Post Partum Must Haves

What an odd post.. but after having many suggestions on how to survive and then coming up with my own things I came up with a few lifesavers & favorites. They sure helped me from the time I got home from the hospital and a few days after..

First Off..
Once you finally get to shower or take a bath at home.. you feel like 100 times better. Obviously you realize you don't feel like you can walk normal and you ache to sit or even lay down from sitting in a hospital bed. (I forgot that I could leave the room and walk around the halls until the last night we were there.. oops)

I started taking a bath every night with Epsom Salt. My great friend Carli told me about it and it really seemed to help me out. I loved the smell of the peppermint and just relaxing in it made it nice.
I even used a whole bottle before I even delivered because I loved soaking in it when my back was aching and it was just relaxing that whole last month of being pregnant.

This is the one I got from Carli as a baby gift and I have since bought two more bottles... In love with this stuff!

Another thing that will save you is the peri-bottle and numbing spray they give you at the hospital! Also you will love the witch-hazel pads.

I loved using these wipes after I knew I was starting to heal. It made me not so scared to use toilet paper. I also love their wash as well. I have used it for a couple years to help me from not getting infections and such..

Both of these are lifesavers and something you can continue to use well after you are done healing from babies arrival

Always Infinity Pads! Kotex Liners! GET!!!!

You will need both of those. There is a chance by the time you leave the hospital you could wear a normal pad home. I loved the always infinity pads. They conform to you unlike the hospital pads. Also if you are planning to get a Mirena IUD for birth control at your 6 week post-partum check you will want liners since minimal spotting occurs. You can wear a tampon after your 6 week check but sometimes your bleeding won't need that type of help.

I also bought a nice gel ice pack that i could sit on for the first few days of being home.

Next..
If you are breastfeeding or planning too... I have found some awesome products...

Nursing Cover
First off... Covered Goods...
AMAZING

I love this cover. 1- its a great carseat cover 2- its a nursing cover that covers your back, sides, front... you get the drift..

They are so reasonably priced, lightweight for the carseat and for when you are nursing. Your baby doesn't get to hot and you can easily peek to check on your baby.
Plus who doesn't love their patterns?

               

If you can't tell, I love this cover. I would be okay with owning all of the other ones. 

A few other things for the breastfeeding mother...

I wasn't sure I wanted to breastfeed in fact I was more comfortable with pumping at first then trying to get her to latch. I didn't feel like I had great help in the hospital when the nurses came in they would just do all the work & I was just the body laying their as they held Charli up against me.

After some convincing I decided that I would give it a shot. Charli wasn't bad at doing it.. I had the bad attitude. But after getting the hang of it their were a few things I needed that I never got at baby showers.

Breast Pumps...

If you are registering with BabiesRUs great. There are some perks with that.. but here is another. While we were in the hospital and I was using their pump I realized I needed one. Well Kelly left the hospital and went to get me one. I picked it on BabiesRUs after talking to the nurses about what would be the best choice.

Come to find out most insurances will reimburse you for your pump! SWEETNESS right?! We only had to pay tax. Well with the BabiesRUs registry you get 10% back on anything bought off your registry. So anything that was bought off it we get a gift card back with 10% back. So I put the pump on our registry so once we get our gift card we will get money back from the pump as well.

Here is the pump I picked. I really like the Medela brand. 

Just click on this picture and check out all the details from BabiesRUs.

I love how easy it is to use, set-up, clean and if you are one of the new mommies that will have to pump when you go places... the bag is nice to hide everything. Having extra bottles is so nice as well. It also has a pack where you can keep your milk cold if you had to pump at work. 

Lansinoh cream & pads!

More than likely the hospital will give you huge breast pads and a test tube of Lansinoh cream. I didn't love the huge breast pads from the hospital. My mother in law gave me some Lansinoh brand ones. Talk about awesome. They aren't huge but do their job and they stick into your nursing bra!

    

Nursing Bras:

I had no idea what I was doing... but I know I needed something that was workable and well that I liked because its the one thing you are going to love having.

The one on the right is more of a fitted normal bra... of course it has no underwire. You don't want that, it will hurt and be uncomfortable. But if you want the look of having a normal bra on that is the one to get.. 

I love this one since I have now been nursing longer and like wearing a normal bra again.

The one on the left is a lifesaver.

I loved this bra when I first started to nurse. Your boobs ache and you just want something comfortable. It can't be too tight, it can't be like a normal bra  but you need the support. 

I slept in this bra for over a month. I loved using the nursing pads in this bra. They stuck great and I love how easy it was to open and close. Plus who doesn't love a black & white polka dot pattern?

My Number 1 favorite thing!

My wrap is my favorite thing in the world. I didn't put Charli into it until she was 11 days old. But it was so nice. I was starting to feel like I could do laundry, dishes but still have my baby so close to me.

In fact, I knew I loved this product so much that I didn't buy a stroller that the carseat clicks into. My sister told me she hated hers when she had her daughter and that they are bulky. You don't really use your stroller all that much anyways at least not in the winter months. (Don't worry I did get a stroller it's also a favorite).

