Car Seats?

Lately I've had a few friends ask me about what kind of things I looked for in a car seat and also I hear a lot of new or expecting mothers talking about car seats.  I don't blame anyone for being confused about what car seat to buy, I mean when I was in the market to buy both the car seats I've purchased I was totally lost!  I consulted other mothers that I trusted and now I'm a mother in the know (I don't have a tun of knowledge but some).
Living in a small town where the only place to buy a car seat is Wal-Mart, and they only have 3 or 4 options per type of car seats it can be very very difficult to know what you like and know where to find what you'll like.  I started by looking at those options at the Wal-Mart and not liking any of those options I went to the trusty old internet.  When I was looking for an infant carrier I knew I didn't want a handle that was one option of carrying and that I had to constantly re-thread the straps (babies grow super fast!).  The search was on for the best car seat for me, I kept an eye out online as well as the grocery store (I did this to see how well mother's did with different types of car seats).  I found a car seat that I thought I would love, it was the Babytrend car seat with the triangle car seat.  I made a daring leap of faith and ordered it, yes I did end up paying a lot more than the basic car seat that could be found at our local Wal-Mart, but it was totally worth it!  When it came time to use it it was the best car seat I've ever used, I hadn't used a lot but from babysitting experience I had used a few.  This car seat you never have to re-thread the straps (except for cleaning), you can hold the handle in several comfortable different options and it doesn't weigh a lot.  Look for a good car seat for you, not your neighbor, not me but you!  You're going to be carrying that thing for at least 6 months so you might as well get what you want.  My baby got to the point where it was uncomfortable to carry him in the carrier by 6 months and although he hadn't reached the weight limit but was quickly approaching the height so once again we were in the market for yet another car seat.
Now the question became how many car seats did we want to buy, I don't know about you all but I did not want to buy 3 or 4 more car seats so I knew I wanted to get a car seat that would grow with my child all the way from rear facing to booster.  The search was on, I looked once again at our local Wal-Mart only to be disappointed in my options once again so back the the internet I went....I still didn't know a good brand to trust so I talked with another mother to see what she liked and then took her advice mixed it with what I was looking for and searched some more.  Once again I wanted a easy to install car seat, light weight (I found one that weighed 33lbs!) and adjustable straps.  I found what I wanted and it wasn't even an arm and a leg to buy which I was excited about.  So I got the Alpha Omega Safety 1st car seat, I have a love hate relationship with this car seat right now.  The love is that it is going to last until the young one is out of a car seat, adjustable straps, cup holder (for when he's older) and good padding.  The hate is that it is not really easy to install rear facing, takes up a lot of space in the back seat with how far it has to be reclined in the rear facing position and it is really wide if you put the arm rests down.  I'm hoping that installation will become easier when it's front facing (we rotate cars a lot so we move the car seat a lot).  So my advice for buying a car seat for the older babes is buy what works for you.  If a convertible car seat won't fit in the back seat of your car then you will probably need to buy more car seats will be necessary, I drive a small SUV and the seat we got barely fits so make sure to look at dimensions of the car seat before you buy!!!
Anyway you look at buying car seats and what ever kind of car seat you buy just get what will keep your precious little one safe and not brake the bank.

Babyless Vacation

About two weeks ago the husband and I went on a vacation for our anniversary and decided not to take the baby along with.  It was the first time we had ever left him over night, but man was I ready to have a baby free weekend.  We went to Las Vegas, NV and I should clarify that we drove with the baby since our wonderful babysitter lived in Las Vegas.  This, I believe, helped tremendously in the separation between me and my baby, I knew that if I missed him too much I could just drive over to my sister in laws and see him.  I have to say this made the anxiety level of the vacation very low although I still had my worries.
I never felt like I was neglecting him, because I knew I could trust the person I left him with and if anything were to happen she would call me.  While we were there I would occasionally text her to see how he was doing because he is notorious for having melt downs, which always makes me feel bad for the person watching him.  He was always doing well and she always reassured us that he was fine.
I think it helped not to always be thinking of him because we were constantly doing something fun.  There was very little down time to sit and worry.  I planned it this way because the second I sit down I instantly worry about every little thing.
So my advice to all you readers is if you have a small child and your concerned about leaving them for the first time find someone you really trust to watch them and if possible within driving distance of where you are just in case you just have to see them.  Also plan to occupy your time so you don't constantly think of how much you miss your baby.  Just enjoy your vacation and know that your baby is in good hands!

Watermelon!

