Showing posts with label babysitting. Show all posts
Showing posts with label babysitting. Show all posts

Wednesday, September 2, 2009

Wordless Wednesday: Snoop Prepares for Baby

I think he's going to be a great big brother! What do you think?

Updates on the trip and more coming soon!
Also, check out my "Wifey Wisdom" over here.
****
Shabby Apple Anchor's Away Dress Giveaway winner according to random.org:
#580: Bonnie Congrats Please email me your address (babymakingmachine{at}gmail{dot}com) so I can get it to you!

Tuesday, May 12, 2009

The Projectile Vomit- Plus Giveaway!

I love kids, I really do. And I love babysitting my friend's kids, which is one reason I did this a few months back. My husband and I were deemed worthy to watch an adorable little 4-month-old baby boy twice a week. It's fun pretending he's our for eight hours a week and watching his little eyes light up while we act silly trying to entertain him. The only bad thing about this adorable baby is the fact that he's so good. He hardly veer cries, and he'll usually fall right asleep after eating dinner. His parents tell us he usually sleeps through the night after that--Sometimes up to 12 hours. This little guy is basically setting us up with high expectations and we're pretty much doomed for failure with our own.

Recently though, I did have an eye-opening experience with my little friend... A personal peek in the trenches of motherhood.

Hubby just had his wisdom teeth taken out and it would be my first time watching baby alone. I arrived early because I was bored at home without my husband. I took baby from his mom as we talked and she got ready to leave for work. I was bouncing and patting him, and talking about my future baby when he heard me... And must have been disgusted because he then proceeded to throw up all over my arm and shirt.

His mom and I laughed because it was a funny little reaction to our conversation. I don't think he wanted to hear about other babies right then. We cleaned me and him up, and his mom kissed him goodbye.

The next couple of hours were fun as usual, I put him in his new jumper and watched as he bounced and laugh at the sounds and my faces. When he got tired of it I pulled him out and we watched a little TV. When he started trying to suck on my finger, and got a little fussy I knew it was about time for dinner. I made him a bottle and sat down to feed him.

He didn't seem to eat much faster than normal. It was maybe a little quicker but I figured he must have been really hungry. He finished the whole 8oz without a break!

He looked tired at the end of the bottle, I was noticing him starting to doze off a little, but I didn't want him to fall asleep before I got a chance to burp him. I put the little burp cloth across my shoulder, sat him up on top of it and began to pat. After patting for a couple of minutes and not really getting much gas out of him I began to pat slightly harder. Nothing but a tiny burp came out... Which is nothing compared to what he normally does, so I kept burping, waiting for the loud *BURP*. Just a moment later he started to burp, I turned me head to see how much spit-up came out with it, and it was still coming... A LOT---Projectile vomit.

I jumped up as I began to see it spewing from his mouth. I couldn't move quick enough. I jumped up, felt it gush down my back, all over the couch, and parts of the carpet as we ran to the kitchen, the dog even became a victim of the vomit. Sadly the first thing that crossed my mind was 'I hope it didn't get in my hair!' I had just gotten my hair straightened and was so worried about having to get it washed and pressed all over again.

I picked baby up off my shoulder and checked to make sure he was ok... he smiled at me. I guess he felt better now.

I grabbed the burp cloth to wipe what I could off of myself and baby but it was dripping with puke. 'That did a lot of good' I thought. 'Why don't they make burp cloths bigger? In fact, why not make a Burp Snuggy?'

I examined the couch, the floor and the dog to see how they were doing. The couch... Well it looked beyond repair to me, and honestly I wish I would have taken a picture of the damage. I couldn't understand how that much milk could come out of something so small.. Where did he put it all, and is he hungry again?

The carpet wasn't so bad, and the dog... Well I just had to keep her away from re-eating what was lost. Besides the couch I think I suffered the most damage. I could still feel that which was regurgitated running down my legs.

I decided I'd bounce--No, rock him to sleep then clean up what I could. I had him in one arm, my iPhone in the other, and I Tweeted away to get help.

"OMG. Baby just projectile vomited all over me, couch, carpet and dog! Did I feed him too much? Burp him to hard? HELP!" Was my cry on Twitter.

Flood of response came in. To my surprise most of them said things like "Oh they just do that..." or "Welcome to mommyhood!" ...Great. Encouraging.

"Is he hungry again?" I asked the world... And got a lot of helpful advice from Twitter moms.

He didn't seem hungry, in fact after getting changed and laughing at my new upchuck-covered attire, he fell right asleep. I texted his mom to let her know what happened and that he was ok.

