It occurred to me today that Jon and I will actually need baby stuff for NewBaby. I haven't had a baby since 1998, and Jon's never had one, so we have exactly zero for a baby. Well, I take that back, I do still have a nice bunch of the really expensive all-in-one cloth diapers I had for Elliot, so that's a good start (yes, we plan to use cloth), but that's it.
Baby gear has improved a lot since 1998 (and even then, I didn't get much new stuff, because that was my 3rd baby in 6 years and I was mostly using stuff I'd had for the other two). There are all kinds of cool gadgets that seem really useful, like this thing:
I am also thinking we might get one of the Arms Reach Co-sleeper thingies for nightttime. Have any of you used one? What did you think?
But there is also a lot of stuff that seems excessive and useless. Babies don't actually need that much stuff.
skip to main |
skip to sidebar
I don't want to sell anything, buy anything, or process anything as a career. I don't want to sell anything bought or processed, or buy anything sold or processed, or process anything sold, bought, or processed, or repair anything sold, bought, or processed. You know, as a career, I don't want to do that.
About Me
Blogs I Like to Read
- Amy's Very Cool Homeschooling Family
- Ann Douglas
- Blogging Baby
- David Rhoden
- Domestic Psychology
- First Impressionist
- Jonathan Hickman
- Lemuria Books
- Mamas Ink
- Marrit Ingman
- Martini Made
- Meagan Francis
- Mo's Journal
- Remembering Ward
- Suburban Turmoil
- The Vol Abroad
- This Woman's Work
- Women's Health News
- Zygote Daddy
Good Stuff on Being a Parent/Family Life
Books I"ve written/contributed to
Blog Archive
-
▼
2007
(340)
-
▼
January
(94)
- food
- horses
- genetic testing
- quote of the day
- congrats to randall and becky!!
- go ahead! baby your babies, people!
- fat
- cold weather
- words to birth by
- relief
- bonnaroo line-up leaked?
- visceral
- dancing
- christabel and the jons
- applicants
- urban renewal
- prediction
- call me crazy
- bad habits vs. expectations
- whither hillary?
- nausea
- this explains a lot
- babyphat
- cute helen!
- scariest parenting moment so far
- elliot, j. and c. head off to battle in the kudzu ...
- 15 year old boy captured in his natural habitat
- $$$$
- cornish pasties?
- parentfear
- shawn hornbeck on oprah
- no habeas corpus?
- her parents must be very proud
- cuteness + major concentration
- john mayer on the grey's anatomy brouhaha
- new memoir
- bloggin'
- i need a vacation
- wal-mart organics may not be
- the 11th commandment
- will ferrell, lactivist
- a new kind of baptist?
- frozen cloth diapers...
- kate hearts jon
- bellies
- another reason to find bill o'reilly really distas...
- first yoga class
- my least favorite parts of being a parent
- i bought...
- new article on how mothers influence children's di...
- what not to wear
- induction and c-section rates
- more proverbs
- jealousy
- prenatal yoga in knoxville?
- laziness
- great news!
- bad news
- pablo
- Right on, Meagan Francis
- proverbs
- the spelling bee
- super-ward
- info overload
- one heartbeat
- nurse betsy
- mutant
- baby stuff
- to snip or not to snip?
- clarification of the day
- sleepover
- nursing other people's babies
- courtney love's new year resolutions
- chicken salad?
- wow. rehnquist was a drug addict
- what's in a name?
- jon
- after
- heroism
- real life "mean girls"
- mac and cheese
- on the turntable today
- a women's health poll
- newbook
- spacing
- nine years ago
- another video of a recent jane riding lesson
- double ugh
- help with breastfeeding
- Happy New Year!!!
- so damn tired
- the gun show
- local news coverage of leprechaun sighting
- jane and irish
-
▼
January
(94)
8 comments:
We really loved our arms reach co-sleeper. We used it until my daughter was big enough to sleep in bed easily with us. And, then we kept it up for some time after that for storage for late night diaper changes, etc. We have let two other families borrow it and they have found it useful as well and we are setting it up this week for our new baby's arrival. They don't take up a lot of room which is nice. Once your baby can really move around though, they are not good for sleeping in any more because they are very shallow.
I agree with you about people overdoing gear, but found the snuggle nest thing to be a lifesaver. Before we bought it my son would only sleep laying on my chest.
