a baby shower for my bestie

This past weekend I had the pleasure and honor of co-hosting a baby shower for my best friend.  She's had part in hosting two wonderful baby showers for me (here and here), so I was beyond thrilled to return the favor.  Meg is due in early December with a sweet baby boy, and I am just beside myself excited to meet him.  I can't wait to watch my friend become a mama.  And just typing that makes my eyes well up.  Sheesh, I'm such a sap :o).

Our theme was 'Oh the Places He'll Go'.  No, not like the book.  No, not planes, trains and automobiles.  Maps and globes and suitcases, mmmkay?  Haha, the mama to be told me she planned to use globes or maps as well as burnt orange in the nursery, so I went with it.  I had many grand plans for this baby shower and I was so incredibly excited while planning it.  But of course the procrastinator in me just couldn't get going, and then suddenly it was a week to go and I had, um, nadda put together.  Overall I think it all turned out great, we had a good time, the sweet little man was showered with love and gifts, and Meg was happy.

And of course I just realized I have yet to take a picture of the invitation I designed, and I'm a wee bit too lazy to get off my butt and go do it, so that will be a separate post at some point.  Also, please please PLEASE excuse my crappy photography.  I of course was running behind and trying to snap these before everyone started eating and such.  Therefore I didn't make sure my settings were right nor did I check to see if things were in focus.  Whoops!  But you'll get the idea...

I of course used pinterest to round up all of my ideas.  Many of the recipes and decoration inspiration can be found here, on the board I created specifically for the shower.  Our menu was somewhat of a sampling of foods from around the world.  Greek layer dip, curried snowball, Asian chicken lettuce wraps, turkey taco bites and caprese skewers made up the appetizers, while the desserts consisted of pumpkin cake balls, French macarons (from Natasha's on the plaza) and mini salted caramel apple pie bites.  The take home favors for the guests were just a bag of snack mix (M&M's, peanuts, pretzels, Cheezits and yogurt covered raisins) tied with baker's twine and map circles. 

About those map circles... originally the plan was to find vintage maps to cut up and use for decor.  But Katelynn is a procrastinator just like me, therefore when she got around to making the garlands, there was no time to look for vintage maps.  So our circles are cut from print outs of a vintage map image found online.  They looked great and were cheap and easy enough.  So don't stress about finding the real deal if you're going for the same look.

I'm generally not a fan of shower games, but go figure we played three different ones.  When guests arrived, I had them fill out a bingo card with items they thought Meaghan might receive as a gift.  Then during the gift opening they crossed off spaces as they went.  It's was a fun and easy way to keep guests entertained and interested while the guest of honor is doing her thing.  Although baby shower gifts are my favorite to watch being opened anyway.  Baby stuff is just fun and cute.

Before the gift opening, we also 'celebrity baby match', at least that is what were calling it.  Katelynn put together a poster with pictures of celebrity couples, and also pictures of their babies.  Guests had to try and match the baby to the appropriate set of parents, and they got bonus points for knowing the child's first name.  I'm not sure I would have gotten more than two points or so, but Meaghan has a thing for celebrity gossip and the like, so we thought it was a fitting game for the party :o).

Our last game was 'The Price is Right.'  For our gift to Meaghan, my mom and I filled a basket with different baby necesscities (which of course I forgot to get a picture of).  Guests were given a sheet listing each item, and then I more or less opened the basket for Meaghan and described each item.  Everyone wrote down their best guess for what each item cost.  Whoever came closest to the basket's total, without going over, won a prize.  For prizes I wrapped up a $5 Starbucks gift card along with a small candle from Target.

We also had one activity for guests to complete.  Katelynn gathered some postcards, and then each guest wrote down some advice for the baby boy as he 'traveled through life.'  Clever, huh?  :o) 

Meaghan, I truly am so excited for you to become a mama.  You're going to be a natural.  I had so much fun putting this shower together for you, I love you!  And a huge thanks to my mom and Katelynn for putting everything together with me, I couldn't have done it without you!

elsie - eight months

written October 8th

She just keeps growing and growing and growing...  Oh and mobility?  Yeah, officially makes these photo shoots 100% less fun.  As does teething.  Good thing she is cute! :o)

I was on my own for the size estimates today, so I didn't even attempt to measure her length.  We're just going to go with somewhere around 27 inches.  Sounds good enough, right?  As far as weight goes, I think she is right around 17 pounds?  Who knows.  Whenever I go to get her out of her carseat or something, she always feels lighter than I was expecting, but I'm guessing that is because I still lift and carry Ry around sometimes.  I've packed up all of the 3-6 months clothing in favor of 9 month or 6-12 month items.  She can do the 6-12 month leggings, but the actual pants (which who wants to wear real pants?  um nobody.) are still big for the most part.  Elsie is still wearing a size two diaper, but I had Christopher buy a box of threes today.  I'm sure we could still get some use out of the twos, but I don't want to buy a big box and have her grow out of them.  And when she wears shoes she can surprisingly still wear a two.

