When it came to parenting you could say David and I were practically helpless. We knew they needed to eat and poop and sleep...and that was about it. We had little to zero experience with how to take care of any of those needs. Also, we had very little understanding of what equipment we would need and/or how to use any of it! We had our work cut out for us. So as many parents-to-be, we found ourselves making a glorious impractical baby registry. Some items on our wish list turned out to be great, while others were utterly useless. Some items we thought we would love because everyone on Amazon said it was the best! Or because I spent too much time on Pinterest, which some of you, including myself, refer to as "fantasy land dot com". The truth is, you gotta test out the water and see what your adorable life sucker- er, I mean..babyyyy, needs most. What exactly fits your parenting style..whatever whatever! So anyway, I was thinking about those books "This not That" and came up with the idea to do a blog post about baby products I feel are superior to others. Yeah, I'm getting all judgey wudgy today. Let's get started!
** remember, this is a personal preference...what works for me may not work for you **
1. BABY CARRIER vs STROLLER
I had to have my fancy stroller...the one with he click in car seat. It was going to be awesome! There was one big problem though...turns out Liam hated his car seat! AND STROLLER. It wasn't until like 3 months ago that he wanted anything to do with it. How ironic...when they finally kinda like it, they can totally walk and so of course they only want to spend 3 minutes max in their strollers before they are saying "momma stuck! get down!" What saved me? Months and months of baby carriers. I had both a wrap and a carrier like the one above (thanks Megan!!)...those carriers saved us. Why? Because babies spend the majority of their lives growing inside their mothers. (captain obvious over here) They enjoy the sensation of being tightly wrapped, listening to the sound of their mothers voice and heartbeat through her chest, and just being close. Liam hung out with me that way for a long time...and even to this day, when he gets sick, I throw him in the wrap because my arms are totally weak sauce.
2. COVERED SPOONS vs STUPID PLASTIC LIGHT SPOONS
This is a discovery I just made like 3 days ago! I remember my sister having the spoons on the left. "safety spoons". Ummm these things are awesome! Ever since I saw Liam using one of these spoons at a friends house, he has barely made a mess and actually loves using his utensils. I think the plastic spoons on the right are fine actually, but I feel like they are too light and it makes it hard for little kiddos to feel out the weight of the spoon (like the ones we use) and so its harder for them to hold it steady. I used to give Liam adult sized spoons, and it worked better, but the spoon part was too big for his mouth. I don't know why I didn't think of using these sooner...and YES I got them in those pretty pastel colors because who cares!
3. DIAPER BIN (diaper genie) vs TRASHCAN
This was another product that it took me awhile to figure out. We started off using cloth diapers with Liam, but living in an apartment makes it extra hard to clean all those stinky, stinky diapers when you are sharing some ancient washer and dryer with 2 other apartments. It was really annoying to find soaking wet diapers sitting on top of the drier because someone else wanted to use it. #rude! I know people make this work, but I got lazy and I won't apologize for it (sorry Liam). We switched to disposables and soon enough, the house started to smell like pewp. The small trash can in Liam's nursery did not hold up...and so we went ahead and purchased a diaper pail that traps those stinkers in until it's full and you can dump it all easy peasy. I have to say, this thing keeps my house smelling a LOT better. I guess it's not totally necessary, but it make my life easier and that's why its' on the list m'kay? **Also, I'm pretty sure we got one of these at our baby shower and totally returned it...ding dongs!**
4. PLASTIC BIBS vs CLOTH BIBS
This is another recent discovery. I've been using and losing cloth bibs for months now. Yes they can come in adorable patterns, or have the face of an owl, but they get GROSS. My son eats like cookie monster (I'm not joking, ask anyone who knows him), and these things just get all sticky and then they get devoured by some cloth bib eating monster that lives in my house. The other day I saw this super spiffy plastic bibs at Target and they are amazing! Not only do they have velcro at the bottom so you can let all the discarded food turds loose before washing, you can actually hand wash them in the sink and they will be dry in like 15 mins...maybe 13. I'm gonna be extra excited about this and say 8 1/2 minutes! I love them. Plus, the bib monster doesn't like them, so it's all good.
5. INDESTRUCTIBLES vs BOARD BOOKS
Ok guys, confession time, I don't actually OWN any indestructible books but I do own a lot of chewed up and partially eaten board books. It's a shame, when you give a baby who is under 1yr a beautiful book and they are like "I'm not going to enjoy the visual stimulus this book has to offer me...I'm just going to eat it because I'm angry that it isn't a boob" <-TRUTH GUYS. You can't give babies anything of value...because it all goes in their mouths. My friend Dominique has one of these indestructible books and they really are perfect for little kids. You cannot destroy them! I've tried..and believe me, I am very raccoon like when it comes to opening things (ask David)...these books are awesome. If I ever have another baby, I will have these in my bag fer sure.
