So I know I promised a birth story blog, and I should really do that before I start forgetting details, but it turns out having a baby and working full time is pretty time consuming. I went back to work right after Thanksgiving and with the holidays and friends in town and everything else in between I haven’t even thought about the blog lately. Since that story will take time to write (and re-live) I thought I’d do a quick post with some of my most favorite baby items so far. This will also be my shopping list for future friends having babies since these were my life savors!! So if your one of my friends reading this, expect to get this stuff! 🙂
1. Aden+Anis Swaddle Blankets – I’ve only found these in a 4 pack, and they are almost $40 which seems like a lot for blankets but I figured they are only about $10 per blanket and it was great to have 4 of them, one was always clean. These are the BEST swaddle blankets because they are big enough that you don’t have to have the perfect swaddle wrap, you can do it real quick and nice and tight. It worked best for us because little Ada didn’t like her arms swaddled so those wraps with Velcro didn’t really work for us.
2. PJ’s with zippers!!! I don’t even know why newborn jammies come with snaps, they are a nightmare to figure out in the middle of the night. Newborn PJs with mittens and zippers were the best. A lot of our jammies that had mittens only had snaps and the ones with zippers didn’t have mittens, so she wore the same ones a lot! If you can find both, buy multiple pairs. As she gets older the snaps that only go down one leg are okay, and we don’t need the mittens anymore, but forget those silly PJ’s that you have to match up snaps in the crotch, we left them undone half the time because we were only gonna take them off again in 20 minutes!
3. Fisherprice Rock N’ Play – This is the exact one from Target that we got, I thought the colors were awesome, but more then that this little cradle was our favorite place for her. She slept in this for the first 4 weeks when she was too little to lay in the cradle that was in our room (she would just flop over in her little burrito roll) This kept her nice and snug and sitting up right a little bit. It was also perfect to transport up and down the stairs if she fell asleep and we didn’t want to disturb her. During the day I could set her down, she would nap there and even now she’ll just chill in there. It goes up to 25 lbs. so it will be with us for a little while longer. We got good use out of this one!
4. Vera Bradley Bottle Caddy – I got this little gem for free when I bought my diaper bag and its awesome!! It only holds one bottle which is all you need a lot of the time. I actually froze some yogurt in a tiny round tupperware container and I toss that in the bottom to use as an ice pack.
5. Vera Bradley Convertible Diaper Bag – Speaking of the bottle caddy, I will say this is the best diaper bag! I actually don’t use the one I registered for because it was ridiculously small. This one holds everything I need! I look forward to the day when I can just throw some stuff in my purse, but for now while we travel heavy and for packing her up when she’s with the grandmas all day while I work, this has all the room I need for plenty of diapers, changes of clothes, bottles, burp clothes, toys etc… and anything else I can jam in there. The best part is it comes in plain black if you’re not into the Vera Bradley style. This bag is worth every penny even though it seems kinda pricey!
6. Halo Sleep Sacks – This is what we put her to bed in every single night. When she was a newborn we did do the swaddle, but once she started waking herself up just trying to bust out of it, we deiced it was time to try a sleep sack. Since she was born at the end of September, most of her infancy has been in cooler and now freezing cold weather, so these fleece blankets keep her nice and toasty without putting a blanket in her crib. They come in 4 sizes, so she can keep growing into them. We’ve already moved up to the second size, we’ll probably continue using these at least until the summer time. Again something else that has worked at night time and I will not stop doing what I do as long as she’s sleeping through the night.
7. “Blankey”– So this is not exactly the one we have, we have a white lamb but its as close as I could find. A friend bought this for her at a specialty gift shop and from what I can tell this already is going to be her attachment item. At 3 months she loves to just hold on to it and loves to play with (and chew) the ribbon around its neck, and its small enough to throw in that awesome diaper bag or tuck into her car seat. I may be encouraging this to be that item a little bit too because its so cute!
8.
Sound Machine – This is the one we have but it comes in a million brands and varieties. Its the idea of the sound machine that puts it on my list. It has several different sounds, white noise, rain, ocean etc. and the volume knob is how you turn it on an off so you can gradually increase or decrease. We’ve used this thing every night since she’s been home, whether it calms her or not I will never know, but she’s been sleeping through the night since 8 weeks so I won’t stop using it now.
9. Organic Cotton Washable Nursing Pads – I don’t know who got me these specific ones or where they found them around here, but here’s a link to some on Amazon. These were the best!! They were so soft (and got softer with each wash) They fit right inside your bra comfortably and absorb everything during those first few weeks of breastfeeding. The disposable ones were way to rough on sore nips, these actually just feel like part of your bra which makes you feel just a little normal again, and the best part is they are re-useable!
10. Dishwasher Basket This is the one we have, but I think any of the million varieties would work. I didn’t use this for the first month or two because we were strictly breastfeeding and I wasn’t going through bottles that much, but now that I am exclusively pumping, I go through bottles, nipples and pump parts like crazy. This thing can hold almost all my bottle pieces in one load and when I don’t feel like hand washing all that stuff, its fantastic to throw it all in the basket and be done with it. Also, along this line is the Boon Grass, which I also love for when I do hand wash everything. All the little pieces fit nicely on here.I originally registered for the lawn but took it back because it was so big, the grass has more then enough space and doesn’t take up your whole counter.
So there you have it, in no particular order, my top 10 list! I could probably do another post with my thoughts on other items that we found useful, and I could also probably do a post of things I found to be a waste of money. As new moms we think we need everything out there and while a lot of the things have been created to make life easier, there are a lot of things that we really don’t need. My best advice, Don’t open, take off tags or use everything before baby arrives, wait and see what you’re baby and you really need.
And to finish, a few pictures of my love bug because she’s just too cute not to have some in every post!!
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| Sitting around watching some TV |
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| Ready to watch the last Bills game! |
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| All smiles on Christmas day! |
All Kinds of Happy 
