Small, simple, and easy diaper bag... That does not look like a diaper bag!

A few months ago I left my wallet in the car with the car unlocked and the next morning my wallet (and GPS on an unrelated note) were gone.  This huge frustration led me to think about the question "WHY did I leave my wallet in the car unlocked?"  As I broke it down, I realized the reason was because I had way too many things (along with one beautiful toddler) I was lugging in an out of the car every day.  The evening I left my wallet in the car, I thought, well that's one less thing I'll have to carry to the car in the morning.  Dumb.  

So I needed a new solution.  I felt my huge diaper bag with 7 cloth diapers in it, and everything else I needed to take care of a baby on the run, had to go.  Plus, I needed to buy I new wallet.  So I hit the mall, hoping to spot just the right thing.  And I did!  

In Hallmark Gold Crown Store of all places, I found the perfect bag, not at all marketed to be a diaper bag!  The brand is baggallini and I have since seen it in many other shops.  They come in many styles and colors, and I tested out all the ones in the store by putting diapers in them, and all my other junk just to see if it would fit, and this one worked.  

The one fall back is I had to give up cloth diapering... at least "on-the-go" which was a slippery slope that led to no cloth diapering ever.  My little one refuses to wear them after I took a long hiatus.  Hopefully with baby #2 (coming this Holiday season) we can get back on the cloth wagon.

Regardless, let me give you a tour!

Okay, I have my messenger style bag hanging from my Jeep because the jeep actually plays a role as you will see in the final pictures.

The first little front pocket holds my little things... lip gloss lip stick, a pencil, teething medicine, sometimes a crayon or two.

Here is the wallet section.  Regularly used cards are easy to get to and the less frequented are all in one zipper.  There is a great little change pocket, and then a whole other pocket not even utilized.  Sometimes I hold receipts or a check book there.

I am not anti-pink, but its not one of those colors I identify myself with like some women.  However, the bright pink interior does make it easier to find things than in my previous bag that had a black interior.  

Change of clothes.... I have a pretty neat baby so we rarely use this spare, but on occasion we pull it out and I'm glad to have it.  I pack the lightest outfit she has for this so it isn't too bulky.

The middle pocket without a zipper holds snacks and sometimes a small water bottle.  She can come up to my bag and get it herself if she wants.

Here are the diapers and wipes.  It can hold about 4 or 5 normal size diapers though its only picturing 2 thick night time diapers because I really need to go buy more.  Seriously we currently own 3 clean diapers in the world right now- next stop is the diaper store!

I THINK it could hold about 2 prefolds if I wanted to.

The back pocket is zipperless so I keep my phone here so it is quick and easy to get to when its time to snap a picture of cute little Adelaide doing something adorable... Yes, I rarely use this as a phone!  Also, some hand sanitizer. Sometimes I throw these two items in the "wallet" section so I can fit a book in there.  For the most part, if I'm reading a book it is through the kindle app on my iphone.  Consolidate!

And just because I like to keep it dorky, I keep my keys on a carabiner on a loop on the outside of the bag.  For just a touch extra of nerd, I sometimes clip my purse to my belt loop so it doesn't slide around as I bend over during play time at the museum or the park.

You might be thinking... that is not nearly enough stuff for a whole day's adventure away from the house!  How does she do it???

The secret is keeping a stash in the car.  Very rarely am I away from the car for so long that I would need 10 diapers, 2 changes of clothing, a trash bag, bandaids, etc.  So I keep a surplus in the car at all times.  Its is very easily stored and organized.

Reused a Tide Container for a trash can.  (Don't forget to empty when you get home!)

A change of clothes, plus a spare bag to put the dirty clothes in.  Again, don't forget to take out when you get home.  I left some vomit clothes in a bag for a week on accident and the mold was disgusting... I just threw the whole bag in the trash, clothes and all.

Of course a thing of wipes.  I refill it every now and then, usually part of my car cleaning routine.

This is a dish washing detergent container re-used to store this and that little things.... snack, boogie wipes, Neosporin, bandaids, teething med, sun screen, etc.  

Another re-used container that holds diapers.  It can hold about 20.  Right now it holds the 1 other diaper we have.  That's right, all the diapers we have in our possession right now are pictured in this one blog post.

And that is it!  I've been using this method for roughly 6 months and I am extremely pleased and have not run into one problem.  Even when I go out sans-baby, I tend to carry the whole bag with me, and it is no larger than the bag of someone without any children, so it doesn't look odd or feel heavy either.

I did find an added bonus to the diaper box in the car.  When we have grandparents take care of her at their house while we go out on a date, we just bring the box in, and with everything so well labeled and organized, it makes it super easy for them to find everything she needs.

