for the 1st time mom...a few things I wish I knew...

As I prepare for baby #2 due in a few short months I can't help but think of how I will do things differently and how I will get through those first few months with a new baby...

here are a few things I wish someone had told me...

Slow Down...you don't need to have dinner ready, the dishes done, grocery shopping complete. Take it all in, nap when baby naps, and just remember what a million people have told you is absolutely positively true, it goes by so unbelievably fast.  You will blink your eyes and suddenly have a toddler and you won't remember how clean your house was those first few months but you will sure as hell remember those long snuggles on the couch.

Everything is a phase...thank god this one is true.  Not sleeping through the night, teething, biting, not drinking milk, not wanting to read books, only eating orange foods, hating diaper changes...it is all a phase.  Nothing lasts too long and before you know it you are on to the next thing.  When you are in the thick of that phase you can't imagine it ever ending...but luckily...it does.  

They just need you...you will buy tons upon tons of fancy toys, diapers, books, swaddles, everything under the sun.  And in the beginning, especially in the beginning, they really just need you.  Hold them before you put them back in the bouncer, snuggle them before you invest in another playard.  You really only need a few things those first few months, don't go overboard...the stuff is nice to have, but none of it is truly necessary.

I see new moms in my neighborhood, exhausted as they push around their fancy strollers and I secretly am envious of each and every one of them...I am secretly dying to be snuggled up on the couch with a newborn...and I promise myself everyday that I will take in every moment with my next baby those first few months, because before you know it...the newborn phase is over.

the soother that soothes...

We have had the Sea Dreams soother in Mason's crib for about 10 months now and I can honestly say it is one of my all time favorite baby items (also on that list is the beloved Exersaucer which he has sadly grown out of).  It soothes him to sleep at bedtime, if he wakes up in the middle of the night he hits the button and the music and lights soothe him right back to sleep.  In the mornings when he wakes up he hits the button and goes back to sleep for another 20-30 minutes.  He uses the light some mornings to sit and read before we come in the room and other times we just catch him in the monitor watching the sea creature show on the soother screen.  He has started to associate the music with falling asleep and it has been our lives so much easier.

The other day we realized that we haven't heard him cry out in the morning for us to come get him in weeks.  He just sits or stands in his crib with the soother on until we come get him....we would never really even know he was up without a monitor.

Whether your child sleeps through the night or is up all night tossing and turning....this soother is a must-have.  It teaches baby to soothe without you needing to physically go in their room which equals more sleep for parents and more time for coffee in the morning before they wake up and the day really starts.  It also comes with a remote so you can turn on the soother from the door without even getting near the crib (genius!).