Look of the day and things I've been grateful for

I had a really hard time when i was pregnant deciding what I needed for baby. So here is a list of what I have found useful and what I haven't:
Love:

• change table with bath - this has been awesome. It was given to us and there would of been no way I would of bought a change table as I thought they were overrated and a change mat would suffice. I use it ALL the time, and we just wheel it into the bathroom to give Baby G her bath! I bought a nice cover for it from Toy World that makes it look a little more nicer.
• Baby bath support - this is a terri towelling support vs the hard ones you can get.  It makes bath times so much easier :-).
• Fisher Price Cradle N Swing - previously blogged about - bubba g didnt really like this until now (4 weeks), now falls asleep in it, looks at herself in the mirror and loves the mobiles YAY
• vibrating bouncer, the batteries just went flat in this and now bubba G does not love it so much, need new batteries STAT.
• wraps, wipes, bibs - G is a milk spitter upperer, I highly suspect all babies are ;-).  We have a billion of these and I am just about to buy some more they are so handy!
• a Swaddle, I bought this from Babies R Us.  I dont like swaddles but there is no denying when baby is inconsolable you need to swaddle them and rock them alot (and shhhh shhhh shhh).  So I bought a ready made one that I just pop her into and velcro up.
• Pram - city mini jogger.  If you read previous blogs you will read all about my massive indecision about choosing a pram even though this one was the first one we picked out.  Its awesome, so light and easy - its perfect!
• Pram Liners, the style up the pram (previously blogged about)
• Bonds Wondersuits that have enclosed hands and feet.  These are the BOMB. Our room gets quite cool in the airconditioning and we just rug her up in these and she loves them.
• mittens - at first we didnt use these as her finger nails didnt scratch her, but then i discovered that it seemed to calm her down in the airconditioning to pop them and socks on her so she didnt have to be properly rugged up.
• Breastfeeding Pillow - saved my life end of story.  Now that I am four weeks into Bfing, I dont actually use it that much as I have built up the muscles alot more.

Not so love:

• the zip up swaddle, I hated this at first zip. Bubba does not look good all zipped up and we got rid of this after the first try.
• lots of 0000 clothes.  I panicked towards the end of my pregnancy at the lack of clothes I had for baby and went out and bought about $50 worth of little onesies. Total waste of money, I had a big bubba and after Baby G arrived my friends and families gave her SO many clothes (which everyone said would happen but I didnt believe).  She now has enough clothes for about four babies, and the onesies I bought her in 0000 NEVER got worn :-(.
• lots of johnson and johnson products.  Turns out midwives and other mums strongly do not recommend these!
• car mirrors - see previous post.  I have not found a car mirror that actually works where I can see my baby in the back of my car - sigh.

Look of the day - me - Ally playsuit $15.  This one is a bit less sacky/baggy then the other Look of the Day one, I had a belt with it but hubby said no belt so no belt it was.  It zips down at the front for easy BF accessability.
Look of the day - Baby G - baby g is conked out in the awesome fisher and price cradle and swing wearing her ruffle flower pink onesie :-).

Target, the one stop baby shop

My haul from the Target baby sale:
•mobile for cot- on sale for half price! I went to babies r us and it was $99, but i thought I would check the Target sale and the same mobile was HALF PRICe! Awesome.
•tummy time mat $20
•mobile mat/tummy time mat - $39. I actually only bought this because i wanted a mobile mobile (lol), and it just happened to come with a playmat as well.
•pram toy for the pram bar-$10

•Lamaze books - $36 for two
•Sesame street wrist rattles- $8

That's probably it for toys for awhile as baby G is only three weeks old and a friend recently gave us about ten Lamaze toys so she is well stocked up!

My wish list for next baby shop:
•video monitor with room temperature display
•bumbo - photo attached , it's to help little ones sit up. Mothercare and babies r us sell them for around $50.
•a wrap/sling. As previously posted I bought a wrap (photo attached). But it's far to warm for the tropical climate we live in and baby g already has heat rash, so I might get some use out of it in a few more months when it cools down but now it's useless.

Mirror mirror and look of the day

Baby G sits in her car capsule facing the rear of the car (as per safety standards). Unfortunately this means I cannot see her when I am in the front :-(. I feel distressed when I can't see her, so I went to babies r us and bought a baby car mirror which hubby installed. But then we couldn't see her the mirror! It didn't do the job AT all, so off to Target to buy another one. This one looked like it should do the job but I was a bit resigned to all baby car mirrors being crap. Once installed I could barely make out Baby G and definitely not enough to see if she was ok or not! After doing more research I am outta ideas it seems like there is actually no good car mirror on the market. Very sad face.

I have been very slack with look of the day photos - I just keep forgetting to take photos! This look of the day was a cotton on dress that I specifically bought for breast feeding - which worked a treat when I had to breastfeed when we were it at breakie and there were no parent rooms anywhere. Baby G is wearing a 'daddy's little princess' shirt with summer tights from Target :-).

Look of the day mummy and baby g

Baby G is two weeks old and four and half kilos. I would of expected that she wouldn't fit into 0000 clothing, but luckily she does as she has a few things in that size. This CUTE polka dot dress is from Best and Less and cost a whopping $20! Definitely a purchase outside of my spending policy, but what can I say I just had a baby girl and I just had to have a cute dress for her :-). Because its 0000 I am hoping to get at least a couple of wears out of it, even if it's just an outing to the coffee shop lol. My look of the day is an Ally play suit I bought for $15, I didn't try it in because I was heavily pregnant but I had a couple of play suits that looked alright so took a chance. I also chose it because it's a button down top for breastfeeding. Ultimately I don't like this playsuit, the bottom is basically to baggy and sack like. I know it's the fashion at the moment but :-(. I belted it up and wearing my comfy sandal/thing. My next post will be about compression garments which I credit for getting my tummy to snap back pretty quickly.

