Very exciting news! A dear friend–who shall remain anonymous until she decides to go public with the news–just told me that she is pregnant! I am so excited for her, and she asked for a blog post about baby must haves. I know everyone’s must-have list is different, and friends, please amend this list in the comments. I think my friend will appreciate different perspectives. Here’s my list.
Basics: Car seat, stroller, diapers, wipes, assorted clothes.
A double electric breast pump + hands-free pumping bra!!!! Although pumping is tiring (and gross), I could not survive without this. Even though I feel like I spend all day nursing Lydia, I pump multiple times a day in my free time. In fact–this may be too much information–I am pumping as I blog. It is great for multitasking, and it also ensures that when my baby melts down because she is too agitated to latch, I can still feed her! Also, I’ve found that there are times throughout the day where my milk supply is down, and if Lydia happens to be hungry at those times, I NEED to have a bottle on hand.
Lots of burp cloths. I still have to write some thank you notes for burp cloths wise moms have given to Lydia. I didn’t realize this before, but you really can’t have too many. Even though we’re usually too lazy to actually put the burp cloths on our shoulders when burping Lydia, we use them to wipe her face off and wipe ourselves off. Lydia now sleeps in her own room at night, but she spends all day in bed with me, so I spread those cloths out on the bed to protect the sheets from spit up. We even sometimes swaddle her with the bigger cloths.
Sleepers, onesies, gowns, and a Sunday dress. (Thank you, Megan, for Lydia’s dress! She wore it every Sunday until last Sunday, when she finally blew out of her diaper onto it–just in time to graduate onto the other bigger dress you gave her!) I like the sleepers because if Lydia kicks off her swaddle, she’s still covered. The gowns are great because of diaper access. And the Sunday dress (assuming your baby is a girl) is really fun because you get to dress your baby up.
HAIR PIECES!! Thank you, Ashley, for sending us these! They have made a world of difference in the cute department. We loooooooooooooooove using hair pieces, and I’m pretty sure we would still use them even if Lydia didn’t have so much hair.
Nursing pads for you. Sorry, but leaks are a no-fun reality of nursing.
A bouncy seat! (Thank you, Sarah and Dick!!!) Lydia spends TONS of time in her bouncy seat. It’s the only way I can cook or go to the bathroom or do anything that requires being physically separated from Lydia. I just sit her where she can participate in the action, and she’s good to go. She just sits there and amuses herself in the bouncy seat, and I can get whatever needs doing done.
A My Brest Friend (Thanks for lending us yours, Sarah!) and eventually, a Boppy. At first, the Boppy was a waste of my time, but then Lydia outgrew the My Brest Friend and I lost 35 lbs (Woo-hoo!) and all of the sudden, the Boppy was a possibility.
A nipple shield. For those of us who struggle to attach ourselves to baby, this is a God send. This little piece of plastic means that I can read and scroll around on the internet while nursing. (I can’t really type, but at least I can kind of poke around here and there.) I would go completely crazy without this thing.
Okay, please amend this list away. Also, for those of you who might not have seen on Facebook, we have two new exciting pictures of Lydia:
 |
| Like father like daughter |
 |
| Suzi pointed out on Facebook that Lydia is actually reading to Uncle Clark! What a super baby. 😉 |
I'm with you on the burb cloths! My favorite is to use cloth diapers, whether or not you choose to use them for actual diapering. Sometimes spit up is just a little spec at the corner of the mouth and sometimes it's a great big SPLAT on the floor, or your shirt, or whatever. But since cloth diapers are designed to hold quite a bit, there's no job too messy for one of those bad boys. I actually still keep a clean one at our table at all times to wipe Kendra's mouth and hands as she eats (she's really fussy about NOT liking anything sticking to her fingers and I'm really fussy about her face).
For this purpose, you don't have to buy really good ones. The Gerber ones at Wal-Mart/Target (which are terrible for actual cloth diapering) come in a 12 pack for a dollar each the last time we bought them. You could also put out an ad on Craig's List or FreeCycle to see if anyone around you has some old ones that aren't cutting it anymore for diapering. Or you can buy them used through various sources. If stains on used diapers creep you out, they come out in the sun if you have a good place to hang them. I also have a friend who dyes hers.
Or, if you can sew in a straight line and have access to a machine, they're also the easiest thing in the world to gorgeousify–there are lots of tutorials out there (and if you get good at it, you have a super cheap but super cute baby shower gift, viola!) to show you how.
Just my two cents. 🙂
Ditto everything Ashley said!
And I love this post! While I would have some differences in my own list (a manual pump works fine for me and only takes about 10 minutes…and heck, my baby still won't take a bottle anyway, so what's the point?), I think this is definitely a solid base. Most of all, I would say less is more – we are total minimalists about baby stuff and I STILL feel like we have way too much!
That said, a couple of things we've found indispensable:
– a nursing cover (easy to make or get for cheap)
– the SwaddleMe blanket (we used to use regular swaddle blankets, but Nat ALWAYS broke out of them…so the velcro is helpful in getting him to sometimes stay in there)
– a sound machine! (we discovered early on that the hair dryer totally put him to sleep, so we finally upgraded to an actual machine after a while)
– washable clothes for you (if anything needs dry cleaning, I totally avoid wearing it now)
I second the sleeper nightgowns, Lansinoh nursing pads (nothing else compares, if you have a different brand, throw them out now), and a Boppy!! Can't really think of anything else that hasn't already been mentioned.