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:
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| Like father like daughter |
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| Suzi pointed out on Facebook that Lydia is actually reading to Uncle Clark! What a super baby. 😉 |
