Shopping Trip

This morning, Shrike took the dogs on a long-overdue and well-deserved walk, while Peeper and I went to the doctor and Target on our own.

Of course, after her great weigh-in, I was feeling very confident in my parenting abilities, and ready to tackle anything.

I'd planned to wear her in Target, now that I've got the wrap more or less figured out, and she seems to be pretty happy in it (unless I try to stuff her in there when she's fully awake and in a mood to wiggle).

However, I probably should've heeded DoulaK's advice to put it on at home, and have it all ready to stick her in when I arrive at my destinayion, rather than doing the origami part in the parking lot.

As we shall see . . . .

When we arrived at Target it had been about an hour and a half since she'd nursed, so she probably wasn't really quite ready yet, but I knew she would be before we were done, she I changed her diaper and got her awake (that always works - and she always needs it anyway), and she nursed for a little while.

Then, I stuck her back in the carseat, while I got out of the car and did the origami thing and got all wrapped up.

I'm actually getting sort of good at it, except for the part where it gets tangled around my feet mid-way through the process, which I've not quite figured out how to avoid.

Then, I got back in the car and started to put her in.

From my wrap-training session:
DoulaK: It's better if you're sitting down when you put her in.
Whozat: So, when she falls out, she doesn't have as far to go?
DoulaK: Yeah, and a softer place to land.

(No, don't worry; she didn't fall!)

I got her little butt tucked into the pocket that she actually sits in, and that went quite smoothly (no complaints from the peanut gallery) but when I started to pull the other side over her, I realized that I'd criss-crossed it backwards, so that she was going to have to sit on my right side, not on my left, where I had her.

(She sits in whichever side is on bottom, and the top side goes over to secure her.)

But I didn't want her on my right side, because that just feels wrong, wrong, wrong.

So, (for some reason) rather than getting out of the car, taking it off and starting over, I untied it, unwrapped both ends from around my waist, untied it in back, pulled out the misplaced end, tucked it under the other one, and under itself, and around back, knot, back to the front, square knot, and - whew - done!

All while seated in the car.

Then, I finished getting her secured and we were ready to go.

She wasn't sitting quite as high as I really would've liked, but she wasn't going anywhere, and her little head wasn't bobbling, yet her face was uncovered enough to get fresh air (that's a bit of a trick) and that was good enough for me.

It was relatively warm today, so I just ditched my jacket (more on that in a bit) and tucked a blanket over her, grabbed the diaper bag, and we were off!

We ran into a friend (who was at the party yesterday) in the baby aisle and chatted with her for probably way longer than she wanted, then actually got a bit of shopping done.

Well, sort of.

We didn't find the diapers we wanted, (Don't know what we want, but we're not thrilled with either Pampers or Huggies in the newborn sizes.) but we did get a Christmas bib ("Dear Santa, I've been good. Mostly.) and a Baby's First Christmas outfit. In pink. Because she doesn't have one of those.

Also, a pair of wrist rattles, which will be from Santa.

Shhhh!

(The bib and outfit may get wrapped up, too.)

I found one small thing for Shrike, and one thing for me.

For myself (or Shrike, sometimes) I bought a sweater-wrap, which I totally just stumbled upon, displayed right on the aisle.

(I usually don't even look at the grown-up clothes when I'm at Target!)

It's a lightweight sweater, but instead of fitting and buttoning up, it's got a ton of material that you just wrap around yourself. It's kind of like a poncho with arms, and open in front.

It's perfect for baby-wearing, and I'm thinking it will be very handy for nursing, as well.

I actually put it on and wore it out to the car when we left, and it fit right over her poerfectly!

I'm thinking that when it's colder, I'll put her in the wrap, throw a thick blanket over her, then put on the sweater-wrap over that. It's thin enough that I can probably wear my actual coat over it (unzipped) so I'll be nice and warm, too.

I didn't do as much shopping as I would've liked (was hoping to find more for Shrike) but it was a good test-run of wearing her out and about.

It went really well, and I'm definitely planning for that to be our standard operating procedure from now on.

Thanks, again, DoulaK!