Two & Three Month Must Haves

Months two & three flew right on by... I don't know how many times I will say "where has the time gone," but seriously WHERE has the time gone!? It's a crazy thing, when your little baby first arrives, you want them to stay a tiny little, snuggly, bundle forever. But as they start to grow and interact with you, you become obsessed with every little milestone. It is SO much fun watching her eyes light up when she sees new things, seeing her smile so big in the morning when we appear in front of her when she wakes up or hear her babble and coo to us when we talk to her. Pure joy & entertainment!

So here you have it folks, our two & three month must haves!

California Baby Lavender Shampoo & Body Wash - As I mentioned before, my friend Whitney (who is such an AMAZING mom!!) came to visit and told us how important it is to give her a bath before bed each night. She said they started doing it with their son (Harper's future husband) and it wore him out and helped him sleep!! So we started giving her baths each night, and we just LOVE this body wash. It smells amazing, is super sudsy and works like a charm. Plus it is all natural, organic, yadda yadda :) That entire brand rocks.

California Baby Shampoo & Body Wash

Medela Pump & Store Milk Freezer Bags - Your worst nightmare when pumping & breastfeeding is to ever throw milk away. I would rather put it on my cereal than throw away breastmilk (gross.. but you get the point). Rather than having a few containers here and there in your fridge and risking it going bad, it is so handy to have these freezer bags on hand. They are so easy to use & you can store up to 5oz in each.

Medela Pump & Save Breastmilk Storage Bags

Baby Magic Lotion - Again, another amazing recommendation from my friend Whitney. I felt like all the lotions I tried would wear off very quickly - not this one. Your baby will smell like PURE BABY until their next bath ...and it gets rid of dry skin like a charm!! I absolutely love, love, love this lotion.

Jacques the Peacock - We hang this on Harper's bouncer seat and she will actually SMILE at it. It is hands down her new favorite toy. I think this is a must for all babies!

Jacques the Peacock Take Along Toy

BUMBO - At 9 weeks I put her in it for the first time. She sat right up in it and totally blew my mind. I had no idea! We only put her in it for a few minutes at a time, maybe twice a day, and of course only on the floor while im sitting right in front of her (I don't want to hear about all the controversy & recalls...) I think the bumbo rocks and I will continue to use it! Babies LOVE being propped up to look around once they can hold their head up! So fun to see her eyes light up when we put her in it.  Plus, it is a perfect photo prop! :)

Nap Nanny - I've said it a million times, but this is officially the biggest lifesaver of all. The first night we put her in this, swaddled & buckled in, she slept 7 straight hours. Enough said. Again, be smart, read the warnings & proper ways to use it, but I vote YES to this all day long. We have some amazing friends in Georgia, my husband's boss and his wife, that gave us this when we had Harper - I will be eternally grateful to them for having a baby that sleeps through the night!!

Nap Nanny

Carters White Onesies - Don't stretch out, lose their shape or shrink like the Gerber ones. I love these under all of her short sleeved onesies for the cooler months.

Triple Paste - Harper had diaper rash once... it totally broke my heart. From a recommendation from another mama, We started using this any time we saw her bottom start to get red.. works like a charm.

Sassy Ring Links - These are awesome to hang other toys from & easy for babies to grip. This was one of the first things I bought for Harper and she loves to look at them! We hang them from her play mat, car seat, bouncer, etc. I always laugh when I see her sleeping with them in both of her hands. Not to mention, they are adorable!

Hope this is all helpful! Again, this is all just my opinion and what works for us. I rarely buy things these days unless I have gotten a recommendation from another mama. If you have any other products that are must-haves or that you & your little one love, feel free to post them in the comments - especially for the upcoming months so I can scoop them up in advance!

One last thing - After many requests to pin things again - I have enabled pinning from my blog! Please just respect the little babe and do not pin pictures of her, but feel free to snag anything else you'd like!! :) Thank you in advance!

Gnome Sweet Gnome - Pictures of our New House!

