baby crap: health and grooming

Ok... I'll tell you what I bought (or registered for) and then what we actually use.

You feel like you need to get the grooming kit like so...

It includes tiny nail files, nail scissors, safety nail clippers, comb, and brush.

We never use it.  Ok, we used the brush and comb but then we lost the brush in the hotel in L.A. and had to buy another brush and comb set.

The nail clippers are too dull to comfortably use - we just got a brand new less than a dollar pair of Trim nail clippers which work perfectly when I can get her to sit still long enough to trim her nails.

The nail files are too small to be comfortable so I just use mine when I feel it's necessary.  I didn't try to use the nail scissors since I found the clippers to be easier.

And then there is the "essential" heathcare kit.

This kit includes:

• Nasal aspirator - they give you better ones in the hospital.
• medicine syringe - you get one every time you get a prescription and one comes with every package of the infant tylenol/ibuprofen
• tooth brush - they are really cheap to buy and we got a crazy looking one from our dentist.
• thermometer - you probably should have an oral/rectal thermometer but you don't really want to have to use it.
• and a few other things that we've never used.

Ok... thermometer.  We have a Braun Ear Thermometer.  LOVE IT!  It's just so easy to use and quick.  I don't think I would get anything different unless they made this one better (which they might have since the description in the link is slightly different than what we have).  Namely, if they made the display light up - you can't read it in the dark.  My mom and I had to take Pea to the ER last weekend because she was running about 105.1 and the ER doctor told me to not bother with the temporal ones (the one you swipe across the forehead) because they give falsely high readings. 

Oh, and our girl is weird and likes to take her medicine.

baby crap: a word about blankets

I was a blanket kid so I'm a little biased when it comes to the topic of blankets.  And I'm even more so now.

Yes, I realize that I am posting pictorial evidence of the fact that I had a blanket and sucked my thumb at 6.

Ok, first point is a big sanity making one.

Swaddling blankets.


You want a life saver in those early days when the baby will NOT stop crying - learn to swaddle and learn to swaddle well.  Reading Dr. Karp's Happiest Baby on the Block is great but even better - watch the video!  Unfortunately, we didn't do this until after the baby was born which meant that we'd also already done all of our sorting, returning, and washing of baby stuff including all the blankets.  Watching the video made me realize that we'd kept all the wrong blankets!

See, in the hospital the nurses are experts at wrapping the newborns up in flannel blankets.

Let me tell you that this is nearly impossible a skill to perfect when you really need it.  And if you have a houdini like we did, the swaddle won't last.  Dr. Karp's suggestion in the video is to use a blanket with some stretch.  Holy cow!  Total lifesaver!  Just that one little suggestion made all the difference.

Gerber thermal blankets were really good but they tended to be on the small side so they only worked when she was tiny.  The Carters receiving blankets are really nice as well and a little bigger so they lasted longer.  As the weather got warmer and she got bigger, the Aden and Anais for Target muslin blankets became indispensable.  I even used them as a nursing cover when we were on planes.  I'd love to try these from Etsy for the next time.

Now don't get me wrong, flannel receiving blankets - whether it's the 4 pack from Carters, homemade (so much cuter if someone you know has the skills), or the Swaddle Designs blankets (super cute but really, save your money) - have a lot of uses.  Ground cover.  Sun Shade.  Light warmth.  They just don't really cut it as swaddling blankets.

We did also have a couple Summer Infant SwaddleMe swaddle blankets.  They were easier to deal with in the middle of the night but Sweet Pea is a houdini and they never held her for long.  So those were kind of hit or miss.

The other big consideration about blankets is the security blanket or lovey.  I will admit that I am weird and I hate, hate, hate those lovies that are little chunks of blanket with a stuffed animal head on it.

Like this little guy.  Cute, right?  I just find it weird and oddly disturbing.  We have two that were given to us as gifts.  One oddly enough has different washing instructions for the head and blanket parts.  You can machine wash/dry the blanket part but not the head part.  What?!

