Four years

Somehow it feels like we've been together forever, and yet marking four years seems so brief.  We've packed so much into our time together; from traveling to 3 different continents to selling our home, to buying another and finally, bringing new life into the world.  I look forward to whatever life has in store for us, knowing I get to walk beside you.

Man about town

North at Artsplosure 2009, sleeping through an aerial act.

North checking out the antiques at the flea market...ok, he's sleeping again and tanning his feet. 

Daddy and North at the Raleigh Little Theatre Rose Garden.  This will forever be one of my favorite images of my two men

Mommy & North at the Raleigh Little Theatre Rose Garden.

Pregnancy time-lapse

From August 2008 through April 2009 we took 5 photos once a week.Never has the changing of the seasons had more meaning to me 

than it does in this video. Amazing what a little bit of time can 

produce...

Newborn Product Raves

Now that North is one month old, I can look back at the items that helped us the most during those first few weeks. For the record, no one is paying me for my endorsement of their products.  Not that I'm closed to that idea, product placement or tattooing any company logos on my forehead for that matter.  But anyway, these are our favorite must-have newborn baby products so far and the reasons we are being payed billions to say so:

Kiddopotamus SwaddleMe blankets save us so much time during diaper changes through the night. When we first came home from the hospital, we were still using stolen hospital receiving blankets to swaddle him each night. Because it was still cool during the night, we would hilariously swaddle him with 2-3 blankets at one time (and yes diaper changes took FOREVER.) Finally, it dawned on me that I had registered for swaddle blankets that make the swaddling so much easier with Velcro tabs. The blankets come in fleece and cotton knit to accommodate the varying seasons as well. I have heard great reviews on the Miracle Blanket as well and should North continue to allow us to swaddle him, I may look into getting 1 for him.

Gripe Water is a gift sent down by the Lord. Seriously, thank you God for providing us with sodium bicarbonate, ginger extract & fennel extract that, when combined, make the miracle known as gripe water. Hallelujah and stuff!

Homedics Soundspa Lullaby Sound Machine or the baby crack machine as we've come to call it, is an absolute lifesaver in our household. North is currently sleeping in our room and when we put him down, we start up the ocean waves white noise matched with the fish projection on the ceiling.  It is magical.  Even mommy and daddy enjoy it and like to pretend they are sleeping ocean side.  The device has a handy sleep timer and you can set it anywhere from 15 minutes to an hour. During night feedings, I turn the projection back on like a nightlight so Dave can hopefully still get some sleep. For $15-$20 this is a steal!

Snap-N-Go Stroller is a wise alternative to a bulky and expensive travel system. I've taken North out countless times on my own and our car seat coupled with the Snap-N-Go Stroller makes the outing so easy. They're cheap, practical, manageable, lightweight and compact. If you do go this route, just make sure your car seat and stroller are compatible.

Baby Angelcare Monitor is the greatest invention of the century. The monitor comes with a sensor pad that is placed under the mattress which detects the baby's movement and heartbeat. If 20 seconds go by and no movement is detected, an alarm will sound. During the daytime, I put North down for naps in his crib and turn his Angelcare monitor on. I loop a carabiner through the sound monitor and then attach it to the belt loop on my pants and take it with me through the house and outside. I can hear any noises he makes and feel comfortable that the alarm will sound if there is a serious problem. Talk about peace of mind! The sound monitor is both battery operated and AC adaptable. Just be sure to turn off the nursery monitor when you remove the baby from the crib (unless you enjoy self-inflicted heart attacks).

Prefold Cloth Diapers are cheap, multipurpose and environmentally friendly. Even if you don't plan on using cloth diapers for your baby's bum, use them for burp cloths. You can buy a 12 pack of cloth diapers for the same price that you can buy a 4 pack of burp cloths. The cloth diapers are larger and more absorbent too. (If you plan on actually cloth diapering your baby using prefolds, upgrade them to a diaper service quality Chinese or Indian prefolds with 4x8x4 layering of the fabric.)

An inflatable exercise ball is a great baby soothing device with the dual purpose of being an helpful tool to get the new mother back in shape. These are often available for cheap at TJ Maxx, Ross and the like. Constantly walking around bouncing a fussy baby in your arms can be exhausting. Whereas bouncing the baby on the exercise ball is comfortable, works mom's quads and is kind of fun.

Do you have any highly recommended products that have made life with new baby that much easier? Please let me know in the comments so we can get this information out to other mothers!

One month

Like all good things in life, it seems like North has been in our lives forever and since yesterday simultaneously. He was brought into the world only one month ago, which feels like a lifetime away now (and in many ways, it was another life). And yet, time is already flying by so quickly. I want to do nothing but stare at him all day long for fear of missing something. I'm afraid that we'll be sending him off to kindergarten if I blink even once.

