Top Ten: The First Year

We've had a busy week around here with one year doctor appointments, attending Taylor's Homecoming yesterday and other such activities going on. However, I did not want the week to get away from me without joining my friend Erica and some other women who have been posting about their favorite baby items. Erica is doing a great job summing up the books, stuff and saving ideas she has used in the first few months of her son's life. I don't really have time to be quite that detailed today, but here's our top ten items/things/thoughts from Liam's first year of life.

And in no particular order...

Ten. Kiddopotomus swaddle wrap. My mom found us one of these at a garage sale before Liam was born and we really had no idea what is was until a few weeks after he was born. But once we realized that some genius out there had invented a swaddle that he couldn't get out of, well, the rest is history. Liam loved to be swaddled and this thing really did keep him snug. He actually slept in it until he was eleven months old, no kidding. With his arms out obviously, but still, his bottom half stayed in it. I thought for a long time it would prevent him from standing up in his bed and screaming, but really all that did was make it look like he was wearing a skirt. Next baby we will have more than one of these too because ours didn't make it in to the wash very often...and that's all I will say about that!

Nine. Bouncy seat. I affectionately call our bouncy seat "the Lexus" because it is a beast and has all the bells and whistles you could imagine. It was a gift from my mother-in-law, and at first I will say I was skeptical, but as Liam learned to sit in it and enjoy it, it slowly grew on me. (Thanks mom!) Yes, it made my living room look like a baby garage sale because it was so big, but it was worth it. As Liam got to be more mobile it was handy to have somewhere to put him while I made dinner or needed to run upstairs. Now it sits outside our bathroom and while Liam doesn't love it as much as he used to, it is still handy to have there when I need to get ready or when I need to clean the bathroom, not a chore that can be accomplished with a toddler. (Eek! I have a toddler! He is so big!) I would say this seat was most helpful from about five months on.

Eight. Stride to Ride Lion. When we were on vacation in August at our cabin, Liam learned he could push a chair across the deck. At that point he wasn't walking (he was almost 10 months old) but I knew it was time to find him a walking toy. We went to Buy Buy Baby (Babies R Us on steroids if you've never been to one) and the new ones they had there cost anywhere from $30 to $80! We could not afford that, so I eventually found one for $10 on CraigsList. It is a fun lion that has a handle to push and walk behind and then eventually when he can ride on it, the handle comes down and makes it a seat to sit on. We spent many hours this summer outside pushing lion up and down the sidewalk and I do think it helped Liam learn how to walk by eleven months. Definitely a toy worth having for pre-walkers.

Seven. A play mat. Backtracking to little babyhood (probably 2 to 6 months), a play mat with toys that hang down was a huge favorite in our house with Liam. Liam would lay happily on the mat and talk to the stuffed octopus, (we called him Roctopus because he rocked at keeping Liam happy) for a long time. I'm pretty sure Roctopus got more smiles that I did some days. Again, it will make your living room look like a baby garage sale, but hey, if it keeps the kid happy, I'm ok with that.

Six. Friends to call. Where would we women be without friends to call when things get tough? A very sad place I'm sure. As a mom, you have to have people you can call at all stages of your child's life. They should be the kind of people you can ask honest questions of without being judged and be told the truth, no matter how hard it is to hear. I think one of satan's greatest tools against motherhood is loneliness and feeling like no one understands what you are going through. This is a lie. All mother's have been in your shoes before. I think there is nothing more helpful than calling a friend and hearing her say, "You can do this. It will get better. Keep going." Take the time to foster and grow those kind of friendships even if there are times you'd rather take a nap than talk on the phone. For your own sanity, keep them alive and don't be afraid to ask for help.

Five. Figuring out scheduling and sleeping. Yes, I am the mom who read Babywise before my baby was born. I'm glad I did because it gave me a foundation to start from when it came to getting Liam on a schedule. I don't think that the babywise system works for every baby, nor do I think that it was ultimately the best thing for us when it came to getting Liam to learn how to sleep on his own, (see my thoughts on Ferberization), but it was helpful when it came to understanding the eat, wake, sleep cycle. There were definitely days that were frustrating as I tried to figure out when Liam would sleep and for how long and then we would get thrown off if he woke up early from his nap, etc. But, now that we have a schedule it is good to know what time Liam will wake up and need to nap during the day. It also helped a lot when he was very little to know if he was crying because he was hungry or something else. This helped me to not snack nurse him during the day. Scheduling a baby does have its downfalls, mainly not having a very flexible baby and meltdowns when a nap is missed, but overall I think scheduling was one of the best things I did this year.

