Gizmos and Gadgets Part Two: On the Go

Here’s part two of a look at the gizmos and gadgets that we use with Kayley. Like part one I’ll review items that we use with Kayley, what I think of them and my interpretation of what Kayley thinks of them. In this blog I’ll be looking at the items that help Andrew and I take Kayley out and about.

Car Seat – Graco SnugRide 30: B is for Bear

Features: Can hold a child up to 30 inches long or 30 lbs. Handle can be moved forward and backwards. Has a canopy to keep sun and rain off of baby. Soft fleece cover with removable head support. Adjustable straps. Can be put into Graco car seat base and SnugRider Stroller Frame.

Kayley’s first ride in her car seat was the night we took her home from the hospital. She doesn’t necessarily like being strapped in it (what child does really?), but she’s happy once you start moving. I like it because it’s easy to put in and take out of the car with her in it. Plus it fits into the Graco stroller frame. Sometimes when we take her places we just take it out of the car and carry it, other times we just click it into the stroller frame and push her on the way. I personally don’t think it’s too big or too heavy compared to other car seats, and it fits into our car pretty well. A down side is that the car seat cover is made of fleece for the B is for Bear series, and thus Kayley can get hot pretty fast on really hot days. But we live in the Seattle area, so we don’t have to worry about that much. I overall really like our car seat and how easy it is to take Kayley on the go with it.

About to go home from the hospital

Sleeping after a ride in the car

  

Stroller – Graco SnugRider Infant Car Seat Stroller Frame

Features: Adjustable handle height, fold in half, light weight, storage basket, cup holders, swivel wheels, front and back wheel locks, any Graco infant car seat can fit it and lock securely.

I love that we have this stroller frame! It makes it so easy to take Kayley places. We just have to carry her car seat outside, our take it out of the car, click it into the stroller frame, and off we go! It’s not made for off trailing or anything like that, but it’s great for parks, malls, the neighborhood, etc. Plus it fits in the back of our car when none of the travel system strollers could because they were too big. It has the perfect amount of storage for those who don’t take their whole house with them when they go out (something I think people with travel system are encouraged to do because of ALL the extra storage they have). It’s easy to fold up and put into the car. And it’s really light, but not flimsy. So, if you have a Graco infant car seat, a limited amount of space in your car, don’t want a stroller that is a lot of hassle, this stroller frame is perfect. 

Out and about in Leavenworth, WA

At the zoo

Baby Carrier – BabyBjorn baby carrier

Features: All adjustments made in front, easy to take baby in and out of, hold baby close and keeps hands free, can hold child facing you or looking outward.

The BabyBjorn is a fun and easy way to take Kayley on walks when a stroller is inconvenient, or because she wants to be able to look around more and be in an upright position. Since the BabyBjorn is like a backpack carrier you wear in front, it allows more air to flow through than a Moby Wrap does (in my opinion). Like the car seat, Kayley does not necessarily like getting strapped into it, but once you start moving she really seems to enjoy it. Especially now that her vision is getting better so she can see more of the world around her. The Bjorn has been great to take on some of our weekend trip and for walks around the neighborhood. And we’ve used it to carry her around the house when doing chores.  Basically we like that we have the Bjorn, and we think Kayley likes it too.

Out and about on a mini walk by a river

Inside the observatory at Mt. St. Helens

Walking around at the zoo

  

Baby Carrier - Moby Wrap

I like our Moby Wrap. It’s soft and comfortable to wear, and Kayley can snuggle in it. It keeps her comfortable against my chest and allows me to have free hands. Our Moby Warp was a hand-me-down from a friend and I’m super glad to have it. However, summer is coming and it’s getting hot, and our Moby Wrap has a fleece panel. This makes it so the wearer and Kayley get overheated if it’s hot outside. It’s perfect for cool evening though. I’m sure it will get more use once the summer months pass because I really like to wear it with Kayley and Kayley seems to be very comfortable in it.

She loves the snuggle time and to hold onto the side

Andrew's comment: Guys can wear pink too!

Diaper Bag – Fisher Price Precious Planets Large Tote Bag

Features: Large bag with lots of space, 3 elastic pockets, one outer zip pouch, easy to clean changing pad.

This diaper bag holds everything we could possibly need for a long day out. For quick little outings we use a small mini backpack that I’ve owned for a long time because the tote can hold a LOT and you don’t always need a lot with you. But when you want to be prepared with an extra receiving blanket, extra clothes for baby and an extra shirt for you, nursing cover, burp clothes, diapers, wipes and more, then this bag is perfect. Plus I think it’s super cute. ^_^

The only good picture with the diaper bag in it

Hope you all learned something! Two more Gizmos and Gadgets entries to go! Stay tuned!

