Baby Gear: The New, The Old, The Must Haves
After 5 years of not getting pregnant we had resolved that we were not having a third baby. So, we gave away ALL of our baby gear. Then we got pregnant. Yikes. Our first two were twins so we had TWO of everything. The saver in me was devastated to think of the thousands of dollars worth of gear that we gave away that we now needed again. Ugh. The spender in me, was so excited to start fresh and more importantly, ONLY get what we needed this time around. AND only for one baby??? I was gonna be a lean-mean-one-baby-machine. This is me doing jazz hands. I never used a baby bjorn or an ergo because the twins were always in a stroller. I remember one time, pulling up to Starbucks at the same time as another mom. She popped out of her car, threw her baby on her hip and walked in for her coffee. She was walking back to her car with her frothy latte in her free hand (baby still on hip) just as I was loading the second twin into my double stroller with beads of sweat in places there should not have been Just for a damn coffee. I was so defeated. Needless to say, I was so excited to use a baby bjorn, saunter into a Starbucks with one baby while waving and saying charming things to people and sipping on my latte. Sweat free. I’ve digressed a bit. My point is that what you get with your second/third/fourth child is a wee bit different than what you buy with your first. The first time up to bat, you have no clue what you need. Or better said, you have no clue what your don’t need. I remember researching strollers and wanting to cry. Actually, I think I did cry. Hormones might have had something to do with that. But for real, the only thing more overwhelming than the number of options there are for every item, is the number of OPINIONS people have on those items. You want to see a mom lose her shit, tell her you prefer the BOB stroller when she has a City Select or a Bugaboo. Ooooweee- those are fighting words.
I won’t bore you with the basics (like a crib, carseat ect….) because there is plenty info out there on what you need. What I will do is share with you some of the baby items that were not around with my twins that I loved having for Griffin 6 years later. I’ll also share a few of my MUST haves that I knew would be making a repeat appearances with numero three.
Portable high chair. But this one, in particular, is golden. WE used this thing every single day at the park for lunch, sibling sporting events and friend’s houses for meal time. We used it at our house as second high chair for guest babies. It got a LOT of use.
Baby Bjorn Pack n’ Play- this thing is like changing from a land line phone to a cell phone compared to our old pack n play. It’s light weight, it folds up easier, there are no lumps or bumps in the mattress. He just sleeps better in it- I can’t explain why. It’s an investment piece for sure, but for what its worth, I plan on using it for 4 years and if I was having more children (which I'm not) it would be even longer.
Baby bibs- All babies drool. But boys especially. Like, a lot. When the twins were babes, bibs were just for eating and we had to change my son’s shirt 5 times a day for two years. Fun. Cute drool bibs like these helped so much for our youngest son. He is now almost 2.5 and he still wears them!! Hoping he can figure out the drool thing before college :)
Car Seat Cover. We had to balance a blanket to cover our car seats 7 years ago. Then let out an f-bomb when it blew off or dragged on the bathroom floor. Now they have covers that attach. What an innovation. (Eye roll) This helps keep the sun out of their eyes, but also stops strangers and kids from sticking their dirty hands on your baby. I preferred these blanket ones that drape so I could pull it back half way in the car or restaurant. Other people like the fitted mattress looking ones that double as a breast feeding cover.
The Butt whistle. It’s called FridaBaby Windi. OMG this thing was weirdly satisfying. The first three months can be really uncomfortable for a baby. They get gas trapped in their belly and you feel SO helpless. Two of my three really struggled in this area. I SO wish it had been around for the twins. This little tube helps get the gas out. No medicine involved. (They also make the Nose Frida a.k.a. the "snot sucker” which also works magically well to help clear nose congestion. Way better than the bulb.
Some things that were around with when the twins were babies that I knew I could not live without for #3 were:
Luna Baby Pillow- This was my GO-TO gift for every baby shower. It has so many uses. First, when you are pregnant, it serves as a body pillow for those super uncomfortable months in the last trimester. Then it becomes a baby feeding pillow. We only had one with the twins and my husband and I always fought over it. It’s also a baby lounger. Then it becomes a toddler watch-a-movie pillow. That’s a quadruple-duty-wonder that is a NO brainer.