We average six nursing sessions in a 24 hour period, depending on how many times she wakes in the night (usually too many, grrr...).  E is consistently eating dinner (1.5-2 oz of fruit or veggie purees) and when it works out she has lunch as well.  I need to be better about making the meals a priority, but it doesn't seem to affect her sleep or anything, and sometimes it is just easier to not worry about it.  Sorry E!  This month the only new foods we've added are mango, apples and banana.  We've offered puffs a couple of times but Elsie acts like we're trying to poison her.  I find that odd seeing everything else she gets her hands on goes into her mouth, but hey.

In all honesty I've been pretty terrified about feeding Elsie too many new things, especially grains, after two extreme vomiting episodes.  They were both linked to oatmeal, and she hasn't had any other grains, so I have no clue if she will be affected.  But there hasn't really been a need to give her any so we just haven't.  However it is getting to the point where we need to be offering her a wider variety of foods, and I need to just suck it up and give some more stuff a go.  We've been giving her probiotics daily in hopes to help her digestive system out.  We still regularly have to resort to prunes to get something going though.

peace out ma

Sleep, well... it could still be a whole lot better.  But it doesn't seem to rule my life as much as it did with Ryann.  I think because I don't have to spend forever in the middle of the night trying to get her back to sleep.  Yes she wakes me up, and yes I'm often up for 30-45 minutes at a time, but after she is fed I lay her in her crib and she puts herself back to sleep.  For the most part, she is up for the day between 6:15 & 7, goes down for a nap 2.5 hours after that, sleeps for about an hour, is up for another 3 hours, naps for 1.5 hours, and is bed for the night between 6:30 to 7pm.  The last couple of weeks she has been fighting her morning nap, and I have no idea why.  But what are you gonna do?  We're surviving.  I think teething (as of October 1st we've got one coming through!) plus a lot of gross motor skill development is to blame.

Speaking of the gross motor skills, Miss Elsie is on the move.  She started sort of arm crawling, or really, inch worm crawling on September 15th.  September 19th was the first time we caught her gracefully transfer from a seated position to her belly.  By October 3rd she could successfully crawl with her belly off the ground.  And on October 4th she got herself to a seated position without any assistance.  She has only done it one other time since then, but I'm sure by the time she is nine months she is going to be crazy all over the place.  Her crawling speed is picking up quickly, and it hasn't taken her long to go from crawling with a purpose to get something, to crawling around just because she can and to explore.  As exciting as it is, I already miss being able to just plop her somewhere and know that she'll be there when I return.  I was pretty content with just the sitting milestone :o).

Elsie's babbling skills are starting to emerge as well.  On September 27th she said mama without crying :o).  I'm sure it wasn't directed at me, but it still melted me in to a puddle of mushiness.  She might have said dada on October 7th, but I'm not quite sure.  And again, it wasn't directed at anyone or anything, just making noise.  As far as noise goes though, she is still pretty damn fond of blowing raspberries all day long.  Which is great because we're always telling Ryann absolutely no spitting.  "But Elsie is spitting!"  Touche my friend, touche.  E is pretty good at waving hi and bye now, which of course, yes, is incredibly cute.

dude.  not what I was going for.

Stranger danger is still in full force.  She pretty much breaks down sobbing if anyone other than my mom, sometimes my dad, Christopher or I get too close.  Although she has perfected the shy flirt.  When we were in the airport, if any man smiled in her direction she would get this little grin on her face and bury it into my shoulder.  And then pop her head back up to see if the man was still looking.  With one guy I'm pretty sure she did it at least ten times.  It was stupid cute.  E is still also very much a mama's girl.  It is borderline ridiculous.  If I leave to go do something, she is usually fine with whoever is watching her while I'm gone.  But when I return she just starts whining.  Like she wanted me to know that she isn't happy with the fact that I was gone.  It's pathetic.

