APPsolutely!

Happy Monday Mommies!

Lately a lot of my friends have been asking me how I keep track of SG’s feedings, sleep, naps, development, etc.  When I tell my friends that I use an iPhone app they become very intrigued.  This then usually turns into a “what other apps do you use” convo.  So I decided to share my favorite mommy apps.  Please note, this is always evolving so I am sure I will have apps to add later.  I would love to hear what apps you use!

1.     Baby Connect-Ok so most of us mommies or mommy-to-bes have heard of the Baby Itzbeen.    This lil walkie talking look-a-like is what most of my mommy friends used or use to track feedings, sleep, naps, poopy diapers, etc.  When I first heard of this tool I thought it was genius.  Anyone who has had a baby knows that often times we are too exhausted to remember anything the first few weeks of baby’s life so anything to help us track baby’s habits are a must.  I initially registered for this life saver of a product until my friend Natosha recommended the app Baby Connect.  I am SO happy she recommended this.  I liked that it was on my phone (so I didn’t have to carry something else with me) which I promise you will be glued to during those middle of the night.  This app is amazing.  It tracks EVERYTHING from sleep to poopy diapers to growth to vaccines to development to major milestones and more.  I was glued to this app the first few weeks of SGs life since we had to monitor her intake and output so closely.  In fact I still use this app today. For those of you who become giddy with charts this app will put everything into flowcharts for you AND you can even email your tracking by day, week or month!  It will also allow you to sync up with another phone (i.e. your husband has baby duty while you get some much needed mommy time).  Can you tell how excited I am about this app?  Oh and it also comes in Android form. The app does cost $4.99 but if you choose this over the Baby Itzbeen then that’s a $20 savings. I HIGHLY recommend Baby Connect. http://www.baby-connect.com/

 

Baby Connect

 

2.     Red Stamp-As many of you know finding the time to do even the most mundane tasks can sometimes be a challenge when you are a mommy.  Case in point, thank you notes, invitations, birthday cards, etc.  I found an app that combines a lil bit of Evite and the USPS all in one…it’s called Red Stamp.  This app allows you to email, text and even mail (for those of us who still like printed cards) customized cards to people for different holidays and events.  It’s super easy to use; choose your layout, upload a pic, add personal message and send!  I have used it to send “Miss You Daddy” cards to Husband when traveling, invites for mommy brunches and birthday cards.  The app is FREE and if you want to have your customized card printed and mailed it only costs $1.99 which includes shipping!  There are tons of adorable designs to choose from.  Trust me you will be hooked on this one right away. https://www.redstamp.com/#

 

An invitation I created using Red Stamp

 

3.       White Noise-Have you even been traveling or in the car or anywhere where baby is trying to sleep and just can’t seem to settle because there are too many noisy distractions?  Is your baby used to a sound machine but you don’t want to lug one around with you for every trip to grandma and grandpas?  The White Noise app is a FREE app (or you can upgrade for $1.99) that provides 10 different soothing sounds (more if you upgrade) ranging from ocean waves to rain to white noise.  The app allows you to choose a sound and set a timer to it (so you don’t use up all the battery in your phone).  We have used this on numerous occasions when in the car, at the grandparents, out in public and more to help soothe SG to sleep.  In fact Husband and I even use it ourselves at night!  https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/white-noise/id289894882?mt=8

 

Shhh...baby sleeping.

 

4.     Pic Stitch-Ever wonder how your friends can post several pictures at once into one cute lil pic?  Pic Stitch is another FREE app that allows you to choose several photos and add filters to them so you can brag and share pics of your lil cutie.  There is of course a direct Facebook link to make uploading to FB easy. https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/pic-stitch/id454768104?mt=8  

 

Pic Stitch creation.

