A few weeks ago we welcomed a good friend into the wonderful world of parenthood.  I am so happy for them and wish them all the best in the world.

A few months back the excited Dad to be asked me if I had any baby info for them.  I told him how I think breastfeeding is one of the best parenting decisions I ever made, I shared how easy making baby food was, how I love sharing my bed with my baby and how I love babywearing and cloth diapering.  I meant to make a list of my favorite, most useful gear but neglected to do that until today.

You can go to almost any Mommyblog around and get their list of their favorite baby gear so this isn’t anything new, but these are my favorites.

Cloth diapers: bumGenius3.0.  I love the diapers but next time I’ll go for snaps over velcro, the velcro on Lil’s died after a year and a half of use.  I also have a few other kinds of cloth diapers including some Bum Genius Flip diapers and some other diaper covers.

 

Babywearing: Ergo.  I put off buying an Ergo because of the expense.  Now that I have it I love it and feel it paid for itself within a month of having it.  In all honesty I love my Ergo and can’t live without it, but I also have and love a Kozy Carrier Mei Tai and a great Comfy Joey ringsling.  I can tell you for sure that I will want a new lovely ringsling when we have baby #2.  My current one is great, but it’s kind of a scratchy cotton and I will want to upgrade to a better material.  I haven’t tried them but I’ve heard great things about the slings from Sleeping Baby Productions.

 

Swaddling: Miracle Blanket and Aden + Anais blankets.  I loved the Miracle Blanket for when Lil was small.  Once she got too long for the MB I started using a Aden and Anais blanket.  Don’t tell anyone but I swaddled Lil till she was 17 months old, it worked really well for us and I saw no reason to hurry it to be over.

 

Breastfeeding: A good bra, a Boppy and a Nursing Cover.  I have never bought a nursing bra better then a Target bra and I wish I would have spent the money on something nicer back when Lil was tiny.  My bras wear out really quickly and most of the time aren’t ever super comfortable.  Do yourself a favor and buy a good bra. I loved my Boppy and used it all the time when Lil was small.  Waldo used it all the time too.  The Boppy was also great for propping Lily up.  The Boppy was also great for using as a photo prop.  I have a ton of pictures of her on the blanket covered Boppy.  I have a nursing cover and use it on the occasion that I nurse in public.  Lily hated it, but I think that was partly because I only used it occasionally so she never got used to it.

 

Car Seat:  Because Lil was so darn small even the head cushion that came with her car seat was useless so I looked around and found the Kiddopotamus Snuzzler from Amazon.  I was so happy when we got it.  It is nice and soft and kept Lil from rolling around in her seat.  We also got her a Car seat swaddler for a couple of reasons. Firstly, she was born in NW Montana in December and no matter how many blankets I put over her I always felt she would be cold. Secondly, she was not a fan of being in her car seat, but she loved being swaddled so I hoped that being swaddled in the car seat would help. It didn’t really but I felt she was warm so that’s something.

 

Bath time: Lil wasn’t a fan of getting a bath when she was little (do you see a pattern here? She wasn’t a fan of anything that wasn’t my arms). Because she wasn’t happy, she was very wiggly and I never felt comfortable giving her a bath in one of the hard plastic baby bath tubs. Amazon to the rescue again. I got her a Safer Bather Infant Bath Pad. It made all the difference in the world. Oh, she still hated her baths but I felt they were safer. For the record, I started taking a bath with Lil and things drastically improved.

 

Baby Monitor:When I was filling out my baby registry I added a normal old school audio only baby monitor.  People told us we’d want a video monitor, but I doubted it.  I knew Lil was going to sleep in our room so I figured she’d be out of our sight for such short amounts of time that the expense of the video monitor was just too high and also it seemed silly.  Did I really need to watch my kid sleep through a tiny monitor, I thought not.  Boy was I wrong.  I won a Summer Infant Handheld Color Video Monitor from Metropolitian Mama (I love Steph) and she told me that I’d love the monitor and Steph did not lie.  I love the monitor and it is the greatest thing ever (or close to that). Because Lil is not the greatest sleeper, it is great to have the video monitor because I can tell if she’s really awake or just tossing and turning.  With the audio monitor I’m sure I went in and woke her up at least a few times because I thought she was awake but was just turning or something.

I’m sure there were other things that I loved and kept me sane with a infant but these are the most important things.  Tune in soon for part 2 for the baby things I hated and could have lived without.

Again, congratulations to Jesse, Jamison and Teagen.  Much love!!

 

I paid for all of the items listed here except the monitor.  Some of the links are for my Amazon Association and I guess if you buy something from the links I might get a penny or two.