Four. Baby bathtub. When we registered, we accidentally added two bathtubs to our registry and ended up getting five bathtubs before Liam was born. Obviously we only kept one and returned the others, but perhaps it should have been a clue to us about how much Liam would like his bathtub. When he was about six weeks old we realized how much he liked his bathtub and started making a bath part of our regular bedtime routine. Now he sits in the big bathtub and we still give him a bath almost every night. Since Rob is gone during the day, he gives Liam his bath and it is a fun time for them together. I highly recommend getting a bathtub for the first few months.

Three. Toys to put things in. This is the stage that we are at now. Anything Liam can put other toys in to is a hit with him. Even though he has all these new toys from his birthday, he still walks around with an empty yogurt container, putting things in to it and taking the lid off and on. We introduced crayons to him recently and he could care less about coloring. The only thing he wants to do with the crayons is take them in an out of the box. Apparently this is fun for a one year old.

Two. Highchair. We did some research about high chairs before Liam was born and we ultimately settled on one that would strap to one of our dining room chairs versus a stand alone high chair. Since the highchair is now a large part of our daily life, I stand by that decision, but essentially our high chair does act like a stand alone one even though it isn't. I didn't think of this beforehand, but the arms of the high chair are too high for the chair to slide under our table. Because our dining room is rather narrow it has to strap to the end chair of the table, which means, that if we want Liam to eat with us, we have to pull the chair around to the other end of the table where we eat. So the highchair usually spends the day away from the table acting like a stand alone high chair. I'm ok with it really -- it's a good seat and is smaller than a stand alone one so it works just fine for us.

One. The Baby Bjorn bib. I could talk about this bib all day long. (See what my life has come to!) When Liam first started eating cereal food we used cloth bibs that people had given us or little ones that came attached to matching outfits. That lasted a few weeks before I realized how gross they got in addition to creating more laundry. Then we moved up to a plastic coated bib that had a little pocket at the bottom. This worked for a while too, at least I could wipe it off, but soon enough it got gross and stained too. I saw a friend using one of the Baby Bjorn plastic bibs and I was sold. It is probably the best $10 we've spent this year. It is a big bib, so it covers a lot of body for messy babies, plus it has a deep pocket at the bottom for collecting "treasures" of food. Best of all, it simply washes off and could probably go in the dishwasher if we had one of those. I will honestly never use another bib.

Did I say I had a top ten? Just kidding, it's eleven. But this one is overarching all of them.

Prayer. I don't think I've ever prayed so much as I did the first weeks of Liam's life. Except for maybe the week before our wedding when I prayed like crazy for the thunderstorms to move away from our wedding reception tent. And they did -- it was a miracle. But anyways, prayer and more prayer sustained me through those first weeks and since then really. I believe that the Lord is especially close to new mother's and helps them by drawing near when the times are hard. There are desperate prayers. There are thankful prayers. There are prayers for sleep, a constant theme in our house it seems. Prayers for energy. Prayers for patience. Prayers for endurance. Angry prayers. Hopeful prayers. Our lives as mothers should be filled with prayers. It's hard to find time to sit down during the day and focus on praying, but whispered prayers throughout the day are also heard and can be sustaining too. When Liam was very small we started a habit of praying with him and for him specifically before bedtime and that is something I know we will continue. I want Liam to grow up in a house that is characterized by prayer; that it would be the first thing he does when he is sad or angry or happy or thankful or whatever. I want him to know how to turn to the Lord in all things and to watch his mama do the same.

This year has been fun and full and hard. It has been a year of new joys and challenges I could not have predicted. Overall it has been characterized by God's faithfulness to give us a son; a tremendous joy and responsibility. I would not trade this life for anything and I am excited to see what year number two of Liam's life brings.

Next up: The things we thought we would use this year and didn't...in other words, my child did not take a bottle or a pacifier so we have lots of those laying around...

*A note about this post. None of the things/objects/companies I mentioned even know I exist so I was not paid for this post in any way. I'm just one mama talking about the things that made my life easier. And I did mean to post some pictures, but it's Sunday evening and we are making pancakes for supper and I just really don't want to take the time to put up pictures. If you want more info about anything I mentioned, leave a comment and I'll get back to you!