I'll tell you what, the baby gear available today is unreal. Someone, somewhere, has thought of everything. And guess who buys it? ME! On any given day, an average of 1 to 3 packages from Amazon and/or Babies R Us is en route to our house. I don't even tell Jason about my purchases anymore because he can't appreciate that I'm just trying to make our lives simpler and our baby happy! For example, the other day I am conveniently mashing avocado in our convenient mash-and-serve bowl that came conveniently from Babies R Us:
Isn't it cute? It was $4.99! Plus $7.95 to ship but I don't count that. And I can easily and conveniently mash things up now, like bananas, and avocado, and anything else that needs mashing. Jason was like, Where did we get THAT? I told him that it was only $5 and quite frankly, I ordered it because we really needed it. When he gave me a look that said "don't we have other bowls and forks and utensils to mash things?" I rolled my eyes like it was so obvious: yes, of course we do, but this one is especially for
babies, which makes it an absolute necessity. Duh Jason.
I have also bought, in the past few weeks, a fancy Beaba Babycook machine for making Ashton's baby food (despite the fact that, besides the avocado (conveniently mashed), I haven't actually made anything with it. I find the pre-packaged Gerber stuff from the grocery much easier - I mean, who wants to puree prunes? Too sticky.).
I also bought all the accessories for the Beaba machine - you have to! How else will you utilize it to its fullest potential? Anyway I better use it before Jason starts to give me a hard time.
And then two weeks ago I ordered this contraption:
While it looks like it is for catapulting your baby into oblivion, it's actually for bouncing. I know Ashton is DYING to bounce. This product is from Canada I guess and it has taken TWO weeks for it to get here. Like, an eternity. When I got the shipping notice it said, "Estimated delivery: Monday February 6 - Thursday February 9". Well, Thursday February 9 is today and you better believe I called the shipper (CanPar?) and told them that the tracking number I was given did not work on their site and where was my Merry Muscles Jumper? He said, technically it is scheduled to be delivered today, and they were still in the delivery window I was advised of. I apologized for my impatience and told him I thought two weeks was a long time to wait in this day and age, especially when I paid almost $17 for shipping and I had a baby that couldn't wait to bounce! "Just give it a little while longer," he said. Humpf. That conversation was at approximately 3 pm and right now it's almost 10 pm, I wonder if it's outside on the deck by now? I should go look.
While I admit the above items are, shall we say, "optional", there have been a few products that Ashton has really needed and we can't imagine life without. One is the miracle blanket, which is a swaddler but has inside flaps especially for keeping little arms wrapped tight so they can't wriggle free:
In case that isn't detailed enough for you:
Leave it to our generation to completely overcomplicate everything.
The second product is Baby Merlin's Magic Sleepsuit. This is an outfit that makes Ashton look like the Michelin Man - it is for use in transitioning out of the swaddle but before you are ready to just put your baby to sleep in his pj's, arms free. We would have done this by now but considering Ashton scratches at his head and face, we have always had to put him to bed making sure he can't hurt himself. The suit looks like this:
It's designed so babies can have their legs and arms "free" but the suit restricts their movements. Babies have startle reflexes that wake them up and this suit hinders those reflexes. In Ashton's case, he is no longer bound tight but can't reach his hands to his face or head to scratch. This is an actual picture of Ashton from his monitor displaying how he sleeps now haha:
I can tell he is a lot more comfortable out of the tight swaddle but does still wake up when his skin is bothering him. When he can't give himself any relief by scratching, he starts to cry and get worked up. There must be another solution. I took to the internet AGAIN and found Scratchmenots, essentially tube socks for the arms that are connected over the back of the shoulders:
This purchase has not yet arrived but I'm hoping the Merlin suit will be out and the Scratchmenots will be in. Ashton can rub his skin enough to make the itch go away but not enough to break the skin and leave scratch marks. And at the same time, learn to sleep without any special blanket or suit. Reviews on this will be forthcoming but I'm hoping it works. Ashton wakes up 1-3 times a night still and I can't ignore his crying when I know it's for a reason. I'm exhausted, from the wakeups and from all this shopping!! ;)
Big weekend coming up, Ashton's baptism is on Sunday! Lots of family coming to town and the best part, Ashton is wearing Jason's christening outfit from when HE was a baby! The next time I blog, my son will have been officially initiated into the Catholic Church. One of the most significant events in his little life so far (besides the Giants winning the Superbowl last weekend of course!). Stay tuned!
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