As we transition out of the little baby phase (for good?), I feel like making a little list of what I found essential, just to remind myself in case anyone ever asks (like one of the kids some time far off in the future). As the last couple of years has brought a flurry of changes about what is recommended by the experts when it comes to baby care, I guess it is also oddly historical at this point. This post is also and excuse to put up a bunch of old baby pictures, in case you hadn't noticed!
A good car seat--Ariadne's was the best. Adjustable, safe, useable for a long time. Consumer Reports was very helpful in selecting it.
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| Solomon, happy in his car seat |
A wrap or baby carrier. We've used Baby Bjorn, the Maya Wrap, and Becco Gemini. The last two have been my favorite by far. At this age, we virtually never used a stroller. Wraps and carriers on the other hand we used every day--in the house, outside, while shopping, you name it. We also used a baby backpack a lot starting at about 8 months.
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| Solomon in the backpack |
Sleeping
My favorite place for the baby to sleep was in the carrier or wrap. During the day he/she also spent a fair bit of time sleeping in the car seat in the house for the first few months.
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| Nova, during the first week |
Swaddling blankets--for the first two or three months these simple cotton blankets were essential.
Port-a-crib with bassinet and toy bar--we had a true bassinet for Solomon, but with all subsequent children, it was clear that the older ones would pull it over in order to look at the new baby--a very dangerous situation. The port-a-crib bassinet was sturdy enough to stand up to curious older siblings and still relatively easy to move. At present, we have two (one on the main level and one in the basement).
Family bed--worked very well for us. Yes we researched it, yes we were careful. Honestly, a wonderful decision.
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Solomon, about 10 months
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Nursing (Can I put up a nursing photo?? I have a great one but I don't want my whole blog compromised because of it.)
I found The Womanly Art of Breast Feeding, the La Leche League's breastfeeding handbook indispensable. My mother was also extremely helpful during the first weeks of nursing. Went to a lactation consultant around day six with Solomon, which was also helpful. Turns out he has a high arched pallet--good for singing, but makes nursing a little painful at the start. Having help and support (and using it) right at the beginning was really important for nursing to be a success. It was hard at the beginning but those first few weeks of effort resulted in months (well actually two years) of a wonderful (and for the most part very easy) nursing relationship. Hit repeat for all subsequent children--most babies need a little time to get the hang of it, even if their mother is experienced! Only Aria seemed to be born knowing how to nurse.
As for the actual 'stuff' I needed for nursing, there wasn't much. A rocking chair, boppy pillow, and
water, water, water were the mainstays.
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| I am wearing a nursing dress in this four generation picture. Though I am now comfortable nursing at family gatherings wearing normal clothes, special nursing clothing was helpful in the beginning. |
Breast pump--especially when I was a full time student, the breast pump was quite necessary. The rest of the time it has been a nice reassurance to have a bottle of milk on hand when I when I went out.
Wet wound healing gel pads--better than lansinoh for the first week or so.
Lansinoh--for later.
One or two good nursing dresses (or tops)--It is nice to have something both comfortable and dressy you can nurse in. You never know when you will need it.
Feeding
Finger toothbrush--for all but Charlotte a finger toothbrush worked great. In the end I think this toothbrush was best tolerated by our most stubborn toothbrusher (the disk below the head of the toothbrush keeps it from going to in to far).
Baby Bjorn Bib--the best! Multiple strangers stopped us in restaurants to marvel at this bib.
Baby food grinder--used this mostly with the first two. The younger two seemed to go straight from gagging on even the tiniest piece of food to grabbing whole apples and the like.
Right around the first birthday, baby dishes . Still haven't found the perfect set of baby dishes, they all seem to break eventually. We've used melamine and enamel with reasonable success.
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| Nova learning to sit up, circa five months |
Diapers
We began with disposables. Both being full time college students plus Charles working seemed like insurmountable obstacles to cloth diapering. At 13 months, I had graduated and we switched to cloth. It took a couple weeks adjustment, but in the end I liked cloth much better and have been very glad we made the switch. After quite a bit of experimentation we found plain old prefolds and a good cover worked best for us. We never have used pins--just folded the diaper in thirds, laid it in the cover and snapped it on the baby.
Safety
Baby gates--We preferred tension mounted or screw into the wall types that swung open and auto closed.
Outlet covers--We installed special spring loaded plates for Nova, so we couldn't forget to put the plugs back in. They didn't work as well as I'd hoped, however. The spring action was sometimes strong enough to move the plug and interrupt the electrical connection. Ariadne really wants to plug and unplug things herself. It is sort of a fascination. We've dealt with it mostly by moving chargers to countertops or charging laptops and phones at night, and putting furniture in front of things that need to be plugged in all the time.
Play
Bouncy seat, followed by activity seat, followed by high chair (basically, a second place to set the baby that is a little more fun and stimulating that a crib).
Play mats and quilts were good for tummy time were loved by Charlotte, tolerated by Ariadne, hated by the older two.
Mobiles/ hanging toys were nice early on.
Ball--became very popular around age one.
Baby doll--also became suddenly very popular at age one or so.
Teethers--several, tastes vary.
Spoons--and other safe household items.
Books--particularly a book called Baby Faces that showed different expressions on the faces of babies and described them in one word. Another book with baby games (pat-a-cake, this little piggy and other lesser known games) was also helpful. Other favorites included Moo Ba La La La by Sandra Boynton, Guess How Much I love You By Anita Jerum, Good Night Moon by Margret Wise Brown, Little Fur Family by Margret Wise Brown, Going on a Bear Hunt, Jamberry, Cowboy Baby, The Cat in the Hat, Pat the Bunny, Everywhere Babies, The Usborne Book of First 1,000 words (English), Ten Tiny Toes, Chick a Chick a Boom Boom, Green Eggs and Ham oh, I give up--the whole library.
Quiet Bag--for younger siblings especially, it was great to have a bag put together with silent baby toys. Church, weddings, recitals (with two older siblings in Suzuki, there were a lot of recitals) were all easier with a quiet bag. Our favorites were teethers with lots of different textures, non rattling stuffed animals and dolls, board books (especially with little flaps). Balls are bad because they roll. Toys that they haven't seen for awhile are always better.
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