Chase was almost exactly 4 months when we moved out of our apartment and in those 4 months we figured out surprising things that did and didn't work for us in terms of having a baby in our apartment.
Biggest thing that did not work for us (mostly me): having him in the room with us
Before Chase was born, I would scoff at those who thought babies needed their own room. Why wouldn't he just sleep in his crib in our room? I thought. Well, a few days after he was born, I found out that little Chase was a noisy sleeper and every little noise would wake me up and put me on edge. Nate could sleep through it all without a care in the world! Lucky him! I was getting even less sleep than I should have been because Chase's breathing, sighing, even moving was keeping me wide awake! I also theorized that he could smell my milk when I came into the bedroom to sleep so that was also waking him up, making his sleep worse. So, at a few weeks old (maybe 3, I don't even remember anymore!! How quickly it goes!) we moved him to the spare bedroom and it made both of us happier. Although we never really set up a real "nursery," we did pretty much give him his own room by putting his crib and his changing table/dresser in there.
Biggest nice surprise: having the twin bed in the extra bedroom
Even though we got rid of the twin bed (see next post), having it in the spare bedroom was amazing. I could feed Chase there at night, it would keep both of us from waking up too much, and then I could put him in his crib before going back to my own bed. It worked out so well!
Biggest "I told you so"... from our end: cloth diapers
Everyone told us we would never stick with the cloth diapers -- except for Nate's mom who seemed to be our only supporter. We started out with prefolds and covers and then transitioned to pockets (that means nothing to almost all of humanity, but they are cloth diaper terms that I would love to discuss with anyone who cares). We got an amazing deal on craigslist and I painstakingly replaced the elastics on 23 diapers (really the only "craft" part of this post -- but boy was it time consuming!). We love cloth diapers and it actually makes me sad that we may not be able to use them in Switzerland due to us probably not having a washing machine in unit. We made do washing them in our old washing machine (running an extra rinse cycle manually before the wash cycle), but with our new washing machine (see last post), it was even easier! Not only could they be washed directly due to him only receiving breast milk, but they held in poop SO much better than disposables. In the end, we did end up using overnight disposable diapers because this Chase character is the heaviest wetter ever, but one diaper every night made sense economically, and only putting ~700 diapers in the landfill rather than ~6,000 makes sense environmentally. We still use disposables when traveling short term or when we had sitters so those numbers about are a bit of a lie.
Biggest saver of space and money: minimalism
We really tried to get by with the fewest items possible, mostly because our apartment is small and we were going to move so soon. People were so kind and gifted us many clothes and toys/gear. We also received some hand-me-downs which were awesome. Chase outgrew things SO quickly so we tried to pass it forward and gave away old clothes, the swing, and many accessories. Overall, Chase is just happy chilling on the floor with a few toys, although he won't say no to an activity mat. He did have a swing but he wasn't much of a fan and he already outgrew it. Other than that, we were able to get by without any kind of rockers or seats or activity centers. He has a pack-and-play as a crib, a $10 changing pad attached to the top of a dresser, and will have a high chair when we get to Switzerland. Overall, we could have gotten by with even less, but it was nice to have the things we did.
Biggest baby ever: Chase
Both our mothers found our weight records for our first few months (my mom even had it charted on old school graph paper for both my brother and me so I digitalized those points to start). I combined the information and added Chase's info to objectively conclude that Chase is a freakishly large baby. I'm really hoping he is plateauing because he is in 12-18 month clothes and is 4 months old! I am hoping once he starts moving he will get leaner. We got him some sturdy clothes for Switzerland so it would be nice for them to last an appropriate amount of time!
Biggest thing that did not work for us (mostly me): having him in the room with us
Before Chase was born, I would scoff at those who thought babies needed their own room. Why wouldn't he just sleep in his crib in our room? I thought. Well, a few days after he was born, I found out that little Chase was a noisy sleeper and every little noise would wake me up and put me on edge. Nate could sleep through it all without a care in the world! Lucky him! I was getting even less sleep than I should have been because Chase's breathing, sighing, even moving was keeping me wide awake! I also theorized that he could smell my milk when I came into the bedroom to sleep so that was also waking him up, making his sleep worse. So, at a few weeks old (maybe 3, I don't even remember anymore!! How quickly it goes!) we moved him to the spare bedroom and it made both of us happier. Although we never really set up a real "nursery," we did pretty much give him his own room by putting his crib and his changing table/dresser in there.
Biggest nice surprise: having the twin bed in the extra bedroom
Even though we got rid of the twin bed (see next post), having it in the spare bedroom was amazing. I could feed Chase there at night, it would keep both of us from waking up too much, and then I could put him in his crib before going back to my own bed. It worked out so well!
Biggest "I told you so"... from our end: cloth diapers
Everyone told us we would never stick with the cloth diapers -- except for Nate's mom who seemed to be our only supporter. We started out with prefolds and covers and then transitioned to pockets (that means nothing to almost all of humanity, but they are cloth diaper terms that I would love to discuss with anyone who cares). We got an amazing deal on craigslist and I painstakingly replaced the elastics on 23 diapers (really the only "craft" part of this post -- but boy was it time consuming!). We love cloth diapers and it actually makes me sad that we may not be able to use them in Switzerland due to us probably not having a washing machine in unit. We made do washing them in our old washing machine (running an extra rinse cycle manually before the wash cycle), but with our new washing machine (see last post), it was even easier! Not only could they be washed directly due to him only receiving breast milk, but they held in poop SO much better than disposables. In the end, we did end up using overnight disposable diapers because this Chase character is the heaviest wetter ever, but one diaper every night made sense economically, and only putting ~700 diapers in the landfill rather than ~6,000 makes sense environmentally. We still use disposables when traveling short term or when we had sitters so those numbers about are a bit of a lie.
Biggest saver of space and money: minimalism
We really tried to get by with the fewest items possible, mostly because our apartment is small and we were going to move so soon. People were so kind and gifted us many clothes and toys/gear. We also received some hand-me-downs which were awesome. Chase outgrew things SO quickly so we tried to pass it forward and gave away old clothes, the swing, and many accessories. Overall, Chase is just happy chilling on the floor with a few toys, although he won't say no to an activity mat. He did have a swing but he wasn't much of a fan and he already outgrew it. Other than that, we were able to get by without any kind of rockers or seats or activity centers. He has a pack-and-play as a crib, a $10 changing pad attached to the top of a dresser, and will have a high chair when we get to Switzerland. Overall, we could have gotten by with even less, but it was nice to have the things we did.
Biggest baby ever: Chase
Both our mothers found our weight records for our first few months (my mom even had it charted on old school graph paper for both my brother and me so I digitalized those points to start). I combined the information and added Chase's info to objectively conclude that Chase is a freakishly large baby. I'm really hoping he is plateauing because he is in 12-18 month clothes and is 4 months old! I am hoping once he starts moving he will get leaner. We got him some sturdy clothes for Switzerland so it would be nice for them to last an appropriate amount of time!
All babies were exclusive breastfed during this time and it's not like the three of us were small! Chase is just HUGE!
OMG. I can't believe you made a graph out of this. I love you Oksana!
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