Father's Day

As you all know yesterday was father's day! I scooped Jack up in the morning and left Max to catch some extra sleep since were out late the night before for his belated birthday celebration. Clearly this weekend was all about him :). I thought about making some pancakes and serving them to him in bed but frankly I was just too tired from the night before. Wife fail #1.

Then it was off to swim lessons while Max worked on presents for his dad and grandfather. Swim lessons were filled with dads; some that wanted to be there and some maybe not so much. But I'm not going to lie I did ask Max if he wanted to go too. After we got home and I got Jack bathed and put into his Team Dad onesie it was present time!

I am a sentimental person. I love having keepsakes that I can look back on and reminisce, but Max not so much. O' well.  Now Max doesn't wear ties to work; he works in a lab at ASU in biology...he wears more Indiana Jones type outfits. But it's father's day so I thought hey why not. So I went to Goodwill and picked up a goofy tie for $2. It's bright blue and has a zipper that closes around your neck instead of tying. Perfect! I told him that we would get him a tie every year and take a picture then he and Jack and future babies will have something to look back on when they're older. He seems less enthused but I think it's adorable so happen it will.

Here is year #1. He unzipped it all the way so he could fit Jack's head in there too. What a nerd.

Max also got a "real" present since he got me my new Surface 3 for Mother's day. I got him these hiking boots he has been drooling over for months now. They didn't come until today so a picture of them had to suffice yesterday. Now I've already been told I bought the wrong version as there are two kinds to pick from but with free shipping and free returns it's not a big deal. He can try these ones on and make sure the fit is right and then we'll get the right ones ordered. Wife fail #1.5.

(update: you can check out a review of these boots at Max's blog Lesser Places)

We spent the rest of the day at his parent's house with the whole Wilson clan. Max gave the picture of all 4 generations of men that we took a few weeks after Jack was born to his grandfather.  It meant so much to him, it was the perfect gift.

Hope all the dads, grandpas, and great grandpas had a wonderful day!

Family Photoshoot

For Christmas my brother-in-law who is a professional photographer gave us a coupon for a family photo shoot once our little bundle of joy arrived. I was so happy and excited since I secretly wanted this but didn't have the courage to ask :).

So after Jack was born we started to plan when we would see them to do the shoot since they live in San Francisco. They came for a few nights a couple of weeks after he was born but Pat was sick and couldn't hold Jack so a photo shoot didn't seem possible. Then they came back a few weeks later again just for a night so it wasn't really a long enough of a trip.

But then Max and I decided to make the long trek to California to visit everyone. We were understandably nervous since we were taking an infant and 2 dogs on a 12 hour car ride but Jack was going to have to make this car ride eventually so why not now. We like to leave in the evening so we can miss the traffic and hopefully Jack would sleep through the night. This worked surprisingly perfectly! We left around 3:30PM and arrived at 3:30AM only stopping for gas and to feed Jack. The best part was that he only had a few minutes of crying before each feeding. He was a picture perfect baby. Thank goodness.

The whole family loaded up in the back seat

That weekend Pat busted out the camera and got some great family pictures. I am so thankful. The pictures are amazing, we will cherish them for many years and they will be so fun to look back on. Also isn't Jack's adorable in his bow tie outfit!!

You can see all the pictures on my facebook page

Pool Party

It was a wild weekend over here. We are a little water logged from all the pool time fun we had. Saturday was our friend's birthday pool party. Because we were the only ones there with a baby Jack got a lot of attention and was such a little player with a harem of women cooing at him.

We were a little worried since it was 103 degrees, stupid desert, but the water was nice and cool and shaded so it was amazing! Jack got to wear his new swimsuit and hat and I even jerry-rigged a floaty that he could sit in.

Many people and pediatricians recommend that babies don't go into direct sunlight or wear sunscreen for the first 6 months. So please do whatever is right for you and your baby and in no way am I saying to rebel against your doctors. But this is Arizona and the sun is hard to avoid since we have 300+ sunny days a year so we did what we could. We bought him this swimsuit and 3 re-usable swim diapers. I liked the suit because it's rated up to 50+UPF and covers his whole body. We obviously got him the 3-6 month one. It goes all the way down to his ankles and wrists. And because he has the two palest parents ever we also used an all natural mineral sunscreen just in case. And of course he had a hat to protect his eyes and head. I dare say he was super cute :)

Because holding him all day is a bit tiring and there is no shade in a pool I tried to find a float with an umbrella we could use. This was extremely difficult since they are all made for 6+ month old babies. So I read some reviews and thought I would give one a try. I went to babies-r-us and picked up a SwimWays Baby Spring Float. I thought I could figure out a way to make it work for him and if not then at least we'd have it already when he got older. In the end though I was able to jerry-rig it to work for him. I took a hair tie and tied up the bottom mesh part so it was flat instead of a seat. And then we just laid him in there and he loved it! He didn't cry or squirm at all. He just laid in it and enjoyed seeing everyone's face and relaxing. I was SO HAPPY that it worked it was a real life saver.

I also got myself a new swimsuit since I don't feel quite ready for a bikini and our Mommy and Me swim lessons seemed like a one-piece kinda thing. But I still wanted one that was cute and looked good; I may be a mom but I'm still 25 :). So I thought this one was perfect. It has a fun print and showed off the parts of my new body I like the most ;).

We had our first swim lesson on Sunday and it was so much fun! More to come on that later :).

Hope you all had a great weekend!

