What's in Marin's diaper bag? Well, quite a bit to be honest. We've refined our bag packing technique over the past two months and seem to have it down pat. We have everything we need in his bag and then some, but nothing "useless" that just takes up space. Here are the must haves for a diaper bag for a newborn to 2 month old.

1) Diapers-For just going around town or if we'll be out for half a day or so, we take 8. That seems to be plenty. Always take more diapers than you think you'll need.

2) Wipes-The small travel wipes cases will not cut it if your baby has a massive blow out while out and about. There is only enough in there for 1 regular poop diaper or a few pee diapers. While it does make the bag heavier, we carry a regular sized box of wipes. There is no need to carry the hard sided box of wipes because most of the wipe companies are now making soft sided ones in the large sizes so you have plenty of wipes but not the extra weight of the box. If you get wipes in bulk, which we have started doing too, you can always put wipes in a big zipper bag.

3) Cloth diapers-You can use these as a burp cloth or spit up rag. We have also started putting a cloth diaper in the bottom of Marin's car seat in case he has a diaper leak. It is much easier than washing his entire car seat covering.

4) Nasal Aspirator-I hate the phrase, "Snotty Nosed Brat". ha.ha. If I see any baby boogers, the thing immediately comes out of the bag.

5) 2 Bibs for feedings out.

6) Ready Made Formula, Pre-Sterilized Nipple and Nipple Ring for each bottle. We use Enfamil Lipil Ready To Feed Formula. If you are formula feeding your baby, be sure to take one more bottle than you think you'll need in case you are out later than planned.

7) 3 Extra Outfits or more-I can't stress this one enough. Take way more outfits than you think you will need. On an 8 hour round trip to a jet rally, Marin used 3 outfits and was on his last outfit when we were driving home. It doesn't have to be anything fancy or elaborate. Just toss in 3 or 4 onesies if it is summer time. Nothing heavy to take up room in the bag, but it does the job. If it is winter, you can toss in a few footed one piece outfits or pajamas. Throw in a couple pairs of socks too. Go through your extra outfit stash quite often to make sure that when you need the extra outfit, baby hasn't outgrown it already. That is why it is nice to keep it simple and just throw in onesies. If you are going out somewhere "nice" you can always pack nicer outfits last minute, but always keep the onesies in there.

8) Diaper Rash Ointment-With it being hot out right now, a baby is more likely to get diaper rash.

9) Extra Pacifiers-Take at least 2 extras, not including the one your baby is currently using in the car. You don't want to run out of these, if this is something your child uses.

10) Zipper storage bags in Gallon Size-You will find 100's of uses for these, including transporting soiled outfits and dirty diapers. If you have to do a diaper change in the car and can't find a trash can, you'll be glad to not have to smell a dirty diaper.

11) Disposable Changing Table Mats-You've already read my rant on dirty changing tables. :)

12) Blankets-We have 2 thin receiving blankets in our bag. It is always cold in restaurants and you can crank the a.c. up higher in your car if you bring along a blanket.

13) Sunhat-With it being so sunny out these days and Marin not being old enough to wear sunblock, we bring along a little fisherman type hat for him to wear outdoors.

14) Your pediatrician's name and number. If you store these in your phone, great, but what if you lost your phone or your battery went dead? It is nice to have a back up paper copy.

15) Hand sanitizer and extra shirt for all adults in your party. You don't want to be wearing spit up all day if baby gets some on your shirt.

16) Digital Camera-You never know when you'll want to capture a "first" memory.

Note: If you have a newly "snipped" baby boy, be sure to bring along the gauze and Vaseline.

What you can do without for the first 2 months: Toys. Baby won't be interested in them and they will just take up space. Adults are way more entertaining at this stage than rattles and fake keys.

How do we keep from breaking our backs with all this crap in there? We have the attachments to hang the bag on his stroller. It is a little annoying to have to put it on and take it off every time you get in and out of the car, but it is worth it not to have to carry it on your shoulder. Yeah, there is a basket underneath his stroller, but it is nice to have it handy at arms reach. Plus, that leaves the basket open for all your shopping purchases. :) Marin has the Mr B Diaper Bag and it comes with attachments for your stroller if you are interested.

