As a first-time mother to my now 4-month old daughter Addison, I was eager to try “Baby’s First Journal” for Carly and frankly, for myself and my husband – at the time Addison was 2 months old and we were struggling to figure out her “routine.”

The journal, produced by Glow Baby, claims to be “a comprehensive log book that enables parents to track the eating, sleeping and diapering schedule of their newborn.” During our three-week trial, we were happy to discover that the journal pretty much lived up to its disclaimer.

The journal has a small introduction, and then has a chart on each page outlining breastfeeding habits (start time, time on left, time on right, total length of feed), bottlefeeding habits (formula fed, breastmilk fed), diapering habits (pee, poo) and most importantly for me….sleep habits (start and end).

At first, I must admit that remembering to log in the book was a pain. Chances are, if I was upstairs, the journal was downstairs or vice versa. Then I would try to remember to back-log information, but that proved to be difficult thanks to mommy-brain and fatigue.

However, once we got in a groove of using the journal, it was very user friendly and answered the commonly asked question at my house “when did she last eat? Instead of the usual “I dunno…” answer, I could tell right away! This was especially handy for us because Addie is breastfed and formula-fed….so if I wanted to know how much of her bottle she took from my husband a few hours before, I could easily tell.

The journal is small enough to fit in any purse or diaper bag, although I must admit if we were “on the run” I didn’t really use it much. It also has a section at the bottom to write any notes, and also to check off whether vitamins or a bath was given.

Overall, Baby’s First Journal is a great tool, especially for first-time parents – as long as you remember to use it! For those on a budget, a simple Excel spreadsheet could do the job as well. And Addison’s sleep schedule? Well, by looking back at the journal pages I did manage to see a bit of a pattern in her napping during the day. Hooray! Then, seemingly the next day – she changed her pattern completely. So it’s back to square one…..isn’t mommyhood wonderful?!!

Leisa Davie is a first-time Mummy to her 3 month old daughter, Addison Rose. Currently on mat leave from her job working at a seniors’ activity centre, Leisa enjoys mummyhood, shopping, listening to music and spending time with family, friends, and her “fur baby,” Sadie. Bad habits include watching reality TV and drinking too much coffee. Married to her husband Ryan for almost 3 years, Leisa lives in Port Perry.

I have a Glow Baby journal for a lucky reader! Visit Glow Baby owner Lindsay’s site, poke around, and leave a comment about her journals and note pads. Winner announced Friday.

UPDATE: Congrats to Denise — comment #12 — for winning!

We broke the rules with Alice, and started putting a blanket in bed with her around 10 months.

This was a combination of second child syndrome, her being a very active baby who moves around a ton while sleeping (meaning I wasn’t worried about her getting caught around or under a blanket), and the fact she is not super chubby, and therefore gets cold at night.

We used a sleep sack for her when she was younger, but she’s long grown out of it over the summer. I was just starting to look at a larger one when an email from Rebecca from Wee Rascals landed in my inbox.

This Whitby mom has twins, and started her business after her babies quickly grew out of the many receiving blankets she received as shower gifts. Rebecca’s mom, a professional seamstress, made her larger ones. Then the sleepsack idea came about, and the rest, as they say, is history.

Now Wee Rascals creates custom-made baby products in hand selected fabrics including 100% organic cotton, flannelette and fleece. Their products include extra large receiving blankets, infant sleep sacks, crib sheets and more. They also do custom monogramming.

Check out Alice’s beautiful sleep sack. It’s a medium, and fits her perfect. Generous, but not too big, and room to grow. Look at the piping detail down the front. The covered snaps. It’s ultra-soft, cozy, warm and the design is so fresh. I fell in love with it when it arrived. It’s absolutely perfect for these cooler months. What makes them extra unique is they go large enough to fit a 3-year-old!

Although fleece is very warm it will actually wick moisture away from the skin so your baby will not sweat or be too hot. The shop has many cute and fun prints (blue camoflouge for boys is to die for) to choose from. This sack retails for $39.50, and Rebecca is currently offering $5 off orders over $30 when you enter code WEERAS01 at checkout.