You wanna know what else is pathetic?  If it has been more than an hour since Elsie last ate and she sees the boppy pillow or my nursing cover she throws a fit.  Or if she gets too close to my chest.  She kinda goes crazy then too.  I'm fairly certain she isn't hungry, she just decides it sounds like a good idea.  And fits, she has definitely learned how to throw them over the last month.  She has perfected the art of throwing her head back in rebellion when she isn't happy.  Let me tell you how well that went on the close quarters of the airplane.  Yeah, not so much.

Other things that Elsie hates are having her diaper changed, having her face wiped having her clothes changed.  She is scared of a jack in the box and balloons (seriously, balloons.), and TERRIFIED of the dryer.  I had never taken her in the basement to do laundry with me before, but really needed to get some loads switch, so I set her down in a laundry basket.  Got stuff switched around, turned on the dryer... she looked at me, back at the dryer, at me, back at the dryer, and started wailing.  Like could barely breathe completely red in the face wailing.  I felt bad, but I definitely laughed.  I mean come on kid!  Pretty sure she is scared of the vacuum too, but not quite as bad.

Some things that Elsie really likes are a toy xylophone, Ry's big box of legos, air vents and pretty much anything that you wouldn't want her to play with.  Dirty shoes?  Yep.  Cords?  Absolutely.  Trash?  Of course.  Aside from the xylophone and this little plastic toy that looks kind of like an ipod and plays music, her toys don't really hold her interest.  She would much prefer to seek out something more interesting, like Ryann's markers.  E also isn't much into books still, but she loves Baby Colors, I think she loves the babies.  Lastly, whenever she finds her owl outside her crib, or really other stuffed animals or blankets, she body slams them and starts nuzzling them or something.  It is pretty cute (like almost everything else she does, can you tell I'm kind of obsessed with my kid?).

Elsie girl, I love you.  A lot.  A lot a lot.  It is so fun watching you grow and become more and more interactive.  You truly are a gift!

i make it rain

We recently took a trip to Georgia.  We flew in on a Monday, Sarah and Collins joined us on Wednesday... and it pretty much rained the majority of the time Monday thru Thursday.  Seriously?  After our trip to Colorado I was a wee bit sick of rain.  People on the island were saying it was the most rain they'd had in years.  Go figure.  On top of that, the tide was incredibly weird, as in, even at low tide there was barely any beach.  So we only made it to the beach once.  And the babies didn't exactly love going out to dinner.  Nor did they particularly like sleeping in the pack 'n plays.

Sarah's first view of St. Simons.  I'm sure she was thrilled...

But we still had a good time and the sun came out enough that we could hang out in the pool.  And I had a great time having Sarah and Collins around (Collins and Elsie together are just stupid cute).  Elsie had her first taste of sand (it was bound to happen, right?).  Ry got to spend lots of time with Papa which she absolutely LOVES.  So I'll still count this one as a win.  The fun and cuteness in pictures (ok mostly just pictures of Collins and Elsie being cute... whoops...):

 

And the instagram version of our trip...

a picture for daddy before we left.  squishy sleeping babe.  clear skies.  bed hog.  stupid cute baby.  free soft serve.  fake twins going for a stroll.  bathing beauties.  sisters + matching pjs for the win.  nap fighters.  sand digging.  chilly beach day.  grammy time.  the oddest toy.  sassy face?  babies livin' the life.  my littlest goober.  THE SUN!  cocktails.  mama + baby.

running scenery.  pool lounging.  me + my littlest.  post swim cutie.  matching buddies.  too much love.  mow cow ice cream.  happy ice cream eater.  cool baby.  view from the light house.  rock star step climber.  walking the runway?  more baby love.  awkward pic with my girls.  not so awkward pic of those girls.  layover adventures.  toy conqueror.  sleeping beauty.  sleeping babe.  in-flight entertainment.

What do you say Sarah, wanna make this a yearly trip?  :o)

a day in the life - paige

Sorry, I uh, sort of forgot it was Wednesday.  I swear I never know what day it is.  And then I was pretty involved in some lego masterpieces.  That I'm not sorry about.  I love playing legos with Ry.  Anyway, here is your day in the life post for the week!