Charli is so young and with it being RSV season when she was born. I love being able to go to the store and put her in this wrap. People can see its a baby but nobody will grab her or try and peek because she looks so peaceful plus who's gonna grab your boobs? 

After wearing this for the past two months I get so many questions on what it is, how it works, if it takes a lot of time to put on... and the conversation with these strangers ends up in me giving them the website to buy their own.

In fact when we went to BodyWorlds museum in SLC a lady stopped me and talked to me about it for over a half hour. She was thrilled by it... Once I started telling her about it people were looking more at me.. Then they all noticed their was a baby inside. More conversations were started and Kelly was shocked at how much response their was.

LOVE IT!

I also use this wrap when I am at the dance studio. It keeps Charli close, warm and makes my hands free to help girls and teach. I love it!! 

If I haven't convinced you of this wrap just look at these pictures...

      

FYI: All of the pictures of products or brands are linked to where you can buy them or look at how the product works etc.

Two Months Old!

I can barely believe it... how could 2 months come and go so quick?

Charli has been such a great baby. I can't even begin to tell you! But I will go ahead and try too..

Sleeping: We start getting into pjs around 10pm if we do bath its about 9:30pm but once she eats and is in her swaddle blanket she is ready to sleep. At that point she sleeps now till about 6am or 7am. A diaper change and a little breakfast and she will sleep till 10am. So this mom is getting about 8 to 9 hours of sleep. Yippeee!!!

I don't want to jinx myself by saying this but I almost miss the 3am rocking sessions where I could wander into her bedroom and rock her. Sing songs to her and love on her. There was something about sitting in the quiet and watching snow fall outside her window that just made my heart happy.

Eating: Charli is a great eater. I mean in the hospital I never thought we were going to make it work because well I hated some of the nurses and their approach on not really teaching me anything and just shoving Charli into me. Especially with their whole 'nipple confusion' talk.. I am hear to call BULL CRAP. Charli will take a binky, bottle and will breastfeed..

While I am at dance or somewhere where I don't feel like whipping out the nursing cover we have used Similac Supplementing formula. Charli does really well with it. At night I have given her a couple ounce's as well. I am really lucky to have such a good baby.

Bath Time: We have started putting her in her baby bath tub. So far she likes it better than when we did bath time before. Kelly will stand inside the tub and hold her binky in and hands. When she has the comfort of holding a finger she is pretty calm. I don't know why but the smell of a clean baby is too die for.

Fussy: Charli only gets fussy when she is needing to be held, changed or eating. She is super calm and happy 99.9% of the time. She also has started to recognize if we are standing or sitting with her. Kelly tried to hold her while sitting on Sunday and she instantly got mad. I took her back and started bouncing her... Kelly was shocked that she is starting to notice that.

Smiles: We have started to get a few smiles out of her and starting to see a change with her being able to track things in front of her. I can't wait till she can start playing with some of her toys. She also has found her fist lately. Its funny to watch her stick the whole thing in her mouth and smack her lips on it.

I love my job of staying home and playing with Charli. Kelly always asks me what room I will work on in the house today. I have to remind him that sometimes I just won't make dinner, clean or do laundry because I just want to enjoy Charli. I think he secretly is a little jealous that I get to spend so much time with her.

Tummy Time:
It is amazing how Charli has started to be able to lift her head up and not be as floppy as she was just a couple of weeks ago. She is becoming so strong already. She loves laying on my chest and she will prop her arms underneath herself so she can slowly lift her head up to look at me.

Who does she look like?
She still looks like she has a tint of red in her hair and she still has deep blue eyes that could melt anyones heart. So far she looks like Kelly. I think she will have Kelly's personality mainly because she is so calm... if you know me at all you know that I am not calm. Haha..
She has the shape of Kelly's hands. Her feet are still different from each other her right foot has an arch and her left foot is still flat.

She is starting to get some major rolls... including a double chin, chubby cheeks, thigh rolls, a little bit of wrist roll.
I really want to find a picture of Kelly as a baby and compare both of us to her pictures.

I noticed for the first time that Kelly has really long eyelashes, Charli looks like she may get those from her dad. Which is great because her mom doesn't have those.

Sizing:
We are still in newborn clothes and diapers. She has grown quite a bit though I think she will soon bust out of her newborn pjs. We will be in newborn diapers for awhile ... we have no buns. Most of her pants still have trouble staying on even with the help of a diaper.  We have a hard time keeping socks on her feet... I need to come up with something to help her little skinny heels.

Kelly thinks she weighs about 8 pounds now.. I think she may be a little under that. We will see at her appointment this week. I am a little hesitant to watch her get shots but I keep telling myself if you could make it through all her billirubin blood tests you can make it through this.

Charli will be getting blessed in the same dress that my mom was blessed in. My sisters & me were blessed in it. My niece Aria was blessed in as well... its so fun to be able to have something like that in our family. We tried it on Charli so we could see how much time we have left before she won't fit in it. We will probably do her blessing in February.

