Mommy Blunders and Outings

This week Charlotte turned five weeks old. It's totally crazy how fast the time with her is going and how much she grows each day.

She is still eating every 3-4 hours (sometimes every 2 hours if she's cluster feeding), so lack of sleep has become the normal state of being around the Meriwether household. This week the lack of sleep really caught up to me. I was nursing Charlotte at one point, and thought to myself, "Hmmm, her diaper looks really strange, like a lot bigger. Interesting..." I then realized a minute later when I couldn't locate her second foot, that I had somehow diapered her left foot! Good going, mom. Lack of sleep 1, Mom-0.

Moms: What blunders have you made in the real world?

Outings with baby and listening to yourself

On Friday we had our first outing that was located over 40 minutes away. I will say that even though in my mind I thought I had timed and planned everything out perfectly the day before, on the day of I was still 30 minutes late. Luckily my friends didn't mind one bit. I learned a valuable lesson: when it comes to babies, there is no specific timeline or schedule, so stay flexible and give yourself an extra 20-25 minutes to get where you need to be on time!

Charlotte at her first outing

Our visit was a low key trip to a good friend's house (thanks for having us, Amy). Charlotte was a bit fussy to say the least. Luckily I did have the sense to pack a bottle, because she got hungry as soon as we got there - even though she had fed right before we had left. As Charlotte was crying and nothing I was trying was calming her down, I said to Amy, "It's weird she's so upset, she really only cries when she's hungry!" After rocking her, checking her diaper, and trying every other trick in the book, I offered her the bottle I had brought. She greedily took it down in a matter of minutes.

Note to self: listen to your baby!

Packing with a baby

It's amazing how much stuff you have to pack even for a short visit when you have a baby: diapers, wipes, diaper cream, blankets, pacifiers, bottles, bottle cooler, change of clothes, etc.

The car ride was a bit stressful especially when she started screaming and I couldn't turn around and put her pacifier in (which she loves to spit out and then cry for a second later).

She seems to like her Baby Einstein musical mirror (recommended by friend Dana), but I'm looking for any other suggestions on how to handle fits in the car when there's really nothing you can do (except pull over, which I did once.)

Does anyone have any advice for making car rides a bit easier?