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Baby Boy Clothes (cuter than they used to be...)

1/31/2013

"I'm a blank canvas, Mom"

I know..."cuter" isnt' a word. Moving on...I love shopping for baby clothes. Understatement of the century. I love shopping in person, online, in magazines, EVERYWHERE! The problem is...some baby clothes are ridiculously expensive. Most baby clothes are expensive. I mean, honestly. I've gone through size NB-6months in just the past 4 months of his life and we're always moving on to the next. It's just not cost-effective to keep M.D. in the latest and greatest trends. That is, unless, I can get them for CHEAP!! I was very excited to see that Carters.com had a super-sale going on the other day: take an additional 20% off of already clearance-priced items.

I thought I'd share some of the cute things I found. Most of them are still for sale on the website and, in fact, a few have dropped further in price since I purchased them!

Layered-Look Button-Front Shirt (Ivory)
Current Price: $4.99

Long-Sleeve Layered-Look Graphic Tee (AKA Bad Ass Baby)
Current Price: $3.99

2-Piece Pants Set
Current Price: $5.99

So, I wasn't lying! Super inexpensive, adorable, baby boy clothes! The only downside...$6 shipping. I'm always a fan of hunting around for free shipping, bonus coupons, etc. to make my shopping experience even more satisfying. Kohls usually has free shipping & I get those awesome 30% coupons in the mail which are amazing! Where do you hunt for inexpensive (but cute) baby clothes??

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Say Cheese...or scream

1/31/2013

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Baby Portraits. Gotta love 'em. Or not. I have always been a big believer in the documentation of a child's life from birth to...well...when you stop wanting to take their picture because they no longer agree to smile at you (because they hate you). I figure I've got a solid 13 years in which to get as many pictures taken of M.D. as possible so that when he's in his mid-20's and having children of his own he can look back and say...look how cute I was...doesn't our baby look just like me?!

We were lucky enough, for M.D.'s newborn pictures, to have our neighbor offer to take them, in our home, for free. JACKPOT!! He normally charges $200 per session so we were so thankful for the gift when we had nothing but moths fluttering out of our pocketbooks and bills coming in from the hospital where M.D. and I hung out for a few days after he was born. (That beef broth sure was expensive!)

So when it came time for M.D.'s 2 month pictures we had a decision to make. Would we pay some professional photographer to take his photos again...or suck it up and go to a department store studio? Once we realized that we are NOT the Trump family we decided to suck it up at take the kid to a local chain store...let's call it the classier version of Walmart. I scheduled his photos a month in advance...because I'm that type of psychotic person...and when the day came we got him all gussied up in his cutest outfit and hauled off to the rich-man's Walmart. We arrived and were told by the overly-happy receptionist that they were running, about 5 minutes late. No problem! We had, infact, prepared for this! We had a list...a short list...of miscellaneous items which needed to be purchased at this particular store anyways. So, I sent Steven off on his merry way to pick up the items and M.D. and I found a chair in the thimble-sized waiting room and proceeded to wait.

45 Minutes Later...1 bottle of formula....1 diaper change...1 LARGE spit up all over cutest outfit in the world... MULTIPLE MAJOR MELTDOWNS...and 1 mom about to lose her shit. We finally get called into the studio 45 MINUTES LATER! I wanted to take the receptionist and strangle her with M.D.'s vomit-soaked shirt. The photographer was not much better...I got Mason to at least STOP CRYING and stare in her general direction..but she didn't take the picture. SHE DIDN'T TAKE THE PICTURE!!! She wanted him to look directly at her and SMILE! I'm Sorry..but would you also like $1 Million and a pony?!?! I was not in the mood to explain..so I let her squeak her toys and talk her goo-goo talk at him until I could tell he thought I had dropped him off at the mental institution...at which point...he melted down. MAJOR meltdown. It took everything in me not to meltdown with him!

We got a total of 3 pictures from that day. 3 PICTURES. After 45 minutes in the waiting room and 15 minutes in the studio. 1 HOUR OF MELTDOWNS FOR 3 F-ING PICTURES! All I've gotta say is that this boy better appreciate his 2 month pictures. I hope that photographer learned a valuable lesson in shooting photos of colicky babies.
For 6 months...we're making the investment for the REAL photographer...or we'll just skip 'em :) NOT!