Gizmos and Gadgets Part One: The Toys

I thought I would tell you what gizmos and gadgets we use with Kayley, and give my review on the items. I’m hoping this will be helpful for parents, those expecting, and those who want to have children. And of course to let you all know what Kayley thinks of her gizmos and gadgets too. Please keep in mind though that every child is different. For example: I was a child who loved my swing, bouncer and jumper. Andrew on the other hand hated all of his.

Swing – Fisher Price (old model) 3 in 1

My cousin gave us a Fisher Price swing that he got for his son at a consignment store. It’s in great condition and is a 3 in 1 model. We got it from my cousin because his little boy hates it. Kayley on the other had loves it. She loves to just stare and sometimes babble at the owl and lion toys that hang down. She has also taken many naps and snoozes in the swing. She does not care if the music is playing or not, so I rarely turn it on. We have discovered that she can be happy and content in the swing as long as she was happy prior to putting her in. It does not calm her from crying in other words. But she does spend time in her swing practically every day.

Taking a snooze

Bouncer – Bright Stars InGenuity Automatic Bouncer – Briarcliff

Features: 2 bounce speeds, choice of music or nature sounds, and volume control.

We were given this bouncer as a shower gift and it is great! Kayley loves to bounce away in it in the morning and listen to her music play. The bouncer lives in our bathroom and I swear it is the only reason why I am able to take a shower every day. I strap Kayley in and she stays happy and content as I get ready for the day. She loves to either watch me or look around the room. She could care less about the dangle animals on it. As her motor skills have improved, she has discovered that her motion can also make the bouncer move more. 

Bouncing time!

Floor Gym Mat – Fisher-Price Rainforest Melodies and Light Deluxe Gym

Features: Hanging toys (you can change the location of where they hang), battery powered color lights and music with 3 settings (music, nature sounds, and motion activated sound) and volume control.

We have used this shower gift since Kayley was about two weeks old. At first she used to just lay there and look at the toys. Now she reaches for them and interacts with them. We only recently got batteries for it, so the flashing color lights and music has been something new for Kayley. She seems to enjoy the lights quite a bit, but her favorite part is still the hanging toys. It’s easy to get out and put away (it folds in half), a feature I really like because it means there is less chance of it getting covered in cat hair, plus when it’s not in use it takes up very little room and it leans against our wall. Kayley seems to love to have floor play with this gym, and she has tummy time with it too.

Just laying and looking

Reaching and interacting with a hanging toy

Jumper – Evenflo Johnny Jump Up: Frogs

Yes, Kayley is small for this, but she loves it so much! Since Kayley is a baby who wants to stand up and use her legs, we went ahead and purchased this for her. We have put Kayley in this since she was able to hold up her head (10 weeks) and we just put blankets around her to make her fit. Kayley isn’t physically developed to jump yet, but she does like to move her legs, shift her weight from leg to leg, make herself turn, and occasionally hop in this jumper. I love that it’s easy to put up and take down, though I do have to use a step stool since I’m short. Kayley really likes to exercise in her jumper, babble and laugh. I think it was a great purchase. Plus it’s easy to clean. 

Pushing her feet around. This is before she figured out she can take out her arms.

She likes to chew on the side. We now cover it with a cloth so we just have to wash that instead of the jumper all the time.

Bumbo Baby Seat

Since Kayley likes to be in an upright position we thought we would go ahead and get a Bumbo for her so it can help her sit up when we can’t hold her. I have a niece who loves to sit and look at the world, just like Kayley does, and my niece loves her Bumbo. Well, there is one big difference between Kayley and my niece; my niece loves to sit and watch and isn’t too interested in moving yet, Kayley on the other hand really likes to move. I have thus had some good times with Kayley in her Bumbo that are very short, and many bad times. She is fine and happy in it until she realized she cannot move. Then she starts to cry. And she has recently discovered that she can arch her back and practically get herself out of it. This fact scared me. So while the Bumbo does do a great thing and helps your child to sit and build up muscle strength to sit on their own, I do not believe it can safely keep a child in who would rather be moving around. We are thus returning the item. 

Prior to realizing she could not move. The it turned from this to tears.

I'm planning on three more Gizmos and Gadgets entries: On the go items, Sleep time items, and care and feeding items.

*Note: These reviews were given when Kayley was 11 weeks old.

Figuring Out the Moves

Over the last couple days, Kayley has started to figure out she can move more by herself. It started last Saturday when we were over at my aunt and uncles for dinner. We had Kayley lying on the floor on a blanket. It was the first time that she really was kicking and leaning to her left and right. Then she figured out that she can push her feet on the floor on make herself move. She even almost turned herself on her side a couple times, but continued to be on her back.