 Welcome to our new house! I got to take all of these pictures during our inspection last week.. so so so excited to move in! Here is my favorite room of the house, the two story family room with stunning views of the green back yard! We are unsure about the tile floor.. while I would love to run the same wood floors throughout.. it seems like a shame to get rid of these. We are debating as to whether to just get a large rug or ditch them all together.

 

White cabinets + Brick = LOVE!

Faux Greenery.. not so much.

 

Excited for breakfast nook possibilities!

This is the view from the family room looking down the hall to the entryway and formal living room.

 

Here is the master. Husband and I are currently fighting over ceiling fan vs. chandelier. I'll let you guess who wants which.  

 

Looking into the formal dining room, which is connected to the formal living room. What on EARTH do you even put in a formal living room? This should be fun.

 

Looking into the family room from the kitchen. Yay for those built ins!! Although, they have lizard knobs on the bottom two cabinets. Any takers? :)

 The entry looking out the two-doors-are-better-than-one. This might be my most favorite thing ever. Can't wait to hang a chandelier in here too!!

AND here is the room that will become my office & Harper's playroom. Big plans for this room. Again, that boring light fixture has got to go.

 

Hope you've enjoyed the tour! Excited to share more of our journey when we move in two weeks!!

Hospital Bag

 First things first, I have to wish a Happy 3 Month Birthday to my sweet little babe... time flies much to quickly!! Here she is at one, two & three months. It seems like just yesterday we brought her home from the hospital & now she has an adorable smile and personality that melt my heart every day. Plus, I am sure she is the most adorable baby I have ever seen. Yes, I may be biased... but you have to admit, she is pretty cute, right? :) I am so looking forward to all of her milestones.. our ped said she can have rice cereal at four months and I am SO excited to see her face when she first tastes it. Seems silly.. but I think about it all the time!

I have had a lot of requests for a post about what I packed in my hospital bag...and three months later... here you go! Since I knew that I was going to have a c-section, I did a little research on whether or not I should bring anything specific, but it seemed like the lists really remained the same. This is the exact contents of my hospital bag.

Bathrobe - I know many sources say you wouldn't want to wear/ruin anything of your own, but I felt so good changing into my own bathrobe instead of the hospital gown and it did not get ruined a bit!
Slippers - Originally bought some cute Ugg mocassins. Turns out all of the fluids made me swell to infinite proportions ....

.....and I was only able to wear Comfy Socks with Grips on the Bottom which turned out to be the best purchase ever for the hospital stay.
Dry Shampoo - In case you aren't able to shower on your own, this would be a lifesaver. I also brought shampoo & conditioner, which I used instead because I was able to shower at about 24 hours after surgery.
Chapstick, Face Wash & Moisturizer
Boppy - for breastfeeding, snuggling & propping up baby. Can't say enough good things about these!
Camera, Phone & Chargers for both - for sharing the news & capturing all of the first precious moments!
Hand Sanitizer - For you & your guests, threw this in the bag last minute and we went through an entire bottle in three days. Babyganics Hand Sanitizer is the BEST!
Pillows & extra blanket - for the hubs window seat/bed :)
Snacks - Our hospital food rocked, but we also had jello, pudding and all of the stuff to make sandwiches while we were there. Of course hubs had to make a Chipotle run on day three as well.
Nursing Bra & Soothies
Baby Hats! - Was so exciting changing her out of the hospital hat and into her adorable hats I brought, and we got sooo many compliments from the hospital staff on how cute she looked
Going Home Outfit for Baby - something comfy & warm. Also, that is the only outfit she wore during the stay, the rest of the time she was in onesies from the hospital or just a diaper. No need to bring multiple changes of clothes.
Going Home Outfit for You - I recommend anything loose, five times larger than regular size, etc. As I mentioned, I was sooooo swollen from the fluids (not just my belly) and could hardly squeeze into the clothes I brought. I recommend Dance Pants from the Gap (I have so many pair, which I wore for weeks after Harper was born) and a stretchy nursing top... or if it is summer, definitely rock a maxi dress!!