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Hi!  I'm Paige and my blog is New Momma Notes.  I'm a stay-at-home mom (for 16 months) turned working mom (first grade teacher).  I write all about the adventures of motherhood with my 17 month old son, Carter and my husband, Christian. Thanks to Ashley for hosting me today!  Here's a little glimpse into a day in our lives.

5:15am I wake up to a few cries upstairs (Carter's room is directly above ours) and check the monitor, he's standing, but after a few seconds he's asleep again.  I doze in and out of sleep until 5:45 when Christian's alarm goes off and I push gently tap him to get up so I can get in the shower on time. 6:07am I get into the shower and get dressed

6:27am I make my first iced coffee and check some blogs while I wait for Carter to wake up.  He's usually up by now. 6:40am I go to dry my hair and I hear that Carter is up.  Christian gets him, changes his diaper, and gets him dressed (in the outfit I laid out last night) 6:55am Carter is eating a waffle and watching Mickey Mouse Clubhouse.  Then he starts running around and I chase him and play "I'm gonna get you"

6:55am I make my second iced coffee for the road, grab a waffle for myself, a snack catcher of Cheerios and Carter's sippy cup of water 7:10am We're in the car for school.  7:35am We arrive at Carter's school (daycare) and I drop him off with his teacher.  He reaches out to her and waves bye-bye to me.

7:45am I arrive at my school and start doing 1 of the 54739 things on my to-do list.  From the moment I arrive at school until the moment I leave, I don't stop.  I eat my pita pizza and chat with my friends for like 5 minutes at lunch before I'm back to work.  Luckily it's a day that I don't have recess duty!  And bonus--my class has Art today so I have an extra long prep time! 4:00pm I rush to pick up Carter, leaving 57487 things on my to-do list for tomorrow.  I bring home a few things to work on later.  

4:10pm Carter's in the playroom and comes running to me and gives me a huge hug.  Obviously, the best part of my day!  We get his backpack and his "report card."  He was cheerful and napped for 1 hour 50 minutes!  I love reading about his day and all of the things he does and learns (which is tons!) 4:50pm We arrive home and he high-tails it to his lawn mower and starts mowing the driveway and the neighbor's yard.  We wander around the neighborhood, picking up everyone's pumpkins.  We walk down to the pond with a fountain and pick up acorns.  Then Carter throws them into the pond and squeals each time.  We walk back to the tree to get hand fulls of acorns and keep throwing over and over.  Then he walks all around the little pond and throws any leaves or mulch or pebbles.  This kid loves to throw.  Eventually he walks up to me, reaches, and says "up" to be carried home.

5:55pm I start making heating up dinner (chicken fingers for him, Tuscan Chicken soup for me).  We eat dinner together.

6:35pm Carter and I sit down on the couch to watch Mickey Mouse when Christian walks in the door.  Carter is obviously exhausted and content to lounge on my lap.  Christian eats dinner and we all hang out in the living room, playing and talking. 7:15pm  I take Carter up to take a bath while Christian cleans and fills the humidifier.

7:35 I read a few books to Carter and then sing a few songs to him before putting him in his crib. 7:50 I sit on the couch and check blogs, facebook, e-mail etc.  Christian suggests we watch Homeland and I'm sold, the work I brought home will have to wait until tomorrow!   (I also have approximately 6 cherry Twizzlers (super long nibs- so good!) and 2 snack size Kit Kats.) 9:45 I'm tired and get ready for bed.  

1. What is the most surprising thing about being a mom?
The ridiculous, all-consuming love you have for your baby.  You don't even know you are capable of feeling so much love and it grows and grows.  
 2. What advice would you give to new mamas?
Write everything down.  I'm so glad I started to blog when Carter was 1 month old.  I tried hard to write down the good and the bad (and we had a lot of rough times in the beginning) and I'm so glad I have this to look back on and remember.  It's amazing how fast time flies and how you can't remember everything.  
3. What are your top 3 baby products?

• Baby Bjorn- It was the only way I could take Carter anywhere without him screaming. 
• Halo Sleep Sacks and Swaddle Me's- we used these for about 5 months. 
• Video Monitor- I can't imagine not having a video.  Definitely worth it! 

Thanks again Ashley!  Now can you come to Pennsylvania and take some good pictures of Carter?!?!  I'm embarassed of my blurry iPhone pics!

***

Thanks for sharing with us Paige!  And the only way I get decent pictures of my kids?  Take a million :o).  One of them is bound to turn out, right?

power through

Oh.  Hey.