As for nice soft blankets, there are plenty of options.  Just a few words to the wise - decide which one you might want to encourage a few months down the line (people say you can't choose a child's lovey but you can certainly encourage or discourage whatever you want) and make sure sure you have or can get more than one.  As a woman who spent a good 2 hours today trying to track down potential replacements, trust me on this one.  Also consider that you will potentially have to take the lovey everywhere for several years to come.

Bottom line....

• Flannel receiving blankets have their uses but not as swaddling blankets.
• Swaddling blankets need, need, need some stretch.
• Choose your lovey/security object wisely.  By "choose" of course, I mean only offer things that you can handle baby becoming attached to.

baby crap: feeding solids

ok, after a long break... another installment of baby crap...

We didn't start P on solids until she was just shy of 6 months old and really that was mostly because we were going to the pediatrician for her well baby visit soon and I didn't want to have to explain that I hadn't even tried to give her solid foods yet.  We were doing so well with the breast feeding that I really  wasn't keen on introducing another aspect of mess to my life.

Ok, so some people would say that we're "bad parents" because we didn't have a high chair and fed her sitting in the Bumbo on the kitchen table for about a month.  Go search the internet for all the opinions on why Bumbos are terrible.  Personally I say, know your kid and don't leave them in the Bumbo unattended (duh.).

This was our set up.

As you can see, like all good parents who have an IKEA nearby we have the IKEA bowls (and the plates and cups too).  At $1.99 for a set of six (each for the bowls, plates, and cups) in every color in the rainbow practically, it's a tough deal to beat.  We got the Munchkin spoons as a gift and have really liked them.  The Munchkin travel bowls, however, have not fared so well.  The edges of the lids started cracking not too long after we started using them so we got a very similar set from Gerber/Nuk (here is a link but ours are slightly different) that we've had no problems with.

Oh, so you want to know how that first bite went over.... like this...

None too pleased with the avocado (admittedly the avocados we had at the time were weird and she LOVES avocado now) or the homemade brown rice cereal.  I gave up on making my own rice cereal and we started using the Earth's Best Organic Brown Rice Cereal and eventually moved on to giving her the oatmeal and multigrain cereals as well.  She actually still eats the multigrain cereal for breakfast most days.

We started out only giving her dinner at the same time we ate and over time I added lunch, breakfast and an afternoon snack.  I only started giving her an afternoon snack shortly after she was a year old and I can't remember how long it took me to ramp up to 3 meals a day.

I feel like here is where I should mention that I made her most of her baby food.  I kept doing the math and it just made sense to me to just make the food myself.  I didn't buy too much to do it either.  I got a Kitchen Aid immersion blender which I wanted anyway but was aided by the fact that our regular blender died.  I also got the OXO baby blocks 2oz storage set which in the end was totally unnecessary because I ended up just buying more regular Rubbermaid 2 and 4 oz food storage containers and using those.  She was really only on straight pureed baby food from early October until after the start of the new year.  Oh and check out Wholesome Baby Food's website for some good ideas on what to feed babies when.

I know that I started giving her a sippy cup (or trying to) at about 7 months.

The first attempts, she didn't get it.

A little better about 3 weeks later.  

These sippy cups are made by Playtex and are virtually spill proof because they have valves in them which can make it a little challenging to figure out how to drink out of them.  So we switched over to the First Years Take & Toss cups which are intended to be travel cups though oddly we never travel with them since we just take one of the "regular" ones.  These cups don't have valves but they also don't have the handles so I guess it's a toss up as to which is easier for the child to master - holding the cup or drinking from it.  P's issue was the drinking from so the Take & Toss were easier for her and once she got the hang of those, she had no problems with the others.  I've heard a lot about babies having issues transitioning to sippy cups, we didn't have that problem which I think is entirely because she didn't have to make the switch from a bottle.  She hardly ever got bottles because that was just how our life worked out for her.

Let's see... we do like both sets of cups.  Neither are leak proof but the Playtex ones are better.  She is kind of destroying the tops of those with her teeth and her new habit of dropping them on the sidewalk during our morning walks.  So I think I will have to replace them for any future children.  The Take & Toss ones are easy to use (the lids on the others can sometimes be near impossible to get off but we've learned to just close them to the click and not keep going) but when she drops them, which is often, the lids can pop open making a mess.

