Our favorite baby things...

Elliott enjoying one of his favorite things--aquarium bathtub

As I am routinely making trips to baby stores (Babies R Us and now Buy Buy Baby), I am always amazed at the unbelievable amount of baby 'stuff' that's out there. Some of it is definitely needed and some of it, well, isn't. I had the help of some pro mommies when I registered but you still never really know what your baby will like or won't like. For example, I was told that the swing was a real life (and arm) saver for an infant who didn't want to be put down. However, Elliott is not a huge fan of the swing. He's much more interested in the mobile of rainforest animals that hang from the swing. We mostly use the swing as an infant seat. There are many other things that we've learned along the way get the Elliott stamp of approval. Here are a few of those things:

1.SwaddleMe wraps---or swaddling for dummies as I like to call it. E loves being swaddled for night time and nap time. Gabe is a much better swaddler (not sure if that's a real word) than me so these are much easier for me to use.

2. Fisher Price Birdies Soother--I've mentioned it before, I'll mention it again, E LOVES his birdies.

3. Fisher Price Rock N Play Sleeper--This is what E slept in for about 1 1/2 months because he was not a fan of laying flat. Now that he's in his crib I've used it to put him in when I need to get ready to go somewhere.

4. The Boppy--of course, everyone has a Boppy now a days. It's wonderful for feeding him and I miss it terribly when I'm out and about trying to feed him!

5. Infantino Square Activity Gym--E likes to lay under and play with the animals. I never knew how much activity gyms could cost. They are SO expensive. This one was much more reasonable and just as good I think.

6. Angelcare Baby Sound Monitor--I know that many people think this monitor is overkill, but I believe that it's why I had such an easy time with him going to sleep in his room. It senses his movement and sounds an alarm if no movement is detected in 15 seconds. Well worth the money and glad we got it.

7. Gerber Prefolded Cloth Diapers--we're not doing the cloth diaper thing, but Elliott spits up constantly so I definitely could not live without these burp cloths. Even though at times I use TWO of them to cover me up, he still manages to get me pretty messy!

8. Aden and Anais Muslin Swaddle Blankets--We use these at night when E is double swaddled. First we swaddle in these, then he slides in the SwaddleMe. Gabe does this every night and E always smiles big when he's wrapped up tight.

9. Snap N Go Stroller--borrowed this from my friend Morgin and it has been great. Easy for quick trips in and out of the store.

10. Moby Wrap-- I got this when E was about 5-6 weeks old. I wish I had gotten it sooner. I use it a lot when we're out shopping or taking a walk around the neighborhood. He usually falls asleep immediately. Last night he wouldn't go to sleep, so I strapped him in and vacuumed the living room. He was out!

11. Fisher Price Aquarium Bathtub--E loves to play and splash in his bathtub. He does not love getting out of the tub. We're working on that.

I'm interested to know what other people view as the essentials for a new baby. We're constantly finding new things that Elliott is into or new things that save his parents sanity!

Turtles, cribs, birds, and cars

It has been a full week in the Hamby household. We spent Halloween evening at our house handing out candy. Elliott dressed up as a turtle. The mommy confession is that his costume was actually made for a dog--hopefully he won't be scarred for life. I must say it was pretty darn cute although my son wasn't too big of a fan.

Up until this point, Elliott's beautiful crib has pretty much been vacant at night with Elliott sleeping in our room. Gabe and I decided that Halloween night we would try to put Elliott to sleep inhis crib and it was a success! He slept right through numerous door bell rings and "Trick or treats" downstairs and didn't even make a peep. That night he slept about 5 hours straight then was up and down. We were happy with the first attempt and since then he's slept through the night a couple of times in there!!

Another great discovery this week is, as we call it, "the birds". At the recommendation of my friend Morgin we got Elliott this Fisher Price soother that has little birdies on it. We found it at a consignment sale way before he was born--apparently it is no longer made. It plays music and projects a light show on the ceiling. Elliott LOVES it. Mostly he loves the light projection on the ceiling and the music is just a bonus. We use it at bedtime and one night he even fell asleep on his own watching the birds, therefore I deem it a miracle working toy!