Yep.  I'm still here.  Still running.  Still eating way too much chocolate.  But still running.  It's been a few (oh geez, four?!?) weeks since I've done a Move it Monday post.  Since then I've covered a little over 70 miles, including three double digit runs.  My half is in less than two weeks.  Freaking out a bit?

Um, yes.

I was certain by now that I would be getting much more consistent amounts of sleep.  When I signed up for the half I told myself surely by the time E is eight months old she'll be sleeping at least 10 hours straight.  And yet, here we are, her turning eight months old tomorrow, and between her waking up at night and trying to fit runs in before the sun rises, I'm still lucky to get 5.5 hours of sleep total a night.

Usually I do my long runs on Saturdays, but Chris had to be in by 7am for a 24 shift (blech) so I had to postpone the run until Sunday.  Because no one in their right mind tries to run 10-12 miles before 6:30am.  I still had to work at squeezing the run in though, because I was hosting a baby shower at 11:30am.  Before I went to bed Saturday I crossed everything I could and begged Elsie to sleep until at least 4:30am.  Yeah, she didn't listen.  I about cried when I heard her on the monitor at 3:15am.  Talk about terrible timing.  I knew if I fed her then she'd more than likely be up for the day shortly after 6.  Maybe 6:30 if I was lucky.  I decided to set my alarm for 5am, and hoped I could squeeze an hour of running in, come back and feed her, and head back out for another 45 minutes.  Wouldn't you know as I tried to squeeze past her door at 5:20am, she woke up.

The good news is I didn't have to break up my run (because let's face it, who would want to go back out?  uh, not me).  The bad news is, well, my house has creaky floors and my kids hate sleep.  That is beside the point though.  I got Elsie fed, and made it out the door by 6am.  It was dark.  And cold.  My knee has been bothering me a little.  Pretty much it wasn't all that fun.  But I did it.  My GPS was being a jerk and wouldn't connect, so I just ran for just over 95 minutes and hoped it was 10 miles.  Unfortunately there was no time to rest when I got home.  I needed to eat and shower and feed the baby and get clothes for the toddler and finish the party prep.

I told Chris that running just isn't the same as it used to be.  I'm tired and my body hurts.  I used to really look forward to long run days.  I'd often have a running buddy.  We'd meet between 7 & 8am.  Chris and Ry would go to breakfast and bring me back pancakes before heading out for some more adventures while I showered and lounged a little.  It was great.  Now I have to drag myself out of bed while the majority of the population is still sleeping, including the sun, to run in the dark, by myself.  And when I get home I've got to rush around to get myself ready before we need to do whatever is on the list for the day, or before Chris has to go to work.  It just isn't fun.

BUT.  I power through.  Why?  Sometimes I have no idea.  It'd be a lot easier to not go running.  I keep going though, because I know what running CAN be for me.  It may not be great right now, but when it can be good I don't want to start from scratch.  I'm accepting the fact that how I do on race day is a total crapshoot right now.  Maybe Elsie will be a sweetie and let me sleep as much as possible.  Or maybe she won't.  Maybe my knee will be having a good day.  Or maybe not.  But I'm going to cross that finish line, no matter how long it takes me.  And the atmosphere will only motivate me to keep on keeping on.

It will be fun again some day.

Or eventually I'll stop torturing myself.

One of the two :o).

 

If anyone out there is still writing about their current health and fitness journey, link up your post below!

a day in the life - lindsay

Good morning!  I didn't set this to publish last night and the weest one is at my feet screaming at me (OMG TEETH SUCK), so enjoy a day in the life of Lindsay!

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Hey y'all! I am Lindsay and I blog over at Baby Mama Drama. I am married to Adam (actually, our anniversary is coming up on the 9th--WORD BIG BIRD!) and we are the slaves to our 2 year old drama queen, Presley. She is every bit of sassy, high maintenance, hard headed, stubborn and strong willed ever known to exist in a single human. So, obviously, life is just dandy!