As she's gotten older, she gets a lot more finger foods and feeds herself a lot.  As such we've been using the IKEA plates a lot more.  We've also been working on having her feed herself.  The Munchkin spoons are a little long for her to use so we have the Take & Toss forks and spoons which have much shorter handles.  She's been doing really well with them lately.

Here's an early attempt:

 

I just got her the Gerber Kiddy Cutlery forks (link is for the fork, knife, and spoon but you can get a 3 pack of forks) and gave her a fork for the first time last night.  She was confused.  I could have given her the forks from the Take & Toss set but they're plastic and don't look like they'd spear anything.

As for what she eats now at 14 months... just about anything we eat.  We try to give her whatever we are eating for dinner which doesn't always go over well.  I'm starting to come to the conclusion that she likes things that have a ton of flavor - taco meat, kebabs we made the other day that were smothered in Old Bay.  She loves fruit and will eat grapes, blackberries, and raspberries whole.  She tries with the strawberries but it's just easier to cut those for her.  Of course, if we would let her live on buttered English muffins, meat and cheese, she'd be pretty happy.

Back soon maybe...

baby crap – feeding, the early days

Let me start by saying that it’s amazing how much effort goes into feeding such a tiny little being.  And then follow that with as long as the baby gets fed, it doesn’t matter how you feed him/her.

I am fortunate in that for the most part breastfeeding came easy – not to say that it was natural at first or that we didn’t have our problems and don’t have our own quirks.  My reasoning… mostly because it’s cheaper and I’m lazy.  It’s cheaper because you don’t have to buy formula or a ton of bottles.  It’s lazy because, in my opinion, there’s nothing easier than offering a baby a boob at 3am or when she’s screaming her head off over God only knows what this time.  There’s no having to make and heat a bottle and all that jazz.

Ok, so if it’s that easy why do you still have to buy stuff?  Cuz you do.  Just the way it is.  Or at least that’s what we’re all lead to believe.

Feeding Pillow

I asked for and received a Boppy.  And… I hate it.  I don’t know if it’s because I’m short waisted or if it’s just too firm and rounded or what but I hated feeding with it.  I think it may have to do with it being too rounded because I have to admit that I was jealous of friends who are on their second kids and their Boppys seem to be much flatter – not sure if that’s just from use or because they’ve changed the design.  In the end, I gave it up for 2 reasons: 1. it wasn’t comfortable for me and 2. she got diagnosed with reflux and I ended up having to feed her at an angle (so that her head was higher than her tushy) which really wouldn’t work with the Boppy or any other breastfeeding specific pillow.  So I just used regular bed or couch pillows under my elbow for longer feedings and now I don’t use anything though I’ve found I’m a lot more comfortable if I put one knee up towards me.

But we’re keeping it and will be putting it to work for all its alternative uses which we pretty much ignored with Miss Pea.

Pump

I fully intended to go back to work sooner than it’s turning out that I will so I got a pump early on.  I went with the Medela Pump In Style.

Why this one?  Honestly, I can’t remember how I picked it.  I ended up buying it on sale in Target.  It’s been great.  I ended up having to pump fairly regularly for about 6-7 months because even though she’s a good eater, I was still having over production issues.  The only issue we’ve had is that I had to get another set of valves and connectors because we have had problems getting the parts apart after use and kind of damaged one.  When we have given her bottles (which has been infrequent), she’s taken pretty well to the standard wide nipple bottles that come with the pump.  Based on some internet reading, I did choose to go with the Lansinoh storage bags.  Word of advice – store them as flat as possible until frozen and then they’re easier to pack into your freezer and thaw when needed.

A few other things

One thing that I got from a friend that I found invaluable and an absolute lifesaver were the Lansinoh Soothies Gel Pads.  She sent me a set and suggested that I bring them to the hospital which I did thankfully!  Even if you are just going to give it a try, these would still be handy.  I’m currently seriously debating breaking out my leftover pair – the girl’s got some teeth!

Seriously.  I can’t stress enough how amazing these are!

