It seemed fitting to use the time i've had to stay up with Alba to write about what i was doing! So here is my post about all things baby, things i use all the time and the things that i didn't find worth my time/money. I have tried my best to cover all the info and tip that come up in preparation for a new baby into Part 1 and Part 2, so grab ur coffee and bare with me, and read in chunks if needed ;). and look out for Part 2 coming SOON!
I officially will consider myself a neat freak, i constantly am moving things and rearranging to find the set up that satisfies my vision. So this list is supposed to help with two questions; what do you really need for baby? And what do i really want for baby? There are so many things out there, for new and experienced parents and it can be overwhelming and tempting to over buy. Especially when searching a simple pregnancy related word, mysteriously turns up baby related Ads all over your social media accounts...hmmm...Anyway lets get to the point, i give you my list of Everything BABY!
CLOTHING:
The biggest difference between our first baby and our second baby is growth,
"They Grow So Fast" AKA don't buy all the cutest outfits in newborn, or 0-3, not even 3-6...
We are finally understanding what everyone means by "they grow so fast". Due to baby #1's health challenges she did not "grow so fast". She got plenty of use out of all the clothes we bought her each size lasted her at least the three months (some lasted her up to a year!). This time around is a wake-up call of how slowly she really was growing in comparison.
Baby #2 is 2 months old. SHE IS WEARING 6MONTH CLOTHES! The 6 months clothes that fit her are the used hand me downs. The stuff that has been washed many times which does make a difference as it has shrunk. The brand new 6month stuff is still a bit long on the sleeves and legs...but wash it and roll up the sleeves a little and ....listo! ;)
When i had to start retiring the smaller sizes i got out the 3month just to see if they would even fit my almost 2 month old. One of the first things i tried on her was a warm fuzzy romper with a hood, for going out. It was too tight already! (This was brand new by the way). and just to give you a better perspective the Carters brand is the most common in her closet and their 3month is listed as (8lbs-12lbs) but as a 10lb 2 month old we only got 2 snug uses out of "the cutest outfit"! (side note: i may refer to many outfits as "the cutest").
This next portion may depend on your parenting style, but if your on the more protective side and don't plan to take your newborn out much in public places the first few months, remember this when you are deciding on the outfits you need! My preferences for at home life in these colder months have been 1.footed sleepers (daytime) or 2. a onesie with a sleep sack (night time) these work great for staying cozy and let me avoid the struggle of keeping socks on a baby! I found myself saving the cutesy outfits for when people would see her, which was not very often. Some of the outfits are just not as sensible as ...a sleeper so for at home all day i like to choose comfort over style...unless I'm playing mom photographer :D, but I've found this to be extra challenging with a 2.5 year old to chase just when I'm about to snap the perfect photo!
*Side note: for the times baby's outfit leaves bare feet, i love using sock-on to keep the socks on the wiggly toes!
Onesies? YES, SO MANY ONSIES. Onesies are worth it, they are perfect "outfit" for a summer baby, and needed for layering for the winter baby. Plus if you have outfits that are shirt and pants, or dresses you will most likely want a onesie underneath. It works better to just see the size outfits your baby fits and use the next size up in onesie. Heres what happens with onesies if they are just the right size for baby's length, once the diaper is full they are not the right size anymore and the diaper has no room to expand leading to BLOW OUT! If you don't want to size up make sure you check/change baby's diaper often.
Mittens? Eh, i'd say this is another that comes down to parenting styles. I believe that babies need their hands to feel and move around, that is one of the first ways they learn. So i never use the mittens at home, when i tried to use them they would just fall off right away because of how much babies move their arms and hands (just like their feet). So the only time i used baby mittens was when we had to take Alba out in the cold of winter for appointments to keep her hands warm. If she was awake they would fall right off and i would put them back on, if she was sleeping they did the job. You definitely don't need many if you decide to get some.
Hats? Ok. Which baby #1 we couldn't use a hat very often because her head was very big. Once we got a larger size they work when we needed them usually in the winter (once she was already 6 months old). But now I'm noticing, they worked because she couldn't move her head around. I was excited to use hats this time around, but they won't stay put! Baby Alba shakes her head back and fourth until its falling in her eyes. Maybe she will grow to love them? The same thing happens when i put a headband on her.
