I have a baby. Whoa! Opportunity to shop!
What have I acquired that I like?
carrying
I tried out a few different baby carrying devices. I'm not much
of a walker in the first place, so I really wasn't interested in
large scale hauling devices. On the other hand, I also didn't
care much for just trying to carry the baby who, like many
babies, would reach some meltdown point in a stroller or shopping
cart and Just Need to Be Carried. And going in from car to daycare while hauling everything for the day was much easier if I had an extra arm or two . . .
structured carriers
I didn't like the Baby Bjorn. I got one as a hand me down and it only worked until girl hit ten pounds and then, bam, it was death on the back.
I bought the Sutemi as an alternative to the Bjorn and was quite happy with it -- the only shortcoming was that girl couldn't sit in it facing forward. |  |
pouches and slings
 | I tried a Maya Sling, but was just too darned incompetent with it.
Probably the most effective carrying device I found was a simple pouch. I got a slightly stretchy pouch from http://www.hotslings.com and really like it. For the first few months I could carry girl facing forward in a "kangaroo carry". After that I moved to carrying her on my hip. I still used the pouch on rare occasions when she was 21 months. |
There's an amazing amount of information about different kinds of carriers at
http://thebabywearer.com and if you have any interest in going beyond the
BabyBjorn? (or if you aren't at all sure that there's a point to the various baby carrying devices and methods) I encourage you to check it out!
feeding
pillows
I inherited a "My Breast Friend" pillow which was a life saver for the first three months. She got too big for it before long, however, and we ended up nursing lying down most of the time. I finally went out and bought a Boppy at a local baby store so that I'd have something to give her a little more support when she did nurse while I was sitting.
pump
I inherited a Bailey Nurture III pump and, happily, just had to buy a new
collection kit for it which ran about $25. The
pump and kit together run about $80. I was lucky enough to find daycare just a short walk from my office, so I could nurse at noon, but I pumped each morning so that they would have a bottle to offer her during the day.
bottles
Well, not much of one for bottles. For totally random reasons, I ended up with Playtex Nursers with the disposable liners. Since she never really took to the bottle (the daycare finally gave up trying to give her anything in a bottle and just started using a sippy cup with her at 8 months or so) I didn't really do much evaluation. To my surprise, however, I found it a lot easier to feed her from a bottle than her father or anyone else (contrary to all that expert advice!) So, no recommendations there.
playing
 | The Winkel was the first toy my baby actually played with, at around 10 weeks (okay, technically she played with a dollar store knockoff that grandma found for her). It's perfect for a baby that age -- easy to grab from all angles, accessible even when lying down. |
 | The crinkly wings were a huge hit with discriminating four month olds. |
clothes
| Baby's own Diaper Vest was a great first outfit, especially in the summer and especially with cloth diapers. Things are definitely a bit bulkier with cloth diapers! |  |
shoes
Babies don't need shoes! But toddlers do and, like everything else, boy can I obsess about them. See
ToddlerShoes for details.
sleeping, etc
co-sleeper/bassinet
|
| We
got the
Arm's Reach
mini co-sleeper and at first wondered if we'd wasted our money, since baby seemed to end up in the bed with us every night! Around 10 weeks, though, we started moving her to the co-sleeper at bedtime and got her to sleep there for the rest of the night. Much more peaceful, since she had a tendancy to
thrash around during the night. We kept her there until she started pulling up to stand around seven months, when we moved her to a futon mattress in her own room.
diapers
Several friends had used and really liked the
Mother-ease cloth diapers and since Dave wanted to use cloth diapers, we got their "convenience" package. We didn't realize that they came in an unbleached version until later, so we ended up getting white.
naked baby rig
We let Noelle lay around naked a lot before she was mobile (it's summer and she can't
reach her feet with the bulky diapers on!) This activity is helped
by some toddler-size prefold diapers (which I found on ebay)
bouncy seat
Based on the recommendation of others (and also The
Girlfriend's Guide to Pregnancy Gear we got the Fisher Price kick and play bouncer. Baby girl seems to like it, although all too soon she was annoyed by it because she wanted to sit UP.
Where?
Where did I get all this great stuff? Largely on-line from the
following stores:
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