When I was pregnant I craved watermelon so much!  I could eat an entire watermelon by myself in a matter of hours.  Since I always wanted watermelon and we never knew how to correctly choose a watermelon we made up our own method to choosing a good one.  So this sounds crazy and probably looks even crazier but we would find a watermelon that looked pretty symmetrical and then we'd find a good long stretch in the aisle and roll it.  Yes we put it on the ground and rolled it around to see if it would roll straight.  It actually worked too!  We got so many better watermelons out of this method then the normal taping on it for the hollow sound, psh that never worked.
So this is my advice in choosing a watermelon, have a little fun and play with your fruit in the store.

Schedules

So many parents are so set on having their baby on a schedule by 2 months, but I feel like the baby will find their own schedule.  The only thing we ever scheduled was that our baby would get a bath every night.  Yes we give our child a bath every night because he is so "chunky" that we need to make sure we get all the crud out of his rolls.  He has set his own schedule which is awesome, I like that we are following what his body does naturally, that way we aren't constantly fighting him for naps or bed time.  He does get everything within his day as a baby on a schedule it just means we're more flexible and aren't restricted to home to keep his schedule.  Don't get me wrong I do like to be at home just because we have everything we will need right at our finger tips and with a baby you can never ever perfectly plan for every situation no matter how hard you try, we are always wishing we had something when we aren't home.
I would go crazy if I followed a schedule that I planned, I tried it for 2-3 weeks and was just about having a nervous breakdown.  Now I realize that not everyone has the opportunity to stay home with their children and so there needs to be some type of routine to make the day flow easier but honestly from my 7 months of experience I feel like it's better to be flexible and adjust to what the baby wants instead of wanting the baby to adjust to what we want.
I know we are anything from perfect and we could probably fix certain areas of our child rearing but we are doing the best we can, I mean we've never done this before so we're just doing what we think is best.  Honestly that's exactly what everyone should do, just do what you think is best and try to ignore other people's opinions on how to raise your children, including your parents sometimes (mother doesn't always know best).  The key to good parenting in my opinion is to enjoy your children every day.

Diapers, Diapers, Diapers

If your a mother or any parent or caregiver you know that diapers are the most used item in a babies life.  You would think someone would find a way to make it cheaper but in reality they seem to be making them more expensive.  It has been my husband and mine's goal to find the cheapest diapers possible.  We have price compared at Walmart, Diapers.com, and Smith's come to find out online is cheaper than going to the store to buy them.  The reason they are cheaper is that you can buy more in bulk and if you spend enough then you can receive free shipping which makes it even better.  We have found diapers as cheap as 15 cents a diaper!  This is my advice, look at the price per diaper and not the amount of diapers in a package or the overall price.
We recently found these white cloud diapers (at Walmart), unknowingly that they were premium diapers, they were 15 cents a diaper.  I didn't even know what a premium diaper was until they got here, but oh my goodness they mean premium when they say premium.  These diapers are so soft it's incredible!  Also they are super absorbent and keep your baby dry.  Now I'm starting to sound like an advertisement for these diapers but they are so amazing I thought I'd share my awesome affordable find with those of you out there reading this.
Changing diapers has got to be one of the things I like the least but luckily our baby doesn't seem to mind at all, in fact he prefers to have the diaper off and be naked, and oh my he is so cute when he's naked.
No matter what kind of diapers you like or your baby likes there is always a way to find them cheaper, but search online first.  The store charges more than you should spend willingly and we are all trying to save money these days so save the $$ and get nice cheap diapers.

Busy Days!!

Recently we have started back at school which means both of our schedules have picked up once again.  My husband spends most of his days at the school either studying or going to class and I stay at home with the baby until I have my one class a day.  We have had to color code our schedule for everyday just to keep it all straight and so we know where we should be at certain times.
Going to school and having a baby is hard but worth it.  I'm so close to being done there is no stopping now.  We have come up with a system that works for us but may not work for everyone.  I am only taking 6 credits in order to be able to save money by not spending it on child care and so my husband can remain a full time student.  My husband gets up early to study (he's a morning person) then he goes to work.  After that I go to class and then after class we swap the baby mid walk in between classes.  I take the baby and go home while he finishes his day of classes and then it's back to work for him.  It may seem like we never see each other but in fact we see each other more than you'd think.  He's home by 5 p.m. most days which leaves plenty of time in the evening for us to do things together.  We even get to take an institute class together on Tuesday nights.
Life is so busy we can't forget that we need to spend time with those we love so we always try to make time for each other throughout the busy day.  It may just be us sitting down together to watch a movie on Netflix or play a game with our friends and even sometimes it's just cuddling up on the bed that is the best time of the day, but no matter when or where we always know that we love each other.