::Side note- I really do love my little Drama Baby.  I use sarcasm as a coping mechanism because, well, we are desperately trying to survive the Terrible 2's and these type of posts come off as if I would rather live alone and sit on the couch all day watching Will & Grace marathons....::

On a typical week day, my husband and I both work. I am taking a break as a Massage Therapist and am working for a large medical supply company and Adam is a baseball coach at Notre Dame.  He works crazy long hours and is gone until later in the evenings.  So, I am basing this "day in the life post" around our weekend--which isn't all too interesting, either :) 
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Our day starts off around 8:00AM.  I have no clue what time Presley actually wakes up because she isn't one to make noises or cry out for us when she wakes up. She just rolls around in her bed until I go get her. Like the good wife I am, I let Adam sleep in this morning. I fix Presley a cancake (pancake) and have to endure 2 episodes of Go, Diego, Go! and one episode of Yo Gabba Gabba before I even drink my first cup of coffee.

At 10:30AM, Adam gets up and heads to the baseball field while Presley and I head down to my office. I forgot a few things at the office and was hoping that the building would be unlocked, but it wasn't. Womp womp.

By this time it is 11:45AM and I'm starving. I stop and pick up lunch because I would rather eat a kitten than go to the grocery store on a Sunday (or any day, for that matter.) Presley has food allergies so that takes going out to eat to a new level. I get her some grilled chicken nuggets and a fruit cup from a drive thru thinking she will eat that, but dude, apparently I know nothing. She decides to just eat ketchup for lunch. So that's awesome...

12:15 finally rolls around and I do the happy dance because it's my favorite time of the day--Presley's nap time! Hal-a-lu-yer! I decided to not be domestic..like, at all, and I watch Sister Wives and eat a bag of Skittles. This is an all time low for me.  I then come to my senses, and do a little blogging, FB stalking, and YouTube watching.

2:30 P-Nasty is up from her nap and she has to take a minute or two to get out of her nap time funk.  We play baby dolls, cheer on those crazy, athletic people who jog by our window 47 times a day, and then eat some popcorn. That's just how we roll.

A decent amount of time goes by while I do some laundry, unload/load the dishwasher (worst chore ever), all while Presley manages to find my toothbrush and gnaw on it, attempt to change her own diaper and then proceed to pull out all of the wipes in the package.  I can't be the only mother this happens to, can I? Good thing she is cute.

Before I know it, it's 3:30 and Adam is home. We load up and head to the mall that is about 2 minutes away from our house. It has a huge Barnes & Noble and also has a decent indoor play area.  Presley loves going here and even though I feel that I've contracted Aids every time we leave, we still take her.  Germs= everywhere.  We play in both areas for a good hour and a half before it's time to head over to dinner with our cousin, Ryan, and his fiancée. As if stuffing my face with fried chicken and hummus want enough, we head over to Cold Stone Creamery for dessert. Want to know how difficult it is to sneak ice cream around your dairy free toddler? Freakin' hard, y'all. Really hard.

It is now 7:30 and time to wind down for the night. Presley has a bath and then heads to bed.  Adam usually lays down with her at night so I can have some "me" time.  And if you must know, all that includes is me lying in bed watching Homeland...currently, my favorite show!

And that's about it! I wish this post would have been a little more exciting for you, but we are homebodies for the most part! 

1.) What is the most surprising thing to you about being a mom? I think the most surprising this (so far) for me has been how much I have "eaten my own words."  Before being a Mom I would always say oh my child will never ________. And Presley does almost every. single. thing that I said wouldn't happen.  You really have to learn to not set your expectations too high, because almost every time your kid will throw you for a loop and prove you wrong.  

2.) What advice would you give to new or soon-to-be mamas? Don't feel like every baby item you need has to be brand new.  I sometimes think about how much money we (or other people) spent buying us things before Presley was born and I just can't get over how expensive everything was.  You can find some great deals at garage sales, Craigslist, or even the big seasonal kids consignment sales and the stuff is in almost perfect condition--for half the price!  Always check those out before spending full price on a must-have item!

3.) What are your top three baby products? 
     a) The Woombie was hands down our favorite swaddling thingy-ma-jig.  Anything with velcro always woke Presley up during a diaper change and the Woombie zips. Plus, Presley broke out of every other swaddle blanket except for this one.  For us, it was a must have.

     b) The Baby Brezza Temperature Control Kettle- We formula fed Presley, and this kettle was, hands down, the best investment out of anything else we owned.  It keeps the water warm at the perfect temperate and makes the middle of the night bottle so much easier to make!  If you don't get anything else, get this!  

     c) A video monitor- we have the Summer Infant brand and it has worked out well for us.  It was handed down from a friend so I never really did any research on other brands.  I don't know how we managed without it beforehand!

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Thanks Lindsay!