Baby Stuff I Can't Live Without

To say I was clueless about babies before having one would be an understatement. I remember going to register and looking at the wall of a thousand pacifiers, having no idea what the difference was or which one to get, and wanting to cry. My friends who live here don't have babies, and my few friends who do have babies live in other towns. So I resorted to harassing them with emails and texts. Thankfully, they didn't mind and helped me out more than they will ever know. I hope I'm not forgetting anyone but Sarah, Kathryn, Laura and Vanessa were great about answering my questions. And Sarah deserves a huge thank you because I'm pretty sure I harassed her the most (and still do!).

But I realized a lot of times when I asked them things, they couldn't remember because it was all a blur. I'm assuming that's how I'll be months from now, so I wanted to document all the things that I found helpful so hopefully they can help someone else. I would have LOVED it if any of my friends had a blog post like this. For me, I like buying things when I personally know someone who used it and liked it. So it will be worth it if one person finds this helpful.

First a few disclaimers: 1) If you are a woman who is not planning on having kids (or are done having kids) or if you are any guy, you will probably find this post extremely boring. Feel free to stop reading.
2) Each baby is different and I'm sure you can find another mom who will say that what I'm recommending didn't work for her. It may not work for you and your baby. I am only sharing what worked for me.
3) Most of these things were told to me by Sarah, so she deserves the credit!

Ok here goes...

1) Getting pregnant - If you are serious about getting pregnant, I highly recommend ovulation test strips. I won't say any more so it won't be TMI, but just get them. In the store, they are sort of expensive, but you can get a pack of 40 along with 10 pregnancy tests for cheap on amazon.


2) My #1 recommendation for pregnant ladies is to read baby books. I think you get so caught up in the pregnancy (I did) that you just want to read books about that. But the thing with being pregnant is, it's going to take its course and as long as you know the basics - no drugs or raw stuff - you're going to be ok. When you're going to need help is when this new little human is crying louder than you thought possible and you can't make her stop. Trust me, in that moment, you won't have time to read a book on how to calm your baby. This book seriously changed my life - and I'm not being dramatic. I was so thankful I had already read it and had tools to calm my baby BEFORE I got into the situation.


If you don't have time to read the book, there is also a video -


The author's (who is a pediatrician to the stars) main point is the 5 S's - swaddling, side, swinging, sucking, shhhhing. I won't go into all of them (seriously - just read the book) but "shhhhing" is basically white noise. He says new babies like this because it mimics the womb. You can go buy a sleep machine, but I downloaded a 99 cent white noise track off iTunes. I edited it to cut off 30 seconds before the end (so there's no silent gap or winding down), put it on repeat on an old iPod with speakers and put it by her wherever she is. If I'm out, I also have the song on my iPhone and can play it. I wish I had a video to show, but she can be crying so loud and the second I put on the white noise, she stops. She also sleeps with the white noise.


3) Another book I found very helpful is this one -

It breaks it into sections and tells you what to expect as far as sleep goes at each stage. The best advice this book gave me is that babies don't need to be awake for more than two hours at one time or they get overtired. Before I read that, I would let Avery stay awake until she got unhappy. I figured if she was happy, why move her? Well by the time she started fussing, she was already overtired and it was too late. I spent the first month doing nothing all day but soothing her and she would maybe take two 15 minute naps. After I read the book, I started soothing her (swaddling, rocking, quiet room, etc.) after only an hour of being awake (or the second she started showing any drowsy signs like yawning). After I did that, she started taking at least two 3-hour naps a day along with several other one hour naps, and she was still sleeping through the night. Since I've started doing this, I feel like she is a new baby.

4) Swinging. I know some people don't want their babies getting "addicted" to a swing. The first thing I would say is that I don't believe newborns can be spoiled. But at the same time, not all babies need a swing. For me, it was a life saver. We bought this swing -


It works great, but if I had to do it again I would buy the below swing because it plugs in. It is more expensive, but when you have to buy four D batteries all the time, it adds up.


5) Swaddling- Rustin and I are both swaddle impaired and could never figure out how to swaddle with a blanket. We bought the Swaddle Me brand and they were good and easy to use, but she broke out of them pretty easy when she got a little older. A friend of mine told me about the Miracle Blanket. It's more complicated to put on than Swaddle Me, but she NEVER breaks out of it. Plus, there's no noisy velcro, so if I need to tighten it, I just give it a tug and it doesn't wake her up.


