Diaper Bags

I've always preferred to use a small purse; it wasn't until I was pregnant with Nadia that I moved to a little bit larger one. I purchased one denim Winnie the Pooh diaper bag at BRU in 2005 (for the child I thought we'd adopt), received two pink ones as baby shower gifts in 2008 (returned one of them), and was given two black ones upon discharge from the hospital in 2008 (from Similac and Enfamil). One of these five diaper bags was a small one, and that small, pink diaper bag (gift from our niece, Brandi) was the one I have used over the past 18 months. I have primarily used it when I was leaving her in a nursery or with a babysitter OR when we've been going out to eat. For many other outings (such as when I was going shopping), I haven't brought any diaper bag. I kept one diaper stashed in the glove compartment and sometimes I'd also put one in my purse. I now have two diapers in the glove compartment of my car along with a small pack of wipes (one newborn size diaper and one size 4 diaper). For Ian I have now also been putting a shield and one of his pacifiers in my purse. The last few Sundays I've put both size diapers and Nadia's sippy cup in the small pink diaper bag. My mom objected to my using a pink diaper bag for Ian, and I can't blame her!

This time I wasn't given any diaper bags upon discharge from the hospital. Since I have been home I have received the certificates in the mail from both companies that I was to give to my baby's nurse to receive the diaper bags. The Enfamil certificate showed a large green and black "carryall" and the Similac certificate showed a smaller, black "sling pack." Earlier this week I contacted both companies (via online forms) and asked if there was any way that I could receive the free hospital gift even though I wasn't given one upon discharge. Both said they would mail them to me. Enfamil's came on Thursday. It wasn't the one shown on the certificate, but is a smaller version of the black one I got from them in 2008. I plan on ditching the pink one, which has seen better days, and using one of these 2 new ones. Once I see the sling pack, I'll decide which one to use. The Enfamil bag contained 2 snappies for EBM, 2 ice packs, a small book on nursing, a Huggies diaper, and wipes but not any formula. However this week I did receive several free cans in the mail from both companies. I am hanging onto them as I learned from my experience with Nadia that things don't always go as planned with nursing. So far we've only opened one can of formula (that our friend, Jenn, gave us on Jan 3rd). I know they only last one month after being opened so we'll probably be throwing about 1/2 a can away, but since these were all free samples, I am telling myself not to feel badly about wasting this powder which isn't cheap if you have to buy it. I am glad that Ian is getting at most 2 ounces of formula a day; this means he's almost exclusively getting my milk!!

At Walmart on Thursday I bought a few essentials that we were running low on (diapers, wipes, peanut butter, etc.) as well as a few things for Nadia - tights, shoes, sippy cups (the ones I bought on Monday leak very easily), fatter crayons, and color wonder markers and paper. I got her another pair of shoes because she kept walking right out of the new pink sparkly ones. I guess she really needs size 5 1/2 right now. I got another pair of size 6 shoes, and although these seem like they will stay on her feet better, I guess I'll stick with size 5 a bit longer. Thursday night I tried out one of my new purchases when I gave Nadia a bath; I highly recommend this shampoo rinse cup. I won't be regretting that $5 purchase!!

Paul's parents spent about 8 hours at our house yesterday. Nadia sobbed when they left. She loves them very much! She also loved the grapes that Grandma brought for her. Yum, yum! She took a nice long 3 hour nap; on Thursday she took a 2 hour nap at Sarah's. Now if we could just get her to stop waking up so early (usually around 5:30am lately). I was able to take 2 one-hour naps while they were here which was heavenly. Grandma got Ian to sleep for about 20 minutes on his belly in the pack n play. If the nap nanny doesn't work, I might try him on his belly again although the second time we put him on his belly yesterday he just cried. The nap nanny is supposed to come today. Oh how I pray he'll sleep in it!!!!