Things that I thought we'd need but ended up getting/using from the hospital included the breast pump, lanolin, bottles, pacifiers, swaddle blankets, onesies, diapers, any feminine products, water cups & towels. No need to pack any of those things.. the hospital should be very accomodating!

And the one last thing I would recommend that we did not bring but it would have been a lifesaver... a plug in night light! All of the hospital room lights are soo bright. At bed time, you still need to be able to see your little one or be able to see to get around, but it is impossible to sleep with the awful room lights on.. or even the bathroom light. So I would bring a small plug in one, you'll be glad you did! :)

Just a shout out too to the wonderful nursing staff at the hospital we were at - they know who they are because they read my blog!! I had a few nurses come in to meet Little Baby Garvin.. they had been following the chalkboards from the very beginning! Maybe they were all just extra nice because we brought Valentine's Day cupcakes for the whole staff.. but either way, I loved them all!!!

Big News!!

We moved to Florida just after graduating college, in fact, I finished my last semester of school there taking a few online classes to fulfill my remaining requirements & then flew home to graduate. My husband (fiance at the time) got a job & of course I wasn't about to stay behind in Iowa.. so off we went! We rented a 600 square foot apartment for 3.5 years. In that 3.5 years we had 70 VISITORS. A few were repeat visitors of course, but nonetheless, that much company in a one bedroom, one bathroom crib. Funny business right there.

We have been in Georgia for just over a year now & have been renting a small townhouse here. The townhouse where I spent my whole pregnancy, where Harper's nursery was built & where our sweet girl has spent the first few weeks of her life. YAY for this townhouse being very sentimental ...and while I will never forget this place... we will be turning over the keys in just a few short weeks to move to OUR NEW HOUSE!

I hope you all will join me on my journey through decorating a 3,000 square foot blank canvas. I have big plans. Big. HUGE! Anyone that knows me & knows my obsession with decorating will understand the wheels that are turning in my head at this very moment.

My current ideas include the following:

Dark Charcoal Walls (somewhere!)

Exposed Brick in the Kitchen Makeover

Colorful Office/Playroom ...BEYOND!

Cozy, Kid Friendly Breakfast Nook

And is it too soon to put pumpkins on the front porch?!

BOOM, baby! We are almost homeowners!

Your Questions Answered!

...and some cute pictures of Harper of course! Thank you all for the wonderful feedback on the last few posts, I wanted to take some time to answer a few common questions.

Black Onesie from BuyBuyBaby, Leggings from Baby Gap & Headband from Jameson Monroe

Our Boppy Cover is cream, minky and is from the Etsy shop Little Owl's Nest. Again, I vote the Boppy as one of my all time favorite, must have items for having a baby. We use it for everything.. I just said the other day that I wish I had two! I have another super cute cover that my friend Joanna bought me that I haven't had the time to put on just yet, but it is ADORABLE, will share soon! If you all are interested, I'd love to post some of my Etsy favorites on here, I feel like that is the only place I shop! :)

In terms of Harper's schedule & sleeping, again, I didn't push this and set it for her, she really set it herself. I noticed patterns in how she would operate each day and eventually it just worked out to follow it. This also helps us determine what times of day she is happiest, fussiest, sleepiest, etc. and we are able to plan activities around it. Until she was a month old, she would wake up every 2-3 hours on the dot to eat in the middle of the night. Then one night we did bath time, got a white noise machine & put her in the Nap Nanny and she slept until 4:30 am. We've never looked back. She consistently wakes up at that time, but I feed her and she falls right back to sleep. We put her to bed fully awake, she will lay there with her eyes open, squirm around a little bit and then falls asleep on her own. I think that may help for when she wakes up in the night? I wish I had all the answers for you, but this is just my experience & best guesses :)

Bath time is actually something I think that we all look forward to each night. She is so happy in her little tub. I definitely believe that it helps her sleep, it wears her out! Our doctor told us from the beginning that once her belly button falls off, we could give her a bath as often as we'd like but possibly only use soap every other time so that her skin doesn't dry out. We use California Baby Lavender Wash & Baby Magic Lotion after. Both smell AMAZING and never any dry skin issues. I am so looking forward to introducing bath toys!