 

5.       Magisto-This is an app that I am pretty new to and accidentally stumbled across.  This FREE app takes videos you have made with your phone and turns it into a mini movie.  You can upload more than one video at a time and even chose music and a theme and the app does the rest providing a cute lil movie you can email or share on Facebook with friends and family.  I use this one a lot for Husband and for the grandparents.  You can download the movie for a small fee if you want but if you send yourself a link then you don’t have to worry about paying for it.  Take a peek. http://www.magisto.com/

 

Oh Happy Day!!! (Magisto Video)

6.       Pinterest-A wife/mommy’s dream…a husbands nightmare.  Nuff said.  J

7.       My Baby-This app is brought to us by the popular baby website Baby Center.  I love this app because it offers daily advice, tips, etc. and includes a direct link to your baby birth club.  It makes posting questions and comments so much easier and there have been many a night when I have perused my baby birth club chatting with other mommies.

Baby Sleep Humor!!!

Hi Mommies!
 
Thought I would give everyone a chuckle because, let's face it, we can use one every now and then.  In honor of Sleep Awareness Week here are some funnies (letters, pictures and videos) that are sure to put a smile on your face.  Why not add humor to your life if you are a sleep deprived mommy?  My favorite is definitely the letter!!!  Enjoy!

 

 

Dear Fellow Babies,

OK, here's my situation. My Mommy has had me for almost 7 months. The first few months were great--I cried, she picked me up and fed me, anytime, around the clock. Then something happened. Over the last few weeks, she has been trying to STTN (sleep thru the night). At first, I thought it was just a phase, but it is only getting worse. I've talked to other babies, and it seems like its pretty common after Mommies have had us for around 5-6 months.

Here's the thing: these Mommies don't really need to sleep. It's just a habit. Many of them have had some 30 years to sleep--they just don't need it anymore. So I am implementing a plan. I call it the Crybaby Shuffle.

It goes like this:

Night 1--cry every 3 hours until you get fed. I know, it's hard. It's hard to see your Mommy upset over your crying. Just keep reminding yourself, it's for her own good.

Night 2--cry every 2 hours until you get fed.

Night 3--every hour.

Most Mommies will start to respond more quickly after about 3 nights. Some Mommies are more alert, and may resist the change longer. These Mommies may stand in your doorway for hours, shhhh-ing. Don't give in.

I cannot stress this enough: CONSISTENCY IS KEY!! If you let her STTN (sleep through the night), just once, she will expect it every night.

I KNOW IT'S HARD! But she really does not need the sleep; she is just resisting the change.. If you have an especially alert Mommy, you can stop crying for about 10 minutes, just long enough for her to go back to bed and start to fall asleep. Then cry again. It WILL eventually work. My Mommy once stayed awake for 10 hours straight, so I know she can do it.

The other night, I cried every hour. You just have to decide to stick to it and just go for it. BE CONSISTENT! I cried for any reason I could come up with:

My sleep sack tickled my foot.

I felt a wrinkle under the sheet.

My mobile made a shadow on the wall.

I burped, and it tasted like rice cereal. I hadn't eaten rice cereal since breakfast, what's up with that?

The dog said "ruff". I should know. My Mommy reminds me of this about 20 times a day. LOL.

Once I cried just because I liked how it sounded when it echoed on the monitor in the other room.

Too hot, too cold, just right--doesn't matter! Keep crying!!

I had drooled so much my sheets were damp and I didn’t like it touching me.

I decided I was sick of all the pink in my room so I cried.

It took awhile, but it worked. She fed me at 4am. Tomorrow night, my goal is 3:30am. You need to slowly shorten the interval between feedings in order to reset your Mommies' internal clocks.

Sometimes my Mommy will call for reinforcements by sending in Daddy. Don’t worry Daddies are not set up for not needing sleep the way Mommies are. They can only handle a few pats and shhing before they declare defeat and send in the Mommy.

Also, I like to give Mommy false hope that listening to the sleep sheep with rain noises puts me to sleep, sometimes I pretend to close my eyes and be asleep and then wait until I know Mommy is settling back to sleep to spring a surprise cry attack. If she doesn’t get to me fast enough I follow up with my fake cough and gag noise that always has her running to the crib. At some point I am positive she will start to realize that she really doesn’t really need sleep.

P.S. Don't let those rubber things fool you, no matter how long you suck on them, no milk will come out. Trust me.