Lastly, we got a new to us car this week. My little Mazda 3 was getting pretty cramped for baby and all of his necessary items. After researching we upgraded to a Mazda 5--definitely a mom car, but heck, I am a mom so I guess I can drive it proudly. The Mazda 5 is kind of like a mini van and kind of like a car. I LOVE the sliding doors and how easy it is to get Elliott in and out. I also love all the cargo space for the afforementioned baby items. It drives like a car and is wonderful!

The coming week will be bittersweet for me. It's my last week at home with Elliott before going back to work full-time. I'm looking forward to seeing my coworkers and my kids at school, but I know it's going to be hard to leave him. I'm going to try and savor each and every moment I have with him this week!

Top 5 things that change when you become a new mom

So when you join the club of motherhood, some things just seem to happen. You swear up and down that you'll never be "that mom" wearing that outfit or driving that car but somehow it's inevitable. The world looks different to you as a mom! These are just some of the things that I think most moms can identify with...

The top 5 things that change when you become a new mom:

1. You take a picture every time your little one breathes. Everything they do is the cutest thing ever! You think to yourself, "This is definitely the cutest baby ever born!" and you're probably right.

2. You begin to judge cars by their functionality and usefulness rather than the image they portray. That Jeep Wrangler with the soft top that seemed like so much fun now just seems dangerous and you now see why so many people opt for the mini van with the sliding door!

3. You consider it a very good day when she can take a shower AND dry your hair. Quite an accomplishment.

4. You and your husband have more conversations about baby poop (or lack thereof) than about the events going on in the world.

5. Your facebook status updates have more to do with how many hours your precious little one slept the night before or what adorable things little precious is doing.

In all seriousness, I'm loving being Elliott's mom and can't believe my time with him full-time at home is almost over!

Mommy's night out....kind of

In the last 2 months I've definitely learned that if you really need to get things done (ie: errands) it's much easier to do them solo. Elliott is not much for shopping unless he's sleeping in the Moby Wrap on my chest and that only lasts for so long. Yesterday I decided that when Gabe got home I was going to make a run to Target for some essentials and down time for myself. I fed Elliott at 6:40 and left the house by 7:15 with instructions to feed him once more before putting him down for the night. Elliott and I had a long talk about how he was going to be good for Daddy--no screaming and easily taking the bottle (these two have been issues in the past when I left). When I left, Gabe and Elliott were on the floor playing and Elliott was happily cooing and smiling.

In mid shopping trip I got a call from Gabe. Never a good sign. I could barely hear him for all the screaming in the background. From what I got, Elliott was hungry (and probably tired) and would not take the bottle. I proposed giving him a bath until I could get home. Baths ALWAYS calm him down. So, I hurried to get the necessities on my list. Of course there were 1200 people in line to checkout and only 3 lanes open.

When I got home I could hear the wails and was feeling like a horrible mom. As the rest of the story unfolded, I couldn't help but laugh. After I had talked to Gabe he put Elliott in the tub. Elliott immediately relaxed. He relaxed so much that he pooped all over the tub after about 5 minutes in. The funny thing is, he has never done that before. So, my precious husband had to take him out and the screaming commenced again. When I got home, Elliott was in his diaper and still not very happy. Gabe says to me, "I don't know how you do this all by yourself every day!"

So, Mom's night out was kind of thwarted by a baby with definite tastes about his milk and how he gets it. Gabe says that in the future maybe mom's night out could wait until the last feeding of the evening!

And we have a smiler...

As we approach the 8 week mark of our time with Elliott, I can't believe all the ways that he's changing. The most exciting development--social smiling. He's been doing this a couple of weeks now and it is by far the cutest thing I've ever seen. Sure, Elliott's been smiling since he was in hospital but it was probably could have been attributed to gas. Now, it's for sure that he's smiling in response to something you've done or something he likes.

I remember our friend Todd telling Gabe and me that when your baby starts smiling you will go to any length of goofiness to get him to smile again. I now understand this and definitely have done quite a few goofy things to get a smile. Elliott enjoys the goofiness and especially likes it when you play with his feet or touch his nose or make crazy sounds (not too loud). Gabe always gets a smile when he swaddles Elliott up for bed at night. Regardless of how you get it, the much coveted toothless grin is so precious!