<-----This is the closest thing she got to a smile from Mr. M.D. that day. Gotta love him for being stubborn like his 'ole Mom :)

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Colic...what a bitch

1/30/2013

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So as stated in the blog description I am the lucky mother of a beautiful baby boy...who had colic. Has colic. Does colic ever really go away? I guess because I'm saying that it means it probably does, but hasn't yet. Yikes. Colic is the nastiest of ailments. Firstly, there is no cure. Great. Secondly, there's a list of "remedies" that can possibly, maybe, hopefully help your baby with their colic...but there's no guarantee. Super. Thirdly, there's no known cause. This just keeps getting better. Colic, before having M.D., was a dirty word in my mind. Maybe if I didn't say, didn't mention it, it wouldn't attack. We could sneak around it. Forget the fact that I was a colicky baby, along with both of my siblings...but somehow I was going to skip over that silly colic and have the happiest baby on the block.
I actually bought that book during my pregnancy...The Happiest Baby on the Block...it seems ironic now.

M.D. is colicky. Damnit. He has been since week 2. He was 2 weeks early...so technically he was colicky from the day we was supposed to be born. And as for those "home remedies"...we tried them all. At first we thought he was lactose intolerant because he would scream after every feeding. I tried a no-dairy diet and for 2 days it worked. We celebrated! Then by the 3rd day it was back again. Screaming. Screaming. Screaming. So we switched to soy formula...maybe I was unknowingly eating dairy in tiny amounts that was getting to him. And it worked. We celebrated! And then about a week later the screaming started again. Damnit. As I sit here today we have tried breastfeeding + 3 different formulas. He has been to the chiropractor, has been swaddled, has been on Zantac and probiotics. We are finally seeing a difference.

I see a lot of baby blogs that give you the top 10 items to buy for baby. I'm going to do something different. Here are my top 5 items necessary for a colicky baby. These items (individually & grouped together) may save your sanity. They are in no particular order...because who knows which one works better than the other...all I know is thank GOD for all of them!

1) Fischer-Price Snug-a-Monkey Rocker
This rocker is a life saver for sleeping in those first few weeks. It tilts the baby at 45 degree (okay...that might be made up) angle so they don't have acid reflux in their sleep. M.D. still loves his for hanging out in when I'm cooking, though he can almost scoot himself out.
2) Dr. Brown's BPA Free Bottles
We tried EVERY kind of bottle out there. M.D. got gassy from almost all of them...these were & are awesome. We just upgraded to the 8oz size. One word of caution...they are a bitch to put together. It feels like 100 piece 3D puzzle when you've got a screaming child and you're trying to make the bottle as fast as possible. The trade-off: no crying AFTER eating from gas & bloat.
3) Cheap Stick Vacuum
There's no particular brand that is better than the other when it comes to this item. In fact, the only rule is: the cheaper the better! The sound of a vacuum cleaner can be very soothing it a crabby colicky baby, however, I have heard horror stories of people blowing up their expensive Hoover because they ran it for 3 hours straight...2 times daily...7 days a week...for 6 months...(you think I'm kidding). So my advice is to buy the cheapeast piece-of-shit vacuum you can find so if you blow it up you don't care. I bought ours the week before college started so I got it for $10.
4) Cloud B Sleep Sheep on the Go
Think of this as a travel vacuum cleaner...cuz you can't exactly plug your vacuum into your car. We brought this lamb EVERYWHERE! It hooks onto the carseat handle so they can listen to it in the car, and wherever you take them when you get out of the car. I specifically remember bringing M.D. to the chiropractor and the receptionist saying, "Where was that when I had kids?!" Apparently she recorded the sound of a vacuum on a cassette tape and brought it with her everywhere she went. Talk about hassle. Buy the lamb.
5) YouTube Womb Sounds
The best part about this item. Its FREE! We BLARED this on our surround sound in our TV room when M.D. wouldn't calm down. There's heartbeat sounds...rushing fluid...basically everything a womb's got to offer sound-wise. It totally freaked out the dogs.

So there you go. A few suggestions for you, your friends, your coworkers, your worst enemies. Colic is a bitch. It asks you...Do you STILL love this creature you created? Are you STILL happy you had a baby? I bet you don't want another one now... Yes, Yes you do. You DO still love that little screaming kicking creature. You ARE still happy you had one (though you can't wait to have a happy one)...and you definitely DO want another one.....in 100 years.

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Baby Boy Clothes (cuter than they used to be...)

Say Cheese...or scream

Colic...what a bitch

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