After cleaning the couch, and the carpet and making sure the dog was ok I had to laugh at it all. I've worked in daycare, and have several younger siblings... I even called my mom and told her about it all, and reminisced about all of the times my younger sisters threw-up all over me. I've had my share of baby-vomit experiences, but this one had to be one of the funniest. And somehow, I get the inkling this is only the beginning.
****Yay Giveaway!****
My good blog friend Mommy Bee read this post, and I guess she felt a little bad for me, and all the other women who experience projectile vomit and burp cloths that are just too dang small!

Well she makes some cute stuff in her Etsy shop, and one of those things is these adorable, super-strength, puke absorbent, burp cloths! There are three flannel burp cloths:A. One is a 2-layer burp cloth (crayons print/white back)
B. 'Super Spitter' with the layer of terrycloth inside (crayons/blue)
C. 'Super Spitter' (sports/blue)
All are nice and big (8" x 16"), and should be able to handle whatever your little one can dish out! Man, do I wish I had one of those last week!

Want one for your super spitter? Well here's what you've gotta do to win! Leave a comment here telling me if you'd prefer A, B, or C. if you won! That's all! She's moving right now but don't forget to check out her Etsy shop Lil Bees, which has all sorts of things from adorable cloth diapers to wet bags, to (crunchy/green ladies listen up)...cloth pads!!

You get extra entries if you comment letting me know:
-You follow my blog
-You have my blog button (now two entries)
-You subscribe to my blog
-You favor my blog on Technorati
-You Tweet/ Facebook about this contest
-You post about this contest (now two entries)
-Vote for my blog in the 2009 Bloggers Choice Awards (worth 3 entries!)

Good Luck! I'll use random.org to choose 3 winners! Contest ends midnight May 31st!

Friday, February 6, 2009

The First Babysitting Adventure

A friend at work finally took me up on my babysitting offer. It was a last minute thing but I didn't mind. His daughter is 2 and one of the cutest little things around. He and his wife got tickets to a concert that day and if I wasn't available they wouldn't have been able to go. I of course said I would and invited my husband along.

It was a Friday night... We usually don't do much on Friday nights so we rented a red box and arrived at their house around 9:30.

J was ADORABLE! She wanted to show us all of her toys, color with her, watch different Disney movies, sing and read. We played the Fisher Price basketball hoop with her and she's laugh and cheer every time of of us made a shot. My husband even helped her score a few dunks. It was really cute to say the least.

She had this one toy (I'm sure you mom's know what I'm talking about) it's like a modern day etch a sketch. She had a ball taking turns drawing each other's hands.

We definitely started to get tired before she did though, so it was funny when we'd ask "do you want to go to bed?" And she's shake her head back and forth feverishly as if we just asked her if she wanted to jump out of a plane. No way was she ready for bed yet! We thought her reaction was so funny we made a game of it. We'd keep asking "Are you ready for bed?" "Are you tired?" "Are you sleepy?" "Want to go to bed?" And she'd just keep shaking her head and playing, we couldn't stop laughing it was so funny!... Mind you this is all after 10 o'clock. Her mom told us she didn't have a nap that day so I kept expecting her to crash at any moment but it just didn't happen.

Finally, a little after 11 I remembered her mom saying something about her sleeping with her sippy cup, so I got it out of the fridge, set it on the table in front of her and within minutes she was out cold.

The rest of the night was easy, we watched a movie and talked about what good parent's we'll be.

I talked to my J's dad at work a couple of days ago. He told me J asked about me the other night. "Where's my Jennifer?" She asked him. That made my heart melt.



Sunday, December 7, 2008

The Free Gift

Obviously, I have the baby itch right now. I go through phases and currently my phase is "on" for having a kid! Well, since that's not going to happen for a while I've decided I'll help treat my baby bug with other people's babies, and I've offered free babysitting to all of my friends at work. I also believe this will be good practice.

Here's the email I sent to people I know have kids:
**Free Babysitting**

Hello!
If you're getting this email it's because you have a cute kid (or one on the way).
I want you to know that I am at your service if you ever need a baby sitter. I LOVE kids!
Now you may be thinking "who are you to watch my kid?" But let me tell you... I have LOTS of experience. I worked in daycare for 3 years (I worked with infants for a about 6 months, 3-year-olds for about a year and one-year-olds for the rest of the time). I also was a nanny for about 6 months and I am the oldest of 5 kids, (the youngest is 3 years old).
I (and if my husband's not working him too) will watch your kid(s) while you go out and have fun! I'm available all day Monday and Tuesday and Wednesday-Friday nights.
You can bring him/her/them to my house or I can go to yours! Just try to give me a at least a day's notice. My personal cell number is...
References available upon request!

Hopefully I don't seem too desperate and/or INSANE!