Jack's 2 Month Update

Weight: 10.2 lbs - gained 2.4 lbs! (20%)

Length: 23" - grew 2 (50%)

Loves: Tummy time, being held, sleeping on our chests or being wrapped in the Moby Wrap, being talked to, staring contests, bath time, being outside.

Hates: Being put down, sometimes his carseat.


Activities: Smiling! Cooing all the time and making spit bubbles. He can turn his head to follow us around the room now which is adorable and cries if we get too far away. He's just starting to be interested in looking in the mirror on his jungle gym. Can make the beginning noises of a giggle. He can also put himself back to sleep if he's tired enough.








Sleep: He has one long sleep for 6hrs. Usually from like 7:30 to 1:30. Now only if we can start pushing that back to 9:00 so he'd sleep until 3:00 or 4:00 that would be amazing! Consider it operation sleepy baby!

Food: Breastfeeding ever 3 hrs.

Teething: Still too little so nothing yet.

Now what would a baby photo shoot be without some fails.

Disposable Diaper Battle - Huggies, Pampers, Luv's and Target Brand

During Jack's short life so far I think we have gone though a boat load of diapers. And as any parent will tell you, it only gets worse. Yay, I can't wait.

But because of the generosity of others Jack has used various types of diapers in this short time; Huggies, Luvs, Pampers, and Target Brand. This puts us in a unique position to really know which diapers we like and which ones we don't without having to spend the money to find out. So I thought I would pass on what we have learned to hopefully save you some money too.

So without further delay...THE DISPOSABLE DIAPER BATTLE:

Huggies - Size 1 Little Snugglers

These are probably my favorite though they are really close to the Pampers Swaddlers. First I love the wetness indicator, that way I can tell if his diaper's wet. I know this gets less necessary as Jack gets older and it becomes more obvious but for right now it's really handy. Plus, I'm not going to lie, having a blue strip stare at me through a light colored onesie makes me more apt to change him quickly rather than after say, pulling my hair out or screaming. Second they are super soft and don't have that blue leak guard stuff in them which I like because it's less likely to give him a rash. They also don't stick to his butt when you pull them off. They are contoured to fit like many other diapers and the inner walls that stop the blow outs are nice and high and stay in place as he wiggles so blow outs are a thing of the past unless it's just a poop apocalypse, then nothing can stop that :).


Huggies - Size 1 Snug & Dry

These are the same as the Huggies Snugglers except they have the blue leak guard protection stuff and no wetness indicator. While the blue stuff does work and they don't leak the blue gel seems to give Jack a rash almost every time I use them. They also stuck to his skin and needed to be peeled off at every diaper change. You can imagine how much Jack liked this. I felt so bad for his little raw butt. So I would suggest these only for babies that don't have sensitive skin.







Pampers - Size 1 Swaddlers

These too are really similar to the Huggies Snugglers. They are super soft and don't have the blue leak guard stuff that induces diaper rashes. They are contoured a little less to a babies shape so they seem like they would leak more. We didn't have any leak problems but we only had a few diapers so our sample size isn't great. They also have the wetness indicator which we know I really like. The price of these are the same as Huggies so it really comes down to the quality of the diaper and not just price.




 
Target Up & Up - Size 1

These are the real surprise. I tried these while on a week long vacation to my parents house. We didn't want to pack that many diapers and thought it easier to just buy some when we got there. Because it was only a week and we only needed a small pack I decided to try the Target brand so I would know for the future without having to spend a lot of money. This was a great decision! The diapers seemed slim and not really absorbent when I opened the package but I was so wrong. The inner walls are really high and really tight so they hold A LOT. They are also more contoured than they seem. So far we have had ZERO leaks and he has had plenty of poop opportunities. They also have the wetness indicator and the soft non diaper-rashy layer inside. Jack sleeps anywhere from 3-6hrs at night and we haven't had a single leak or diaper rash yet. They hold a lot. They are also significantly less expensive.



Luv's - Size 1 Ultra Leakguards

 

These diapers are my least favorite. First off they have this TERRIBLE chemical smell when you open the box. My first thought was "OMG they have gone bad", immediately followed by "Can diapers go bad?"  I did a lot of research and found out the smell is normal, which didn't make me feel that much better, and that they seem to have a high rate of diaper rash. Well that terrible chemical smell seems to scream diaper rash so that wasn't too surprising. But because they were a gift and free I felt obligated to use them and save the money. I opened the bags to air them out, airing out diapers was not something I thought I would ever do but oh well. I figured if they started to give my son a rash I would stop using them. On day 2 he pooped out of the leg hole. When I opened the diaper to change him I found out there wasn't really that much poop inside but that the leg hole had collapsed. The poop came out and got all over my mom's arm and shirt for nothing. I thought it was a one time thing and didn't make too much of it. But it has happened several times now and it's always out of the leg hole. The side wing barrier things don't seem to hold up and keep their shape, leaving the poop no where to go but out and all over everything we own. So far he hasn't gotten a rash so that's really good. So if you treasure your expensive baby items and would like to keep them poop free as long as possible I don't recommend these diapers. They are contoured pretty well but that shape just doesn't hold up. Maybe as he get's chunkier and acquires leg rolls the contour will fit better and keep the poop in but right now they don't fit so great. 

I hope this review was helpful, but remember every baby is different and will react differently to different diapers.

Do you guys have different feelings on these diapers or suggestion on other kinds? I'd love to hear from you!