I found a nursing cover to be helpful.  I personally don’t care that it’s a right to be able to breastfeed in public – I still don’t think you should do so without covering yourself.  My girl likes to take a break and look around and that would just leave me exposed without a cover.  I trolled Etsy before making my choice.

 
It’s just helpful for making you and everyone around you just a bit more comfortable.  I know you can just use a blanket but for those early days when the feedings are long, it’s easier with a cover.  I can’t say that I’ve used it in a while since she feeds so quickly and is so interested in the world around her that I just it easier to feed her in the car or in the Nordstrom women’s lounge.

With the reflux, burp cloths became a key part of our wardrobes.  My mom made most of the ones we used.  White terry cloth on one side, white flannel on the other, and edged in white eyelet.

 
We probably went through 3-5 of them a day!  It got better when she was about 6 months old and the reflux got better.  Now we might pull out 3-5 in a week.  We also received a package of your regular old Gerber cloth diapers which came in handy for many, many things but also for when we just couldn’t get the laundry done fast enough – there were another 12 burp cloths!

And lastly, nursing bras.  I read this post on BabyCenter yesterday and I couldn’t believe how many commenters said that they didn’t need nursing bras.  I’d be curious to know how they did it but for me – nursing tanks and nursing bras all the way!  I only have one bra that I spent any real money on – it’s from Nordstrom and they fitted me for it (I won’t admit to the size because I was beyond shocked!) and I was exchanging a failed attempt at a strapless bra in hopes of getting into a pre-pregnancy dress for a wedding.  It’s really nice but I certainly won’t buy another.  I do however save it for when I’m going to be out in public for an extended period of time ;-)  Ok, I have two Bravado! seamless ones that are a little bit more expensive that I got in the hospital – those are great for boring around the house use because they’re super comfy but do nothing for the “girls.”

Mostly, I bought less than $20 nursing tanks and bras.  All but one of my nursing tanks are Gillian & O’Malley basic camis.  They’re great!  Very comfortable and provide easy access.  I could even buy my pre-pregnancy size and they fit with room to spare.  They’re great for under dresses in the summer, for when you just don’t want to show off your stomach, and under sweaters when it’s cold. My only beef, made obvious by the fact that she was born in the spring, is that they only come in white, black, grey, navy and dark purple.  I wanted a bit more variety of color for spring/summer.  I did buy one other tank that’s supposed to be fancy (I got it on Zulily) and I don’t care for it. 

Most of my bras are also Gillian & O’Malley.  I ended up hating the soft cup ones with a passion so they’re all in the basket to go to Goodwill right now.  The sleep bras are fine – I just didn’t need them for that long.  I have a couple cheapy Gillian &O’Malley lace underwires that are fine (can’t seem to find them online) and get worn regularly.  And since those don’t come in nude, I also have a couple from Motherhood Maternity.  If you use nursing pads, you can probably get away with more than one wearing between washing but otherwise, they get a just a tad gross on the inside and I would suggest only one a day.

I was going to do everything for feeding the baby all in one post but, um, this got long.  oops.  And it’s taken me like 3,000 years to write it so instead… baby feeding for the first 4-6 months!

baby crap – other things classified as “gear”

Ok, here’s another installment.  Things that are still considered “gear” but not as major as all that other stuff that I was talking about yesterday.

Baby Carriers

Our favorite is our Ergo and we use it all the time.  Specifically, we have an Ergo Performance Carrier in Grey with the original infant insert.

This is our first outing with her in the Ergo with the infant insert – she was about 4 weeks old.

We chose the Ergo over, say, a Baby Bjorn because of its design.  The way the straps are configured, the majority of the weight is carried on your hips as opposed to your back.  Personally, I am well aware of the fact that my hips and legs are considerably stronger than the rest of me so I’d rather have a baby’s weight carried there.  It also just seems to be more comfortable for baby since it’s a more natural hip/leg position over basically being suspended by the crotch like in a Baby Bjorn.  The only drawback is that she can’t face forward when worn on the front but she’s been in it often enough right from the start that she doesn’t know any better.

