Can't Live Without: Month Four of Motherhood

A lot has changed in the last month of my daughter's life: we are now feeding her solely formula, she is awake more (which means she needs to be entertained now), she is growing like a weed (almost three times the size she was when we left the hospital), the weather is finally nice enough for us to be able to get out and take walks and we've been on many outings and trips with her in tow. This all means I have new products to share that I can't live with out!

1. Links: The simplest form of entertainment, these links (or inter-latching rings) are technically supposed to be used to suspend toys from the arm of the carseat, but I use them as a toy themselves...and baby girl LOVES them. Whether they are hung from the carseat bar, or just dangled in front of her face, she screams with delight whenever she sees them. She just learned to reach out and grab them - mama is so proud!!

2. Formula Dispenser: Now that we are part of the formula clan, this little bugger is a big part of our every day lives. It is always in my diaper bag, and we fill it up and bring it downstairs with us when we go to bed so we don't have to travel to the kitchen for the nighttime feeding.

3. Bottled Water from Costco: This may seem silly but for all of you formula parents out there, you MUST buy your bottled water from a wholesale shop (whether it be Costco, BJ's, etc.). For $4 you can get 6 gallon jugs of Poland Springs water...$4!!! That will buy you about 2 bottles of Aquafina water at any store.

4. The Miracle Blanket: The most aptly named product out there! Our little houdini baby could get herself out of any swaddle, and therefore was waking herself up during the night and naps. Enter the Miracle Blanket! This swaddle pins down your babies arms separate from the main swaddle action, making it impossible for them to move their arms while they sleep (I have one friend that claims her daughter can get out of it, but I will have to see it to believe it :). I truly believe it is because of this product that our daughter only gets up once in the night, and now for only 30 minutes. Since the day I bought it, she instantly started sleeping at least 8 hours straight every night.

5. Tiny Love Mobile: Along with the Miracle blanket, this product change our whole sleep routine for good. Before we would have to rock her to sleep, or hold her until she fell asleep, but ever since we got this mobile, we can just lay her down in the crib and she will look up in amazement at the animals circling around her and soon after fall asleep. The music is a nice mix of classical favorites, that for once actually sound like they are played on a piano.

6. Shutterfly: Ever since I had my first digital camera in 2000 I was a Kodak Gallery (or Ofoto for those old timers like me) girl. Then my best friend from high school (and the best photographer in the world) introduced me to Shutterfly, where you can make a simple webpage to share your photos. Peace out Ofoto!! Now I share my photos using my own "share site" as they call them, to which I upload all of my photos of the peanut, as well as videos. You can create a unique URL by adding your babies name before the ".shutterfly.com" address and your friends and family can check the site for updates at their leisure. You can also post the photo books that you create to the site, allowing people to purchase them at their convenience.

7. Eurobath: I didn't register for a bathtub because friends had told me that you could just put a towel down in the sink and be good to go. Well, my daughter is Squirmy Pants Maguillicuddy, and it was too stressful for me to keep protecting her head from the side of the sink (we also tried the sling in the sink, but you had to fill it up too high to actually cover her bum - and we tried it in the tub but it was too awkward). I was lucky enough to have a friend that wasn't using her tub anymore, so she lent me the Eurobath she used with her son. Thus started our nightly bath ritual on the kitchen island: a.k.a. my daughter's favorite time of the day. While the tub is rather large, it has this fabulous slanted part that she can lay back and relax in and I don't have to worry about her sliding down, or hitting her head on anything. I think maybe because she was born 4 weeks early she loves the bath more than anything in the world, but this bath tub sure helps too!