I plan on posting about my c-section & recovery (the nitty gritty!) but haven't had the time to complete the post. But in terms of losing baby weight, I started taking walks within the first week of being home from the hospital. On Harper's one week birthday, I pushed her in her stroller for over a mile. I started running again at 5 weeks & since then have been doing cardio and small Crossfit workouts. Also, with the hectic schedule of life with a baby, keeping healthy food around the house that is easy/quick to eat will be a sure fire way to eat healthy.. who has time to eat chips & dip with a newborn? Guess I'll have a banana. But I will of course pay much of the credit to breastfeeding. I was back to my pre-baby weight by my 5 week post-op appointment, but have some much needed toning to do.

All of her Baby Toys are from either Buy Buy Baby or Diapers.com, and I think both places carry all of the toys!

While most pictures on my blog are straight from my iPhone, many have asked what kind of camera I use. I have a Panasonic Lumix 16 Megapixel point & shoot. Annnnd I love it :)

A few other random observations during this journey through motherhood:

• Just when you start to laugh at the realization that you've eaten a peanut butter sandwich for lunch five days in a row... you will find yourself eating a spoonful of peanut butter and then shoving a piece of bread in your mouth after because you literally don't have the additional eleven seconds to make it into an actual sandwich.
• I have always been frustrated with people leaving their carts around the parking lot rather than taking them to the cart return or back into the store. But it takes a special kind of asshole to jam a cart up a curb to where it sticks out behind a vehicle that is parked in the pregnant/mothers with newborns parking spot. Not fun to deal with when it is raining when you come out of the store with a baby, a stroller & a carseat. Be kind, rewind return your carts!
• I would like to see a baby product company focus their efforts on making things easy to open quickly with one hand. When you have a poopy, screaming baby that you are holding with one hand on the changing table and trying to open a new box of wipes with the other, is it really necessary that it be cemented shut, with four layers of tape and cardboard casing thicker than a 2 x 4? Good grief!

 Jammies from Carters & Blanket from Aden + Anais for Target

Stay tuned for a super exciting announcement! (No, not baby #2, although that will be super duper exciting one day..) For those of you who love decorating, I have some big news! :)

Playing the Day Away

 Oh my, where has the time gone? Little Harper is already two months old & it is so hard to believe! In the beginning, I wanted time to stand still so she would never grow out of being a newborn. I felt like the drive home from the hospital changed her immediately from a newborn to a baby & it was so hard to handle. I must admit, I had a bit of the baby blues for the first two weeks. With the overwhelming new responsibilities & the fact that she was literally growing before my eyes. It was hard to handle! Eventually, time & lots of sleep made it better and I began to LOVE watching her grow.

Now she is smiling & totally interacting with me while we play, and I couldn't love it more! At two months old, she is a happy baby (other than the occasional spitting up which she is not a fan of) and sleeps (noisily) through the night! The only time she really cries is when she decides that she was hungry five minutes ago and wants that bottle right away. Hungry Hungry Harpo!

Here is a look into our typical day.

 

4:00 am is when she first wakes up for her early morning feeding. Throughout the night she makes horse noises & grunts randomly to wake us up, but she is still asleep. She is currently sleeping in our room swaddled in the Nap Nanny, which has been AMAZING for her spitting up. Being in the propped up position helps her sleep.  We are very aware of the recall & the dangers, but we follow the instructions so that she cannot tip out of it. As soon as she is able to start rolling around we will need to explore other options or hope that she can sleep flat on her back by then. I feed her at 4 & she immediately falls back asleep at 4:30.

