Nolan is three months old! Here's him at 1 month, 2 months, and 3 months. He gets cuter all the time in my humble opinion ;).
To mark this special occasion, here is a list of a few things Justin and I have learned in our first few months as parents...
All diapers are not created equal ::get ready for a LONG rant::--
I think we got spoiled the first couple of weeks - that, or everyone knew something we didn't know - because we received several packs of
Pampers Swaddlers as gifts. When those ran out I started comparing prices and Pampers were quite a bit more expensive than the others so I thought I'd save a few bucks and try some other brands. Yikes. Who knew diapers could be
so different?? And I've got opinions! We first tried Target brand. They were ok, but I could tell they weren't as good as the Pampers and didn't keep his bum as dry. So, no go. Next we tried
Luvs. Here's the thing - at some point between my teenage babysitting years and the present some genius came up with the little yellow line on diapers that turns blue when wet. So you can just take a quick look and tell if he needs a change or not. G e n i u s. Well, I bought the Luvs and upon opening them discovered they didn't have the yellow line. Forget that. Plus they were pretty thin so...on to the next!
Costco brand diapers. These were the
worst. Holy...the tabs are too long and thin and flimsy! So, say there's a poopy diaper, I pull the tabs off to each side and open the diaper only to have the stupid tabs fall back in on themselves. Right into the poop! So now the tabs that I should be able to use to close the diaper are all poopy. When changing a diaper, you should be able to hold his ankles with one hand and wipe, roll, and close the diaper all with the other hand. But with these gosh awful diapers you need a third hand just to try to keep the stupid tabs out of the poop! Ugh! There were a few times when I could open the diaper and get the tabs to actually stay off to the side, but when I started wiping him the tab would fall in right as I'm wiping. The wipe then catches on the tab and, since my other hand is occupied holding his ankles, I do the flinging motion to try to get the wipe away from the sticky tab, but of course it catches and the whole diaper moves out from under his butt and I'm lucky if it doesn't land on the floor. The other problem with these diapers? COSTCO SIZE. I had a a little dance party when I used up the last of those! I found out that
Huggies makes Costco brand so I didn't even bother trying those. So after all that, we decided that Target brand was actually the best alternative to Pampers for the price, it just had the misfortune of being tested right on Pampers' heels the first time.
Oh and wipes. I've got opinions about those too. Some are too soapy, some are too slick, some are too thin. And...I've decided I like the scented ones. What can I say, I like my babies butt to smell good when it's clean.
Blowouts --
It takes particular skill to successfully remove a wiggly, poopy babies pants and onesie, set them aside, and completely clean his bum without getting poo all over his face, the rest of his body, and the changing surface.
Dreft Stain Remover is a miracle product.
Clipping a babies fingernails --
This has got to be one of the most difficult things about parenting an infant. Trying to clip the itty bitty, teensy tiny fingernails on a squirmy, wiggly baby is...hard. And the stakes are high too! Because if you happen to clip a little too close (more like he wiggled right as you clipped) and draw even a little blood, you feel like the worst parent in the world! CPS come and get me, I'm through.
Sometimes advice on the internet is obviously stupid, but I try it anyway --
Let me explain. When Nolan was just a couple of weeks old he got a pretty good rash on his bum. It didn't cover a large area, but it was pretty red and was even bleeding in some places. It broke my heart so I of course wanted to take care of it swiftly and I turned to the internet for ways to speed up the healing process. The most common advice was to let the baby go diaper-less for as long as possibly throughout the day. Ya, good luck with that one. But I of course tried it anyway. Nolan doesn't make a habit of peeing on me when I change his diaper (in fact I think he's only done it once), but you better believe that about 5 minutes after I took that diaper off he peed all over the towel I had luckily placed under him on the floor. I had a good laugh about that dumb advice and the fact that I
knew it was dumb and tried it anyway.
There's a lot of baby junk stuff--
I knew I wasn't ready for this whole parenting thing the first time Justin and I walked in to Babies 'r' Us. I had finally talked Justin into going and he had apparently decided that we were far enough along in the pregnancy to actually go take a look at baby stuff (it was later than I thought we should have started looking, but I'll take what I can get). Talk about overwhelming. We couldn't believe how much stuff there is to (potentially) buy and all the things we didn't know we
needed for a baby. We spent a good chunk of time in the stroller aisle that first day bewildered at all the options and does it work with our cars? Is this a travel system? Is it too heavy? Does the cheapest one work just as well? Whew. Luckily I was/am determined to be pretty minimalist, I can say no pretty easily to a wipe warmer or a $400 matching crib set, but boy is there still a lot of stuff to buy. And I sometimes get suckered into buying the toys that promise to "help with motor skills" or "make your kid smarter" as if people who lived a hundred years ago and didn't have all of these gadgets didn't compose symphonies and become world class athletes and accomplished businessmen.
If he's looking cute, take that picture immediately! --
He will spit up or blowout of that outfit before you can say "cheese!"
It's all just one big guessing game --
Do you think we should do this? Do you think he's hungry? Do you think he's cold? Hot? He's abnormally fussy, do you think he's a little sick? What do we give him for that? Are we
allowed to give him that? Will my parenting scar my three month old for life?
Who knows? We sure don't.
But the biggest thing we've learned in our first few months as parents?
Everyone who told us that you never really know how much your parents love you until you have a child of your own - was absolutely right.
The love we feel for this little person that we just met is incredible. We may not get as much sleep as we used to, it takes us a bit longer to leave the house, and this tiny little thing dictates our schedules a little more than we'd like to admit, but we can't imagine not having him in our lives. He brings so much joy and innocence. One wide eyed look from him and the challenges of the day just melt away.
Now that I really know how much my parents love me, and how much of themselves they sacrificed for me, it makes me regret every time I may have not treated them as I should have. Love you mom and dad! :)
