My Baby Wish List

Since we are having another precious little boy and I brought a lot of our baby stuff with us there's really not much I need to get before our new little guy joins us. I put together a little wish list of the things I would love to have. I would love to hear what you think. Have you used any of these things? Do you love them? Hate them? Think they are a waste of money? Let me know!

A Baby Carrier
I'm wanting to get either a Action Baby Carrier or Ergo Baby Carrier with Infant Insert. Originally I was sold on the Ergo (thanks Beth Puckett!), but now I am leaning towards the Action Baby Carrier (ABC). The ABC is cheaper ($90 vs. $105 for Ergo and $25 for Infant Insert), comes in pretty colors and from what I have read online it is the best structured carrier when it's hot outside. The Ergo comes highly recommended and I know it works well, so I'm still having a little trouble deciding. I thought I had hit the jackpot a few days ago on the Bangkok Craig's List when I found a used Ergo for sale. Then I saw the price. The lady wanted nearly $200 for it because she bought it new in Bangkok for around $275.
Any suggestions or personal experiences?

Boppy Travel Swing
Asher loved swinging when he was little and thanks to my cousin Kelly we were able to borrow a swing while we were living with Mimi. Maddie Jackson slept sweetly in her Boppy swing the first time I met her and I love that it's super small. The bad thing is that I can't find it for sale anywhere except Ebay. The good thing is that I can buy a used one on Ebay at a reasonable price. I did actually come across a Fisher Price travel swing here in Bangkok for only $222.15 (actual retail price at Babies R Us in the States $69.99). I think I will be sticking to Ebay.

Cloth Diapers
I have a few and I applied for a cloth diaper grant from Cotton Babies. I'm still waiting to see if I got the grant, but if that doesn't take care of it this little one will probably just join Asher in the disposable diaper club.

3-6 month clothes
Asher was in the States during this time so all we have are winter clothes. I have Mimi shopping the consignment shops for me and I am keeping an eye out for sales now that it is time for Fall clothes in the States.

Personalized Boppy Cover
Asher had one, so it's only fair. If only the baby had a name...


Mobile
This was another thing that we borrowed for Asher while we were living with Mimi. I'm really not particular, so I'm just hoping to pick up one around here somewhere.

Baby Monitor
We had an old intercom thing that we used when Asher was little and we lived with Mimi, but it broke. I would really like to get one of those video monitors just so I could see what really goes on when Asher (and in the future his little brother) are going to sleep and waking up. Probably I will take what I can find, but I hope I don't have to buy it new. Like everything else they are way overpriced here.

Changing Table
This is like my ultimate dream. I've never had one before and really I figure that if I never had one with Asher I really don't need one (pretty much like everything else on this list). But it would be fun to have a nice organized place to put all of the diaper stuff. I found one here that matches the baby bed and seems pretty nice. Items like this leave me wishing that IKEA would just go ahead and come to Bangkok!

17 Weeks

I'm pretty sure by this time in my pregnancy with Asher I had probably posted 17 separate belly pictures. Oh well. Here's the first and hopefully they will come weekly after this...we'll see.


I'm feeling good and everything seems to be moving right along. I'm still just wearing my regular clothes and waiting for my belly to get really big. I did wear a maternity shirt today, but I admit it had more to do with a lack of clean clothes than a need for a bigger shirt.

I think I have felt this new baby kicking a little lately, but I'm never quite sure. Soon enough I know I will be feeling kicks and pokes all over my belly.

I've started vaguely thinking of where everyone will sleep, but I can't really decide what will be best. Asher's bed can become a toddler bed, but then I need another crib. If Asher gives up his crib to the new baby I need either a toddler bed or some other bed for him to sleep on. Any suggestions from you all that have added another baby to your family? Either way Asher and the new baby will be sharing a room, we only have two bedrooms so this is a bit of a necessity.

In a little over a week we will hopefully find out if this is another precious boy or a sweet baby girl coming to join our family. We can't wait to find out!

Look Who's Walking Now

We were skyping with Mimi the other night and Asher decided to stand up and walk across the room.

He took his first few steps on Saturday night, so we were not expecting him to go this far so fast. His main problem now is that he would rather run than walk and this (and his big head) makes him fall down quite often.

Now that he is sort of walking I am thinking I may need to buy him some shoes. Any suggestions?

Asher's Room

One thing I have wanted to do since before Asher was born was decorate a nursery. It didn't happen in Surabaya because we were moving so soon after he was born and it hasn't happened in Paducah because we don't have our own place to live. I have high hopes that someday Asher will have his own room and that I will get to decorate that room and that next time we have a baby I will get to decorate a nursery for them.

Since we have been in Paducah Asher has been using the same bumper pad his Uncle Mel used when he was a baby. Thank goodness we had one to use or Asher would have a lot of bumps on his head.