The save my back campaign and look of the day

After the first five days after baby G was born my back was killing me so much I couldn't sleep at night - even though baby was sleeping really well :-(. So off to the chiropractor I went but still when breastfeeding I would get shooting pains in my back. But then when shopping in Target (for pink baby clothes ;-)), I stumbled upon a breastfeeding pillow that was on sale for $35 and I thought why not give it a go for that kinda money. AWESOME!! No more back pain!! And it cradles bub on it in a way that my arms are free to use my iPad/ read a book - eat my food lol. I am taking bub and I to the chiropractor tomorrow but I could easily not have an appointment, it's more for bub as I would like her to have a check up after her birth and I'm also having trouble with getting her to sleep on her back. I'll update the blog on how the appointment went, I'm very curious myself!

Look of the day isn't the greatest photo, I swear I'm going to use my maternity leave to learn how to take better photos with my expensive camera! It's a cotton on dress that buttons up Which is perfect for breastfeeding- I paid $39.95 for it which is against my spending amount policy but I bought it a day after coming home with bub as I felt comfortable in it. Lovisa necklace $9.95. I have a feeling my jewelry addiction is going to be seriously detailed by bubba, already I have lost my expensive ruby bracelet that I wore nonstop for 9 years :-(. When handling baby g it must of caught on something and broke off. I'm not terribly devastated as I know these things will happen I just wish I had it valued so I could of claimed it on insurance. Lesson learnt!

Compress me!

During my pregnancy I was a bit concerned about not necessarily losing the baby weight, but ensuring my tummy went back to pre baby size. I saw a lot of advertisements in the pregnancy magazines for SRC recovery shorts:http://www.recoveryshorts.com/. I ended up getting a pair of eBay really cheap. These shorts are great and I do recommend them - especially if you suffered from pelvic instability like I did. The downside for me was that it's really hot where I live and these shorts made me sweat which just wasn't good for 'that' area. I gave them a go again 2weeks post baby and they still we're highly uncomfortable because of the heat :-(.

My physio had told me that I had some stomach muscle separation. She said to just get a spanx like garment from Target and not to spend to much money. A month before baby was due I panicked and spent $128 online at Figure 8 Maternity:http://www.figure8maternity.com/postpartum.cfm. See previous post about the Belly Bandit and a splint belt and DVD for my stomach separation. Then just to be sure I bought a twenty dollar spanx like singlet from Trade Secrets! So due to the Xmas shipping delays the belly bandit and splint didn't turn up until a week and half after baby arrived. This turned out to be a blessing in disguise as I was forced to wear the spanx singlet instead - which worked perfectly, my physio was not kidding. A week after baby was born my Doctor was shocked that my uterus had contracted as well as it had. When I got the belly bandit it was not good, it was hard and uncomfortable and made me sweat! Putting that on EBay as its useless to me, I suspect it would still do the job but just very uncomfortably. The splint I'm still trying out so I will post in a few weeks how that has gone. So long story short, I recommend a basic cheap suck it in top over all the compression products they try to sell you!

Pink pink pink!

So after only having grey and yellow clothes due to baby G's gender being a surprise, I promptly went out and bought pink, pink, pink! Little girl clothes are SO adorable. Target and Best and Less were having pretty good sales (especially Target), Cotton On baby sale was very disappointing. Of course now we have been inundated with clothes from all our lovely family and friends so little miss has already got a wardrobe to rival mine! We have assorted sizes so I think I won't have to buy any more clothes for about three months.

Post maternity wear

I did some prep work on starting to collate a post maternity wardrobe (previous post). I bought a few strapless and button down dresses and play suits and a few black skirts to go with the bonds baby bump singlets. Do now I have a 12 day old, I am glad I prepared my wardrobe but I have also returned to pre baby weight and my tummy is flat already! Whoop whoop, so this means I can start making my normal wardrobe breast feeding friendly.

I'm excited as I have boxes of clothes I packed away during pregnancy and now I can pull them all out and redo my wardrobe!

Bounce bounce and Sling

Having already dropped a bomb on the little lamb cradle and swing (previous post), we accepted friends hand me down bouncer and rockers. Once Little G was born though it was apparent the hand me downs were not going to work as one was a rocker only and one was a vibration bouncer and we needed just one that did all. Off to Babies R Us where we picked up a cute pink Bright Starts vibrating bouncer which has been our holy grail! It was only $60 so very happy with that price as well. We also picked up a sling for $50. I tested it out with Baby G when she was a bit grizzly and went for a walk around the back yard - it sent her to sleep! Whoop whoop.

Baby G has arrived

New Year has started and my daughter has arrived :-). Note her hospital gender neutral outfit (though very cute!), not to worry she now has a billion pink dresses! Much love xxxx

How to serve an eviction notice

Two days over due! No sign of anything happening soon :-(. Even my maternity clothes are struggling with this big belly. Look of the day is cotton on long tank covered by a Ladakh pink flamingo singlet. It's hot and the long maxis are to heavy to wear.

I'm really not sure my belly button is going to survive this lol, still no stretch marks though - I suspect this is more due to genes, stable weight gain, omega 3 and lots of water. But I also have been slathering my belly twice a day with palmers oil and coconut creams. I also bought the travel pack with little versions including nipple and baby bottom cream.