so, at this point i can’t remember everything, but i wanted to type up a small list of my favorite things and a few things we got but did not use. it’s funny, i said i can’t remember everything, and i can’t, product-wise. they say your brain makes you forget the pain of birth, but if there is one thing i will absolutely positively never forget, it is my birth experience. every.grizzly.detail. i will remember it forever and it makes me scared to have any more babies. anyway, on to the list…
the good:
me in mind socks, they are the absolute best socks ever. they’re the ONLY socks that stay on a newborn’s feet, i swear. they’ve got a little dot of rubber that holds them in place on the inside, LOVE them, i buy them for everyone i know who is having a baby. ignore the shoes, it’s all about the socks.
pretty much everyone will have to deal with baby constipation at some point, pedia-lax liquid glycerin suppositories are an absolute must have for those times.
a swing and a bouncy chair, louise spent a lot of time in both (plenty of time being held too), initially we bought a graco swing, but it was a piece of junk, and we ended up returning it for a bright stars in-genuity craddle and sway swing which worked great. if you can find an electric one with no timer it would be even BETTER though.
a sound machine. we happen to have the homedics soundspa, but i’m sure anyone will do. there was one week before we found out louise had reflux that we thought she had colic, one of the few things that soothes a colicky baby is the sound of running water or white noise. we still use it for her naps and when she sleeps at night.
we were pretty freaked out to stop swaddling louise, we thought she wouldn’t sleep, we swaddled until she was 7 months old! now we use halo sleep sacks and they are awesome. there are all different varieties and fabrics, there’s even one that’s a cross between a sleep sack and swaddle to transition with. they are also awesome because louise doesn’t stay under any cover, so this way i don’t have to worry about her being cold.
when you need baby gates, splurge for a fancier one. we started with the $20 ones and they sucked. now we have the first years extra tall home decor gates, they have actual doors that open and close so you don’t have to remove the entire gate every time you want to walk by. they also have the option to pressure mount or be drilled into the wall, ours are currently pressure mounted and working just fine. they are also really good at keeping the dogs out!
the nosefrida. it is a snot removal system that works better than any bulb syringe. it sounds really gross when you read about it, but it’s not. louise have both the syringe and the frida, so if i have to choose, i prefer to use the one that gets the most snot out.
a video monitor. i have heard some people say that they never used there’s, we use ours EVERY.DAY. i love it, i can see what she’s doing without actually going in her room and getting her stimulated when we’re trying to get her to sleep. we use the summer infant deluxe monitor.
disposable changing pads! we use munchkin, they are my favorite for the price, but there’s others out there. these things are awesome, we put one on the actual changing table pad, that way if louise has an accident during diaper changing, we can just roll up the disposable pad and throw it away, no poop or pee on louise’s nice changing pad cover. honestly, at this point she really doesn’t poop or pee during diaper changes anymore, but she used to! she also basically flat out refuses to have her diaper changed on the changing table 80% of the time anymore. i usually have to change her on the living room floor now, and she’s not real crazy about that either.
the bad:
now for a few things we bought and did not use. a bottle sterilizer, i think we used it for two weeks. tummy time mat, we didn’t do a whole lot of tummy time since louise hated it, and her arm strength developed just fine. one of those thing-a-ma-jiggers that you put in the cart, we probably used it twice. and the pack n play, we never used it, luckily it was a hand me down (we did use the mini one as louise’s first crib, however, and also brought it on a couple trips, but it’s pretty small, we could really only use it until she was one, but it was worth it).
oh, and please also see this previous post about car seats, just skip over the first paragraph, i think it’s an important post if you are looking for your convertible and/or front facing car seat.