I have a custom, monogrammed sleep sack to give away to a lucky reader — just in time for the cool weather.

Here’s how to win: Go visit Rebecca’s site www.weerascals.ca, and tell us what you love most! A security blanket? Organic sleep sack? Stay-put bib? Crib sheet? Leave your favourite below, and I’ll draw a winner at noon Friday.

Have fun! Shop local! Support our mompreneurs!

Do any of your kids have a lovey? A soft something-or-other they cherish and take everywhere?

Lucy has a crocheted blankie from a family friend. Alice is still developing hers, but one of her favourites is the NooNoo bug-gy blanket which we received from our friend Coreen at Raising Rascals.

Here’s why we love it:

• it’s oh-so-soft
• small and portable, with a loop for linking on a stroller, car seat, crib or high chair
• loops for gnawing on
• fun textures: the fabric is a soft felted wool, with circles embroidered on for pulling and counting, while the edges are lil’ rounded lumps
• a whimsical and cute sheep smiles out at you from the centre (the company says this is an example of “child art imagery)
• colourful polka dots on the back make both of us smile

The only thing I don’t really like is that it’s white. And white shows EVERY bit of dirt and food and whatever. Which might be a good thing, really — it certainly gets washed a lot!

These would make a lovely shower or welcome baby gift, and are sure to become a favourite as the child grows.

I have a NooNoo for a lucky reader to win! Here’s how: Poke around the Raising Rascals website, and leave a comment with what would be on the top of your child’s wish list.

We’ll announce the winner Thursday. Have fun!

Weeks ago, a Durham Mom’s Night Out friend (hi Catherine!) mentioned a blogger who got a car from General Motors to drive across the country. I jokingly mentioned we should get one, too — I had no idea how we were going to fit everything and everybody into our Nissan Altima for our cottage vacation without strapping Spencer Dog and Alice to the roof.

Well. Look what happened. I shit you not, tea dribbled down my face when the email landed.

That, my friends, is a brand spankin’ new 2010 Chevy Equinox in my driveway. This fully-loaded one costs $42,000, which is more than I’ve ever made in a year as a journalist. GM gave it to us for our entire week away, no cost, no expectations. We just had to pay for gas.

Thoughts:

• As a crossover, it felt like driving a car. It took me two seconds to adapt. There was no big front end, you didn’t feel like you were driving a truck or huge van
• Great on gas. In fact, this vehicle is supposed to be the most fuel efficient crossover on the road right now
• I love, love, loved having the girls high up. As a tall person (and mom), it’s a struggle for me to be all bent over pulling them in and out of carseats
• Ditto the trunk. Everything at waist high, not rolling around and stuck in the back
• It was not that much bigger than our Altima in terms of storage. You can stack high, but not too high or stuff is on top of the kids, and blocks your view. You’ll see below we did this anyways for the trip. Still, Eric — car packer extraordinaire — says we could not have taken what we did to the cottage in our car
• Rearview camera. Enough said
• Satellite radio is sweeeeeeeet. We spent much time listening to stand-up comedy. Once we have money again (hahaha!), I’d definitely get this for our vehicles
• Tight turning radius — surprising for a larger vehicle
• Get this: The manual did not show how to open the gas tank. So Eric and I are digging around the driver’s side area, prying the car with our fingers. Then I accidentally tripped (quel surprise), bumped into it, and it opened. DESIGN FLAW, GM!
• Good pick-up, speed, passing abilities. Overall super smooth ride

I’m not running out to buy it tomorrow, but have to admit the experience has made us increase the timeline for a crossover of some kind — hopefully after the winter.

Are you ever in a restaurant in desperate need of a bib for your wee one? And you end up jamming a napkin down her shirt and hoping for the best? And, depending on the age of the kid, Junior ends up a) eating the bibnapkin, b) absolutely refusing to wear it, or c) both.

I can’t even count how many times this has happened to us.

It obviously happened to my friend and fellow mompreneur Alexandria of Clippopotamus, because she’s come up with a smart and funky solution: The Bib Clippo.

