Aden and Anais Sleeping Bag Review

I was lucky enough to receive a muslin sleeping bag to review from Aden + Anais before Jude was born. I have been a big fan of this company since Eliza was little and was eager to try out any new products. As I have written before, we had to swaddle Eliza a lot. Eliza was very fussy and we had a hard time soothing her. I read about swaddling and at first I thought swaddling was ineffective. I soon realized it was my swaddling blankets that were ineffective. Luckily I discovered two companies that made amazing swaddles, one of those companies was Aden + Anais. We primarily used their swaddle blankets with Eliza for 7 months!

Here is my sweet E! This seems like only yesterday.

It is hard to believe she is 26 months already!

Here is Jude in his sister's swaddle blanket!

If you are not familiar with the company here is a little background. Aden + Anais was started by two Aussie moms who moved to the states in 1996. The arrival of their children - Aden and Anais- led to the realization that the high quality muslin swaddles that had been so prominent in Australia were not available in the states. And of course they started the company to provide American moms with amazing swaddle blankets, hooded towels, washcloths and now sleep blankets.

Unlike Eliza, Jude didn't need to be be swaddled so instead we use a sleeping bag to keep him snug as a bug. I love the muslin fabric because it is soft and breathable. The sleeping bag is made from the same 100% cotton muslin as the swaddles. There is a single layer of soft waffled cotton (which gets even softer with washing) which keeps babies cozy but prevents them from overheating.

Here is Jude rockin his mod about baby - bee sleeping bag

These muslin sleeping bags make an adorable gift for any new mom. They come in 8 prints and retail for $29.95. You can order online or check the store locator for a location near you.

I have been more than happy with my Aden + Anais products over the past few years. Although we no longer use our blankets for swaddling, we continually find other uses for them. If I could bare to part with them, I would use them as eco-friendly wrapping paper. They were certainly a worthy investment. I can't say the same about the traditional receiving blankets I have stacked in my linen closet collecting dust.

Working on my Resume!

I have been working on my resume- you know just in case my SAHM or a WAHM pipe dream doesn't come true. HA! and I started thinking of all the new and wonderful skills I have as a mom. So here is the start of my mommy resume. I did this in a rush and left out so many wonderful thins I am sure. Please feel free to suggest additions!

Danielle The Mom

Mommyville, USA

Objective: To raise a child who does not need therapy or hate her parents

Education:

• 30 Minute Discharge Class at JFK Hospital


• Babyzone Due Date Club 2006-present


• University of Google

Experiences:

• Changing explosive poopy diapers


• Rocking until I can't rock no more


• waking up every two hours despite fatigue

Special Skills:

• baby wearing


• swaddling


• soothing a crying baby


• folding laundry with one arm


• making dinner with baby on my back or in my arms


• leaving a room without waking baby


• typing while holding baby


• taking rectal temperatures


• blogging while entertaining baby


• forgetting to administers administering baby vitamins


• singing nursery rhymes and finger plays


• bathing a slippery infant

References:
Nana Tamez
Grammyita Miller
Happiest Baby on the Block

On Becoming Babywise

The Baby Whisperer

Anyway, I know many of my blogger buds are in the education field so if you would like to help me out and give my real resume a once over- drop me an e-mail. Anyelday@aol.com

so now I really have to go work on my resume for real!

Swaddling Blogroll, & EEEWW Oatmeal

So I was thinking about the Adventures in Babywearing Blogroll and thought I would love to do a blog roll of mommas who swear by swaddling. If you had a baby with colic or sleep problems you know the power of the swaddle. Now the problem is that I need to design a button. So, that is my little project for now. The fact that I have not a clue how to design a button is irrelevant. If you want to get on the swaddling blog roll just drop me an e-mail or a comment. Anyelday@aol.com. If not I will just hunt you down through my Google alerts!

on to her feeding
Her Royal Highness Eliza has been rejecting the Royal Organic Oatmeal. She takes a few bites and then does something with her body that makes me and my husband go into fits of laughter. She squeezes her face all up and tenses her little fists at her sides. It looks like she has a bad case of the willies but worse. I wish I had a picture but didn't have the camera on hand. Note to self- always have camera on hand you are a blogger for cryin out loud.
This is how feeding went yesterday:

• 10:00 a.m. She started screeching in her high chair and I gave her the rest while she sat on my lap. She did that willies thing a couple of time.



• 5:00 Screamed and cried until I put the cereal away and drinks down her bottle in ecstasy.



• 7:30 Takes two bites and then cries. Lets the cereal hang out on her tongue and gets the willies. I try and hold her but that doesn't work either. Daddy gets home and she makes me a liar by happily taking a few more spoonfuls. Then she shows daddy how she gets grossed out by scrunching up her face and body. After this she tenses up when I go near the bowl.

I know she just may not be ready for solids yet. My mom suggested trying the airplane but I don't think that will help. She takes a few spoonfuls before deciding it is the grossest thing she has ever ingested. I would like to try bananas but I am going to give it a few days or weeks. There is really no rush with the solids. Yes I know I will probably have to swaddle and give my daughter a bottle on her first day of Kindergarten. That will be after she wakes up from sleeping in my bed.

Check out Motherland for some great info on babies and sleep. Is that an oxymoron?

