Newsflash, babies are not mindless drones.  You can’t program them to follow a specific schedule or even to act a certain way.  They are people.

Now with that newsflash out of the way, let us get to the root.  I always thought that my self-discipline and desire to strive for excellence would be the key to parenthood.  I am a very patient person who will persevere until I get where I want to be.  However, my four-month-old daughter has turned me into her whipping post numerous times.

My wife is a career woman, and we are both sold on the benefits of breastfeeding.  She feeds her when she is home and then pumps when she is not.  We give her that milk in a bottle when she is working.  Therefore, it is important to keep our daughter on a schedule to ensure the pumping and feeding times are very close.  Camryn sometimes disagrees.

Her sleeping habits are hit and miss.  Five days out of the week, she is right on the money and the other two…not so much.  No matter how hard we try to get her to sleep, she will wake up the second her head touches the crib.  Then other days we just lay her down, and she puts herself to sleep.

At first, I was frustrated.  I am not one to give up easily.  Then it dawned on me, she is a person.  I can impose my will and try to force her to succumb to my desires, but she has the last word.  There is no way to force her to sleep or eat.

I smile because when she is older, I will get my revenge.  I already have the spaghetti string tank top and biker short outfit purchased to greet her friends at the door.  Until then, we, as parents, have to take a deep cleansing breath and realize we have very little control.

Some children fall right into a schedule, and others are stronger willed.  Don’t feel as if you are a failure, we can’t win every battle.

Tweet This Post

I am on record saying how dumb I think it is to spend money on frivolous items that truly are not needed.  I even used the wipes warmer as an example of this.  I have to be honest, though.  This warmer is pretty good.

For less than $30, the Prince Lionheart warmer is a high quality addition to any nursery.  Its purpose is self-explanatory.  Why do you want your wipes warmed?  Some books and experts suggest that cold wipes for those midnight diaper changes wake your baby up more.  From personal experience, this is not the case.

The next reason is for comfort and convenience.  A nice warm wipe on the bum would be much more refreshing than a cold one.  So for this reason, I am willing to sign off on the purchase.

One great thing about this warmer is that the heating pad also helps to keep the wipes moist.  The Pampers container allows the wipes to dry out after some time.  The warming pad is soaked before going into the warmer and the moisture transfers to the wipes.

A final bonus is the night-lite feature.  The Lionheart logo gives off a soft blue light to illuminate the nursery.  Diaper changes become much easier when you can see without turning on a light.  No one wants to wake their baby up even more and create a longer process to get the little one back to sleep.  This light is just enough to see and deliver the warm tooshie wipe.

Even though, this warmer is not something that you need and you easily could get by without it, it is a good buy.  Those in the market for a quality warmer will love this particular one.

Tweet This Post

“Wah, Wah, Wah!” are the sounds flooding the baby monitor as we jump from the bed at 1 am.  I rush into the bedroom to find her fast asleep but crying frantically.  I pick her up and rock her, check her diaper and nothing gives.  Finally, I give her a pacifier and she is off to dreamland once again.

After a couple of nights of doing this, my wife and I decided enough is enough.  Our daughter has become a pacifier junkie.  We had gotten her so used to taking naps with it, that she would wake up in the night wondering where it went. (more…)

Tweet This Post

My last article for this site was titled, I NEED that! I have discovered one luxury item we have that we actually could not live without.  You guessed it, the Graco Sweetpeace Soothing Center.

This beauty is a modern day design for the traditional swing.  Instead of the back and forth motion offered in the old styles, the Sweetpeace allows for multiple swinging sensations for your baby.  You can face the seat outwards and do a side to side motion.  The seat also can be turned horizontally in either direction to get the back and forth feel.  Basically, your baby can have enjoy whatever motion he or she likes the best. (more…)

Tweet This Post

“We need to get a travel swing for when we go to someone’s house, we might need it,” said my wife as I was glancing at the $70 price tag. I am not a miser when it comes to my daughter by any means, but as a consumer we have to throw in the towel on all the things we “need.” Seventy-five percent of the items in baby stores didn’t exist when we were babies, and we clearly didn’t need them.

From play yards to playmates to bouncy chairs to a million things you can connect to a stroller, new parents are bombarded with items, and it really does get confusing. The worst is when some hack with a laptop and a blog states their daughter spoke after a month because she had a special white noise machine that cost $300. (more…)

Tweet This Post