For the love of music & dance
I am grateful for music. It has always been something I have loved but I love that I can sing and dance with Charli. She has started to smile and enjoy it. It's especially fun because at dance practice she just calmly falls asleep every time their music turns on then she starts to wake up after its done.
Although I will apologize now if she will only be able to count to 8 or if she starts counting with 5,6,7,8 first.. oops.
Charli is lucky to have such great older sisters... I love my dance girls and I am glad to have them be apart of Charli and her life.

Two Month Appointment:

We were all smiles during our appointment

Charli did really well at her appointment up until the nurse came in for shots. We need to do more tummy time. Its hard for me to remember to do it.. I just love cuddling her too much. She doesn't mind doing it.. she just has a spacey mom.

She was 21.2 Inches long 9 percentile
9 lbs 8 oz weight 19 percentile
38 cm in head circumference 24 percentile

The shots made her very cranky and crabby the rest of the night. She was sleepy for the first few hours but I could tell she didn't feel well. The second you would touch her legs she would scream. We got some infant tylenol and once she had that she was fine! Slept like a champ even though I didn't think she would.

Charli is doing great and is a strong little girl. We need to continue doing tummy time, her neck muscles aren't up to what they should be.                          

Showing off our band-aids and crabby attitude. It wasn't fun to watch Charli get pricked and scream the second they started pushing. But, I know that the couple hours of crankiness will keep her healthy and others healthy because of the few minutes of getting shots.

We love you Charli-bug. Don't grow up!

7 Weeks Old

We celebrated new years with family and cousins. Ate a lot, stuck our tongue out, cuddles, bath times  and lots more...

 

         

Charli may be going through a growth spurt.. she's been eating more than she normally does and is starting to gain back those chubby cheeks.

We had a couple blowouts that meant changing outfits.. Charli doesn't like getting dressed let alone changing those outfits either.

We get plenty of cuddles in throughout the week.

We also had my 6 week appointment, it was nice to finally be told that I could work out again and my doctor gave me my IUD birth control! I was a little nervous when since my sisters said they had bad cramps when they got theirs. But I have only had light ones quite randomly. Lucky me!

On Instagram I posted this photo on Sunday. It makes my heart happy. After waiting 9 months of being pregnant and the months before asking Kelly when we can have kids. There is nothing better than talking to those deep blue baby eyes. Charli is such a sweet girl. She has a calm personality. There is so much greatness wrapped up in such a tiny baby. Kelly and I have had many conversations about how cool that just a few weeks ago she was with so many people that loved her and that she loved. She got to see Jesus and have so much happiness in her life. It made us think of so many things that she would of already experienced. 

We are so lucky to be parents to such a strong, beautiful girl. 

On Monday, Charli celebrated her 7 week old birthday at the Dance Studio. She already had spent so much time there when I was pregnant. She is so loved by all those girls. 

Kelly had asked me what she did once the music turned on.. Honestly she didn't flinch or care. She had heard those songs plenty of times. I am sure they probably are pretty calming. 

Charli hears music a ton anyways. I always have music either playing while we are home or in the car. Plus I love singing and dancing with her.. Starting her young.

Bath Time: 

It's improved. We were probably not very nice, she was already hungry but she really needed a bath. So we finally put her in the baby tub. She ended up calming down. As Kelly was bringing her into the bathroom she started to pee on Kelly's shirt.. hahaha.

I realize that when Charli is crying a lot or is upset that I get pretty cranky. Kelly will try and comfort her but I snap and tell him to move. Its a mom instinct?! I also wanted to get the bath done quickly so she could be happier. The second I picked her up and had her in a towel she just melted.

Last night, Charli ate at 11:45pm and slept clear until 7am. Thats the longest stretch she's done! Then after I fed her at 7am she slept till 9:30.. I am so happy that she is such a good sleeper.

She normally eats around midnight, wakes up at 2am-3am, then is up around 6am or 7am.

We usually get a good 4 hour stretch since she was about 2 weeks old. Kelly was nervous when he woke up and realized she hadn't been up throughout the night.

For the most part it felt good to have a couple more hours last night. But I couldn't tell a huge difference since we always had such a good sleeper!

We love you bug!

Throwing it out

After being home with a new baby I have realized how much time I can spend on the list of projects I have wanted to do for a long time. Today after eaten no lunch and staring at the messy pantry that I wish I would have taken a before picture of, I decided that it was time to get it cleaned. So an hour and a half later there was a pile of boxes and two bags of garbage.

                                    

Kelly walked in shortly after it was finished and he was shocked to see how organized it was. 

He also was fine with hauling out all the garbage. 

I am planning to get a few more declutter projects happen in these winter months. 

You may wonder how I conquered getting this pantry in order with a 6 week old baby well this is 4Moms Mamaroo swing is a lifesaver until I put her in my Solly Baby Wrap!