6. KIMONO ONESIES vs PULL OVER ONESIES
Newborns are adorable and I know it's really hard to resist the cutest little outfits to put them in, or again...maybe I'm just a lazy person, but I found out pretty fast that adorable outfits look far less adorable when they are covered in school bus yellow liquid poo. So the hospital provided us with a few "kimono" style shirts for Liam. Okay maybe they didn't provide them...I might have just "taken" them...away...with us...like, when we left the hospital...along with all of the bathroom soaps and ice pads. Anyway, these little shirts were awesome because it was SO easy to get Liam in and out of outfits fast, especially when he made downtown messes. You can get these in organic material and they are just so cozy and cute and...yeah...I like them.
7. ROCK N' PLAY CHAIR vs GIGANTIC SWING MONSTER
Remember that time earlier in this post when I talked about "recommendations"...somehow everyone is saying that baby swings are amaaazing...but Liam begs to differ. He thought his swing was a torture device. He maybe liked it for 1 week and then his brain turned on and eyes opened up and he was like "NOPE!". I thought this swing was going to be spectacular and spread peace and joy throughout our home. It made the sound of wales and could swing him in multiple directions...plus he could look at himself! Because his eyesight was so good at 5 days old! On Father's Day we were invited to a friends house for a BBQ and they had the rock n' play chair out for us to use if we needed to set our babies down and go cry in a room by ourselves. Liam really liked it and guess what? It was only $45!...that is a lot less money than the swing that now resides in a box it didn't come in down in the basement. P.S. it will be for sale at our garage sale coming up in a few weeks...P.P.S. this was the worst sales pitch ever.
8. BASSINET vs CRIB
This one really is a personal preference that completely goes with your parenting style. David and I tried to sleep train Liam in his crib (which you know if you read this blog), but it didn't work for us and soon we became a co-sleeping family. But before we started using his crib, we did have a little sleepy pouch, called a "cuddle cove" (that's the real name...go talk to Graco about it) and I put Liam down it that next to our bed for the first 3 months until he eventually outgrew it. I wish I had listened to my Grandma when she asked what kind of bassinet I was getting. Of course I just laughed and rolled my dum dum eyes telling her that people don't use bassinets anymore. HA...actually cribs are dumb and the more I think about it...cribs don't make sense. Well at least not for our family. Liam began sharing our bed around 4 months old up until around 22 months when we moved him onto his own big bed. You can read about that post HERE! Anyway, if I could go back in time I would totally buy a bassinet for him. Overall I'm happy that we are a bed sharing co-sleeping family, but I think the transition into his own space would have been easier if he had his own space close to us and didn't need to get the boot suddenly. So yeah, bassinets for the win!
9. DIAPER BAG vs PURSE AND/OR NOTHING!
Maybe I was one of those srsly ill prepared parents who thought "pffft! I don't need that clearly useful thing!"...oh boy was I wrong. I think diaper bags have a certain stigma attached to them, and we all know that Dads can be pretty picky about what "baby purse" they wanna be dragging around the park with them. David was particularly picking about this one...which was sort of surprising! He kept finding these boring black diaper bags that just looked like a big old sack of sadness. Now I didn't want a diaper bag that looked like it came out of the princess isle at toys-r-us either, so it was a few months before we stumbled upon the perfect bag for us (as seen above). It's been great because now I can have everything I need, personal and baby related, in one big bag and it's been a game changer.
10. FLEXIBLE vs CONTROLLING OVERTIME CRAZYTOWN MADNESS
Okay, here's the last thing I want to say in this post...something that every parent should think of getting before having a baby...and that is some Flexibility. You are not going to be able to control every action that your baby makes, every melt down, or mess...it happens because that's what babies do! (very well!) Figuring out what is going to help keep you as calm as possible while living in chaos town is ultimately going to be the best solution. Find a great parent group, go take some classes with your little one, or find things that you like doing that you can also do with your little one without freaking out. Also, know what you simply cannot get done with a baby in tow. Find time to be alone and do things you love to do. And above all, remember that you this is a learning process...you don't just wake up and suddenly become the best mom ever...you are evolving into who you are as a mother, and as a woman. Change can be very stressful...but it's the one thing that allows you to become the kind of parent, and person you want to be. ♥
X♥O
Christine
