merry merry!

Merry Christmas to all my readers and here's to a colic-less New Year!!

1-3 Month Faves

Here are some of our favorite things over the past few months, Jonas approved.

Exercise ball-I got one to use during labor which was great for working through contractions but we are getting WAY more use out of it now. Jonas loves to be bounced, all day and night if he had his way. Even if I am just sitting still on the ball, he prefers it to me sitting with him on the couch (go figure). Either way, this is the most used item on this list.

Dr. Brown's bottles-We registered for these because we prefer to use glass instead of plastic. Thankfully Jonas took to them like a charm, but I do know you may have to shop around before finding a bottle your baby will love. We have used other bottles (he will take any brand/kind) and the Dr. Browns have never leaked....more than I can say about Avent.

Bob Stroller-I was lucky enough to be able to use my sister-in-law's strollers. This one is my fave! I cannot believe how smooth the ride is. Sometimes I think Jonas needs it a little bumpier even to fall asleep. ;) It is so easy to push one handed while you drink your coffee or talk on the phone. It is also super easy to flatten and pop back up. It takes up a good portion of your trunk, though.

Ubbi Steel Diaper Pail-You can use your own trash bags and no smell, no smell, no smell! I know Jonas' breast milk poops aren't anything to complain about in comparison to babies on solid food, but I have a feeling this will stand up to those. You can use with disposables or cloth.

Travel Sleep Sheep-This was amazing in the first month or so. We used it non-stop. 4 soothing sounds of white noise, although we never really got into the whale sound. It was even very soothing for Jon and I to fall asleep to. Small enough to go wherever you want. A must for any baby registry.

Rockabye Baby! Music-These are just awesome. Songs we know and love made into instrumental lullabies. I was dragging my feet uploading them from the CD to my ipod when a mom in my mom's group said she swears by them for making her daughter fall asleep. I popped one in my car later that day and it didn't take more than one block for Jonas to fall asleep! We love the Bob Marley, Coldplay, Green Day, Beach Boys and No Doubt ones.

Seventh Generation diapers (and wipes)-These are what we will use until Jonas fits into his Fuzzi Bunz cloth diapers. They are awesome and don't leak like the Huggies and Honest Co. ones did. Bonus for no chlorine or added fragrances. It is so weird, we use these primarily but I used a few non SG ones and noticed the others have a "baby powder" type smell! Very weird and unnecessary.

Pampers Swaddlers-Newborn-With that said, these were our favorite for when we used the Newborn size. This is what the hospital had and for good reason. We tried a few other brands and I don't know what it was, but these were the only ones that didn't leak. When a newborn goes through 10 diapers (or more) a day, you pick up pretty quick which are the best ones.

SkipHop owl-Ok, this is Jonas' favorite toy ever. We have it hanging by the changing table and whenever we lay him down there he looks up and sees Mr. Owl and smiles so big like "Hello, old friend!!" He will gaze at him and give him familiar smiles, it is the cutest. We actually don't move him from the changing table because we don't want him to get tired of it. So far, he is still obsessed after almost 3 months.

Senor Squeaks

This was Jonas' first time playing peek-a-boo, which he is still a little young for, so this reaction was surprising. Normally he talks to us and coos on the changing table, laying on his blanket and looking in the mirror and then little random ones throughout the day. This is the longest "chat", with the most enthusiasm and they were all new sounds to us. He gets a little over stimulated around 34 seconds, but the beginning just kills me. Cutest noises ever.

Catch-up, Photodump, Hi, remember me?

Well the colic hasn't broke, but we are starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel. (As I write this, he is screaming his head off with Jon in the other room...) I had always wanted to take photos for our Christmas card this year but was worried about his colic and being able to get the shots we needed. Above is the money shot. That's what we paid for, basically. 7 weeks old and looking oh-so-cute. Because in between every decent shot he was screaming and we were bouncing him or blasting a radio or trying to show him toys in hopes of getting one or two good shots. It was a hectic and a kinda stressful afternoon, but I'm glad we did it.

Thanksgiving. Hey, at least his sweater is cute.

 We started him on probiotics (BioGaia) and I really have seen some improvements since day 3 of starting them. He is actually happy in the morning after he wakes up and we have been playing. I even heard his first laugh the other day! So much fun. And now he smiles all the time and we can get him to smile for us, before it was sort of random. Nothing better than seeing his smiling face.

As tempting as it was to get a cheap tree from Costco...babies first Christmas, blah blah blah. We bought an overpriced one from the tree farm. He slept the whole time in the Ergo. Family of 3, yo!

Holding his head up like a big boy. We are playing catch up on tummy time, since he wasn't a fan in the early months. He wasn't a fan of anything, actually. So in his few happy moments we weren't going to ruin it by putting him on his stomach. Trying to squeeze lots of TT in now.

We are loving baby clothes from American Apparel and Old Navy! Don't let his face fool you.

I miss this space. I miss all of you! I hope to not let so much time pass before another post.