I borrowed an arm's reach from a friend, but my son did not spend much time in it. (He was a larger baby though and mobile very early in addition to wanting to sleep rightnexttome.)
The one piece of baby gear that I loved? Our Ergo carrier. It beat every other carrier or sling that I tried, hands down.
We liked our armsreach co-sleeper, and so did the baby. He was mostly sleeping through the night in it by 6 weeks. As Karrie said, once the baby is able to roll over you need to stop using it. We never used ours as a play yard (we never used a play yard at all) or a changing table as advertised. But it was handy for storage/pile-o-junk area.
If you want to buy locally, we bought ours at Baby Depot (inside Burlington Coat Factory).
need a good stash o diapers and a nice carrier or two. have not bothered much with the cribs...lol... we do have a pack n play set and and she uses it rarely.some of those are cheaper than the arms reach and have the high ond low setting.
we had both. and used both for short times...after a while the co-sleeper became a launry basket.
My sister had a co-sleeper for her first, but she didn't bother with it for her second. I wouldn't bother with the snuggle nest thing myself either, because then you'd have to wake up after nursing to put the baby back in it instead of just mostly sleeping through the whole night which is how I prefer to do it!
I know others have found some of these devices helpful but I can't help but feel they are blatant attempts to make something that should be easy and free difficult and expensive so someone can make money off it, just like some companies try to convince you that you MUST have bottles and pumps around even if you are a breastfeeding stay-at-home mother (I never used a pump or bottles until #5 who had issues).
Many people expect that with five kids our house would be overflowing with baby equipment, but the more kids we have the more stuff we throw away. It just isn't necessary. We did not put up the crib or the cradle for Lorelei. The only equipment we bought this time was a bedrail because our bed is not against a wall and I prefer to have her on the side instead of the middle and a bouncy seat because I like to have somewhere to set a baby down occasionally. We have slings of all sorts but did not even buy a stroller until she was over one.
As you well surmise, babies just don't need a lot of *stuff*. Got breasts w/ a healthy milk supply and the desire to nurse? Got lots of love? Patience? A good car seat properly installed? Aside from these and a good support system (spouse, friends, extended family...) the best stuff for my babe and parenting have been: a Maya wrap, an active fancy style Baby Bjorn for hikes when Ziggy was 8 months and younger, a New Native sling, a backpack and an Ergo. Lots of carriers (and frankly, if I had the expendable income, I might have a couple more), but it's been really nice to switch out for different purposes and ages / sizes / abilities. Also, it's kinder on the body. The all in one dipes are okay, but take a long time to dry and are expensive. Pre-folds and Bummis whisper wraps are an economical and long useful thing to have around. And after receiving soem hand me down Fuzzi Bunz, I've become a huge fan of pocket diapers for outdoor winter outings and nighttimes as well as other times if the stash is large enough. We never bothered with co-sleepers or those in-the-bed devices. Teh old school birdseye cloth dipes are great for cleaning up pukey / poopy and pee messes (we do a lot of diaper free time), for padding a sling or a sleeping area, or for any number of uses. I highly recommend spending the bulk of your money on a carseat: I'm a big fan of Britax, and had I known then what I now know, after moving the babe from a bucket at three months (he's always been very tall!), I'd have purchased the Marathon instead of the Roundabout. Love the latter, but as I want Ziggy to remain rear facing for some time for higher safety, we've moved up to the taller and spendier Marathon. A changing table is nice for most of the first year to save your back, but totally not necessary. Stacking bins are great for organizing the cloth diaper stash if, like us, you're strapped for space and closets. Mostly, less is more. Boobs, love, car seat, support for YOU, good snacks for you. You'll be great.
We had a hand-me-down Arm's Reach cosleeper with my son but I ended up using it mainly as a diaper holder. Carter slept snuggled between me and the cosleeper so it would catch him if he rolled off (he never did). Later I gave the cosleeper away and bought a bedrail.
My all-time-most-useful baby item? The Maya Wrap sling. It's beautiful, can hold your baby a zillion different ways and has a pocket in the tail for your stuff. Even now when I carry (21 month old) Carter in it on my hip folks stop me to ask about it. I love the website peppermint.com for all sorts 'o nifty baby carriers.
Post a Comment