Our baby is a month old already! It’s been a great, albeit tiresome, month. Caring for Quinn has taught me so much. Such as how to do many things one handed. I’ve become the ultimate multitasker with the help of a few convenience products. I feel like my days (and nights) are on a repeat cycle of pumping, feeding, and changing diapers. Luckily I found a bra that helps make the pumping hands free, which allows me to feed him at the same time, cutting that process time in half. This bra gives me illusions of power when I first put on the nipple shields because I’m reminded of that scene in Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery where robot Vanessa sprouts machine guns on her chest.....
Anyway, that really has taken some of the stress out of pumping so often because I don’t feel like I’m just wasting 15-30 minutes trapped in my beanbag chair, unable to do anything else. The only downside to using this bra is that because I don’t have to hold the bottles I sometimes forget to connect them 🤦🏻♀️. I’ve already done that three times. It usually doesn’t take long for me to remember when the first splash of milk hits my legs 😩😂.
Another convenience product we bought is the Ergo Baby 360, a carrier that I can use to strap him to me and go about my business. I’ve only used it once so far when I was trying to get laundry put away. He didn’t seem to mind being in it so I’m hoping to use it more often.
One last thing that has proven to be super useful is the camera Philip’s mom bought for us that we mounted over the crib. It gives noise and movement notifications on our phones so we can lay him down and leave the room and not worry about what he’s doing. We can watch him on our phones and enable the microphone to listen to him as well. He’s a noisy kid so most of the time we can even hear him breathing. The only downside to it is the sensitivity, which captures EVERY sound and movement so when a train goes by we get a notification of sound in Quinn’s crib. When the girls bark: notification of sound in Quinn’s crib. Before he was born I turned them off because they were frequent and annoying. Now I just have to deal with them. Even when we’re not home 🙄.
We’ve established some routines for him already. When he wakes up hungry we start a bottle warming and then go change his diaper while we’re waiting. It takes three minutes to warm and if you don’t think three minutes is a long time, you’ve never dealt with a hangry infant before. Besides wanting food the moment he decides he’s hungry, he HATES getting his diaper changed. It’s an all around unpleasant experience. Luckily, as soon as he gets his milk he settles right down. We planned to use cloth diapers, and still do, however, we didn’t realize that the ones we have would not fit him right away. We tried using them and had so many leaks we just decided to wait until he’s a bit bigger to try again. When we left the hospital we were using Pampers because that’s what they used but he has super sensitive skin and he got such a bad diaper rash that we decided to switch brands and it cleared right up. We tried Huggies and they smell vaguely like imitation bacon for some reason, which is weird, but they don’t give him a rash so whatever. I can’t believe how expensive diapers are! If we didn’t already plan to use cloth for the sake of being less wasteful, the cost of disposable diapers would drive me to it. We both work and can afford to buy them, thankfully, but I don’t know how people less fortunate are able to afford them. Now I understand why organizations like the one I work for and the Gabriel Project are so wonderful (among other reasons!) and needed so much in our community because we both offer diapers for free to anyone who needs them.
Another part of our routine most nights is he gets to go for a walk with the girls. Philip takes them and I push him in the stroller. He and I stay home if it’s close to time to eat though. It’s not fun to carry a fussy baby and try to push the stroller home at the same time 😑. The girls are protective of their brother. When people try to stop to see him they get all barky—even Sansa, who loves to say hi to people!
He loves bath time, once he’s done throwing a fit about getting his clothes and diaper taken off. We tag team so it goes pretty quickly. Then we feed him and have story time. Most nights he sleeps through the story but we read it anyway. We try to switch it up and read something different each night but if he’s really out we just read something we like. So far, Llama Llama Red Pajama and Little Blue Truck are our favorites. We decided we like books that rhyme the most.
Soph’s favorite routine for Quinn is tummy time. We put him on his activity mat and Philip and I both lay on the floor with him and she scoots herself in between us and watches him too 😂. She tried rolling him over one time 🤦🏻♀️. We have to keep a close eye on her with him but she’s usually pretty gentle. Right now he’s small enough that I can sit him on the footstool of my rocking chair, propped up on his boppy pillow while I pump but that just happens to make him the exact right height to intrigue them. They both do drive by kisses, whether he’s awake or not, which wakes him up 😡.
Aside from having to get up every 2 hours to feed him, which is exhausting of course, I love being Quinn’s mother. Philip and I are still figuring things out but we make a good team. He really is a great baby. And the cutest (but I may be a little biased 🤷🏻♀️). I’m so in love with our little family 💗.
Helping out in the garden 😂. We’ve got sooo many weeds 😳. Mom’s been neglecting it!
The view from our crib camera. Sansa is never very far away ❤️.
Soph might be a tad jealous... 😂. She tried so hard to lay on me
She brings her toys into Quinn’s room to play 😂.
He had his first visit to the Farmer’s Market!
I’m not sure why we wasted all that money on a crib when he fits in here just fine 🤷🏻♀️ 😜.
Hanging out with mom while she writes her blog 😉. It didn’t take long for him to fall asleep. Which means I need to go to sleep..while I can!