BURP CLOTHS? Come on, is this even a question. Although my babies haven't been know to spit up, you need burp clothes for another reason. THE LET-DOWN. If your planning to breastfeed it takes awhile for your body to regulate how much milk is needed when, and even once they do regulate overtime Baby's appetite increases or growth spurts happen, regulation has to happen all over again as well. Keep in mind that every woman is different so it will depend on milk supply as well. With Alba, even when she's given a bottle, she drools a lot so bottles or boobies i would say have a healthy collection of burp cloths. I have found that i like to use cloth diaper padding, a suggestion from my sister in-law. I really don't like using actual "burp cloths" like these because they aren't absorbent enough and when milk is spraying all over the last thing you want is to have it running off the "burp cloth" you decide to use.
Swaddles? I like a swaddled baby and my babies liked to be swaddled for the first month or two. But my thoughts on swaddle blankets is that you get better use out of the sleep safe swaddles with velcro and sleep sacks, like these from halo. Blankets aren't sleep safe so even if they work the first few weeks it doesn't follow sleep safe rules and as soon as they start wiggling enough your neat swaddle wrap isn't going to last very long. They also don't fit in those baby size swaddle blankets for very long. A bundled up baby does make the newborns easier to hold so for the first few weeks it might be handy to have 2-3, just don't go crazy with this item.
HEALTH:
THE NOSE FRIDA! GET ONE!
It only seems fitting for The Nose Frida to be next on my list, since i am staying up to write this while watching a sick babe. We are getting more use out of it with our winter baby than our summer baby, but i would argue that it is worth it no matter when your baby is born even if it helps just one time. When you can hear that flem in their nose and it just makes you want to clear it for them, you can! and no, its really not gross...
Nose frida's sister WINDY
I haven't needed these yet this time, but with our first they helped relieve a fussy baby and a stressed mama. Gassy babies are hard to console and when the bicycles or tummy time don't work to relieve it, the windy will, and ok maybe this one is a little weird but when the comfort of our crying baby is at hand i think we would all prefer releif!
I just found out from a Mommycon insta-post that the Fridababy brand has even more products! So after loving the two I've tried I'm intrigued to try the others. The rest of their product relate to oral care, skin care, medicine delivery and more. Let me know if you'd like me to share my thoughts on the rest of their products.
Thermometer? You are going to have a kid for many,many years so just invest in a good thermometer now. Really, we have purchased several different thermometers and honestly many of them left us disappointed and at the store for a new one. You see i have a beef with taking temperatures. Since Karina would react to very low elevated temps (not even medically a "fever") we needed to know an accurate temp, and we needed to check it often. So we had a basic thermometer that comes in the newborn care kits like this one. This was accurate with a rectal temperature which is the most accurate so that is the place location to be more exact. Well, its super hard, i might even say impossible (in my household at least) to take a rectal temperature on a sleeping baby....So how was i supposed to monitor the fever? So we tried buying other more expensive designs. We first tried one that was "no touch" and it was a struggle because you had to hold it just in the right place for several seconds and my kid was not holding still for that. It was giving us normal readings (the temperature of the air?) often when we could really feel she was warm, so we would take a rectal and see that accurate reading. So we returned it and got a more expensive temporal one thinking it would work better, um she holds still even less for that one because its touching her, (its not the slide across kind) so it reads one spot on the temporal lobe this one worked better but still wasn't great. We ended up keeping it and buying another one call the Kinsa. This one we found to work well. It connects to your iPhone with a cord and will save the time, temp and symptoms for each child at the time the temperature was taken. It can be used oral, ear, or axillary (arm pit). We usually do axillary. They now even have a wireless one available. In the long run for our family, we have gotten used to fever management during the sleeping hours and rectal temp during diaper changes, and thats just what works best for us.
Baby monitor? I can't say i wouldn't like one, but i've gone without one this long, even with Alba sleeping in her own room our house is small enough that i can hear her when she wakes up. even if she doesn't wake up my mom radar/timer often wakes me up anyway to check on her.
Nail clippers? This is another item that came in the care kit, but after cutting too far 1 time we hardly use them, maybe every few months for the big toe, thats the only one that gets jagged. We just bite their finger nails since that way is a lot easier to feel what your doing. When baby is sleeping in your arms is a great time to do it.