Update on 7/23/09: Marin is nearly 3 months old now and we've thrown a couple toys in his diaper bag. He enjoys playing with them when he's bored in the backseat.

Say it with me, DISGUSTING! As a new mom, I am totally grossed out by public changing tables for babies. They are always dirty and look like they haven't been cleaned in years. The worst part is seeing other parents just take their baby out of its stroller and flop it up on said table without a covering underneath. SICK! Do you know how many germs are on that? We're not talking just common cold germs that kids can pass around anyway. What about e.coli? If you can catch it in a baby pool, you can certainly catch it off a feces encrusted table. Yes, horrible visual, I know, but I'm trying to prove a point here.

Wal-Mart, Target, K-Mart, and Babies R Us all sell the disposable changing table pad covers and they are only a few dollars. Please, please, buy these for your kids and use them when you are out. If you're too cheap to buy the covers, change them in the back seat of your car or in the cargo hold of your SUV before you come in a store. That way the only germs they get are family germs. The re-usable changing table mats that you fold up and keep in your diaper bag are great for padding on top of the disposable cover but think about it. Do you want to use the mat and then put it back in your diaper bag? What about all the germs that will now be lurking in your diaper bag? So, by all means use the re-usable ones (I have one too) but put something down underneath it. Let me make myself heard as loud as possible on this one: DO NOT PUT YOUR CHILD'S BLANKET ON THAT NASTY TABLE! Ok, it felt good to get that one out. I cringed as I stood behind a lady changing her child that took the blanket off her baby, put it on the dirty table, changed her child, and then put the blanket back on top of the baby. That is soooo gross. Would you put your blanket off your bed on the toilet seat and then cover up with it? I don't think so. Nasty. Nasty. Nasty.

Go ahead and say I am "overprotective", but when you put your kid down on the bare changing table they lay all the way down on it. Everything is on that table, including the back of their head and hair and then their little hands are touching it too. Babies put their hands in their mouths. Would you touch a toilet seat and then put your hands in your mouth? I don't think so. Even if the table looks clean (which it rarely does), you don't know what has been on there.

If you don't want to use the changing table pads, at lease improvise and get some paper towels and lay them down or some toilet seat paper covers. See, adults use toilet seat paper covers or either "hover" over top of the toilet. We don't want to sit on a nasty toilet seat, so why would we put our baby on one? Your better retail establishments and restaurants provide changing table covers for you. I'm going to start keeping a list of the places that have both clean and non-clean tables and provide the pads for you and post it on the blog. If paper covers don't sound like a feasible option for you, at least carry around some antibacterial wipes (not just regular baby wipes because they don't kill germs). I've also seen small containers of Lysol spray. But, then you don't want to put that spray on your baby either. So, the disposable pads are the easiest. That way after you change your baby, you can just pick up the pad off the table and toss it.

We've come to find out that it usually becomes the mother's job to change a baby out in public. Matthew gets very mad when there aren't changing tables in the men's rooms because he said he'd be more than glad to take half of the diaper changes. He says why should it always be me that has to eat cold food because Marin has a blow out in the middle of dinner? He changes him at home, so why wouldn't he out in public? I guess most men don't change diapers or something? What if Matthew wants to take Marin somewhere by himself? Do men not take their children out without their mothers? My dad said that was a real problem when we were little. He says he took us out on his own sometimes but that there was never a place to change our diapers in men's rooms so he always had to go back to the car. That was over 30 years ago, so you'd think times had changed by now. But, I guess not. It makes me sad that dads who want to step up and help raise their kids aren't give the tools to do so.

I guess that is all on my changing table rant but I do plan on doing another post about "must haves" in your diaper bag. Of course, the changing table pads made the list. :)

I just love summer. Complaining about it being hot is my favorite past time, with going to the beach coming in a close second. It is really interesting this summer, having a new baby. We don't go out as much during the day because it is so sweltering and by the time we get somewhere, park the car, drag Marin and all his gear out, and finally get into a store we are soaked with sweat which is gross. Before Marin, we could just jump out of the car and make a dash for the nearest entrance to where we were going before the coolness of the air conditioner had even worn off of our clothes. Now, not so much. But, I'm not complaining really. If you've been keeping up with Marin's blog, his arrival has meant that I get to go to the pool a lot more often.

