My Favorite Things: Baby Edition

I recently saw a magazine article that was featuring baby products of years gone by. Let's just say that it's a good thing that the baby item industry has grown and developed significantly in the past thirty years! For example, I certainly remember the one car seat that we had growing up. It was covered in brown vinyl. And as soon as a new baby was born, the prior youngest got booted out to the hard plastic booster seat (like what you'd use now at your kitchen table!) so that the new baby could have the car seat. Which was, of course, forward facing.

Anyhow, for nothing more than posterity's sake, I thought it might be fun to document some of my own "favorite things" for child raising. Don't you know that twenty-some-odd years from now my boys' wives will look back at this and think Oh my gosh! I can't believe she used that! Ha! So here goes...almost four years and three babies and these are some of my favorites.

 You can't leave the hospital without one! (a car seat, that is) The Sunshine Kids Radian line of car seats is what we have used for all three boys. It's a convertible car seat, meaning it can be rear facing as well as forward facing, and depending on the model you buy, can serve as your baby's car seat from 5 pounds all the way up to 80 pounds. Kolbe and Rudy both started out in portable carrier car seats for their first several months and then up-graded to this seat. With Grant, we just decided to skip the carrier seat all together and start out with this guy. So far I haven't regretted my decision at all! These car seats are fantastic. They are slim (you can fit three across in a back seat), they fold up for travelling/airplane use, and they sit lower to the seat which is a feature I like more and more the older the boys get. I just can't picture them being down with sitting in one of the ones that's really raised up off of the seat of the car when they're say five or six. Read: this one has the ability to look more "booster" and less "car seat" the older they get! And at the rate Kolbe is going, he's not going to be legally allowed to go without a car seat until he's thirteen.



 I mentioned above that we decided to forego the carrier style car seat for Grant. There were lots of reasons behind this decision. With my lupus, I struggle with strength and mobility in my wrists a lot. And I can't tell you how many times that I had flare ups when Kolbe and Rudy were babies from lugging those heavy car seats around. Secondly, I felt that with having three little ones...and two "on the loose" I would need to have my arms free when possible to keep them corralled. And thirdly, most carrier-style car seats have weight limits of around twenty pounds. So for most babies, they should only be used for a matter of months anyway. So instead of buying another carrier seat that I'd just use for a few months, I invested in the ErgoBaby chest carrier. Yes, I know it looks somewhat like a straight jacket, but it's so worth it! Not only does it place your baby in the right position for healthy hip/bone development but it's also fantastic on your back. Somehow it manages to distribute the weight evenly. I've tried lots of different chest carriers and this is by far my favorite.

Another thing that I've tried my share of is diaper bags. I think no matter which bag you carry, there's always going to be a little something to be desired. That being said, this Skip Hop diaper bag is the bag that I always come back to. It's got tons of dividers which I love for organizational purposes, is roomy and overall just functions really well. Plus, I love Skip Hop's built in clips that can attach your bag to your shopping cart or stroller. When other kiddos and mounds of groceries need room, it's nice not to have your purse/diaper bag taking up space. As for what's to be desired? To me it still does look like a diaper/utility bag. Not a cute purse. But I'll still carry it any day for its functionality!

If you plan to breast feed, a really good pump, in my opinion, is a necessity. Even if you don't plan to pump and bottle feed whatsoever, you never know what situation may arise that could cause you to need one. In my case, I have needed my pump for all three children. Kolbe, for obvious reasons with his cleft lip and palate. With Reagan, he went his entire babyhood without taking a bottle of any kind at any point in time. That still didn't help the fact that in the early months I produced way more milk that he could consume so I still had to pump to prevent problems from occurring. In Grant's case, I've had to use it not only for the over production of milk, but for all the other issues I've had with nursing too. Like those lovely bouts of mastitis. Ugh! Anyway, I'm a huge fan of the Medela pumps. Yes, they're quite an investment, but mine has lasted through all three kids with no problems at all, and just think of all the money you're saving from not having to buy formula!

Speaking of breast feeding, Bravado nursing bras are the best. Hands down. Especially if you're an abnormal size like me. They offer lots of different options, and while yes, they are pricey, it's so worth it to have good support, functionality, and appearance. Meaning they make you look normal through your clothes. : ) And no, that's not a picture of me!

Enough with the nursing! On to the next stage of feeding! I have to give a shout out to my favorite bibs. They're made by a company called Dex, I believe, but all of ours say Sally Huss on the front...I guess she's the artist that does the cute drawings on the front. Anyway, these can't be beat, in my opinion. The fold up pouch at the bottom uses snaps instead of velcro so they don't get all nasty. And speaking of the pouch, it actually stands out from the bib, if that makes sense. Other pouch bibs I've tried lay flat up against the chest...so they don't catch anything at all! Never a problem with these. And the front has some type of laminate on the top so they can either be machine washed or just wiped down for cleaning. They're kind of pricey online but I've bought them at Walmart at Burlington for $5 a piece.

Speaking of straight jackets, I'm a huge fan of the baby version! At least for the first few months while trying to establish nursing and days/nights. While babies do have the inate ability to suck, they're not exactly clued in on where the milk comes from at first. So, at least in my experiences, they're constantly fighting to put their hands up to their face/mouth while nursing. It can get frustrating and difficult! Using baby swaddlers (doesn't matter which brand to me) helps a ton. While they do prevent any skin to skin contact, they keep the baby's arms out of the way and keep them feeling warm and secure. Same goes for sleeping. When Grant was born I used the swaddlers for him to sleep in during night time hours and went without during day time naps. It seemed to help him sleep deeper at night. We only used them for the first two months or so beacuse at that point they start making a massive effort to break out of them, but I really do like them for all intended purposes in the beginning.

As for diapers, I'm definitely a Pampers mama. For our boys, we've had way fewer leaks and skin irritations than with other diapers. If you buy them straight out at the store, they are certainly more pricey than other more economical options, but not if you use an awesome little online program that I'm a member of. I joined Amazon Mom shortly after Rudy was born. The way it works is Amazon offers many different brands and sizes of diapers (and many other items too) that you can "subscribe" to (you'll notice an option that says "subscribe and save".) You choose your brand and size and how often you want to receive them. (anywhere from 1-6 months) By signing up, you get a greatly discounted rate for the diapers. And you get to join Amazon Mom which grants you free membership to Amazon Prime. Amazon Prime is free two-day shipping not just on the diapers, but on the majority of all other items you buy on Amazon too. Plus there's the obvious fact that there's no tax on Amazon. The last time I calculated it, diapers that would cost me around thirty cents a piece at Target can be had for about nineteen cents a piece on Amazon. As for the subscription, you can cancel at any time and you can either estimate when you'll need another shipment, or just set it at six months and whenever you're getting low on diapers just log in and select the option to send the next shipment now. Love that program!


Ok, that's all for now. Do you think I should send a bill to the makers of all of these items for free promotion!?! Ha! I wish! These were genuinely just my honest opinion. And something that I thought would be fun to do on a lazy Sunday afternoon while the babes nap. Now off to change another nineteen cent diaper!