Your captions with Noah's pictures? Always dead on and always make me laugh pretty hard. Sorry for your long day yesterday. I would probably do something like that and am not even sleep deprived. I just don't always pay close attention to details. Drives my husband nuts!

hooray for a hybrid blog entry, which is sort of all about noah but sort of about you and general life craziness/hilarity too.

(of course i like all the baby pictures. but i liked the old amalah too.)

Thank you for the advice about mattresses. We're also expecting a boy in February, and I was wondering the same thing. I figured I didn't need to be too paranoid, so we've decided to go w/ the Serta too... Good to know I wasn't a "bad mommy" for this decision. :)

Don't worry. Motherhood will make you lose your mind. Plus second guess yourself ALL the time. They should tell you this at the hospital before leaving with the baby. Don't feel bad about yesterday though. Hey, you got dressed & got everything out the door, fully intending to go. That's worth some points IMO.

As for the mattress, you're right...don't bother with the expensive ones. Just like all the other useless baby stuff they say you 'need'.

Amalah, you rock. The photos & captions are hilarious. Atleast Noah will smell like Tide or Downy now while he's napping.

ahhhhhhhh, motherhood, the surest, fastest way to becoming a knucklehead.

the one and only time i ran a red light was during that terrible sleep-deprived portion of my son's life. parallel parking--definitely a bad idea.

Good advice about the mattress. I never had access to all those fancy doodads for the babies, so I have no idea what they are even! My two babies survived without the hi-tech mattresses. I have never heard of the fungus in used mattresses but I would be leary of a hand-me-down mattress even so. I wonder how many times I can use the word mattress in one comment?

Sorry to hear about the rough go you had with the movie outing. And I felt tired just imagining all the times you had to haul the stroller out of the car, load Noah into it, lock up the car, go into the mall, go back out, load Noah back into the car, and pack the stroller back up. AND in the rain! Could the gods have been more cruel? She's post partum!!!

I love the captions to Noah's pictures. You make me snort, you are so funny.

wait till you go avisiting...people are more likely to have laundry baskets then playpens!!

don't worry about the whole theater incident. YOU ARE A NEW MOTHER. use this excuse frequently and with total abandon, since it's only good for a limited time.

The sleep deprivation - she is a bitch. Sam is 5 and I think I'm still playing catch up!

I had every intention as well of having my son sleep in his crib. About 5 months ago, he transitioned to his bed. From? You guessed it! MY BED. Do what works for you, I say! He's alive, happy and sleeps through the night (most of the time...)!

I too hate parallel parking and end up heading to Maryland suburbs instead of scary Georgetown. For this reason, may I recommend to you the Bethesda theater, which is surrounded by nice parking lots, or the lot under the Georgetown theater, which takes a movie theater validation. No need to parallel, which is good, because I am incapable of doing it under any circumstance.

you are too funny and noah is too cute. i had my first baby three weeks before you and sometimes, just sometimes, i think noah may be cuter.

something i read only once in my many months of researching how to be a mommy and makes total sense -- the majority of co-sleeping accidents and deaths are the result of alcohol and drug use. as long as i'm not going to bed plastered, i don't worry about letting the little one sleep with me. and less worrying definitely leads to better sleep.

we co-sleep too, and for the exact same reasons... e sleeps in his crib for naps and occasionally will sleep in the crib at night if we (dad & mama) are not the ones putting him down for the night. Sleep is just more important than where the baby sleeps.

Ditto everyone on the expensive-mattresses-are-bunk wagon. The book Baby Bargains has a really good section on why you DON'T need one of the high-end ones.

Loving the return of the Wednesday Advice Smackdown!

Noah, why do you look so surprised to see a camera? You are a much photographed little fella.

Most suburban movie theaters are in malls? Really? I would be broke every time I went to the movies.

I, too, used to be down with the anti-Attachment Parenting, no co-sleeping drivel until I had my own kid. I am now a convert to the concept of ADAPTIVE Parenting (aka Doing Whatever It Takes to Get Some Shuteye).

Now, I have a friend due in February who has declared that no co-sleeping will go on in her house. I declare right back "if you want to pace the floor for hours with a crying baby - more power to you!". I'll be thinking of her while curled up peacefully with MY baby.

BTW - I think I have been to the theatre you're talking about - if it was the same one, it was a PAIN in the ass to park there.

I was right there with you on the attachment parenting thing. After 8 weeks of no sleep I caved and we slept peacefully until my son moved to his own bed with no problems at 16 months. Sometimes we moved him to the crib in the middle of the night - gots to have some privacy sometimes - but he usually ended up back with us before too long!

And the crib - total waste of money - mattress and all!

Kim

I love it when people love the blanket. Send them my way. They can have the pattern. But if they want a blanket, they must tell me that the maternity top I'm wearing is very slimming.

I read all of the negative press about sleeping with the baby but there is nothing better than the closeness that sharing a bed brings. With my little one, we moved from sleeping together in the recliner in the living room to my bed to her bed and we still snuggle together every night at bedtime until she goes to sleep- and she's 7. It's no longer a "have to" to get her to sleep, it's a "want to" so we have some quiet girl time together.
Her crib was her nap place until she woke up one day, did her best sherpa imitation and tried to climb out of it-dislocated her elbow at all of 16 months old.
"No doctor, I wasn't beating my child, she's praciticing for Everest"
Keep the pictures coming! Noah is adorable!

did you know they sell D&B bags on QVC? i just found this out and am very upset! Anyhow for the purse question, my vote is for the Michael Kors.
I have one of his bags and i love it! It actually took the place of my coach bag. Sorry Amalah...

