Monday, January 7, 2013

4 Baby-Related Realizations That Made Me Feel BRILLIANT

1. The best footed jammies have snaps, not zippers. There are so many things I wish I'd known about kids' clothes earlier and this is a big one. Zippered jammies may cost the same as their snappy counterparts, but they stink in comparison. If I put her foot in the wrong leg first , I've got to wrestle and fold her other leg to get in, then battle the fabric and her legs as I zip it up, being careful not to nip her skin as I go. Then at the top, I've got to get that little flappy snap snapped so the stupid slider doesn't stab her widdle chin. If a middle of the night diaper change is required, it's so much easier to just unsnap the lower half and get to business.

A zipper also means I can't rip the jammies off like stripper pants.

2. An empty baby tub makes an awesome baby holder in a pinch. This is especially helpful when I'm not willing to wait for nap time to fix my hair or put on makeup. Or, ya know, when nature calls.

Mom, why am I in a dry tub?
Why am I wearing zippered jammies?
Didn't you just rant about those?

Not pictured: Me, brushing my teeth! Me, hot rolling my hair! Me, putting on makeup! All of this before 9 a.m.! On a Wednesday.

(While we're on the subject, I hate that I didn't give more thought to which baby tub to buy. I felt silly for "upgrading" from a First Years tub to a (cheaper) Fisher Price whale tub but the other one had the baby slipping and sliding all over the place. Also, it was not a whale.)

.Sticky, messy baby clothes come down a lot easier than go up. When Georgia has made a spectacular mess of herself, be it with smashed avocado or something less palatable, I no longer try to ease her big coconut of her head out of her clothes while keeping as much nastiness off her face as possible. Baby heads are the biggest parts of their bodies, so clothes can be taken down from the shoulders to the toes instead of over the head. AMAZING

This mess goes down, not up.

4. It's almost more important to pay attention to how long the baby has been awake than how long she's been asleep. Once Georgia has been awake for 1 1/2 hours, a nap is imminent. This little realization has been especially helpful when she takes an unusually long or short nap.

None of these realizations are probably that brilliant but they made me feel smart. Which brings me to another point-- ever since I had the baby, I find myself whistling/humming/singing "If I Only Had a Brain" at least once a day.

6 comments:

  1. I would avoid all clothes with white in them if I had known better. Also, and I'm a weird one on this, I hate onesies because I can't check in her diaper.

    Totally agree about the zipper nighties!

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  2. Good stuff, natty! Good call on the dry tub. I must disagree on the zip v. snaps - total zipper fan here!

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  3. Zipper versus snap jammies is controversial. I've taken my stand! Zippers do have an edge with squirmy, kicky babies.

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  4. I disagree on the jammies! The zipper ones are sooo much easier for me, especially if there's a middle-of-the-night diaper change involved. I also tend to not get the snaps lined up, so I end up having to do it twice.

    Another thought on this: my baby has never been chunky (she's 11mo now), so her legs never got caught. And the zip ones always zip from the right foot, so we put the left leg in first.

    100% agree with #4.

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  5. Have to agree that I despised all the snappy jammies I had and wished for more zippers when Heather was either squirmy, or I was trying to change a diaper in semi-dark and couldn't find which snaps would match up. It's preference, I guess!

    Yes, paying attention to awake time was SO important for about the first 9 months at least! It's amazing how short their span is when they're little. I didn't realize this at first and would try to entertain a cranky baby, not knowing she was ready to sleep again!

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