Baby Shades, Laundry, & a Craft Project!

 His future's so bright, he has to wear shades!  Or rather, he has Macular Degeneration running in his family and he has to wear shades...  At any rate, I was fairly unhappy with the sunglasses I got in the mail last week (I ordered them from one of my favorite baby shops, diapers.com) because they dug into his head pretty badly, even though when I put them on him, they appeared loose.  The problem with baby shades is that they put a Neoprene strap on them instead of the arms that go over your ears (in most cases), these act more like swim goggles and Gabriel ended up with red marks in the shape of his sunglasses around his eyes.  Also, when he had just had "enough" of them and tried to remove them (a good hour after they'd been put on), he snapped them back into his eye and nose!  This new pair (purchased at The Children's Place for $3.50) has arms, not Neoprene...they are a little big on him, so the fit isn't ideal, but he leaves them alone for the most part.  Ignore the pacifier...it's more of a "security blanket" than anything, if we don't have it with us he cries, if we do have it, he doesn't want or need it!


What happens when you have four loads of the baby's laundry and two more loads of diapers (not to mention two loads of adult laundry, not pictured)?  A mountain of laundry to fold and put away, hopefully before it all gets used again!  The stuff on top of the table (a card table) is all the stuff Gabriel fits right now, also up there is his pile of burp rags (only two of them were not in the wash, though they are both there now), and about half his towels (there's still one or two in the bath basket)!  The square laundry basket right under the table has a few blankets, a couple of sheets, changing pad covers, and one or two sheet savers.  Also, the ducky bag is a set of cloth diapers (with an AIO and an "extra" liner because the diaper it goes in is set off to be repaired)!  Behind that is a half basket of stuff that I bought last week that is (way) too big still...18 month to 2T stuff I got from the resale shop when it was marked down to 50% off! And, another bag of diapers...

This is something I have been meaning to get to for a while now...  The camo squares are breast pad sized rice packs!  They're roughly the size of my palm and designed to be warmed in the microwave for 15-30 seconds and placed in my bra after nursing and/or pumping to help ease the nipple pain I've been experiencing since the baby was born!  I know, I know...he'll be 5 months old tomorrow and I am just now getting around to it!  Oh boy though, I should have made these before he was born!  Most nights I go to sleep crying (or nearly crying) because my boobs hurt in some fashion...last night, I pumped (11.5 ounces, I really need to find more time to pump so I don't get "that" full) and then popped these in the microwave for 30 seconds.  They were way too hot at that point, so I put them behind a breast pad (a reusable one) so I did not burn my nipples!  Oh the relief of the heat helping to ease the muscle spams I get in my nipples!  No more white nipples either, they got the much needed blood into the circulation system!  I took them out after 15 minutes or so (once they lost most of the heat) and went to bed with "happy nipples" for once!  Of course, then I laid awake humming a song to myslef because what else does a sleep deprived mother do when the day's chores are done, the baby is asleep, and you know you have to be up at 2am and then up for the day by 6am?  Yeah...I finally drifted off some time after 12am, who needs sleep!?

I want to make some larger sized rice packs now...these are great for small injuries and I can see these being awesome when Gabriel is bigger and gets "boo-boo's" because they are small and light-weight.   They are not washable though!  If I had been thinking, I would have made the rice packet in a cheap cotton and then made a little "pillowcase" with the soft material so that it could be washed.  That's what I'll do with the next set I make...  For now, my "Booby-Boo-Boo Heat Packs" are "good enough" for my needs (I've been running around all morning with these stuffed in my shirt)!