We went with the Performance version over the others because it’s supposed to be cooler than their standard models and well, Will is a furnace.  At the time they only had one version of the infant insert but now I see that they’ve come out with a performance version of the insert.  Since we’ve never tried out a standard version, we can’t really talk to the difference.  But we’re very pleased with it so far.  I actually reach for it when I want to go out for a walk rather than getting out the stroller.  It’s also been so great for traveling that we check our stroller right on through to our destination.

 
Right before this trip I ordered the organic teething pads since she was making a mess out of the straps but they hadn’t arrived yet.  They’ve been super handy though I’ve since learned that you can get fancy ones on Etsy (Red Charlotte for example).  There is one thing that I wish I had – a stuff sack – because when not in use, the Ergo becomes an unruly octopus.

We also tried a Moby as a less cumbersome alternative to the Ergo but we never really got the hang of it.  We’re certainly going to keep it – maybe we’ll get it with the next one.

I’ve also got a pouch sling thing that I got on Zulily but I’ve never been comfortable with it.

Entertainment thingys

Since we were starting out somewhere so small, I didn’t want to get too much stuff like seats and swings and the like.  So to start with, we didn’t have any of it.  Then she got diagnosed with reflux and had to spend so much time upright and I needed something so that I could put her down.  I chose a basic bouncer seat – the Fisher Price How Now Brown Cow Bouncer Seat from Target.  All it has is toys to bat at and it vibrates.

Can we just say lifesaver? We made sure it went everywhere with us (as long as we were traveling by car) until she outgrew it.

This happened a lot:

A-mazing!

We got a play gym early on but we didn’t set it up until after we moved so she was about 3 months old before we introduced it to her.  It was a hit.  Actually on occasion, 6 months later, it still is!

It’s the Fisher Price Deluxe Musical Mobile Gym.  It’s honestly not annoying because the music turns itself off.  But the flashing lights kind of freak her out.  I will admit that it took a friend (one without kids) to show me that you can just turn it on by hitting the big red button on the top of the motor.  Aaaaand we’d been using it for about 4 months at that point.

baby crap – the big stuff

Ok, I don’t want to write one of those “This is what you need and everything else is crap” posts but I’ve had a friend ask me for some recommendations and my SIL has asked for recommendations for baby showers in the past so I figured that I would save myself some trouble of having to respond to these e-mails and just write a few posts about what we have and what we like or don’t like. 

First up the big guns –

Cradle

We are exceedingly fortunate that over 25 years ago my dad decided to put his woodworking skills to work (like what I did there?) and custom built a cradle out of cherry for my niece.  Well, not just my niece (who will be turning 25 in just over a month) but all of the grandchildren.  Unfortunately for my brothers, it’s big, awkward and too heavy to ship so it got to NJ and never got back to Texas.  But as we only lived 3 hours down the road when she was born and then had a moving truck at our disposal, we are its current keepers.

This is actually the earliest picture I could find of it in use for our girl.

Ok, we had the unique situation wherein we didn’t have the option to put her in a crib while we lived in VA since we didn’t have the space but we still would have gone the cradle/bassinet route anyway for the first few months since I certainly wasn’t going to go traipsing into another room to get her every few hours throughout the night nor was I going to ask Will to.  Besides, I could just stick my foot out from under the covers and rock her – BONUS!

But then this happened:

And we knew we were going to have to transition to a proper crib soon.  It had to wait until after we moved but thankfully the picture above was taken not too long before we left VA.

Crib

Honestly, I picked almost solely based on appearance.

It’s a DaVinci Charleston 4-in-1 in Coffee.  My mom actually got it from Target but I can’t seem to find it on their site.  It’s one of these “converts to a toddler bed and then to a full size bed” jobs but we have no plans to do such things with it because (a) I think toddler beds are ridiculous and (b) I think it’s all just a racket to get you to buy more cribs. 

It was actually really easy to put together.  It took about an hour the first time but then I took it apart and put it back together (most of the way) by myself when it needed to get moved into her room (that’s our room above).

Now I can’t take all the credit for researching the crib mattress.  We have friends whose daughter is a mere 3 months older than Miss Pea and they’d seemingly done their research on all the best earth- and baby-friendly options so with minimal further research, we went with their choice – The Organic Grace Organic Cotton/Wool Interspring crib mattress.  We’ve been pleased with it.

