n Play Sleeper free of charge as part of a product review program through MomSelect. The opinions expressed in this post are purely my own.

I’m one month old now, and…

…I nurse like a champ.
…sometimes I go four hours between feedings & sometimes just an hour & a half.
…I alternate between good and bad nights (good night/bad night, rinse, repeat).
…mommy and daddy wish I’d get a little more consistent at night.
…I like to hang out in the swing and my new Rock ‘n Play Sleeper.
…my big sister and big brother love me very much.
…sometimes my brother loves me a little too much…and a little too aggressively.
…I love being worn – in either the ring sling or wrap.
…I’m very alert when I’m awake and usually pretty content (if I’m being held).
…my mommy and daddy love me very, very much!

On Sunday morning, January 10, as we prepared to leave for church, my Mom called to let me know that my grandmother, Mema, had been hospitalized due to heart attack. At that point no one really had much information except that she was stable and being admitted to the cardiac care unit for tests and observation.

On Monday morning, January 11, I was awakened about 5 a.m. by contractions that steadily grew stronger and closer together. I was 40 weeks 3 days pregnant, so we were anxiously awaiting the arrival of our newest baby girl…

To read more, click here and check out my entry in PAXbaby.com’s 13 Days of Peace and Love.

I know there are a few of you anxiously (or not) awaiting an update post on baby girl. Sorry, but you’re going to have to wait a bit longer for a couple of reasons: 1) I want to post this first, and 2) we have to take some pictures of the baby. Poor thing is seriously going to have third child syndrome; she’ll be a month old tomorrow and the only pictures we have of her are the ones we took in the hospital. Yes, I do feel Mommy guilt, so let’s move on.

Little is all about snow this winter. She talks about snow, asks when it is going to snow, and plots the things she will do when she finally gets to play in the snow.

Imagine her disappointment when our first snow of the winter left us with barley a 1/2 inch dusting (in fact, I think the layer of dust in my house is deeper than the snow was on the ground). When she looked out and saw the “snow” the following conversation ensued:

Little: Mom, can I play in the snow?
Me: Little, there really isn’t enough snow to play in.
Little: Can I make a snowman?
Me: No, baby, there isn’t enough snow.
Little: Can I make a snow angel?
Me: Sorry, sweetheart, there isn’t enough snow.
Little: Well, can I at least make a footprint?

Fortunately, there was enough snow for her to make some footprints.

So, that was our first encounter with snow this year. Then, a couple of weeks ago, the weather people started forecasting a big snow headed our way. We were supposed to get 6-8 inches, and everyone was very excited (and very anxious to get to the grocery for bread and milk). This is the South, people!

There was enough for the little people to go out and play, which they loved.

check out the tiny snowman; that’s all the snowman they could build

And the next day the ice made it perfect for sledding. They loved this too!

Little was much more impressed with this snow, but since it was mostly ice it posed challenges of its own.

She couldn’t make a snow angel because she couldn’t push her arms down hard enough to break through the ice crust.

And poor Boo had trouble walking in it. Just about every time he took a step he lost his balance as his foot broke through the ice crust and fell on his bucket. I so wish I had been filming him when he first went out; he stepped over the transition point between our concrete patio and the grass, lost his balance, and went sprawling face forward into the snow. It was hilarious!

That was the first of our two snows in a week and a half span. I’ll post about this week’s snow soon.