This post may contain affiliate links! It won’t cost you any extra, but I may earn a dollar or two. Click here to read the very wordy and boring disclosure.
I’m writing this while in a state of delirium; drinking coffee, watching Mickey Mouse Clubhouse and side-eyeing Lad as he escapes to somewhere he probably isn’t supposed to be. One day he was flailing on his belly and the next he was crawling away from us and pulling up on everything.
When Lad was younger he would sit in a spot and cry for a toy and I remember thinking how great it would be when he could get it himself. Now, I sit him down in one spot and 2 seconds later he has disappeared and is busy pulling shower curtains down and eating a dead bug off the ground (true story).
It’s impossible to watch him 24/7 so Reese and I decided it was time to invest in some sort of contraption to wrangle him in.
Tada!
Lemme tell ya. This thing is AWESOME. It’s 63″ across so it doesn’t feel so claustrophobic like his pack & play. It came in a little bag like one of those folding chairs, and praise the Lord it was all in one piece so I didn’t have to use brain cells to assemble anything. They’re in short supply and I have to ration them accordingly.
One of the main reasons we ordered this one and not just the regular fence like we had planned was because this thing has a tarp-ish bottom. Now we can take it outside and set him down and not have to worry about him getting sticker burs or eating dog turds. Win-win!
We’ve only had it for a week, but so far I’d give it an A. If it would have came with a Nanny I would bump up my rating to an A+, but this will have to do for now. Hehe.
Overall, I’d recommend it. It’s about $10 more than a regular kid pen, so that’s definitely worth it in my book. If you have a baby that likes to escape, or maybe if you want to leave the kid outside of the pen and crawl in there yourself to eat a banana in peace without some little hands with sharp baby talons trying to steal it from you, then I’d totally recommend this thing.
We’ll see how it holds up!
~KG
The hours/day after you have your baby, the nurses are going to pop in frequently and push around on your uterus to make sure all of the things are going back to their respective locations. It’s fantastic. So unless you want to keep pulling pants up and down, plan to stay in your nightie. And anyways, #NoPantsAreTheBestPants. I have one like this and it is the SOFTEST nightie EVER.
*drip, drip, drip*
After pushing that baby out, you will be FAMISHED. Thankfully I was thinking ahead and got the highest calorie protein bar I could find (that didn’t taste awful): Peanut Butter Cliff Bar! I still ate about five more things other than this, but this was a good first course. You will have hospital food, but that gets old. And if there are any issues, or you have a jaundice baby like we did, you may be there longer than planned. If you are going to be breastfeeding, you want to make sure you are eating food with sustenance; whatever you eat, baby eats!
I have a giant water bottle that I carry everywhere with me. It’s 0.79 gallons and I drink at least 2 a day. It’s a real conversation starter. I can’t find the exact one I have, but here’s one that is pretty big too. LADIES. When you are nursing, your thirst will NEVER CEASE. So unless you want to buy one of those Camel backpacks with the straws that hikers use, get the biggest water bottle you can find. And take it with you eeeeverywhere. The little cup at the hospital last me about .02 seconds.
Hospitals are cold. And I’m a robe gal. Not necessary, but I was happy I had it. And back to the nursing part – if you are going to be feeding little baby via boob, then a robe is wayyy easy. Because breast feeding for the first time is tricky and you don’t want to add pulling a shirt up and down to the equation.
This may sound ridiculous, but it made all the difference on the day we were finally able to go home. If you know me, you know I’m perfectly fine going make-up free and channeling all the hobo vibes. But after feeling like a dog for 3 days, it was nice to look fairly decent going home. This is my faaavorite CC cream from Juice Beauty. It’s all natural so you don’t have to worry about chemicals on your precious face. (Plus, it smells like Fruit Loops.) And when you are breast feeding you will double-think everything you put on your skin. And mascara is just a given; enchanting lashes make all the difference.
I’m pro-nursing pillow, but I honestly didn’t start using it until Lad got bigger and heavier. I actually ended up putting the nursing pillow around my neck and using it that way while we were at the hospital. Because stitches down-under are uncomfortable and regular sitting for hours in a hospital bed is for the birds. TMI? Whoops. I even have this super attractive pic I sent to my dear friend Chelsea the morning after Laddy was born. If you want a real look at labor aftermath that you won’t find on the ole “gram”, here ya go. Ladies and gentlemen, this is what I call an exhausted new mom that is confused why her newborn baby has pooped six times in one morning, and has aching lady bits:
LEMME TELL YA. If you have to get any kind of stitches, you may want to consider investing in one of these bad boys. Don’t be ashamed, gurl. After pushing a child out of your hoohah, if you want to sit on a hemorrhoid pillow, then you do that. And tell the world.
Because I began trying to nurse Lad as soon as he popped out, my milk came in pretty quickly. I wish I would have had my electric pump for a million reasons, but mostly because I was still trying to figure out breast feeding and as time passed, I kept making more milk so it was making it harder for Lad to eat. And then it just started to get frustrating. So bring your pump. Even if you don’t think you’ll need it or want to use it – BRING IT. Also, I don’t have this one, I just think it’s pretty. You can get a free pump through your insurance – SO DO IT! Don’t not do it because you don’t think you’ll need it. If you buy pumps from the store you will be spending over $200 on the cheap ones. We pay tons of money every month for this dang insurance, so make sure you get everything out of it that you can!