 

Love this one...SG is fond of the Donkey Kong!

Sleepy Baby - Awesome lil sleepy dude.

 

 

Pup to Baby: You Make a Good Headrest - For those of us with furry babies you are sure to appreciate this one.

 

 

 

A few notes on catching zzzzzsssss...

Happy Hump Day Mommies!

So I thought I would continue with the theme of sleep since it is Sleep Awareness Week.  I found this awesome article with great tips on how to navigate sleep during daylight savings (DS).  As you know, most babies don’t get the DS memo and just keep on with their original sleep times.  So I thought this article would be helpful to some. 

3 Tips Daylight Savings

SG was born right before Fall DS which meant we were going to fall back…or gain an extra hour of sleep….errrr that was B.B. (Before Baby) because after baby all that means is no extra nothing.  Boo dat!  My lil Nuggy woke up at her usual time bright and early which at the time was about 4 AM.  So much for falling back!  But hey now that we are about to Spring forward maybe I will reap the benefits of getting that extra hour of sleep back (assuming SG continues sleeping…although I’ve come to expect the unexpected since becoming a momma).  Either way, this article offers some great tips.

I also wanted to touch on a few items I left out in my post yesterday.  First, let me start by stating that before you start any “sleep training” please consult your pedi first.  We did and were told she would be more prepared for sleep training around 5-6 months but since SG has always been about 2 weeks ahead on certain items we started a bit early.  We were prepared for it not to work but God bless our lil one because it worked!  Second, I also had to verify that if she slept through the night did I still need to wake her to feed.  The response I received was, “if she’s getting plenty of formula during a 24 hour period (approximately 32 oz.) then she should be ok…then again you do have a healthy girl.”  Translation…our chunky Nuggy is in the 98^th percentile for weight and still eats plenty during the day so we were cleared for letting her sleep if she didn’t wake up hungry.  No we do not make our child starve through the night in hopes of restful night.  Third---while we are on the topic of food SG started rice cereal a bit early as well…4 months old with approval by our pedi.  And to answer the question, no this did not make her sleep through the night…in fact she would still wake up hungry.  Again, we have a hungry hippo on our hands.  We then introduced other foods to her right before the 5 month mark.  We were told that as long as she was still getting the correct amounts of formula and the food was NOT eliminating formula intake then we were still good.  If you can believe this (which you will once you see all her rolls) this lil Nuggy eats cereal for breakfast and dinner with a bit of homemade food (i.e. apple sauce, pears, sweet potatoes, peas, etc.).  We introduced each one separately to make sure she didn’t have any bad reactions (this will have to be another post).  She eats all of this and STILL takes her full bottles.  Fourth, we no longer swaddle SG which actually came as a recommendation from our Personalized Plan from The Baby Sleep Site.  The reason was because she had started to battle the swaddle because she wanted to be able to suck on her hand which is a sign of self soothing.  SG now sleeps in a sleep sack.  This is a great way to graduate from swaddle blanket.  Fifth, it was also recommended to us that we get SG a lovee AKA blankie/stuffed animal (see link).  My dear friend, Adrienne, bought SG one for her baby shower.  At first I thought, what do I do with this and will she ever need it?!  Now I LOVE it.  This was introduced to help eliminate the paci since SG was too small to replace her paci and this was the root of many of her night wakings (waking up in a zombie like state to replace a paci 5-10x a night is torture).  The way we were told to introduce the lovee was to have her hold it during bottle time.  She quickly adapted to it.  We only use it for naps and night time.  We also let her hold the lovee at night during her bottle and she now loves it.  In fact she rubs it to sleep.  Lastly, routine is KEY!  I cannot stress this enough.  One constant I have read is that babies like routine.  Trust me; my Type A personality appreciates this.  So every night the routine is the same (we’ve even kept it the same when we have travelled with her or had someone else watch her).  The key to the routine is that SG knows we are winding down and this is bed time.  No surprises, no anxiety, it is what it is and she now loves the bedtime routine.  Here is our routine below.