Top 5 things I've learned about parenting

When I was pregnant I heard all sorts of advice and information about babies and parenting. Most of it I took with a grain of salt because I know that everyone has their own opinion and experience on what parenting is. Here is my top 5 list of what I've learned over the last 5 weeks:

1. Sleep is of utmost importance. This was the one thing that people kept telling us before Elliott arrived. "You'd better get your sleep now, while you can because you won't when he gets here." I'd heard it a million times and though to myself, "It can't be that bad. I know what to expect and I can handle it". Even though you think you're prepared for the lack of sleep, I don't think you can completely fathom how tired you will be in the first couple weeks. Things do get better and as our friend Katelyn wrote in a card, "Sleep will come". I was encouraged by that! Today actually sleep is a great subject with me because Elliott blessed us with 6 hours of sleep--in a row--last night!!

2. Getting out of the house takes much planning and drive to do. Once again, people told me this before, but I thought "how hard can it be??". I was wrong!! To get to church on Sunday at 11 a.m. it took 2 adults several hours of planning and scheduling. Our planning conversations went something like this: "Okay, you go shower while I feed him then we'll trade off. He'll need to eat again right before we leave. You get the diaper bag ready and I'll get the bottle ready. I'll pick out his outfit while you change his diaper." Going anywhere is a production but it's getting easier.

3. Breastfeeding is hard! Elliott literally came out ready to eat so in my mind I thought, oh this is going to be a piece of cake. Not so! We've struggled a lot in the last 5 weeks, mostly with my supply being somewhat low and Elliott being upset that the food was not making it in quicker. Elliott wasn't gaining weight for a little while but now is back on track--he weighs over 9.5 pounds! I still don't know how long I'll be able to breastfeed him. My supply is kind of up and down, but I guess some breastmilk is better than none. I think the thing that surprised me most about my difficult feeding him was how emotional it all made me. I felt to blame when he wasn't gaining weight and almost guilty when I had to give him formula. At the end of the day, he's growing and healthy and that's all I want. Whatever happens, happens.

4. The bathroom exhaust fan is your friend. We have been learning new things about Elliott daily but last week I stumbled onto an amazing discovery. When Elliott is tired and won't go to sleep, I go in the bathroom, turn off the lights and turn on the exhaust fan. He routinely and soundly falls fast asleep. It works every time and I am so thankful for this discovery when nothing else works.

5. There is nothing like seeing your child accomplish a task. I know you're thinking, "what task can a 5 week old accomplish?". He works hard to roll from his stomach to his back. A couple of weeks ago, I laid him on his stomach and watched him start to move his arms and legs to try and figure out how to move himself. He grunted and squirmed on the floor with such determination and I was cheering him on. Finally, after about 5 minutes he did it! I was so proud of him and how he stuck with it. I know that as he gets older there will only be more for me to cheer about. I can't wait to see how he grows but I'm really enjoying who he is today.

Out and about with the baby boy...

Elliott trying to stay warm on a cold Fall morning!

It's been an exciting week with the Hambys. Elliott and I have gotten out and about much more and I'm feeling more confident in taking him out. Elliott went to church for the first time on Sunday. We were so happy to be back at Stonecreek after 6 weeks of missing church. Elliott enjoyed himself in the nursery and was well taken care of. Mommy was only a little anxious during the service. This was the first time we'd left him with a non-family member. I know that he was in great hands! When I went to pick him up, there was a little handout in the diaper bag from the nursery. I thought it was really meaningful and wanted to share a little of what it said:

"Have you ever thought about the fact that God chose you to be the parent of your child? He knew exactly what your child needed in a parent, and He chose you. He knows your strengths, weaknesses, and your amazing capacity to love. And, He gave you this baby. But, He didn't give you this baby and walk away. He is there--every minute of every day--guiding you through this parenting journey. He has a story of love and redemption to tell your child through you. He wants your precious baby to know that their Heavenly Father is there to help them, just like He's there to help you--every step of the way."


The pictures below are from Sunday

Elliott was a little unsure about the whole going to church thing, but he came around!