Already, there have been so many precious firsts: the first time he peed on us, his first projectile poop, his first explosive spit-up, and his first real bath. His umbilical cord finally fell off around 3 weeks after some tummy time. It had occurred to me to possibly save it. That is, until it fell off and I found it inside his onesie and realized saving it was the equivalent of saving a scab. Saving a tooth or some hair trimmings is one thing, but saving a dried up piece of meat (?) just felt a bit strange to me. And so we fed it to Jake (I joke, I joke). I fried it up first.

I'm still amazed at how far he has come in just 4 weeks of life. He now tracks our movements with eyes that really seem to register what he's looking at. When he smiles, we think it's not always gas or sweet relief after he's moved his bowels. At his pediatrician appointment, he already weighed 9 lbs 2 ounces! His progress amazes me on a daily basis. Truly, he amazes me on a daily basis.

He's about to outgrow newborn diapers and onesies already and it just breaks my heart that he's getting bigger. I want his bum to always fit perfectly into the palm of my hand even if that means he accidentally poops on it. While I realize that so many awesome things are waiting for us around the corner, (real smiles, laughter, walking, words!) I'm trying to savor each newborn moment with him now. As much as we're trying to document it, I know that nothing quite captures it like real life does. So if you'll excuse me, I'm going to go stare at my precious little man some more.

Triple coupon intervention

Dave and I have sunk to a whole new level of nerdiness.  I've kept it a secret until now.  It started about a year ago when we began subscribing to the Sunday paper and I started clipping coupons.  My motivation at the time was simply to make the subscription pay for itself. Then I heard about triple coupons at Harris Teeter and the sickness started.  Funny enough, that was the Saturday I found out I was pregnant with North.  I kept the pregnancy a secret that last special day of freedom.  That perfect summer evening, Dave and I went to a concert and I enjoyed one last beer without my husband giving me a deserved stink eye. Afterwards, we went to Harris Teeter and triple couponed the night away (as someone that holds an English degree, I have the authority to make verbs out of any word I see fit.)  Looking back, that's the night we officially became adults ...or losers, depending on your perspective and whether you still spend all your free time out in a bar.

Fast forward to now.  North couldn't have been born at a better time,  but it means I have gotten behind on my coupon clipping over the last month or so.  When I heard about the latest Harris Teeter triple coupon event, I knew I had a wonderful stockpile of coupons waiting for me.  First, I quickly poured through my coupon fliers and clipped only the $0.99  and under coupons for the products we will use (Harris Teeter will only triple coupons less than $0.99).  Then I visited Taking Stock by Sue Stock through the News & Observer's website and perused her picks of the best deals and figured out which items we wanted.  (If you like Sue Stock, my friend Michele hooked me up with a weekly e-newsletter called Here's the Deal that compiles information from several like-minded blogs.)  The big trick to increasing your coupon savings is using a coupon on top of a sale the store is already having for that item.  What I love about Sue's list is that she does most of the work for you.  

Because Harris Teeter only allows you to use 20 coupons per visit, I normally plan multiple trips to the store.  So I organize my coupons based on which items are going to disappear the quickest (i.e. the items that are free or close to it) for my first trip, then I sort them based on where they are found in the store.  This preparation took me about an hour today and then I was off to the store!  Each trip to the store took about a half hour.  If you have a husband and son that support your habit the way mine do, it makes for a much faster trip.  Plus, saving money should be a family affair!

The first trip was the more impressive of the two.  Many of the items shown below were either free or insanely cheap.  For $60.21 in groceries, I spent $15.32 which is a 75% savings and got the following items:

The second trip was not quite as disciplined as the first trip I took alone.  My husband spotted a case of beer that was on sale, then I grabbed a large bottle of wine that looked too delicious to pass up, and North begged me to get a carton of organic milk, so that skewed our tally by $20 or so.  But for $88.25 in groceries, we ended up paying $48.05, which is 46% savings.  I hope one day manufacturers of alcohol consider printing coupons for their products to make my triple coupon tallies more brag-worthy.

Today's two trips saved us a total of $85.09 for groceries that should have cost us $148.46.  So we ended up spending only $63.37.  We saved 57 % overall, not too bad for a few hours of work!

Free skin cancer screenings in Raleigh

May is Melanoma and Skin Cancer Detection and Prevention Month, which is good for the hypochondriac that lives deep within each of us (or am I the only person that has googled skin cancer symptoms?)  On May 18, the Dermatology Center in Raleigh will hold free skin cancer screenings from 8:00 AM to 12:00 PM to anyone interested.  Each screening takes a mere 10 minutes from the top of your head to the bottom of your feet.  Follow the link to schedule an appointment if you're in the area.  To anyone outside the triangle, do a quick search for any participating dermatologists in your area.  I'm sure you can locate a practice that is taking part in this great cause.  Just imagine what peace of mind (and time savings you would have spent pouring over images of moles) you will have once you finally take the time to get screened!