I've wanted to blog about this since I got it because I know someone out there is googling "diaper bag that is not huge" and I hope you find this blog!  Email me if that is you!  (or if you like the idea)

The 5 Things Every Mom should know

Okay a new parent must (in my humble opinion) is to be a part of a group with other parents.  Community is so important- especially for cooped up stay at home moms.  My group is MOPS (mothers of preschoolers).  When I first heard of MOPS, I thought it did NOT sound like something for me... they are people obsessed with their families that like crafts right?  Well as it turns out they DO love their families (but learn not to make it an identity) and yeah, there is craft time.... but I never craft; I sit with the other moms who "forgot" to bring their craft materials and just talk for that time.

But one great part of MOPS is the special speakers.  I don't know if its because I live in a big city and our MOPS group has like 300 people in it, but we have some awesome speakers!  A couple weeks ago there was a special speaker named Vicki Courtney who is the author of many books including 5 Conversations You Must Have With Your Daughter.  Her talk was titled "The 5 Things Every Mom Needs To Know."  I just want to share my notes because her talk really helped me get a little perspective and relax in my new role as Mom.

1.  No one has this parenting thing down.

• Cut yourself some slack and don't get PMS (Perfect Mom Syndrome)
• Do what you've got to do... you're probably not going to mess up your child

Philippians 1:6 New International Version (NIV) 
⁶ being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.

2.  If you play the Comparison game, you're guaranteed to loose fast

• So what if your baby isn't doing this as soon as your friend's baby 
• If you make a mistake just fix it! You can't really just figure things out perfectly.
• So be willing to readjust as you go- thought cloth diapers were perfect and now you don't?  No biggie!  Bring on the disposables!  

1 Peter 2 New International Version (NIV)

 ¹ Therefore, rid yourselves of all malice and all deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and slander of every kind. ² Like newborn babies, crave pure spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow up in your salvation, ³ now that you have tasted that the Lord is good.

3. Avoid parenting extremes.  (3 days a week 3 hours a day piano practice at age 3 kinda stuff)

• Let the kid have fun being a kid... not just what you want them to pursue in life.

4.  Parent from the inside out.

• "Change the heart not the behavior"
• They have to examine their own hearts- you can't just ground them for bad behavior or they will go to their friends house and do that same thing.  Help them connect the dots to why the bad behavior is bad.

5. Remember your place.  Motherhood is not your primary calling.

• Focus on being a child of the Father more than the mother of your child.

1 Corinthians 3:7 New International Version (NIV)

⁷ So neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything, but only God, who makes things grow.

Anyway, just wanted to pass Vicki's wisdom on to y'all!

There's an app for that.

It is so great to have a smart phone when you have a baby. You can easily surf the web while you are at pediatrician appointments, feeding, or when you can't move from your seat because she finally fell asleep in your arms and you don't want to risk moving her. FaceTime becomes a feature you actually want to use when you are calling the grandparents! And best of all, the apps. For just a dollar or two you can buy an app to replace something the baby stores are charging you out the bum for. Here are just two examples, but to stay on a budget and keep your house from baby clutter, think: Is there an app for that?

I was so happy when my sister-in-law let me borrow her itsbeen to help me monitor my feedings and diaper changes. My mother said she knew me well and doubted I would use it. Boy was she wrong... for almost one week. The hardest part about it for me was keeping up with it. Every time I sat down to feed I would try to be prepared by having my water, my cell phone, my computer, and my itzbeen. After forgetting so many times I finally looked on my iPhone for an app and sure enough there were many! So finally I got to a point where I only had my phone to track feedings and I used my phone for the internet so I only had to keep up with it and my water. I'd say that even within 3 weeks I ditched the monitoring all together. She was growing at a healthy rate and I was feeding on demand anyway so it became pretty unnecessary. Skip the $25 itsbeen and go for the $1.99 app on this one. While there are plenty great ones to choose from, the one I settled on was the Baby Feeding Log by Aron Beaver.

It's true that white noise can help soothe a baby to sleep, but should you buy a special toy to make that noise? I say only if you love it and think its cute. But if you are like me and want to reduce toy clutter you can download the TMsoft White noise app. My favorite setting is on the free version- it sounds like you are in an airplane, but without the crying baby! It puts me to sleep just as well as it puts my baby to sleep. It also has a timer on it so you are not listening to it for 8 hours at night... (as if a baby sleeps 8 hours a night).

White Noise

Relax. Sleep Better. Feel Better.

Talking on the phone AND needing a white noise machine? Turn on the radio to static. It works like a charm on our baby when she gets upset in the car.

Real really simple nursery

When I was pregnant I did loads of googleing to find great ideas for keeping it simple when we had our baby. To my surprise that was not as easy as I had expected. For the most part I had to figure it out on my own. I suppose that is because not many advertisers want to advice you to buy as little as possible. But here I blog out of the goodness of my heart, not to sell you anything!

The picture above is how we started out. Our "nursery" was in the corner of our own bedroom. We actually have a second bedroom but with my mother staying with us for a few weeks to help us get adjusted while the baby was here, we wanted her to have her own room. We also just thought it would be easier to care for the baby in the middle of the night if everything we needed was in our room. That ended up working really well.

