Sunday, December 4, 2011

Treasured By Pearl: My Swing, Thermometer, and the Bumbo Seat.

So I guess it’s bad, but I let my daughter sleep in her swing.  Not ALL the time, just for naps and when she’s got gas at night b/c she won’t sleep at all in her crib.  I LOVE the swing.  It has been a lifesaver SO many times.  We have a Fisher Price Cradle n’ Swing that my brother- and sister-in-law bought us.  It has a mobile, mirror, and plays songs and “white noise”. 

When you get a swing, get one that plugs in to the wall or is battery powered.  I don’t know if they even make the hand-crank ones anymore, but I hear they’re a waste of time.  For travel, my good friend, Brittany loaned me a collapsible swing that Amelia wasn’t using anymore.  It’s battery powered, and it’s what Lydia naps in when we are at my dad’s house. 

I’d recommend a swing for every mama.  They seem to offer babies something that helps soothe them when nothing else will.   Just don’t get in the habit (like I did) of letting them sleep in it frequently.  I dread the day that she grows out of it!



The thermometer I have was given to me when Lydia was born by a fellow mama, Beka.  It is the Vicks Temporal Thermometer.  It is (as Rachel Lewis says) “worth its’ weight in GOLD”.  When you get up in the middle of the night to nurse and your baby feels like she might be running a fever but you don’t want to fully wake her, just run the thermometer over her forehead and you have her temp in 3 seconds.  No waking the baby by undressing her and sticking an unwelcome device in who knows what orifice.  Just add a degree to whatever the readout is and that’s a pretty precise internal temperature.  It’s nice too, b/c if you don’t use a night light, like me, it glows so you can easily get a read-out in the dark.  And it stores the 10 previous temps, too.  I think this runs between $30 and $40, probably cheapest at Walmart.  WORTH THE EXTRA MONEY!!



The Bumbo Seat is such a handy invention!!  It helps babies sit up before their little bodies are developed enough to do it on their own.  It cups them comfortably and safely in an upright position.  I went in the thrift store one day looking for one, and found it in the color I wanted for just $22, a bargain considering that new they are almost $40.  The lady working helped me try it out to see if it’d work, and sure enough, when I got Lydia situated, she grinned at us! 

It gives them the feeling of being “big” without needing Mommy or Daddy to hold them up.  I take it everywhere – I put it on the table at restaurants to sit in while we eat, I put it in the big part of the shopping cart at the grocery store facing me and she gets to look all around, at my dad’s house while I clean, etc.  The makers of the product place a warning on the back that says that it is only for use on the floor, but I just keep a watchful eye on her and I haven’t had any problems yet.

She has been using it since she was two months old and still hasn’t grown out of it.  I guess that’s a lot of mom’s gripe with the product – the baby just grows out of it too quickly; I’ve been blessed with a small baby though, and haven’t had troubles yet.  On the other hand, if you get one and want to use it but your baby is too small, I recommend placing receiving blankets around and under your child to take up a bit of the excess space, it worked well for Lydia. 

Okay, so I was done typing this article a MONTH ago!  I should have posted it before now.  Lydia has grown out of her Bumbo, but I am thankful that we used one, b/c I’m sure that is one of the reasons she sits up so well on her own now.  Anyhoo, I think I’ll quit beating around the bush and post this already!  <3

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