Since then, when she’s has floor play she has been moving her body more. For a while she has been reaching up to hit her toys on her jungle gym mat. Now she is kicking and pushing with her feet while on her back. And yesterday for the first time she got herself onto her side. She was so close to rolling over onto her tummy a couple times, all she needed to do was swing her leg over a bit more and shift her body weight a bit, and gravity would have done the rest. But she rolled back onto her back each time.

It’s still really exciting to watch though. I keep thinking any time now she could figure it out and rollover. I know she’ll do it when she’s ready. Then she’ll probably get frustrated and annoyed about being on her tummy since she still isn’t a huge fan of tummy time. I’ve already been able to see this reaction with another skill she has been working on.  

Sometimes during my storybook reading time with Kayley I will sit on the floor with my legs out in a V and have Kayley sitting in front of me with her back leaning against me. Yesterday she started to lean forward, well almost launch herself forward. I kept catching her and holding her back, but she kept doing it. So I moved our books out of the way and let her do it again, this time without stopping her motion. Basically she did a face plant onto the carpet (not hard or anything). She didn’t stop there though! She kept on moving and wiggling until she was lying flat on her tummy with her arms out to the side. She stayed like that for a little bit, lifted up her head a few times to look around, and then started her frustrated cry. I don’t know if it’s because she realized she was on her tummy, or if it was because she couldn’t figure out how to move more.

Andrew got home at the end of our reading time and Kayley started doing her launching forward thing again. So I said “look what our daughter can do” as Kayley face planted again (still without tears), and wiggled until she was on her tummy. We figure she needs to learn cause and effect at some point, and she’s not hurting herself. Eventually this motion can turn into leaning forward with her hands out to start to crawl.

First Time Away

Last Saturday Andrew and I were really brave and were away from our baby girl for just over 5 hours! What did we do? We saw the new stage musical Aladdin at the 5^th Avenue Theater and had an early dinner at Cheesecake Factory. What did Kayley do while we were away? She got to hang out with two of her cousins who get to say they were her first babysitters.

Since it was my nieces, Sara and Katie, who were taking care of Kayley, I don’t think I had too much anxiety about leaving her. They have both spent lots of time with her already and are very qualified babysitters. Plus they love their little cousin!

When my sister dropped them off we finished getting ready and showed them where everything was and probably rattled off more information than we needed to. Once Andrew and I got to our car we prayed that not only would Kayley be good for her cousins, but that we would be able to relax and have a good time out on the town.

Aladdin is a new musical that wants to make it to Broadway, and we were able to see it during its first week on stage. This means it was still rough around the edges, but very enjoyable. An announcer told us before the show started that there were directors and other people scattered in the audience that were not only watching the production, but watching to audience to see how we were reacting to the musical so they would get a good idea on what needs to be worked on. And we were told that we would be watching their first live performance of a new number they integrated into the musical. I have to say the production was pretty darn good. I really enjoyed it and so did Andrew. It’s based off of Disney’s Aladdin, but is very different from the movie and the stage production that is at California Adventures. 

Why yes, we did get all dressed up

After the show I do admit that I texted Sara to see how things were going and to let them know we were headed to dinner. And during dinner I glanced at my phone a few times… I trust my nieces 100%, but that doesn’t mean Kayley was going to be good for them. And it was my first time away from the little girl! But Andrew and I did try to steer clear of the topic of Kayley while at dinner and just have a good time. Like always, the food at Cheesecake Factory was delicious.

When we got back my nieces reported that Kayley was great, and that they took her on two walks. They also told us that she didn’t really want to eat from the bottle no matter how much they tried (she had two feedings while we were gone and should have eaten about 6oz total. She only ate a total of about 2oz). Kayley was hungry, but basically decided she would rather hold out for her mommy than take breast milk from a bottle. This is a turnaround from previous times she has been given a bottle (not counting the one she was given during VBS a few days before). It’s like she has suddenly decided bottled breast milk isn’t good enough and that she wants it fresh.

We’re going to try and solve this issue. We’ve been told the best thing to do is to try different nipples for the bottle. Well it turns out our Playtex drop in system doesn’t have much nipple variety. They have different flows, but not different shapes/sizes. We might need to buy other bottles. Something we’re not looking forward to because there is no guarantee she will take the ones we try. Hopefully we’ll be able to work something out.

Anyway! Andrew and I had a great first date experience and we are so thankful for Sara and Katie giving up their Saturday to spend some time with Kayley so we could go out. Thank you girls! 