6) Amazon is your best friend. Create a registry on amazon, even if you don't tell anyone about it. That's what I did. I registered for most of my big ticket items because I knew I wasn't going to get everything on my other registries. After my shower, I bought the items I still needed from my amazon registry. The items were cheaper because well, it's amazon, and I also got a discount for completing my registry. Because I bought so much, I am now eligible for prime shipping until June, which is free two day shipping.

7) Cheap diapers - Become an amazon mom! Just go to www.amazon.com/mom and you will find info on their subscribe and save program. Basically you sign up to receive diapers (and I get wipes too) shipped to you. Pampers are about the same price as the generic brand at Wal Mart. You have to have a subscription so they can send it to you each month, but you can always skip deliveries (or add deliveries) and change the quantity and size whenever you want. It's great not only because I save money,  but I also don't have to lug around a huge box of diapers whenever I go to the store. And shipping is free.

8) My Brest Friend - I LOVE this! I use it every time I feed her. I was torn between this and the Boppy and asked the nurse who led the breastfeeding class. Without hesitation she recommended this. It velcroes, so it stays up where you need it, and it's adjustable so it will fit when you come home from the hospital still looking 6 months pregnant, as well as the later months when your belly has gone down.


The things above, I am really passionate about and would highly recommend them. The things below are just what I ended up getting. Something else is probably just fine, but I am happy with these.

9) Car seat - Rustin and I have a subscription to Consumer Reports and we got the highest safety rated infant car seat on there - the Chicco KeyFit. When we were taking Avery home from the hospital, the nurses were very happy we had a Chicco. They said that is the best brand for small babies. I can't find a link to the exact one we got, which was the "Blocks" color scheme, but it's the model below.


10) Stroller - I got a Snap n Go stroller and have been very happy with it. I haven't tried the travel system, so that might be fine too. But I have seen friends' travel systems and they seem much bulkier.


11) I feel like the people at Baby Einstein are baby geniuses. Everything I've gotten from them, she loves. Sarah actually let me borrow this.


I also got this at my shower from a friend who said her baby loved it. Well Avery does too. It sort of puts her in a trance!


12) Video Monitor - this sounds sort of excessive, but I'm so glad I got it. It just gives you so much peace of mind when you can see the baby. And I know it will help when she gets older and doesn't want to take a nap for me to know whether she's just protest crying or if something is really wrong. I'm not going to recommend a certain one because I don't like mine and haven't tried any others. The brand I have is Summer Infant. It makes a loud cracking noise. When I called them about it, they were nice and sent me a brand new unit, but it does the same thing.

13) If you are breastfeeding, you NEED these! I think I might have given up on it if I didn't have these the first few weeks. When you put them on, you breathe a sigh of relief!


14) Breast Pump - I couldn't live without mine! The nurse at the breastfeeding class told us this was the best one, and I have been very happy with it.


15) Pacifiers. That's one of those things I didn't really want her having for a little while. (I'm going to do another blog post on things I said I would never do, and now I do them all the time!) Yes, I finally chose a pacifier without wanting to cry! We have cute ones like Texas Tech and pink rhinestones, but this is the only one she will take.


16) Clothes - Ok tons of people told me this, and I didn't listen. It's just so hard when you see all the super cute clothes to not buy them! But it's true what they say - they grow super fast so don't waste your money on tons of clothes. I made the mistake of buying a lot of cute outfits for her newborn pictures. Well when she was born at only 5 pounds, she didn't fit into ANY of them, so that was a waste. Then I had all these other cute newborn size outfits, but while she was that size, I was completely exhausted and didn't care if she was cute. I just wanted something comfortable that was easy to get on and off... every two hours. Now she's two months and 3 month sizes are barely fitting her. I have a whole bag of clothes she's already outgrown. So try to resist and save your money for when she/he is older and you're getting out more. But even then remember they may only wear it once or twice so don't buy expensive stuff!

Ok that's my two cents so far after two months. Hopefully someone will find it helpful. To all my friends - if you have any questions please feel free to call me. I am so thankful for my friends who have helped me, and I want to "pay it forward" :)