But let's break it down. A friend of mine gave me the wire drawers that have been great because I can see right through them and know exactly where everything is. The top drawer is filled with diapers so I don't even have to open it, I just grab from the top.

To the left of the wire baskets you will see the "diaper champ." AKA waste of money. It wasn't really helpful, obviously with cloth diapers being larger than disposables. I thought I could use it to throw wipes in but it didn't get the wipes into the bottom part very well. Also the wipes don't smell bad after even a poopy use, so it was pretty pointless and ended up in the recycling bin within a week of Baby being born. It was replaced with a small trash can we already had at our office desk. It has a step peddle to open the lid which helps make for quick disposal.

Also we have a small table set up with a lamp on it and baby wipes. Originally we had a wipes warmer. AKA waste of money #2. It really didn't keep the wipes so warm. By the time we took it from the warmer to the booty it was cool again. We also had to keep it warm by constantly wetting this pad on the bottom of it. And as it turns out, it doesn't bother the baby one bit to have a non warmed baby wipe. (update on this: I was actually at a friends house who had a lionheart wipes warmer and it actually worked pretty good.  Still not a necessity but at least I know they at least do work.)

If you want to keep it extra simple, skip the wipes all together! We told a friend of ours that we don't use wipes after a number one because the pediatrician said it wasn't necessary and even better for the works down there not to. They replied that they don't use wipes at all for one or two! They just run their baby's bottom under the water! I would love to do that, but the sink is way too far away to do that. It is my dream to have a bathroom big enough for our whole changing table set up though. That would be perfect and perhaps make Elimination Communication easier... what is Elimination Communication? It will have to be the topic of a completely different blog!

We also have one hamper for our cloth diapers which is pictured... and not pictured is a hamper we got later for messy baby clothes. Which we go through quicker than you would know!  (we now know that keeping a bib on the baby is a lot easier to change than her whole outfit- it catches drool and spit up well)

In the corner is our pack n play with built in changing table. Awesome! If you are trying to keep it simple in your house, always try to get combo deals like this. The changing pad has worked well for us. Baby A is 15 pounds and 25 inches long (yes she is in the 95% in weight and height) and this thing is holding out well. The pockets on the sides are great for holding diapering supplies. There is a place to hold just a few wet wipes. It is pretty pointless to use this because I'd be refilling it everyday. However if I were to take it on a trip, which I haven't yet, it would probably be useful then.  (update on this: we did travel with it and it is very difficult to take apart and put back together with the changing table and canopy on it.)

Graco Pack 'n Play Portable Baby Play Yard

As for the crib section... during the first month this sections was called the baby storage unit. We pretty much just thew blankets and toys in there as we got them from visitors. We kept her in the Rock N Play to sleep in. Eventually we cleaned out the baby storage unit and would place her in it on occasion for just a few minutes just so she would be in a safe place when I was in a pinch and needed to set her down. By two months old I was placing her in it for naps. Only recently I have placed her in it for a whole night's sleep. There is a mat that makes it into this "crib" like setting, that we can take out when she is older to play in. I'm not sure how that will go. It seems so small and cage like to contain a child in, but so far this pack n play has been awesome enough to make it worth its money even if we don't use the bottom part.

As I mentioned before she sleeps in a Fisher Price Rock N Play, pictured below.

Fisher-Price Newborn Rock 'n Play Sleeper

This thing is wonderful! I originally considered co-sleeping with the baby. There is some controversy over this, but seriously the only people who roll over their children and suffocate them are drunks and druggies. Occasionally she slept in bed with us, but it made for a slightly uncomfortable night for us as we were overly cautious not to roll over her... and also my husband is just a big guy and I'm a bed hog so we didn't really have room for a third. But if you are able to, I know that there are many different beds you can put in your bed for added security and safety for your baby. If you rather not add something in your bed and keep it simple, just be sure to do the safety research.

So our alternative was the Rock N Play. The rock n play sat by our bedside all night long. It has no electronics on it and can easily be moved all around the house. So wherever we needed her to be to nap she could nap there.

It also made the middle of the night feedings much easier. I just picked her up, laid her in bed with me to feed, and then when she fell back asleep, I just put her right back in.

It is at a incline which helps digestion I'm told. I am so grateful she has not suffered from colic but I'm told that this incline is really helpful to those colicky babies.

One more praise for this thing is that if your pediatricians and baby books have freaked you out about not letting babies roll over and sleep on their belly, you don't have to worry about it in this thing.

Our little girl seems to talk in her sleep so I wasn't getting very good sleep so we transitioned her into the other room. This transition has been super easy because she is still in her same rock n' play so she doesn't seem to notice or care.

Well I'm sure this blog isn't going to win any blog awards but I sure hope it helps someone out there in thinking of ways to keep their home baby simple. I will continue with more simple tips on bathing, diaper bags, and baby carriers next time.