Speaking of Marin, you may have noticed the title of today's post "Is that A Family Name?" because this is the most common response we get when we tell people Marin's name. I've come to figure out that the question is meant as a derogatory term when another friend and I started comparing new baby stories and she gets that too because her son-to-be has an unusual, yet very cool name in my opinion. We laugh about it together because as she said people really want to ask, "Oh is your grandfather named that so you didn't have a choice?" No, actually we just really liked the name and its meaning. People also say it is too hard to pronounce. Give me a break. It is the root word of several very common words and no one has a problem saying those. How about the sports team, The Seattle Mariners? Just leave off the "er" and you have his name. How about someone who is the captain of a ship, a mariner? Again, leave off the "er" and there you go. There are more examples, but I'm too hateful to list anymore. :) People won't even attempt to pronounce it if they see it written either, which is strange. I can see if it was mispronounced like the way folks in California pronounce Marin County. I've had one lady at the doctor's office say it like that, but that I can understand. Or if it was mispronounced like the branch of the military The Marines or a boat dock (marina). I just don't think it is too hard of a name. Now MaLeah, that is a hard one and I've lived with it being butchered for years but everyone always says my name is "pretty" not, "Is it a Family name?" so I guess that means my name is o.k. :)

It doesn't really bother me that people dislike his name, I just think it is funny. We just couldn't live with a common name where there would be several of the same named boy in his class at school. We figured Marin would be easy enough. I love it and so does Matthew but we've only had 2 people tell us that they LOVE or even like for that matter, his name. Our dog's godfather, Andre, who is just the sweetest and our neighbor Charlotte who spent part of her life sailing around the Caribbean, so she appreciates a good nautical term. We gave him a "normal" name as a middle name (Blake) so if he decides he doesn't like his name he can go by Blake. When we say his middle name, everyone says "Oh that is a nice name" so it must just be Marin that they dislike. ha.ha. Oh, I almost forgot, his pediatrician Dr. Mehrotra said Marin was a "nice" name. We weirdly named folks have to stick together. :)

Well, the pool is calling my name, so I'd better jump off here. I hope everyone is having a great summer so far and spending more time grilling and lounging around than working!

When Marin was a couple weeks old, Leann asked me if there was anything about being a parent that was different than I expected and if there was anything that I assumed it would be that way and it turned out to be as I expected. Well, Leann's question was way better worded than that, but you get the general idea.

At the time, I told her that sheer lack of sleep and being so dang tired that you couldn't function was something that I both expected and didn't expect at the same time. I still agree with that statement. Marin seems to sleep all the time but at inopportune times. I hate the "sleep when the baby sleeps" mantra because it is virtually impossible. Anyone that has ever been the parent of a newborn knows that they sleep in the weirdest places, during the weirdest times of the day. Take some of Marin's favorites for example.
1) During lunch or dinner out at a restaurant. It is kind of hard to catch a nap between your appetizer and main course.
2) In the car. Sleeping while driving is probably frowned upon by law enforcement.
3) While going for a walk in his stroller. I guess we could nap standing up like a horse, but I don't think we'd be able to see cars coming down the road if we had our eyes shut while pushing him.
4) While we cook a meal at home. Besides, by the time you cook said meal, he's already up again anyway.
5) At any appointment or engagement such as a dentist or doctor's visit. It is tough to curl up on waiting room chairs and you have no idea what kind of germs are on them so this one won't work either.

He is doing some better on his sleep habits. He does sleep at night some, usually in 2.5 or 3 hour blocks. During Matthew's night shifts, he has slept a few 4 hour blocks, but I am never that lucky. According to everyone we've talked to and quite a few "experts" he should sleep through the night by 8 weeks. Sleeping through the night isn't as exciting as it sounds though because doctor's consider sleeping through the night to be sleeping at least 5 hours at once. I'd settle for that though, in a heartbeat! Marin likes to eat too much to sleep that long. He wants to eat at a max 4 hours from the last time he ate. His pediatrician said we can let him sleep through a night feeding if he will do it, but apparently Marin didn't get the memo. He is the best little alarm clock. I haven't had to set one since he's been born!

