Lullabies

I've been composing a list in my head for years. It's a list of lullabies that I want to remember to sing my child. It's grown with songs remembered from movies, moments in my life, and the radio.

I cannot wait to rock my son some late night this summer and whisper these words in his ear.

Combing through my iTunes account pulled these songs into the playlist that will hopefully soothe a sad face and inspire a giggle or two.

Baby Mine by Bette Midler
A Wink and a Smile by Harry Connick, Jr.
Hearts and Bones by Paul Simon
You and I by Ingrid Michaelson
Let Him Fly by the Dixie Chicks
The Luckiest by Ben Folds
The House That Built Me by Miranda Lambert
Just the Way You Are by Billy Joel
Sweet Baby James by James Taylor
This Guy's In Love With You by Harry Connick, Jr.
Help Me by Joni Mitchell
The Heart of Life by John Mayer
Elderly Woman Behind the Counter by Pearl Jam
Lover Lay Down by Dave Matthews Band
All At Sea by Jamie Cullum
Sing by Kristin Chenoweth
Deeper than the Holler by Randy Travis
Power of Two by the Indigo Girls
Stardust by Nat King Cole
Selah by Lauryn Hill
More than Anyone by Gavin DeGraw
Annie's Song by John Denver
I'll Have to Say I Love You by Jim Croce
Better Together by Jack Johnson
Smile (Charlie Chaplin) by Glee Cast
River by Joni Mitchell
Fire and Rain by James Taylor
Tupelo Honey by Van Morrison
Little Houses by Doug Stone
I Just Called to Say I Love You by Stevie Wonder
When I Fall In Love by Celine Dion
Times Like These by Jack Johnson
Time in a Bottle by Jim Croce
20 Years by The Civil Wars
Let Nothing Separate Us by Arthur Conley
Hush, Hush, Hush by Paula Cole
Danny's Song by Loggins and Messina
Gracie by Ben Folds
The Nearness of You by Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Armstrong
In the Wee Small Hours of the Morning by Carly Simon
Can't Take My Eyes Off of You by Damien Rice
Just to See You Smile by Tim McGraw
When Somebody Loves You by Sarah McLachlan
Bye Bye Blackbird by Joe Cocker
Mother Nature's Son by Sheryl Crow
Blackbird by Sarah McLachlan
The Glory of Love by Keb' Mo
In My Life by the Beatles
When the Stars Go Blue by Tyler Hilton and Bethany Joy Lenz
Sunrise by Norah Jones
Banana Pancakes by Jack Johnson
Moonlight Serenade by Frank Sinatra

I'd love suggestions for other songs to add- I want him to be surrounded by music.

Adventures in Babyland

Last week, these pink converse went on a little trip.

Liquid courage was needed. Decaf, of course. Yay for liking coffee again!

Baby Crap Central was our destination. Buy Buy Baby, while awesome, is completely overwhelming. Who knew there was more than one kind of baby nose picker? Or that you could need/obviously need a humidifier shaped like an elephant? The options for needless baby nonsense are endless.

The husband was in charge of the "gun" while we register. See that evil gleam in his eye?

I'm going to let you guess who picked out these gems.

We got some great ideas and picked out some things I think the wee one will enjoy. It's kind of a weird responsibility to be in charge of setting up someone else's entire life. So far, he's getting no say in his bed (because we picked one that will last him until college), his clothes (pretty sure he's wearing whatever his grandmothers buy him until he's 30), or his sleeping choice (dude will be swaddled).

Even though I can't set up his nursery, yet (the back bedroom is still serving as part of the impromptu kitchen), I like to take out his baby things from time to time. They're so small and sweet.


Nerd gear!


Norwich onesie from my brother-in-law and monster hat (complete with ears!) from childhood best friend. Sweet snugglies from Grammy and Aunt Laura.

Stuffed VEGETABLES!!! How cool are these?? IKEA rocks. The only weird thing about these is that the carrot is wearing shorts and the broccoli has a skirt on. Were clothes really necessary?

