Halloween Ideas for your Baby

I love Halloween. When I was little, I spent months brainstorming my costume with my mom and almost always ended up switching it last minute. Typical, right?

Halloween has a different meaning for me now that I have my own family. Last Halloween, I was in labor for 15 hours with my sweet daughter. My doctor delivered my newborn baby while wearing a Halloween tie, and all of my nurses had on orange scrubs or spider web tee-shirts. I bought a cute Halloween outfit for her to wear home, and she ended up being bigger than newborn sizes. We couldn’t even put it over her head!! I was very disappointed (but happy she was a chunky healthy baby)! I knew from that day, Halloween would always be exciting for us. Hopefully, not as gory as last year. I promised myself not to be that kind of mom that dressed her 5 year old in a Nordstroms Gift Box. –ahem ahem Thanks Mom!-

Here are some great ideas for this year for your newborn to toddler child. Thankfully, most of these ideas range from 0-3 months all the way to 5T! I know some of you can spurge a bit on costumes. And some even sew and create your own. (email us those ideas!).

All under $25.00

Monkey;  Elephant; Giraffe; Ladybug; Princess Leia; Dragon; Hamburger

If I knew about these newborn ideas, I would have brought home our baby from the hospital wearing one of these! Perfect for newborn-3-6 months.

Penguin, Cat, Lion                                                           Pumpkin, boy and girl skeleton



The best family costume that I've seen:

The best advice I can give you is to be creative and ask around! Every Halloween party that my husband and I have been to we are the most "decked" out. After getting over the initial shock of being the only one with full face paint and costumes, everyone said that they wished they dressed up too! So, don't be that awkward family not dressed up. You have a month to get your costumes together! Email us your pictures and we'll post them up after Halloween!

-Meagan

Having Trouble Sleeping?

Anyone who knows me well, knows that I use to be the deepest of deep sleepers. I could sleep anywhere- on the floor, in movie theaters (husband hated that one), through a fire alarm (probably not so good). It wasn't until after giving birth to Jayne that I started suffering severe insomnia. It would take me 2 hours or longer to fall asleep at night. I was waking up every couple hours throughout the night as wide awake as could be while my baby was snoozing the night away in her crib. I was exhausted during the day. My doctor reassured me that it was likely just anxiety or stress of having a new baby. I found this somewhat hard to believe because although it was definitely a new adjustment having this baby in my life, I wouldn't have said I felt very stressed or anxious about it. I had a lot of help around the house from my husband and was lucky to have a pretty easy going baby. Regardless, I didn't question the docs advice and tried every trick in the book to help calm my body and mind before bed: hot showers, stretching, yoga, sleep medicine, meditation, lavender oil, adjusting my diet- and nothing was working. It wasn't until I started doing some serious research on insomnia and possible side effects that I figured out a thing or two (or three or four). I thought I would share it with you in hopes it might help any of you out there who may be struggling with the same thing.

There are many factors that could be affecting your nights sleep. It may even be a combination of a few. Common reasons are stress, anxiety, or depression. But did you know insomnia can also be a side effect from birth control or even breastfeeding?!  It wasn't until I started researching and thinking back to when my insomnia started that I realized I wasn't sleeping because of a combination of my birth control (I was on the Depo Shot) and breastfeeding. The hormones from both were giving me the side effects of sleep insomnia. Lack of sleep was also contributing to stress and anxiety, two extra factors that were inhibiting my sleep- like one really bad cycle. It was a total nightmare! As a result I switched birth control (no more birth control hormones for me!) and weaned my daughter off breastfeeding and switched to a bottle. As soon as I did those things I started sleeping better and better. Now I am able to sleep through the night again, and the stress of that nightmare is behind me. 

Don't lose hope if you are struggling with sleep after having a baby. Do your research, meet with a doctor, and get it resolved. 

There are not many things worse than missing out on a good nights sleep. Get those much needed zzzzzzzzz and start sleeping like a baby again! (well, a baby that sleeps through the night anyway, right?)