Giveaway!

Yes, its finally time for my first Z's Favorite Things Giveaway!!!!

And what exactly am I giving away this month? A gorgeous black and white, machine-washable cotton, ZoloWear Ring sling! This one, to be exact. And it will even come with a DVD on the many different ways you can carry your baby/toddler in it!

Here is Zeke and I at The Olive Garden with this ring sling when he was...say....3 weeks:

And here is Zeke and I in the same ring sling yesterday:
I LOVE baby-wearing, and so does Ezekiel. Like I've said many times, I don't know that either Zeke or I would have survived our first couple of weeks together (outside the womb) if it wasn't for my MANY carriers. I have 3 at the moment, 2 ring slings and one mei tai. Zeke just HAD to be held when he was born....ok sometimes he STILL just HAS to be held. But I also just HAVE to get things done sometimes. And with a carrier we both get what we want. He is held and I have 2 free hands.

Lets begin with the pluses to baby carrying in general. Like I said, two free hands! If you are a mother, you know how special (and rare) that is. Then there is the ease of traveling, Zeke was in his ring sling at the mall, at the grocery store, at parks while I walked, pretty much everywhere. I didnt have to lug a huge stroller around on every outing and I didnt have to fill my grocery cart with his carseat (or put my newborn in the germy seats they provide). Plus he was happy in there. He could sleep, nurse, poke his head out and have a look around, then nurse and sleep again.

A lot of doctors also recommend baby wearing. Dr Sears of The Baby Book (My own personal Dr Spock) believes its one of the most important parts of attatchment parenting. And there is even a study that was done where one group of parents were asked to carry their babies three hours more than usual and the other group carried their babies the amount they normally would. After 12 weeks, the two groups had only a 1.7 hours difference in daily carrying, but the group of babies that were carried more cried 43% less than the other group. Impressive!

Now on to the pluses of ring slings in particular. They are probably the most well-known type of sling. (Other that maybe the commercial baby bjorn type carrier, which is actually a HUGE chiropractic no-no)

Like I said, I have two different kinds of slings. And I already have 2 other kinds that I have NEVER used lined up for future give-aways (and reviews), but I have definatly used the ring sling the most. I love how easy it was to learn to use, that it fits in my diaper bag when not in use, and that it will work all the way from newborn to toddler. I especially love the adjustability (as a rather tall person with a rather tall baby) and that it can be used in many different postions. Zeke, for example, HATED laying down in the sling, even as a newborn, so he alwasy was carried sitting up.

Well, now I KNOW you want that ring sling, or maybe you want to give it to someone as a gift! And you only have until March 10th before I draw the winner out of a hat out of random.org.

So here is how you enter to win!

You get your first entry for leaving a comment on THIS post saying you want the sling.

And you can get more (bonus) entries for doing any of the following:
-Blog about this contest (of course linking to this post)
-Twitter about this contest (linky linky!)
- TWO entries if you are my follower (gotta show love to my peeps)
- And another TWO entries if you are a Twitter Follower
(please leave a comment for each bonus entry you earn and telling me why. IE if you are a follower leave 2 different comments saying "I follow you".)

7 total chances to win, because 7 is also one of Zeke's favorite things...or at least one of his mom's favorite numbers.

Good luck!

Zeke is getting so big!

It's blurry but its adorable if you ask me.

In other news, Zeke is getting so soo big! Now even most of his 0-3 outfits wont fit him, and he's onto 3-6 month clothes. He's growing much faster then I can get sick of his outfits, it seems he's barely worn most of them. And we have about a billion in this size. Honestly I could go 3 weeks without doing his laundry if I wanted to, I've gotten so many hand me downs and gifts. I'm hoping his growth slows down a bit now though. All of his 6-9 month clothes are wintery. He's got to last at least until mid September before moving up into that size. If he's still in this size when it gets cold I can always layer but if he gets too big before it cools off I'll have to finally buy something ;) Thankfully I don't see how he can possibly keep this growth up, if he's in 6-9 months clothes at 3 months we've got problems.

Speaking of, I think pretty soon I'll have to buy diapers too. I just opened my last box. It amazes me that I've gone 7 weeks off of gift diapers. You people must sure love us!

Ezekiel is growing in more ways than one. He's getting so much more vocal and interactive. Its amazing. He's so expressive, Josh and I can sit and talk to him for hours, the things that kid does with his eyebrows crack me up.

He's also getting much better at controlling his hands. He can even manage to get his thumb in his mouth now after a few minutes of trying. I have the example below :)

See? This is both a blessing and a curse to me. Its nice because playing with his hands will keep him amused sometimes, and he's starting to self-soothe a bit at night. Unlike the binky, when his finger falls out of his mouth he can usually get it back in without me. Its the usually that sometimes makes me curse this habit. Zeke tends to get frustrated if he tries too long and continues to fail to make the thumb-mouth connection. And then, oh no, the bink is NOT good enough. He spits it right out and keeps yelling and trying to get his thumb in. Then I try to help him get his thumb in but he's too mad to keep it in when I do.

We also go through a similar routine when he's too tired to lift his head anymore. Or too tired in general. He just keeps trying to lift his head and stay awake and look around. But his head keeps falling or his eyes closing. He gets so mad! He just wants to see everything.

That's why the Mei-Tai carrier Annali made me is such a blessing. He is upright and he can look around. I've heard a lot of people say they walk their babies to sleep but Zeke loves his way too much to close his eyes when he is in it. He's all wide eyed and looking around. I've used it at the grocery store and on a walk now. Thanks Annali, we love our Mei-Tai!

I better go upstairs and see if my boys are ok, though. I bathed and fed Zeke and left him to daddy to put to sleep.

When you are 12 days old everything's a first

Highlights this week are mostly a long string of firsts. Zeke had his first bath at home, peed on daddy for the first time, played his first computer game, his first game of risk, and his first game of scrabble. He had his first explosive poop to fly at least 2 feet before it hit the wall (Josh wants me to post pictures but I will spare you, if you've had children you can imagine, if you haven't then you don't want to). He's also winning his first battle, he sleeps more in our bed than in his. At 2 o clock in the morning Id just rather him be quiet and spoiled with us than in his bed like a good baby and crying. He spends part of every night alone and I hope to slowly increase it. When his days and nights are a little more stable and he lasts over 2 hours between feedings it will be easier.

I am afraid I'm spoiling him terribly, he just wont abide being put down, even during the day. Lonliness will wake him from even the deepest sleep. But I honestly don't know what to do about it, even the meanest most Ferber-friendly people say you cant use a cry it out method until they are a bit older than this. And I'm not sure I really want to throw my child into the pure terror of singleness just for the sake of a free arm. For now I do everything one handed, attempt putting him down several times a day when he seems calmest, and hope that he likes the carrier my friend Annali is being good enough to make me. Also I hope he grows out of this a bit. He IS fairly new after all.

Wednesday he will be 2 weeks and normal life will be allowed to commence. I promised Josh we'd stay home for 2 weeks recovering and though not getting dressed most days has been nice, and though I did cheat slightly with going to church and to the mall, I'm getting bored. I'm never home this much. Wednesday I get to go out to a potluck with my mommy and me group, and then Thursday my impossibly hippie mindful mothers group meets. We also have doctors appointments each of those days, so it might be much but I don't want to wait another week. Friday I have my church MOPS group.

Bust busy busy and I love it. Post natal yoga has to wait until 5 weeks and I'm sad but also a little relieved, all these groups might be more than I can chew. I'll wait and see, I can always drop something and at least I wont be lonely or bored.