Humidifier? I've been wanting one of these, and always wish i had bought one each time baby gets a stuffy nose. But, i have yet to get one. A friend even suggested to me that if your house is small enough boiling water on the stove can work just as well as a humidifier, just can't have it going when sleeping. I haven't tried boiling water either, so that tells you i haven't needed it that bad.
Transportation:
Car seat & Stroller
For our first we got this car seat stroller combo. This specific model has actually been discontinued, but there are many available with the similar design and same idea. This worked great since it just transferred from the car to the stroller so if baby was sleeping or if it was cold/snowing out we could just transfer her without disturbing her. Its also useful because it makes the carseat itself portable. So even if your not using the stroller for something you can still carry the baby and have a safe place to put baby. If its just you and baby going to an appointment or running in the gas station depending on your baby's weight, carrying the carseat might just be the easier solution rather than unbuckling, trying to do everything one handed, then re-buckling. The fact that it works as a hand me down for her baby sister is just a bonus for us!
We got Karina her big girl carseat a couple months after her first birthday. It was one designed to fit a child 0-5 years (based on weight) so it came with a newborn and infant insert which we packed away as she was already too big for them. I think to get the most use out of carseat like this would work well for a family that plans to use a baby carrier/wrap. That will replace being able to carry the baby in the portable carseat. Baby wrapping and i have a special struggle, so I'm glad i have the carseat/stroller for a landing place for my baby. Although i have yet to find the way that will work best for me to take both girls out by myself. So because of this our set up will soon be changing with a double stroller!
Infant Seat cover? I love the one i got my second time around. Its this jersey stretch cover from carseat canopy that also fills the job of breastfeeding cover. You can usually find a promo code (Pinner, Pin50) to get one for free (just pay shipping) from the website, search "carseat canopy" in Pinterest for more codes. For us shipping ended up being like $16, but i think its worth the $16 dollars. But if you want to save even more try a diy design easy to find on pinterest. Definitely works better that throwing a blanket over the carseat, which makes it even harder to carry.
*Tip: You might notice that infant carseats are a struggle in themselves just to carry around , but i recently learned this trick! It works so well and makes so much sense! It is a little hard to achieve with the cover on the carseat though.
Diapering:
Diapers and wipes obviously. We use Meijer brand diapers, these tend to be cheaper than the competitor and we often save extra when we use our mperks (Meijers' reward & coupon program). For wipes i have always prefer the scentless "natural" wipes since i tend to use them for hands and faces besides diaper changes. I use the Huggies Natural care refills for our wipe warmer, and prefer the Meijer fragrance free"travel packs" (at least thats what i call them) for our diaper bags. I like these because they are a little easier to get out one at a time than other packs. Who knows the struggle, during a change you end up pulling out 1,000 wipes trying to be faster than the escaping 2 year old! *cries* To be safe my tip is decide on how many wipes you use on average (i use 3 for poop, 1 for pee) per change and pull them out before starting the diaper change, then put the new diaper under the old, then start the change!
Changing table.
I find this one varies from mom to mom probably depending on style and set up. I've heard some people find no use for them. HOWEVER i LOVE our changing table set up, and use it for every diaper. We have a dresser with a changing mat similar to this one, on top and our wipe warmer next to it.
Wipe warmer
My theory with the wipe warmer is baby gets used to diaper changes being comfortable and don't have to cringe when the cold wipe hits their butt. So they learn diaper changes are comfortable and give less fuss. Neither of my two babies cry during diaper changes. Some people say the warm wipes make them react worse when out and about and changing diapers with room temp wipes, I have not found this to be true for my girls.
Diaper disposal? We had one for Karina but it filled up so fast and we were just spending necessary money on the special bags so now we just use a grocery bag on the door knob of the nursery and take it out each day. You could also put dirty diapers in a bathroom trash can as another alternative to a special diaper disposal system.
Diaper Bag. Of course you need a place to carry the baby's things when out and about (and probably replace your purse). I have found the more pockets and zippers the better. I always like to store things separate and have a "home" for every item so i can always find it easily. Other than having many compartments you can't really go wrong. We received a beautiful and fashionable diaper bag for our first and it was well used. The second time around we thought how can i carry two kids and keep the diaper bag from sliding off my shoulder? We switched to a cute Jeep backpack diaper bag which we love and has just enough room for both kids.
Thats it for Part 1, if you found this helpful please comment, share, and subscribe!
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Look out for Everything Baby! Part 2. COMING SOON!