Having him in our room has helped tremendously. It was something I said I'd never do, but I'm eating my words. The baby monitor in his room doesn't pick up his crying until he is in full meltdown mode. If he sleeps where we sleep, we can hear him before he gets totally upset and fix the problem before it turns into something that will fully wake him up. It is much easier to cram his pacifier back in his mouth from 3 feet away than it is to have to walk across the house to his nursery to do it. I am looking forward to him moving to his own room though because I have a hard time sleeping with him in our room. He makes lots of noises throughout the night, in his sleep, that keep me awake. He snores, grunts, whines, you name it and it is all when he is sound asleep. Matthew says it doesn't bother him but I'm still a zombie in the mornings after listening to his all night chorus. At present, we are taking time about getting up with him at night. One night Matthew does it, the next night I do. When it is my night off, I can wear earplugs and that does help. Plus if he gets really wound up, Matthew brings him out into the living room. It is pretty funny when it is my night to watch him, he can make all the noise he wants and it doesn't bother Matthew so half the time I just lie in bed and chuckle at all Marin's random (and very loud) sounds. When you are a new parent you soon discover that just lying in bed even if you aren't getting any sleep is better than no rest at all!

I guess that is all I have to complain about today. :) I love everything about having a baby except the lack of sleep. That I could do without. Well, that and the absolute blow out diapers that he usually has in the middle of a shopping trip. We've had to come home from a store at least twice to wash his car seat. Oh yes, I said the car seat. He has had a couple diapers that were so bad that his clothes were a mess, he was a mess, and his car seat was toast. Good thing the car seat covers are machine washable! The bad thing is, the car seat covers can't be dried in the dryer and once they are washed it takes all night to air dry them. We've started putting a cloth diaper or other cloth under his butt in both his car seat and Zen chair. Of course, he hasn't had a single blow out in either chair since we've done this. :)

I'll close on a nice, positive note and tell you my favorite things about being Marin's mom.

1) Snuggling with him and sniffing him (yes, I said sniffing. ha.ha.). He always smells good.
2) Seeing him smile.
3) Playing with him. He is so amused by my reading books to him, making funny faces and sounds, and shaking his rattles at him. He is the easiest audience.
3) Hearing everyone say how cute/handsome/adorable my baby is when we take him out. :)
4) Watching he and Matthew together. They are a riot. I always tell them, "That makes me sick!" because they are always together snuggling or playing. Marin really likes his dad and I think the feeling is mutual. :)
5) Taking his picture. He's an easy baby to photograph, very cooperative. I'm sure that will change when he becomes mobile.

Well, he's up from his nap so I'd better go. I'm sure he has a fun surprise in store for me, like a wet soggy diaper. Nice.

If you'd like to see my new computer, go take a look at this! This is the first blog post that I've typed on it! I know you are all jealous that I have such a neat, new laptop! The one in the photo online is black, but mine is a sparkly, dark blue! Thanks Matthew for doing the research to find such a cool computer and then setting it up for me. I Love you!

Hello! I hope you didn't think I had forgotten that I have a blog! I don't get to post as often as I'd like, since we're always so busy with Marin. But you can always check out the goings-on over at his site.

I am super pumped because Matthew bought me a cool new toy. My very own laptop! I've never had a laptop of my own, so I'm really psyched about it. He's been wanting to buy me one forever and one day last week he was doing research on them online and called me in to look at one. I agreed that it was pretty snazzy, but didn't think he was actually going to buy me one. Imagine my surprise when he comes into the living room a few minutes later to say that he had bought it. I haven't gotten to test drive it yet, as he is working on getting it up and running since it just arrived today. I'll show it off on the blog soon.

You all know pretty much everything else that has been going on here, since Matthew does a good job keeping up with Marin's blog. It has all his recent pictures (which I know is what you want to see anyway) so go check it out. Keep checking back here if you want to see my new computer and I'll try to do better about posting.