day 43 - onesies revisited

For the past week we've been transitioning to move from your grandparents' into our own house. I have had so much fun finally putting together your nursery (pictures soon!) after a long delay. We have much more room for your belongings; a dedicated closet AND dresser as well as ample floor space in the new house. I've been busy washing the clothes and blankets and all the items we thought we had to have for you, pulling out outfits I didn't even remember you had.

It appears you have an abundance of onesies as I completely thought that is all babies wore before I knew better. If you recall my earlier entry, I'm a bit partial to plain white t-shirts, primarily for their ease of removal and putting on.

I have had a slight change of heart the past week. While the plain white tees are the epitome of easy and practicality, the prints and patterns on the onesies are a thousand times cuter and lets face it, the onesies do have the added benefit of not riding up (your back that is, what they do in your diaper area is another story). Of course, the white tees compliment your skin tone the best, but I thought we might spruce up your daily fashion a bit, leave to white for your photo shoots.

Brian and I learned how to put on a onesie this week. Some are easier than others depending on material and fit and it turns out short sleeves are much easier than long sleeves. I may have just stated the obvious. Putting them on is a bit of a struggle. Its not that you fight having them put on, its just a lot to pull over a big ole baby head. I'm not sure of the best way to slip them on, whether to start at the back of your head or the first, but now that we are not so afraid of breaking or suffocating you during a routine changing, we are quite capable of dressing you in this common baby gear.

All was going well with the onesies experiment, when the ultimate onesies problem presented itself. With his paternity leave over, Brian was down in the basement working, slaving away to earn his keep. You and I had promised to have limited interruptions, but I couldn't help not calling him in for this dilemma: The Diaper Blowout. Now, you poo a lot, A LOT, but this was the first time you have managed to send to poo out of your diaper and up your back. I hear it is a common baby trick, but it was still your first time. The result? Poo seeping through the back of your no longer fresh onesie. And so the ultimate onesie question presented itself in real life, how do you remove a soiled onesies without soiling baby any further?

I first made the mistake of rolling up the poopy back side, only to realize rolling the wrong way has an adverse effect; it just keeps spreading the poo. Solution? Roll the onesie up with the folds facing inwards. It was a bit counter intuitive at first, but solved the poo problem by tucking away the evidence and allowing a clear removal over Tucker's head!

Lesson Learned or Product Review:
Now, I still recommend plain white tee's for those first weeks and for lounging around the house, especially on warmer days. With two big onesies' dilemnas solved in the past week though, I have to say the experiment has permanently added them back into your official wardrobe.

day 8 - forget neiman marcus, I heart the plain white tee's

Our first product review with a lesson learned thrown in for good measure!

Prelude to a Lesson Learned: The fall of 2008 watched the stock market crash and department store prices plummet. Christmas 2008 sales were too good to pass up. With your grandparents in tow, we stocked up on baby clothes!

Before you were born we all were convinced you could not be more than 5 or 6 pounds at birth. Your father may remember his birth weight incorrectly, but I know I only weighed 4 pounds and your aunt Maggie topped the weight charts for my family at 6 pounds. So, on we marched to Neiman Marcus, Lord and Taylor, and Macy's raking in all the oh-so-cute and oh-so-inexpensive clothes for newborns. Despite advice we had been given, we didn't buy all our clothes on the bigger side. Pre-parenting failure #1, you've outgrown a good majority of your clothes already.

Lesson Learned: Buy most of your baby clothes things big! Exceptions to this rule: socks (I think these are one size anyways and probably unnecessary in most cases) and swaddle-me's (more on this in a later post).

Here is Your Product Review
Just weeks into your life you've outgrown my favorites outfits, but there is good reason for me to be okay with this. What we bought is not what works for us! In our pre-baby shopping we were stocked up on onesies and jumpers (this is what we were told babies wear). Now, just over a week into your life, all we want is a cute diaper and a plain white tee. You're still wearing the one we took home from the hospital (it's kinda tight now - more half shirt like) and your dad has made a run to Target for more.

Here are my calculated benefits of the plain white tee's:

• How easy is it to change a diaper when you have no pants and no snaps to undo?!
  
• The shirts sit nicely above your diaper and don't rub on your umbilical cord.
  
• They are SO easy to change, no need to wrestle with you as we do sliding the onesies over your head (this is important when you spit up all over yourself or worse, if you poopy your onesie).
  
• White matches everything, right?!
  
• If you need pants, we slide some pants on.
  
• If you need something warmer for outside, we put that over your diaper and over your t-shirt.
• If we need something warmer for inside, we wrap you up in blankets or your swaddle-me.
  
• DON'T MISS THIS: Tee shirts with the foldover hand mitten things can be very beneficial to any breastfeeding mother whose child has wandering hands. Believe the scratch marks on my chest, sometimes we need to cover those puppies! Forget them scratching themselves, save yourself!

Their only downfall seems to be their tendency to ride up, especially when they are to small. This hasn't really been an issue for us. We just pull the shirt back down when necessary.

Please, moms out there, buy the plain white tees. You will thank me for it. Make sure not to get them too small, they still fit great when they are a bit too big. It's critical you buy the ones that snap in the front too. Carters and Gerber (at Target) both make good ones. If you buy the non-snap on versions that you have to pull over the head it voids most of the pros I've written here.

In conclusion, the plain white tees are a must have! Here is some even better advice, get them both a see what works better for you. As a first time parent, wanting something easier to put on (small fear of you suffocating during those 10 seconds when I am trying to get some onesies over you head).

Tucker, you spend most of your days and nights in these tees.