The 5 Baby Items I Didn’t Know I Needed
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I am a knowledge seeker by nature. I love researching and learning things-it’s my jam! I also love being prepared and organized-actually my mentalilty requires these two things or I won’t function properly (OCD anyone?). I thought I read all the things and prepared all the things, but as it turned out, I NEEDED some other things. Some things I needed for my sanity and others I needed to make life a bit easier. So here we go…
The 5 Baby Items I Didn’t Know I Needed:
- Rock’ n Play
Never in my lifetime did I ever think I would spend 56 bucks on a chair that rocked itself. Pre-motherhood I would have laughed at this gadget and assumed all who bought it were lazy people who couldn’t rock their own baby (sorry). And then, COLIC. I cannot even type out the word without shuddering and having flashbacks of crying on the floor (me, not the baby). Colic ripped my insides out and spit them on the floor. Finding the Rock’ n Play was a legit savior for us. No more HOURS of standing, rocking and swaying. Even if your babe doesn’t have colic (shudder), he/she will still most likely love this! Baby H still hangs out in it at least twice a day!
**Edit: I realize these are now recalled. We used this item as instructed and never had any problems with it. If your babe needs some motion, look into a great swing! My friends have recommended the swing below. Like any baby product, be sure to use it as instructed and keep a close eye on babe.
This one cracks me up because everyone thinks it’s so gross (I mean it kind of is), but when you are an anxiety ridden new mom with a newborn who is congested, you’ll basically do anything! The Nose Frida blows other bulb suckers out of the water! Seriously, invest now and thank me later.
This one tends to have mixed reviews, especially for breastfeeding mamas. Before you skip this one, hear me out. I have breastfed since day one, but baby H also occasionally has bottles of breastmilk.
Long version: Around week 3 H got Probiotic and Vitamin D drops recommended to help with his *cringe* colic. We decided to put these in a bottle to ensure he got all of it. So, baby H got one bottle a day, and it was no big deal to just warm it up in a mug of hot water. Fast forward about a month later-I got very sick and my milk supply tanked. I did not want to use formula unless I absolutely had to (personal choice), so I started supplementing with my freezer milk. I didn’t want to waste any milk, so we had to wait until after he was finished nursing to see if he was still hungry. Cue screaming baby up to 8 times a day. A mug of hot water was not cutting it or worth the screaming when a bottle warmer is less than 28 dollars and at month two bottles aren’t going anywhere-they also get bigger! We bought this Avent warmer because we knew it would fit his anti-colic bottles (they’re huge). So far, we’ve never had to wait more than three minutes and it gets used even more than we thought. It also heats up baby food, so even if you don’t get much use with bottles, it may come in handy later!
Short version: Unless you are exclusively breastfeeding, you will need bottles. Heating bottles up in a mug of hot water is sufficient until you need more than 4 ounces, or your baby is wailing. Waiting for the milk to heat up gets old fast (and loud)-buy a bottle warmer. It can be used for baby food down the line too.
- Baby Tracking App
When your baby is born, your doctor will ask you a million questions every visit-how many wet diapers, how often are they eating, what’s sleep like, etc. Initially, I wrote everything down on paper in the kitchen. This lasted about a week before I got tired of searching for the paper that constantly got moved. I found the app “Baby Loggy” which included a lot of what I needed: diapering, bathing, feeding, and more! It was a quick and easy fix for about 3 bucks if I remember correctly. They also have a free version, but it only records around 100 entries. I still use this daily, and I don’t seem myself getting rid of it any time soon!
And there you have it-The 5 Baby Items I Didn’t Know I Needed, but made life a whole lot easier!
xoxo,
Nik