A Mom's Best Friends

I'm still not sure that I feel like I've earned the title of Mom, but we're definitely in loooove with our Pretty Pennie, and she is giving us lots of parenting practice. Now that we've been practicing for a month, I've acquired a few new essential friends that I've learned I can't live without:

1. Baby Pennie - Duh. I've fallen for this sweet little bundle and she's my new bestie.  Sometimes she makes me cry when I have no idea what she wants or what I'm doing, but then she squeaks out her little 5 week old smile it makes my heart melt.  Can't live without her.
2. Dry Shampoo - This  toiletry has become one of my new best friends.  Those mornings you wake up and have a screaming baby that needs you to feed her, play with her, change her and just rock and cuddle, I find myself fretting about my everyday hygiene..."When am I going to shower?", "I wish I could brush my teeth...", "I really, reeeeally have to pee!" Anyways, dry shampoo is an amazing wonder that lets your shower time eliminate the whole hair washing regimen...followed by the eternity it takes to dry my thick mane. I'm obsessed. Now if only there was dry toothpaste, dry showers or dry bathroom breaks (not sure how those could work...but still)!
3. BABYBJORN - I'm developing a reputation on our block -- Neighborhood Crazy Lady. Picture this: A Lady walking down the street with the a baby strapped to her chest, walking two dogs, squatting down to pick up their doo-doo with a noise machine nestled inside her shirt to calm her baby.  Yes. The "Lady" is me.  Can you imagine what people are thinking when they walk passed me with the dogs, a baby and the sound of a babbling brook coming from my chest? Thank GOD for the Baby Bjorn. 
4. Relax Melodies: A white noise app - Speaking of the babbling brook coming from my chest...it was really the AWESOME "Relax & Sleep" App that I could now never get sleep without. Because I need white noise to sleep? No, because it helps babies sleep. Amazing friend Bethany informed me of the Mommy secret that babies are comforted by weird loud sounds that mimic what they heard in the womb.  Some of the sounds on the app are a little weird, like the Buddhist Monk Choir (pretty sure there wasn't one of those in my uterus, so we don't play that noise for her)...but she seems to be put in a trance by the Fountain sound. Click on the link. This one is free.
5. Library Smart Phone App - I will never love a library more than I loved Columbus's Downtown Metro Library, but Pittsburgh's Carnegie Library is pretty awesome. So awesome, in fact, that it has its own free app. Yes I love my Kindle, but when your hands are full with baby and you've got a babbling brook coming from your phone anyways, why not read a book from your phone? I checked them out from the library, on my phone, while holding a hungry baby.
6. Coffee - to list coffee as one of my essential new besties is pretty much an understatement. I would not be functioning without it. And now since I'm averaging between 4-5  hours of sleep a night (if I'm lucky), a cup of joe in the evening is also a necessity. My coffee machine has recently lit up a blinking light indicating "CLEANING TIME"...how?!
7. Spit Up - One would think for as often as I'm wearing those cheesy spit up chunks and smelling like baby puke, that I'm new besties with spit up. Or perhaps it makes people think that I love the smell? Nooooope. But since this seems to inevitable...I think I need to work on my feelings towards this "friend"...

Stay tuned for my next list of not-so-besties...Duty calls! My baby that sleeps with her arms up is starting to gurgle and fling her little arms at me.