A few weeks ago I made the mistake of going into Pottery Barn Kids and looking at all of their super cute baby stuff. I knew that I shouldn't have gone in, but I couldn't help myself. Seriously, this store is one reason I don't want to move overseas again. Everytime I go in there I want Roger to get a job and buy me a house so I can decorate a room for Asher. Anyway, I have been wanting to get a little crib set for Asher. This way when we start moving all over the world his little bed can look the same, I'm hoping it will make the transitions easier on him. I have had my eye on one at Target for several months and was saving up to buy it. But then came Pottery Barn Kids and all of their super adorable and super soft bedding. It was awful, I told Roger to go print out some resumes and take out a loan. We weren't moving to Bangkok. He was going to be working 40 hours a week and I was going to have my very own house. Luckily Roger is a man and because he is a man he is not easily swayed by items in baby stores. Thank goodness. He got me out of that store and into Baby Gap. I bought Asher some great baby-capris and went about my day.

A few days later I was using the computer and found baby bedding on sale at Pottery Barn Kids (click here to see it, I got the Caleb bumper and the Little Critters crib skirt). I decided to take the plunge and get Asher some new stuff. It actually ended up being cheaper than Target and I love it! I only got a bumper pad and a crib skirt, but it makes me feel better about moving away and it makes his crib look great. I am hoping that if we do have a little girl one day that this stuff could be used for her room as well.

Here's a picture of Asher's bed with it's new threads:

I haven't gotten any new crib sheets yet. I would like to get something really bright, but I'm not sure what color would look best. Any suggestions?

And just in case you were wondering here's a few more pictures of Asher's room (that is also his playroom, our bedroom, office and living room).

Asher in the library, he loves to sit and read his books.

The elephant humidifier, the growth chart full of pictures and the old rocking chair.

I am excited that even though it is not the nursery I thought Asher would have, it works for us.

Sleep Week

WARNING: The following post is long, all about Asher's sleep habits and contains few pictures of funny stories. If you don't care about Asher's sleep then feel free to just check out this picture and check back later for more funny Asher stories and cute Asher pictures.

You want me to take a nap?!?!

Asher is having a few problems sleeping and I have finally decided this is the week that we are going to try and fix the problem.

Here's what's going on...
Before Asher was born Roger and I read a book called On Becoming Baby Wise, we had heard great things about it and learned a lot about how much sleep a baby needs and how often a baby needs to eat. After Asher was born we followed the basic sleep-eat-waketime routine described in the book. We decided to not do everything the book said for various reasons. When Asher was around 4 weeks old we stopped waking him up in the middle of the night. I would feed him at 7 pm, swaddle him and put him to bed. When I went to bed around 10 pm I would feed him (he didn't really wake up) and then he would go back to bed and sleep until about 5 am. Over the next few weeks this stretched out to almost 7 am. There was never any crying in the middle of the night or fighting with him to go to sleep. During the day Asher followed about a 2.5 to 3 hour routine of eating, playing and sleeping and was generally a good napper.

I'm not sure what happened, but suddenly Asher stopped taking good naps. He would still go to sleep easily, but after 45 minutes he would be wide awake and not interested in sleeping anymore. If you have read Baby Wise I'm sure you would recognize the "45 minute intruder." So, yeah, I know that 45 minutes is not long enough for him to take a good nap, but I don't know what to do about it. We let him cry, we try to rock him back to sleep, but nothing work. I'm frustrated, but everybody always tells us we shouldn't complain because he sleeps so good at night.

As Asher got older he continued with his 45 minute naps, we had no solution for our problem. He consistently fell asleep by himself and slept through the night (now from 8:30 pm to 7 am without waking up to eat), but he would never sleep for more than 45 minutes. By the way, when I say 45 minutes I mean exactly 45 minutes. I could look at the clock and know exactly when he would wake up.

I guess I learned to live with the short naps, after all he slept so good at night, but a few weeks ago his sleep pattern changed again. He started taking 30 minute naps. So, we tried letting him cry when he would wake up, we tried rocking him back to sleep, we tired holding him through the whole nap. It didn't matter he would only sleep 30 minutes. This left him tired all day long and wanting to take little naps every hour or two. I tried keeping him up longer and putting him down sooner, nothing changed. This started messing with his night time sleep. For the first time since he was a tiny newborn he started crying at night and waking up at 5 am and he has stopped falling asleep on his own.

So, Roger and I have decided it's time to buckle down and do something about Asher's sleep problems. We have been researching and reading and praying about what to do. Sunday night Sleep Week begins. For one week we are going to train Asher to sleep good, to fall asleep on his own (without a swaddle blanket) and to hopefully take good naps.

If you have any suggestions, ideas, or encouragement please let me know. My baby won't sleep and I need help!