Passport Hints!

So today was the day we went to get Munchkin his passport.  I've got a couple of bits of advice to make it go smoother for you.  Thankfully I accidentally got it right.

Make sure when you are registering the wee one's birth you get the 2 versions of the birth certificate. I think they are the long and short forms.  You need the long one for the passport application.  And it sucks to have to wait to order that one then do the passport.  Thankfully I had the one we needed.

Also, make sure you go to a passport picture place that knows how to photograph infants.  They have rules such as no hands in the photo and some more.

So yeah, there you go!

Happiest Baby on the Block

Some of our friends gave us a DVD to watch before the baby was born.  It was called The Happiest Baby on the Block.  They said it was well worth watching and would change our lives.  

I would tend to agree.  This video gave us a number of methods to help with the screamies and get him to sleep.  I highly recommend the book or the video.  Probably the video more as it demonstrates the techniques in a good visual way.  

This DVD has in depth instructions on Swaddling among other things.  I will be posting some helpful (hopefully) information on swaddling in a future post.  

Emergency Diaper Bag

Every once in awhile, I will post some unsolicited advice.  Feel free to follow it or ignore it as you can with all of the things I post.  This one does seem particularly good.

Keep an emergency diaper bag in the car.

You just need to put a few diapers, some wipes and perhaps a change of clothes, and some other essential you can't live without.  The diapers and the wipes are the key I think though.

One day my husband and I went to visit a friend in the hospital and when we got there I realized I forgot the diaper bag.  Thankfully we didn't need to do a diaper change and were quite close to drugstores if it became an issue.  But while I was there I was speaking to some grandmothers waiting for the birth of a grandchild and their advice was keeping this little emergency kit in the car.  So we have done that.

Just make sure as your baby grows to put the right size diapers in :)

As a note, we didn't buy a new diaper bag for this.  Any bag will do.  But we used the free one from Nestle that they sent us with formula samples.  It even has a change pad.  You can sign up here for one.  Don't expect it until close to when your baby is due.