Some version of a snap-n-go stroller. You need something you can take the baby in and out of the car with out taking the baby out of the car seat. We bought a frame-only one for $40 and saved our money for a nice jogger stroller that we used a TON (and no, we are not joggers). We also got a simple light weight umbrella stroller for “every-day-go-to-the-grocery-store” stuff when you don’t want to use the big jogger. Important to note: check your car seat to see what stroller it is compatible with. I learned the hard way that “universal” actually means “probably, but maybe not”.
Medela Baby Bottles- these are not fancy. I tried A LOT of the fancy ones. Here’s why I loved these: They have the least amount of parts, they attach to the breast pump and don’t cost a fortune. When you have a baby, the kitchen counter starts looks like a meth lab. Eliminating “parts” is a big deal. I did not find that the fancy ones helped with the initial gassy days like they claim to.
Sippy Cups. I kinda lost my mind when it came time to transitioning the twins from a bottle to a sippy cup. It was a weird obsession I had. I must of tried a hundred brands. These THREE are hands down my favorite. THEY DO NOT leak. They have all have hard spouts which is apparently better for teething. And again, they have the least amount of parts.
These Nuk Sippy Cups were my go-to sippy cups for the ALL three kids. They could sleep with them as water cups and I never worried about leaks. They have minimal parts to clean and they are inexpensive to replace when you lose one a week at the park.
The Munchkin Miracle Cup. This one was new and the only thing that I’ve allowed in my cupboard addition to my Nuk cups.
Contigo Straw Kid Cups I banned all straw cups from my house… until I discovered these. These will not leak. Like- put-them-in-your-purse-upside-down, will not leak. The straw cannot be pulled out. They don’t look like baby cups so you can use them for years and all ages. The straw breaks down for easy and accessible cleaning. LOVE these.
A high-chair with wheels and a pop-off tray. Call me lazy, but I want to bring the mess to the sink- not the other way around. Wheels are a nice option. AS mine got older they got picky about where they ate. Its nice to be able to wheel them from the table, to the kitchen, to the backyard, or dare I say…..TV? (send me hate mail later). I’m loving this Joovy High Chair. It of course has the wheels and pop-off try which are my bare-minimum requirements. But it also has some other really nice features. It reclines for feeding a young baby that can’t sit up. It folds up a bit when not in use and it has adjustable heights. Yassssss!
A good cool mist humidifier. When your baby gets his first cold it can be scary. A humidifier is always one of the first things recommended by the pediatricians. We use it religiously throughout the cold season for all the kids. I recently upgraded to this humidifier and I LOVE it. It works in both small and big rooms. It also has an essential oil filter and has a large opening to the tank for easy cleaning (this is pain in the butt with other humidifiers we’ve had)
Sleep-Related Musties:
Sound machine- This is basic but fundamental. This mimics the womb and helps them sleep. Also drowns out noisy siblings. Portability is plus for traveling but you can just use an app on your phone when you need to.
Black-out curtains or shades. And I don’t just mean thick curtains. I mean actual black-out shades. You can buy material at the fabric store for super cheap if you don’t want to invest in new curtains or want something for travel. We did make the investment because knew we’d keep them throughout their childhood. We are going on 8 years and so glad we did. I linked some new ones they have at Target that are on sale now.
When your baby first comes home, the swaddle is KING. But then, its time…..to UNSWADDLE. The transition can be a nightmare. Literally, you will be up all night. I remember swaddling only one arm for a couple nights with the twins to ease the transition. They looked like cowboys lasso-ing a bull in the baby monitor. By the time Griffin came along, so had this magical suit, called the Merlin Sleepsuit. It saved us! It allows the baby to get used to sleeping with their arms out while still feeling comforted. They look like astronauts, but sleeping astronauts, and that’s all that matters.
Sleep training- I will write a whole other post on this soon. But teaching our babies HOW to sleep is one of the best things we did for THEM (and us). We did it for all three children it works. EVERYONE wins. There are a ton of sleeping resources out there, pick one to two that resonate with you and follow it. The earlier you do this, the better. The two books l lived by were Baby Wise and Healthy Sleep Habits Happy Child. I felt they complimented each other and gave a well rounded sleep-training foundation.
I hope my product-obsessed-cherry-picking ways will help you sort through the overwhelming world of all things baby. And this does not include the actual parenting portion of the program. Oye VEY.