The pictures are adorable! Get that kid an agent, i bet you could get some free baby gap out of those dimples.

My beautiful baby has the exact same pajamas.

I like Monsac handbags in addition to the others mentioned. You can find some at sale at Zappos, or Nordstroms, or monsac.com

Hey! I am delurking again, I had my son around the same time as you (10/6/05 via c section also!) Just wanted to agree with you on the co-sleeping, I never wanted to do it, but hey I need sleep to! Also my son Joseph has those Carters pajamas that Noah is wearing! Both our sons have the same blond hair deal.. anyway. Cute baby love the pictures keep em coming..

I JUST bought a really really cute black purse from Banana Republic for 98 bucks...only it's not ALL leather, just partly, but looks leather anyway (the rest is this different "supple" material). I had a coach bag before this, and I am just as happy with this one as the coach one. FYI, BR has really cute, affordable and stylish-looking purses, I suggest you at least look there.

Perfectly timed advice-- my bro-in-law needs to get my sister a nice bag for Xmas (he doesn't know it yest but I plan to let him know) and these were FAB suggestions.

I am wondering how you deal with a bag that opens with a flappy thing that lops over the top of the bag rather than one that opens right at the top. Are you just really coordinated??

Thanks again...

I'd never even heard of Reel Moms. That's pretty spiffy, except the website isn't really all that clear (I don't think you should feel bad at all). When I searched for Reel Moms in Texas it gave me one result in Dallas and one in Stafford. Isn't that in Virgina? Now THAT would have been just a tad out of the way, no?

LOVE the captions. And Noah is just as scrumptious as ever.

FWIW, we did the EXACT same thing when my son was a newborn. Had the bassinet all set up in our room and he ended up in bed with us. Like you said, it was so much easier and the very notion of us rolling over onto him was completely laughable because I don't think I ever moved a single muscle the whole night. Yes, even in my sleep. Basically, when you have a new one around, you do what you can to stay afloat. :)

I was fully waiting for you to give some god-awful advice on expensive mattresses. Thanks for suprising me. My three sisters and I had the amazing advantage of sleeping in dresser drawers.

We are just fine, although i might have an unsual attachment to bedroom furniture.

When/if I have a kid, he/she might just get the same treatment, whether I am financially constrained, or not.

Cheers.

I had to de-lurk for the handbags!

I just got out of grad school and had to get creative with my handbag addictions. Coach outlets are a godsend. They don't just carry whatever's going out of season- they also somehow have a lot of the nice, classic bags (and some hideous ones) for a lot cheaper than the stores. I got my favorite one 3 years ago, one they still have in the regular stores, for $190 instead of $275.

I know you mentioned wanting leather, but the nylon Prada bags are also wonderful. They're durable, waterproof, classic, and go with damn near everything. If you search around online you can probably find one pretty inexpensively (look for authenticity cards, though.)

I'm sorry, (really I am, 'cause I'm sure I'll get told how stupid I am, and I'm also sure to offend somebody, which I sincerely do not want to do, but here we go!) I feel like I have to chime in on this.

I am the product of co-sleeping.
I am 30, and I still have terrible trouble with sleep, getting to sleep, and nightmares. The only times I really sleep peacefully are when I have somebody (anybody) in bed with me.

I am aware that everybody is different. (Wow!) Just because I, as the child involved, had a, I guess, bad, experience with it doesn't mean everybody or even anybody else will.

But I, just for me, really, really wish my parents had not done it.

That's all.

Little Joe slept on my chest for the first eight weeks of life- he hated the bouncy seat, bassinet and portacrib. Then, as if by magic, he decided that sleeping in his own space was way cool. And now he's got a big-boy bed, and he loves it, and I am sad because my baby is grown up. but not sad anymore, because I am done having babies, and it is way cool when they are big enough to feed themselves and such.

Knitting= more gestation? hell to the NO, or the doc who did my tubal ligation is in serious trouble with me. I love to make stuff for other people's babies, my own children don't get blankets from me! Mittens, scarves and hat, yes, but no more booties or blankets!

I have been co-sleeping with child (One and only one) for 7 long years. No one is dead yet, but I am a drinker now.

The sleep deprivation thing is wicked bad. Our son slept through the night fairly often until he was 4 months old. Then he started waking up every 2 hours. All night long. Every night. I was practically hysterical because of the lack of sleep. One of my co-workers had the same problem and actually drove her car away from the gas station with the gas pump still attached to her car.

I bought this book called "Solving Your Child's Sleep Problems". It was amazing. I found the section that dealt with my son's sleeping problem. It turned out that I was always rocking him or giving him a bottle to go to sleep, and putting down in his crib asleep. He would wake during the night like almost all humans do, and not know how to go back to sleep without being rocked or fed. That first night after reading the book, I put my son to bed while he was still awake, and he slept through the entire night. I have had very few problems with him since.

My husband made the comment that it had to be a coincidence that he slept through the night right after I read the book. I don't think I have ever come so close to punching his lights out!!

You forgot to give him a plastic bag to play with.

Can I just say that even though the first and last pictures are truly adorable (particularly with the captions), it's the middle one that I think is actually pretty funny. Noah totally has this "'sup?" look going on, like he's this cool little homey (homie?) or something.

Just want to say that I regret my earlier comment, and have since I hit post. My apologies for something I meant as personal experience sharing that came out as criticism. Amalah, maybe you could take pity on a total idiot and delete this comment along with my earlier one? I'd rather not exist in comment-world right now.