Katie and Sara! Kayley's first babysitters!

Size

Kayley and I have both been going through changes recently. Kayley has been growing, and I have been slowly going down in size since I gave birth to her. For Kayley I think it has been easier for her in the clothes area to adapt than me.

Right now she is primarily wearing 3/6 month clothes and 6 months clothes. There are still a few 3 months clothes that fit her, but those are slowly getting to be snugger around her tummy and getting harder to snap together down at her tush. And she has been in size 2 diaper for a couple weeks now. So basically what I’m saying is that we aren’t having any trouble finding clothes that fit Kayley just right. Although we have found that she is not a huge fan of sleepers. They keep her too hot at night right now, and she cannot stretch her legs out straight in them. She thus prefers to sleep in a onsie with socks.

As for me? I am in between sizes and finding it to be most difficult to find pants that fit me. They either are perfect for me standing up, and then to tight when I sit down. Or they’re perfect when I sit down, but too loose when I’m standing up. I partially blame this on my hips widening out due to giving birth to Kayley (though they will be perfect for resting her on when she gets a little bigger. That’s why women have hips, right? To give birth to their children and to rest their children on when they get older). I’ve always hated pant shopping and this makes it so frustrating!  As for shirts, well, the number of shirts that fit me right is about the same or less than the number of shirts that fit me while pregnant. This is due to still having a belly so my smaller shirts don’t fit me yet, but my larger size shirts don’t fit me either because they’re too tight across my chest.

Yes I could go out and buy more clothes, but my body is still changing so much that I don’t know how long something will fit me for. I don’t really want to buy something and then find out a week or two later that it doesn’t fit any more.

Alright, hopefully I have that all out of my system now so poor Andrew doesn’t have to hear me complain about it anymore. Or at least not as often.

I do think it’s amazing how much Kayley has been growing, and that she can already wear 6 month clothes! There are some super cute outfits that I wish she still fit into though. Who knows, maybe Andrew and I will have a second little girl in the future and she can wear all those cute clothes.

New Practitioner for Kayley

Today we met Kayley’s new pediatrician, Z. It took us a while to decide where to go for Kayley’s doctor appointments after we moved, and then a while to pick which doctor we wanted her to see. Our first choice wasn’t taking new patients once we decided on her. So we had to pick someone else. Z does not have an MD, however she has a PhD and is a ARNP (Advanced Registered Nurse Practitioner) with many years of experience. So far we really like her and she seems like she will be a good fit for our family.

Kayley is growing so much! She is now 12lbs 14.5oz and 23.5 inches long! This puts her in the 90^th percentile for weight and length. What does that mean? That means that in the US for weight, 90% of baby girls her age weight 12lbs 14.5oz or less. And for length this means that in the US, 90% of girls her age are 23.5 inches or shorter.

Here’s a little tester to see if you understood the last paragraph. Kayley’s head circumference is 15.25 inches, which puts her in the 25-50 percentile. This means that in the US for head circumference, 25-50% of baby girls her age have a head circumference that is _(a)__ or _(b)__.

If you put “15.25 inches” in (a) and “less” in (b), then you got it!

Now is percentile numbers really important? To me, not really. What matters to me is that my baby is healthy and growing.

Our little girl was a champ today. After her physical check-up it was time for her to be poked. Well, actually she was given one of her immunizations orally and made a few funny faces and tried to spit some of it out. Then it was time for her to be poked and prodded. First the little one had to have her heel poked for blood to be drawn for her second PKU test. We’ll get the results soon, but we really don’t think we have anything to worry about. She cried while I held her, but her paci calmed her down.

Next she was given a few shots into her right and left leg. Oh my goodness she cried! It was so hard to listen to, knowing that the shots were being given to her for good reason, but that she didn’t understand what that reason was. She only understood that it hurt. She cried so hard, turned bright red and didn’t breathe for a short time as she held her breath (she cries like her mommy. Well I don’t turn bright read, but I am known to hold my breath while I cry). The poor little one. =( This time her paci didn’t sooth her that much, but it did help. Eventually she fell asleep from tiring herself out from crying. 

Poor lil Kayley. =(

She cried so much she fell asleep with Mr. Crinklephent.

We’re prepared for her to be extra cranky today due to her shots. But after coming home and eating, she is now sleeping soundly again. Probably still recovering from being poked. Her next appointment will be when she’s four months old, which is in about 6 weeks.

Now here are some happy pictures to show what Kayley has been up to. 

She likes to practice standing

She loves dressing up for church

She has discovered it's fun to chew on toys

She has begun to reach for and play with toys