Eliza's 6 Month Appointment

Today we had Eliza's appointment. She weighed in at 14.5oz and measured 27 1/2 inches long. The doc. never gives me her percentiles so I check them out here. On Monday the 17th she was 14.12oz. The poor little peanut lost 7oz from being sick. She also got vaccines today-which I hate. I am not exactly pro vaccine. I think we way overdo them with babies. However, I won't get into that now.

Eliza was very cranky tonight and I am thinking the vaccines were the cause. It took over an hour to put her down for a nap. I was about to lose my mind. I tried to go to the peaceful place I was in while rocking her yesterday. At her appointment the doctor asked me if she sleeps through the night and I said, " NO ". I am usually pretty hush hush about her sleep because we co sleep a lot and I know doc. does not approve. He mentioned "sleep training" and I just nodded my head. I read The Baby Whisperer and On Becoming Babywise and was not really that sold. The other issue is that she still needs to be swaddled and I just don't know how much longer we should keep swaddling her at night.

Anyhoo, my brain is tired now and am going to go watch House- or what is left of it.

and I can't resist a pic as usual...

My New Team Member- Future Mom

I hope you enjoyed the post by Future Mom. I have asked her to join me in my blogging quest. Future mom is a long time friend. She was my college roommate and we lived together for five years. She loves researching all things baby and I wanted her to start her own blog to share the wealth. Since two heads are better than one we just decided to join forces.

Here is a pic of us!


More on Happiest Baby on the Block and I how I discovered its miracles...

This book was truly a lifesaver for me and Future Mom is the one who introduced me to the book and its techniques. As I had said in my breastfeeding post I did not figure out how to calm my baby until a friend showed me how when she was 9 weeks old. During a visit, Future Mommy saw that Eliza would not sleep unless I was holding her. She was also very fussy. At the time I was stressed and not able to get anything done! Every time I put her down to sleep she would wake herself up with her flailing arms. Future Mommy swaddled her tightly and she fell asleep like magic. It was an amazing life changing moment. She slept longer and more soundly than she had in nine weeks. DH and I had given up on swaddling because we thought Eliza did not like to be swaddled. She did struggle at first but then she grew to welcome and enjoy swaddling. That weekend I rushed out to get a copy of the book. I have used many of the techniques since purchasing the book. In fact I think the swaddling worked so well I might just be doing it until my daughter enters college. She is five months old and still needs to be swaddled. Some people think it hinders physical development to swaddle for this long-but she is just not ready to sleep without her wrap. I have tried and she just can't settle down. I see no reason to rush the transition so for now I am the proud mommy of a little burrito baby.



Here she is wrapped in a amazing swaddle blanket from aden + anais.

A Day in the Life...

Today I will break down my schedule for one day as the 30 minute mommy. A snapshot of what you would see if you were a fly on the wall in my house; which by the way you wouldn’t want to be because my cats go after those bugs pretty hardcore. Rise and shine at 8:30 a.m. and warm up a yummy bottle of EBM. I am assuming it is yummy – haven’t tasted it myself, but my mom has- that’s a whole different story. After Eliza eats it is time for mommy to pump and watch Regis and Kelly! Yes, I pump full time. Yes, that makes me insane. I spend 2 hours a day pumping; or eight times a day for 15 minutes and about an hour a day washing pump parts. At around 9:30 we have play time on back and tummy. I usually will go as long as I can before she starts to get cranky or I get cranky- whichever comes first. Then it is time for changing, swaddling and napping. I like to play my rain CD for baby Eliza but lately it skips so I have had to switch to baby Bach or Mozart or baby something or other. I put her down in her baby positioner and pat her little bottom until she nods off to dreamland. Sometimes I gently caress her little eyebrows because that makes her sleepy too. I would like to put her down awake and have her nod off on her own but that has not happened yet, so we gently spank her butt instead. I don’t know what it says about her future that she enjoys a nice spank on her rear now and again nor do I want to think about it at the present time. LOL When she naps I chop everything for the stone soup I am making for supper and make myself some oatmeal. She wakes up to eat about an hour later and we start the whole process all over again- eat, pump, play, pat the butt- you get the idea. The next time she sleeps I fluff my x-mas tree some and inhale a turkey and Swiss on rye. I eat my lunch while e-mailing my husband and surfing the net. At some point we went out to Target because I hadn’t been out of the house for a few days. At around 4:00 I put her in the baby carrier and try to get some chores done. At 6:45 I start putting dinner together. DH gets home around 7:30 and we go into Phase II- Daddy Time. He plays with DD and then bathes her, gives her a bottle and puts her to bed at 9:00. We then sit down for some dinner at which point we realize I put way too much hot sauce in the soup. Actually it takes me about an hour to remember that I even put hot sauce in the soup. First, DH and I take turns sniffing the smoked Paprika trying to figure out if is super spicy! We head up to bed at around 10. I wake up at around 1:30 to pump. Baby Eliza wakes up at 4:30 to eat and DH feeds her and puts her back down. She sleeps until 8:30 a.m. and we start the fun all over again. Although this sounds pretty smooth she usually wakes up from naps a few times and I end up holding her and rocking her while she sleeps. I would hold her all day long if I didn’t have to eat, bathe or get things done!