They’re made from washable poly-satin blend ribbons — in sweet designs — and are fully adjustable. Simply clip them onto a napkin, serviette, paper towel… anything, really, and you’ve got yourself an instant bib-on-the-go!

We used ours recently at a Chinese buffet in Orillia, and it worked fantastic. Lucy loved the fun print, opening and closing the clips, and that it was her special piece of equipment.

As a bonus for us breastfeeding mamas, the clips transform any blanket into a nursing cover.

Pretty sweet for $12, huh? Check out the Bib Clippo page.

We’re also loving another ingenious idea: Blanket clippos. These stretchy ribbons-with-clips attach to either side of a carseat or stroller and keep blankets (or toys) in place. Perfect for winter and always having your child’s favourite on hand. See more info and photos here.

Now that Alice is eating solids, she needed her own seat.

I know a handful of you with 3-year-olds, toddlers that sit normally in chairs and have far outgrown special seats. And Lucy can sit in a regular chair, and does so when we’re out if she has to.

But my girl will still pick a high chair or booster seat when we’re out, and most definitely wanted a new chair once Alice took up residence at the table. And we don’t complain — those seats have buckles! That keep children in one place! Lucy can do up her buckles, but not un-do them. This is no accident.

I’ve written about our love of the First Years reclining seat before (click here). I’m actually using it reclined two stages with Alice, who is still not sitting on her own. We’ve got a dish towel underneath her bum to help keep her upright. Even after 2.5 years of daily use, it’s in great shape.

Despite having more room in our new house, we never considered getting anything but another booster seat. High chairs take up so much damn space and are really expensive. We love booster seats the best.

For Lucy’s new one, we ended up with another First Years product — the swing tray. Mostly because it was the cheapest and most compact. We wanted a high back, not just a seat.

Lucy loves it.

She also likes wearing no pants or, um, undergarments when it’s hot in the afternoon and Mummy makes her pose for photos with her sister
(thank goodness for crotch straps).

Spencer in this photo: A new food source! Hurrah! Also: the chaos of my kitchen/living room at the end of the day.

In order to fit everything we needed for the show, we had to take Lucy’s car seat out of the Altima. While it was sitting inside our entrance way waiting for Eric to put it back, I noticed the emergency sticker on the side was horribly out of date.

I’d forgotten all about this ingenious piece of contact information. I got it from the Kiwanis Clubs of Durham a few years ago: It’s a bright yellow sticker that goes on the back or side of your child’s car seat, and includes child’s name, address, parents, emergency contact, doctor and phone numbers for all.

Unfortunately it’s to be used in the chaos of a car accident or other tragedy, but it’s invaluable and offers some peace of mind should you or whomever is driving be unable to communicate.

I updated Lucy’s, and added one to Alice’s car seat, too — I just wrote out the same information on a piece of bright paper and taped it on (layering the tape across to prevent it falling off when wet, or the ink running).

Thought I’d share the great tip. Have any of you done this, or have other ideas?

Speaking of car seat safety, Cindy sent in this horrifying story of a 2.5-year-old boy dragged behind a truck after his improperly-installed car seat popped out (the boy opened the truck door and fell out in his seat). The article certainly highlights how imperative it is to have car seats in properly, and to lock doors when driving (I did not know to do this, but will from now on).

There’s a wealth of car seat safety info in our resource guide — including when and where car seat safety checks are held in Durham Region — under health and safety.

We are (still) battling some sleep…issues with Miss Alice.

When what we now know was the milk allergy started, Alice started rubbing her eyes. This started to keep her awake, so Jen O. lent us her Miracle Blanket.

And lemme tell you…that thing IS a miracle. Even at 15 weeks, Alice loved being in it, and it kept her hands out of her eyes.

(Have you seen one? It’s stretchy jersey, and has a pocket for the legs and wraps for the arms, torso and belly. It like a gentle straight jacket for babies. I wish I’d had it from Alice’s birth, and will recommend it to all new moms now.)