·       6 PM-Dinner (cereal)

·       6:30 PM-Playtime with mommy and daddy (usually we play with toys either in her high chair or her room)

·       6:45 PM-Bath time

·       7 PM-The three B’s---Bottle, Bible and Books (One of us feeds while the other reads to her)

·       7:15-7:30 PM-Lights out, kisses and good night (this time ranges a bit depending on how sleepy she is, trick is to put her down AWAKE which is why we keep her lamp on until we put her down)---she typically talks and laughs herself to sleep in about 5-10 minutes.

A snapshot of our nights.  There is a photo of SG with her paci which is actually an older photo but I wanted to show how she sleeps with her lovee.

 

 Again, we always keep this the same.  Yes it can be a pain at times (i.e. no going out at this time, early dinners, etc.) but the payoff is far greater than missing a dinner with friends.  I would much rather have a happy sleepy baby than an overtired grumpy baby.  If we travel we repeat this same process and when we left for our ski trip the grandmas followed this same routine.  And if we do plan a night out then our babysitter also follows this routine.

Hopefully, there is some nugget of information that you find interesting or helpful.  I know when I was looking to improves SG’s sleep I searched a lot of blog postings for tips from other mommies.  At the very least hearing someone else’s experience helps.  As always, I want to state that this may not be for everyone but it is what has worked for us.  Trust me there is no judgment when you become a parent.  As my great friend once said, “it’s all about survival of the fittest!”

Oh and last night SG slept all the way through the night until 6:40 AM!!! 

 

PS...I included links for The Baby Sleep Site, sleep sack and lovee.

Counting Sheep & Catching Zzzzssss

Happy Tuesday Mommies!

Did you know that this is National Sleep Awareness Week?!  Kind of ironic considering we have an infant and the last five months of our lives were all about NO sleep.  Although, I can’t blame my lil SG….she can’t help it that she was a hungry lil hippo and couldn’t stretch through the night…that was until very recently. 

Before SG arrived I remember hearing everyone tell me that we would be sleep deprived.  So I did what anyone would do…I hibernated and napped as much as humanly possible, as if all those naps would create a sleep reserve that I could dip into once she arrived.  LOL.  I also remember thinking, “it won’t be that bad.  I am sure we will manage just fine.”  After all, I had read Becoming Baby Wise.  Wasn’t that the sleep bible for all parents?  Um, no, not for our kid.  So here’s the thing about SG, since birth she has marched to the beat of her own drum.  Not surprising I assure you, both her daddy and I do the same.  Others may refer to this trait as stubbornness.  Now don’t get me wrong, we have an AMAZING child but she just likes to do things her way on her own timeline and her timeline was always early.  The first few weeks weren’t so bad.  Every two hours she would wake like clockwork.  But then the six week mark came…and it felt like it never ended.  This was about the time that SG went through her first big growth spurt (a lot of babies hit this at 8 weeks).  We had already implemented a pretty good feeding schedule of every three hours but it was at this point that she wanted to always be held.  I love holding my child but holding her all night and through all naps is just not an option.  A momma needs to sleep, shower, go to the bathroom for goodness sake!  I remember thinking that I just wanted to make it through to the eight week mark.  She was also a bit colicky, mostly due to some minor reflux and LOTS of gas which was a result of formula issues (that’s a whole other story).  I began to suffer from sleep deprivation and by the 10 week point I told my husband that I needed help with night feedings (originally I told him I would do all of them since he had to work and I didn’t---not sure I will do this next time).  I became so sleep deprived and desperate for any help that I started reading EVERYTHING I could get my hands on.  I read the Baby Sleep Solution, The No Cry Solution, Healthy Sleep Habits Healthy Child, forums on sleep, blogs….literally everything!  We tried all types of techniques and nothing seemed to be helping SG sleep.  This is what I mean when I say that our child is stubborn, things that worked for other babies didn’t seem to work for SG.  Even worse as she got older she became more dependant on her paci and being rocked.  By three months I was waking up every hour some weeks to replace the paci.  Finally, husband asked me if we should let her cry it out.  “NO WAY!” I replied.  I had let her CIO once and it was the worst experience of my life.  Seriously my heart just broke and I had to down two glasses of wine over the worst 30 minutes ever.  Now I know some people are big believers in this but it was just not for me.  I told him I had no interest in that.  Side note: I don’t condemn CIO, it’s just not for me.  Maybe it’s because I am a first time mommy but I just didn’t have the heart to do it so it was off the table---not an option for me.  It was during one of my sleepless nights where I decided to just let SG fall asleep on me so I could get some sleep that I stumbled upon a Google result that led me to The Baby Sleep Site.  This was a site that claimed to help you with getting your baby to sleep.  They had a PDF pamphlet/booklet that if you signed up for you could receive for FREE.  I was skeptical at first but as many sleep deprived moms know, desperate times call for desperate measures.  I downloaded the “booklet” then visited the website where they offered a personalized sleep plan for a fee.  Yup, I knew it…they were only after my money.  So I tossed the site aside and decided I would just have to stick it through.  Our pediatrician also told us that babies younger than 5-6 months simply do not have the skill set to self soothe…”great, I guess I won’t sleep for six months” I thought.  Then one day when I went back to work I received an email from The Baby Sleep Site.  I had forgotten that I had signed up and since I hadn’t been at work for almost four months I wasn’t receiving these emails.  By this point SG was starting some major sleep regression…I am talking back to being up every hour AND I was back to working full time.  I began to get desperate again.  Not even giving her cereal was helping.  I decided to ask my husband about his thoughts on paying for a custom plan.  He said yes (again desperate times J) and the rest changed our lives. 