Kisses for the carrot!

We've been reading to him for a couple of months. Our personal favorite is Get Dressed Santa by Tomie DePaola. I don't want to spoil the plot, but at one point Santa is fully dressed but has to pee! What's the big guy to do??

Matching shirts for father and son! Yeah, I'm going to be that mom.

My coworker found the frame so we can save his hospital bracelet. The onesie on loan from cousin Isabella.

And this...well, this kind of confused me. My sister sent me a big box of swaddlers and onesies and socks- really useful stuff that my niece has outgrown. And in this box were about 5 or 6 of these things.

I examined it.

And opened it up.

And the only conclusion I could come to was...

Baby smoking jacket.

Turns out, babies don't wear smoking jackets. But they do wear kimono-style tops while they still have their belly button nub.

Who freaking knew?

Thank God for big sisters. Otherwise this poor kid might be propped up next to a glass of brandy wearing sheepskin skin slippers holding a cigar.

Pregnant Lady Trail Mix

Pregnancy is a weird and awesome thing. It's weird to willingly allow a parasite to suck all the nutrients out of your body, but awesome because this parasite is actually a baby and babies rock. I've been blessed awesomely normal pregnancy, so far (*knock on wood*).

I've also learned more about my body these past 6 months than I had in the whole 27 years prior. I even know my blood type now- what up?! Chalk that up to the bajillion of doctors appointments pregnant ladies get to go to- I'm almost to my twice a month appointment phase! I've also given a few gallons of blood (or roughly 15 vials, but jeez, that is a lot of blood) and peed in more cups than I care to count.

At my last appointment, I got to give more blood and then I got a follow-up phone call from the NP. Diagnosis= low iron. This is hardly a strange or unusual thing for women in general and it's especially common in pregnant women. Even though I take my daily prenatal vitamin, I wanted to boost my intake of iron through food, too. Couldn't hurt, right?

My daily food intake usually has some kind of spinach or leafy green in it, so I was reluctant to go that route. A girl can only eat so many salads. A quick search on Babycenter.com gave me quite the list of other iron-rich foods: lean beef, dark meat chicken or turkey, instant oatmeal, edamame, lentils, blackstrap molasses, apricots, nuts, seeds, raisins.

Armed with this knowledge, I went to my local Trader Joe's and started scanning labels. To get the most bang for my iron buck, I picked out a few things for a trail mix:

• Dried apricots
• Seedless raisins
• Honey-sesame almonds (double whammy- nuts & seeds!)
  

Here are the stats:

A 1/4 cup serving of seedless raisins has:
6% daily value of iron
2% daily value of calcium
13o calories
2 grams fiber
1 gram protein
Fat-free!

1/4 cup serving of dried apricots has:
8% daily value of iron
2% daily value of calcium
10% daily value of Vitamin C
20% daily value of Vitamin A
110 calories
2 grams fiber
1 gram protein
Fat-free!

1/4 cup serving of honey-sesame almonds has:
10% daily value of iron
10% daily value of calcium
170 calories
1 gram fiber
4 grams protein
12 grams fat

I threw equal quantities of each in a Ziploc, shook it up, and took it to work where I munched on it all week. I serve this up in roughly 1/2 cup portions, so I estimate it's around 300-350 calories a serving with a nice helping of iron in each bite. Which is handy since you're supposed to eat roughly 300 extra calories a day during the second trimester and 450 extra calories a day during the third trimester. (source)


Now, I'm not a nutritionist but I have been trying to watch what I eat and not use pregnancy as an all-access pass to the buffet of life. I'm not too worked up about trying to stay within a certain weight range- I figure if I eat when I'm hungry and eat mostly nutrient-dense food everything will work the way it's supposed to.

I'm guess I'm doing something right because this kid is definitely growing.

Exhibit A: 5 weeks (Hi Gilligan!)

Exhibit B: Almost 25 weeks!