The past few weeks, however, she’s started to resist being bound up. Actually, she’s an angry, beliggerant hornet.

And after months of rocking and walking and pacing, falling asleep standing up, frustration and tiredness, we had to do something. Waiting until six months to sleep train our feisty girl, as we all along planned, seemed like an eternity away. And we knew it’s just get harder the longer we waited.

We knew we’d have to go all out: Get rid of the swaddle, and help her learn how to soothe herself to sleep. One couldn’t be done without the other, you see.

So Monday night — after attempts on the weekend to rock her to sleep unswaddled ended with DEMON BABY — we decided to do it. No swaddle. No rocking.

And then we didn’t sleep from 1 a.m. – well, NOW, essentially.

However.

After hours of crying and anger today, she just went into her bed wide awake, futzed for 20 minutes, and is now asleep.

Sweet, glorious silence. We may actually survive this.

Special kudos to my genius husband, who found a recording of a dryer online, repeated it for an hour, and burned it onto a CD — instant white noise in the nursery! And thanks to all of you for inspiring it with your white noise suggestions.

*sigh* Like parents need one more thing to worry about:

A tragic case in Quebec has led the province’s coroner to recommend babies aren’t left to sleep in their car seats.

A two-month-old died after its mother put it to sleep in an infant seat in a crib. An autopsy showed the baby’s upright position in a car seat led to positional asphyxiation.

“When a child is placed in this type of chair, Robinson said, there is a restriction in oxygenation due to the obstruction of the upper respiratory passages. Often, the head of a child will bend far over, cutting off oxygen supply.

“During the first few months of a child’s life, a baby should not be allowed to sleep for more than an hour during car rides, and its head and neck position should be checked regularly on long trips.”

Read the full story here.

So, does this mean swings aren’t safe, either? Because they’re at the same angle. Both my girls have slept in them (and their infant seats) for hours at a time. Eric’s Mom, and his family cottage, are both hours from here, and we regularly travel to both.

We bought a head snuggler thing for the infant seat for Alice, and with Lucy we used rolled-up receiving blankets to keep her head in place.

I know many parents, in desperation, who have taken their babies for drives to get them to sleep. And then left them sleeping in there. Heck, we do that when we come home from being out, if Alice is still asleep in her infant seat.

I guess what they’re saying is to not leave them unattended and asleep for hours sitting up. The story reiterates that putting baby to sleep on her/his back is the safest position.

(Thanks to Cindy for the link.)

Alice is currently asleep on my lap in what we call the Magic Baby Bag.

It’s on loan from my sweet CP, who testified to it’s magic powers with her daughter, Pearl, who is the same age as Lucy. CP said it was the only way she was able to eat a hot meal for months. Pearl love the comfort of being all womb-like, and the gentle pressure of the velcro straps seemed to calm any gassiness she may have been experiencing.

You can see Jen with Avery strapped into one here. She loved how it gave her two hands to wrangle Eirinn. You can see Pearl snuggled into the sling on a family trip to Ottawa when she was just under four weeks old.

I have to say: Yes, yes and yes.

Know that newborn witching hour between 5-8-ish p.m.? When the baby just cries and cries for no apparent reason, and nothing will soothe them? That doesn’t exist at Chez McDougall-Foster because of this sling. Eric may have to stand up and walk and eat his dinner, and I may have to watch I don’t bash her head against the counter while making said dinner, but Alice is quiet as a mouse warthog in it.

My Mom is fascinated by it, and has said many times she wishes she had something like this when I was young.

Ours is the Infantino Sling Rider. But I’d think anything similar would also work.

This does put pressure on the body when wearing, particularly the back of the neck. But the straps are wide and soft, and adjustable. It’s supposed to be good up to 20 lbs., although neither CP or Jen used it past three-ish months. Newer models have mesh fabric, while ours is cotton inside and denim outside. I’m always careful to make sure Alice’s head is turned up.

While this make was recalled a while back, it looks like Infantino has fixed the clasp problem.

Highly recommended for any family with a newborn, and a great shower gift (avaible all over for around $30). It’s become indispensable for us.