Baby Gear Basics

Geez I feel so out of touch with baby gear, so many things I used that aren't used to day. My son and wife are trying for a baby. These posts are great!

 

I feel so old. Coachbuilt pram mine had came in handy when the youngest broke his leg aged 5 - he might have felt a bit silly - but it got worse when we met a kids marching band members on their way home - we let them put some of their instruments on top.
To make them sleep, they would happily doze off watching the drum go around on the washing machine.
Always used terry nappys, used to be quite competitive us mums about how white they looked on the line drying. Not just good for puking - when they dont need them any more, they are very handy for cleaning (unless you are planning more).
I like the bag of good books idea.
We all learn as we go, none of us are experts, every person in the world is a little bit different arent they.
Look for a cot that converts into a king size bed - these days, kids seem to linger more - blame that on the recession - hopefully by the time your sprog is grown, there will be jobs and futures again.
Big cardboard box. It can be a ship, a plane, a spaceship, a coach drawn by four horses at breakneck speed.
Most important gift is imagination.

 

So... well... ok. I'm going the boob route here.

I'm not sure if you're going to breast feed or not, but if you do, make sure to buy a good pump. Wife bought a double pump that you plug in and had a battery for when she was out and about. It wasn't cheap but it certainly made her life easier. If you're producing a lot of milk, freeze that shit. Yup. Freeze it and store it for when you start to umm.. go dry? This is where a good bottle warmer comes in handy. It also comes in handy for those nights where you're exhausted and hubbs needs to feed the baby. Simply lay out everything he may need before bedtime and when the little one gets hungry, he just has to put it all together. Trust me. If she hadn't laid shit out, I would have been about as confused as Remixer at a co-ed bar.

A crib is one of those things that looks great in the baby room while you anticipate the arrival, but in reality, you won't need it for a while. We've discussed the changing table in your blog so I'll skip that but pay real attention to car seats. Take time to get used to how they work and installing and taking them out before the baby comes. We had the system that you just pop the carrier thing into the base which helped, but there were times when I needed to take it out of one our rides and put it into gma's ride.

Strollers - those are all pretty much personal preference, but I like larger wheels with rubber.

Other than that, just do the research on recalls and safety and go that route. Just because a brand is pricey doesn't necessarily mean it's safer.

 

An electric pump! You young people are so funny.

 

As I was trying to nap last night, I remembered something else.
According to the seamans almanac, just in case you cant get to the hospital in time, all you need is three pieces of string about six inches long, and a pair of scissors. Tir off two pieces on the babys end, one towards the placenta end, and cut between these last two.

 

FTFY.

 

I want to second this - I got a call from my brother as they were leaving the hospital because he couldn't figure out how the child went into the seat. Thankfully, after a bit of calming conversation, he went back into the hospital to ask for help rather than have me drive half way across Sydney to help him.

 

One month away from pushing out this kid and I just now find this thread. Awesome.

We have a stroller, a car seat, a crib, a playard, a swing thingy (from bro-in-law), clothes, diapers, baby wipes, pacifiers (don't intend on using them right away) receiving blankets, sheets, crap that I don't know what it does....stuffed animals. We have baby crap, but the nursery is a hot mess because we just throw everything in there.

We still have some things to get, but have gift cards to use. (I <3 my brother!)

I am so thankful to my bro-in-law because he gave us a lot of his daughter's clothes. She's 18 months old now. The best part was that he separated them by month. I'm going to pull each bag/box out when she's ready to wear that size and then package them up for him again. The months that she isn't ready for will stay tucked away in the closet. I need to separate all the other clothes I've gotten so far too. He wants them back when they have kid #2. The clothes we got are for a baby born in the summer, so some things won't be practical. We'll try to use everything.

Bro-in-law also gave us a bunch of burp clothes and rags.

My head is spinning and I have no idea what we still need. We have a crap ton of diapers...but they're a smidge on the bigger side. I'm going to get some small diapers that my sis-in-law recommended so that we have at least some smaller ones if she is tiny. Just enough to be prepared, but not too much in case she takes after her momma's side and is a monster baby. I still quiver whenever I think about my 9.5 lb niece.

 

Burp clothes and rags--ah, the fond memories! I'd breast feed, then go to gently burp the kid and he's projectile vomits right down my back. Until he was 4- 5 months old! Always have one of those suckers on your shoulder.

 

Puke/spit-up/whatever grosses me out to no end. This is something I hope I overcome when I am a mother. I was on the verge of tears when my niece projectile vomited all over me.

 

Well, when it's still just milk--it's not that bad. But yeah, you sort of have no choice. Breathe through your mouth and call BabyDaddy if he's in the vicinity?

 

All great suggestions and advice so far. I don't think I saw it suggested yet but, if your anything like me (paranoid mom type) you'll want a thermometer. And a mucus syringe/ bulb syringe in the awful event that baby gets a cold. Generally, babies are nose breathers. When they get a cold, it becomes a little difficult for them to suck if they can't breath through their nose. Saw someone suggest a humidifier earlier, good idea. But if you don't have one, going to the washroom with baby and running the shower works well too.

And the single most important advice to new moms is not to forget to look after yourselves. It's difficult to look after baby when your suffering health wise.

 

LOVE slip on shoes!!! I only wear my tennis shoes when DaddySquirrel is around so he can put them on me. We go for walks around the neighborhood quite often and I prefer my tennis shoes.

Just bought the Mei Tai last night with a gift card from my brother. Looked at the Moby and will probably get that too. DaddySquirrel got a "manlier" baby carrier through some Britax deal. If he gets a Britax stroller, infant carseat, carrier and accessory (we went with stroller organizer) we get a free toddler carseat.

THANK GOODNESS!

Hadn't gotten one as a present yet, so last night when we were using gift cards and registry completion discount, we bought a thermometer along with a bunch of other stuff. We got a bath thermometer too. Most moms I talk to said to use my hands to gauge the temperature of the the bath water. I'm not like most people. I scold my hands a lot in hot water because due to my MS, I can't always discern temperature with my extremities. I don't want to burn my baby, so we got a thermometer.

We plan on "stealing" some from the hospital along with anything that's not nailed down. I sort of LOVE hospital pants.

Got one.

Again, because of the MS, DaddySquirrel keeps saying I need to take care of myself because he doesn't want me to relapse and stick him with the baby.


We spent a lot of money last night getting the final things on our registry, but it had to be done I suppose. We probably won't use half the things we bought.

I randomly put this book on my registry because it had an owl on it. Then I saw it listed on a bunch of "Must have" lists for baby books. I was very proud of my intuition.

 

The only advice I feel qualified to give here is "get less stuff".

A place to sleep, a way to move the baby about, warm clean clothes.

Most of everything else clutters up your living space and makes life harder not easier.

Make sure you keep the adults healthy and happy, everything else sort of happens.

All parenting advice you hear is living proof of confirmation bias, including mine.

 

I hope you got one of the ear thermometers - so much easier than getting baby (or child for that matter) to "stick this under their tongue for 20 seconds".