I LOVE to go mimis now!  Look how happy I am when I wake up!

Upon purchasing our Personalized Sleep Plan I was sent a very long questionnaire.  Basically this questionnaire asked questions about SG, her current sleep patterns, naps, her personality, our goals, our personalities, our child rearing beliefs and more.  I am not going to lie, it did take me quite some time to complete this but I was impressed with the detail of questions asked.  Four days after submitting my questionnaire I was provided with a custom sleep plan just as detailed as the questionnaire I had completed.  I dove into it and was immediately impressed. We decided to start the plan that weekend which was a bit early because she was only about four months old (I highly recommend weekends because it gives you three nights to implement your plan, which can sometimes be sleepless).  We were told by the site that because she was a bit young she might not be ready to start learning to self soothe but that it was worth a try.  Our goal was for SG to learn to put herself to sleep, self soothe and not require a paci.  I thought this would take months.  God bless our lil angel because night one with no rocking and after 20 minutes of fussing (we were allowed to help calm her—no CIO) she was sound asleep, night two she was down in 9 minutes and by night three asleep in four!!!!  We followed the plan exactly as we were told and it worked!!!  After getting her to fall asleep on her own then the next task was night wakings.  We worked on one night waking a night with no paci.  By the end of the first week SG had learned to soothe herself back to sleep even with her night wakings.  Naps were next.  Her naps were about 30 minutes long and required LOTS of rocking.  I had pinched a nerve in my back and just couldn’t rock her to sleep that long….oh and did I mention that she only wanted to be rocked while I was standing?  Awesome!  Now we are down to naps that range between 1.5-2.5 each and no rocking.  We simply put her in bed and she puts herself to sleep.  AMAZING!!!

 

One recommendation The Baby Sleep Site gave us was to give Sofia Grace a "lovee" AKA stuffed animal/blankie.  Here she is with hers one morning, happy lil well rested Nuggy!

 

The Baby Sleep Site truly changed ours and Sofie’s lives.  She is now much more happy and so well rested.  She doesn’t fight sleep at all and knows what bedtime is.  In fact at bedtime after we put her down she talks and laughs herself to sleep in about 5 minutes---too sweet.  Now daddy and I are well rested and we have so much more time together in the evenings.  Before, putting SG to sleep took almost two hours…now it’s literally a 20 minute process (including her last feeding).  SG typically is asleep by 7:30 and now she has stretched her only night feeding to 5:30 AM which is technically sleeping through the night.  Our family wake-up time is 7:30 AM and after her 5:30 feeding she goes back to bed and wakes herself up at 7:30.  I imagine she will continue to stretch and eventually just sleep through until 7:30. 