Car Seat

Based on recommendations from friends and playing with the mechanism in the store, we went with the Chicco KeyFit 30. 

Her first experience with it didn’t go so well.

It’s rated to 30lbs and, unfortunately for us with our long baby, 30 inches.  We’re going to hit the 30 inches a long time before we hit 30lbs and they don’t exactly advertize that extra limitation on the seat.  But really I think that’s our only “problem” with it.  We’ve found it easy to install, use, clean, adjust the straps as she’s grown, and she seems pretty comfortable in it.  Oh – I guess the only other “problem” is that it doesn’t fit in the seat part of all shopping carts but I’ve been told that it’s because you really aren’t supposed to do that with the infant seats anyway since it makes the carts top heavy.

Stroller

We went with the City Mini Single by Baby Jogger. 

In “newborn carry the car seat” mode.

We got green because it went with the car seat but I think I might have gone with the red (and the red version of the car seat) if I’d thought about it longer.  It is not a jogging stroller despite the name and its appearance.  Consumer Reports classifies it as a traditional stroller. 

Reasons we love it:
- it’s lightweight which ended up being key after I ended up with a c-section.
- It steers so well even with one hand
- The handle bar is on the tall side.  Will is comfortable walking but not running with it and he’s 6’1”.
- It does work as a jogger if you want.  I’ve tried it once.  Once only because I can’t run in CO yet as it turns out.
- It off-roads pretty well but is also nice and smooth in the mall.
- It has a one foot brake.
- It folds up SO quickly and easily.
- With the car seat adapter, it easily transitions through the ages.
- It’s actually a mid-range stroller pricewise though I think it looks much more expensive.

In “I can sit by myself like a big girl” mode.  I included both pictures because I want to point out that they were taken exactly 2 days apart in October.

A few drawbacks:
- The cargo basket is small and a touch awkward.
- All the extras are exactly that extras.  The tray for snacks and a drink for kids and the adults.  The car seat adapter.
- The car seat adapter (at least for the Chicco since we’re not familiar with anything else) is so confusing at first.  And everyone finds it to be so – we got asked about it twice in one day when we travelled back to DC.

Highchair

Hmmm…. well, I found ours on craigslist in November after she’d been on solid foods for about a month.  We’d been using a Bumbo set on the table before then. 

Again, I went for style. I wanted something classy looking since I was going to have to look at it all the time and no one of those “fold it up and put it away” jobs wasn’t going to cut it because we don’t have any place to put something like that and I’m lazy.  Then I went for price since it was craigslist. 

The seat pad comes off and is washable – and gets washed about once a month or so.  There’s a 3 point harness.  The plastic tray cover comes off to wash easily.  It looks good and does what it should for $48.

Unfortunately, the plastic tray cover is a little damaged and Graco is all sold out of replacement parts.  And it’s discontinued.  It’s a little beat up so I may get ambitious and refinish it but eh, it works.

Pack and Play aka Play Pen

We didn’t finally get a pack and play until right before we left VA to head west.  We just got a very basic Graco model without the bassinet or changer or any of that extra stuff.  But Liz is responsible for alerting me that a green and brown with elephants model existed.  We still don’t use it all that often, pretty much only when we work outside in the yard or when we’re working on a project with lots of small parts.

She slept in a pack and play when we went East for Christmas but I don’t think she found it terribly comfortable.  She doesn’t mind it but I don’t think she really likes it.  It seems pretty easy to set up.  I have no actual experience doing it since Will usually does it.  I suspect that once she starts crawling, she might be spending some more time in it.

Convertible Car Seat

After polling friends, doing fair amount of internet searching and checking them out in the store; we’re about to pull the trigger and order a Britax Boulevard 70.

  
Modeling the Marathon 70 in the store.

It’s more expensive than our other contender (the Evenflo Triumph 65) but in the end, the fact that it is more similar to our Chicco made the decision for us.  Amongst a bunch of other factors, of course.

Diapers

Our other big upfront expensive has been cloth diapers.  I will eventually go into our decision to cloth diaper at length but for now… We’re using BumGenius Organic All-in-Ones.

 
Our first venture out with them.