8:30 am is when she wakes up for the day. I feed her again & we play in bed for about an hour. She does tummy time either on the bed or propped up on her boppy. We play with her Skip Hop Sheep and I read "Goodnight Moon" but we either read it from back to front or say "Good Morning" instead.

She gets sleepy pretty quick & I put her down for her morning nap at 10:00. I usually just put her in her swing and tuck the blanket around her tight, not swaddled, but tight enough to help her startle reflex from waking her up. Those hands of hers have a mind of their own!!

Noon is when she wakes up typically & I feed her again. After that we sing the whole Jack Johnson playlist on my ipod, which she loves and gives me the biggest smiles. Sometimes I play along with my Ukulele, which she isn't quite sure what to think of yet.. but she is the exact same size as it right now! We hang out in her room where she lays on her play mat or sits in her bumbo for a bit & we read a bunch of her other books.

My husband tells me that I look like I have duck feet because my feet are short and really wide, so I saw this book at Buy Buy Baby & just had to buy it. It is SO cute! And Harper definitely has my feet! The Sneetches was Brandon's favorite book as a kid, so we had to buy that as well. All of the short stories in the back crack me up, we love them!

 Harper loves to look at this hilarious little creature during tummy time. We named him Bug.

She takes another nap around 2 until about 3:30. Then I feed her again & she hangs out in her bouncer. I hang all sorts of different toys from the bar, Jacques the Peacock is one of her favorites, along with all of those multicolored links that she loves to swat at. We also play dress up at this time & send lots of pictures to daddy! I usually cook dinner (ish) while she swings or bounces and then I feed her again at 6:15 right before Brandon comes home from work. She sits in her bouncer while we eat dinner & then she spends lots of quality time with daddy afterwards. This usually consists of singing funny songs (Harpie the Baby to the tune of Frosty the Snowman.... wow my husband has spent way too much time with me!) and holding her in the airplane hold across his arm and walking her around the house looking out the windows.

I love reading her this book called You Are My Cupcake too because she recently started realizing that she can touch things, and all of the pages are textured. It's also just plain adorable!

She usually takes a little cat nap from about 8-9 in her bouncer and then it's bath time!! She loves to be a nakey baby! My friend gave me great advice that her son slept best when they started giving him a bath every night, so we tested it out and it worked!! I haven't skipped one since. We give her another bottle at 9:30 and read "Goodnight Moon" again in the rocking chair...and tell her a million bazillion times how much we love her. Then off to sleep! 

I know, that is one heck of a schedule. I didn't really try to set this and I definitely don't live by it, but it just seems to repeat each day and it works well for us. I would LOVE to hear any fun ideas & activities that you all have for entertaining your little ones!

Side note, I have a super obsession with kids toys & seeking out the cutest stuff. So much that I have recently sketched out some things and am obsessing over DESIGNING kids toys!! After seeing the things that catch her eye and entertain her, I wish I could just make some toys for her myself with fun colors & patterns that looked cute as well. I wish I knew the right people to make this happen! Jessica Alba just whips up a baby company out of no where... can't I do the same?! :)

Instagram, Poms & My Diaper Bag

Instagram - So fun! Apparently I was born in a barn because I just discovered it's capabilities last week & I'm loving all the fun photo filters. It's definitely my cup of tea! Follow me @jlgarvin if you're a sucker for cute baby photos like the one below! :)

HOW is my sweet baby already 8 weeks old & sitting up in her Bumbo chair?!

I will post a tutorial on how we made & hung the tissue Poms in Harper's room. Basically I used the standard instructions but I cut the scalloped edges more shallow & less defined. That is why they look less "flowery" ..if that makes sense. Will post more details & pics soon.

Also, many have asked where my diaper bag is from. It is the storksak Tania Nylon in Graphite. I LOVE IT!! It is so roomy & has tons of compartments inside. I love the metallic steel grey color & the fact that it is not too babyish. Plus, the stroller straps will rock your socks off.