So happy to go to bed...right before "mimi" time.

I wanted to make sure to share our story and what worked for us because baby sleep, or the lack of it, seems to be a HUGE topic amongst parents.  Again, not everything works for everyone but this worked for us.  What I loved about The Baby Sleep Site is that their plan was truly customized to fit OUR family.  I didn’t want her to CIO so their plan didn’t include it.  I knew SG was still hungry at nights so their plan included feedings (some books recommend weaning your baby from eating….our lil hippo was not interested in that).  The site was started by a mother so I always felt like she was just like me.  She isn’t a doctor (although she does have a nurse on staff) but her recommendations come from years of experience and from the perspective of a mother.  She takes into account the science of sleep and blends it with your family’s needs and wants.  Our package also came with email help and her staff has been simply amazing.  They always respond within a day and what I really like is that her staff are all mommies too who also share their experiences with you.  In fact I feel like I know them personally and if I could meet Nicole, her staff and my correspondent in person I would hug them to bits to thank them for all their help and support.  Unfortunately, the books didn’t work for us (but they may work for you) and my husband and I laugh at all the ridiculousness that we read and how our child wanted none of it.  I guess that’s because we were trying to put her into a sleep mold when it should have been the other way around.  This endorsement is not paid for…it literally comes straight from the heart and just shares our story.  If anyone needs any help at all with their lil one I highly recommend The Baby Sleep Site.  Rather than reading a book by a doctor you are getting advice from a mommy which, as I have mentioned before, is the best help you can get.  You won’t be expected to make a complete overhaul of your child rearing beliefs and there is a way to help your lil angel sleep through the night without CIO.  If anyone has any questions regarding our experience or The Baby Sleep Site please do not hesitate to ask.  This was the best $100 we’ve spent since SG’s birth (now if only I could get my money back for all those other books)!  

Here's wishing all my  mommy friends stop counting sheep and start counting some ZZZZsss.

Our sweet, happy, well-rested Nuggy.

 

FREEBIE Alert-Nursing Pillow

Yay another FREEBIE alert!!!!  Every mommy needs a nursing pillow or feeding pillow as I call it since I don't nurse.  Of course there are a ton to choose from.  We use both a Boppy and My Breast Friend but who doesn't want a FREE pillow?  For a limited time Nursing Pillow is offering a free nursing pillow-a $40 value- to mommies.  All you pay is the shipping.  Trust me, it's always good to have a backup to keep at Grandma's, in your car or in your baby's travel kit (more on that later).  Check out all the fun designs and order yours today!  I just ordered the Starry Night version.

 

NursingPillow.com

Code: WTE

 

 

DEALert-Canvas People

Hi Mommies!

 

I just got looped in on a great deal that I know you will LOVE.  Right now the Canvas People are offering mommies a FREE 8x10 canvas OR 50% larger sizes! All you pay is shipping and handling.  Being a photographer I know how expensive these can be but they are totally worth it.

 

Now we all know you have about a million photos of your lil ones that you can use this for.  This is also a great gift idea for grandparents, birthdays, Mother's Day and Father's Day!  I ordered mine.  The only catch is you must use the link provided in order to be taken directly to this amazing deal. 

 

Hope you enjoy!!!  Let me know if you used this deal!

 

Canvas People Click Here

 

DEALert-Udder Covers

Hi Mommies!

I found another great deal today that I wanted to share with you. 

 

Udder Covers are BFing covers (see my Boobie Blunders + Boobie Basics-Part 2 post) that come in a ton of super fun patterns and fold neatly into a matching pouch.  These covers are MUCH better than a blanket that inevitably falls off your shoulder at the most inopportune time---can you say embarrassing?!  Udder Covers is offering 40% off your order for a limited time.  Oh and you can get your cover monogrammed too (I LOVE monogramming anything and everything)!  BTW, these make great shower gifts!

Kind of like a mommy apron.  :)

I would love to hear if you ordered one!

Udder Covers
Promo Code: CBC321


Enjoy!