Playful Rooted

Well, guys, my baby’s going to be ONE YEAR OLD later this month. Sob! Time has certainly flown by, but it’s also been a long, full, wonderful year. I’ve been so fortunate to stay home with him and witness every milestone. He’s becoming so much of a person now, not just a baby. Like, he actually has a sense of humor and he does funny stuff because he knows it will get a laugh. The best!

As his babyhood veers more toward toddlerhood, I am finding myself struck (stricken?) by a bad case of newborn fever. It’s dangerous for me even to go out in public! I always thought that once I had my first baby, I wouldn’t feel that same intense desire to have another one, but….yeh. Baby fever is back in full force.

To the point where the other day, I found myself going through all the lists I had made before we had Luca to see what, if anything, we would need to buy before we had another tiny human. And that’s what prompted this post. 🙂 I am a chronic over-preparer, which also makes me an over-purchaser. Ben loves this about me (hahahaNO). Before Luca was born, I had several lists going in Evernote of STUFF WE WOULD NEED for baby, which Ben rolled his eyes at constantly (I got a lot of sass like, “How did people have babies 200 years ago if you NEED all this stuff to have one??”). And yeah, he was right about some things, but others, I was so thankful to have when baby finally came along! So I thought I would share some of the purchases I’m glad I made, and a handful of ones we definitely could have lived without.

1. Dutailier glider and ottoman – Dutailier is hands-down the best at doing gliders right. This also makes them among the most expensive, but if you’re anything like me, you LIVE in the glider for the first several weeks, and then you continue to log many hours per week in that thing for, like, ever. That not only makes the cost per use small enough to justify; it also means your glider needs to be comfortable! Of all the (many) gliders we tested, the Dutailier was undeniably the cushiest and gave us the smoothest rock/ride/glide. You can order it at Babies ‘R’ Us for like one million dollars, OR you can put it on your Amazon registry (where it’s already like $200 cheaper) and then use your registry completion discount to snag it! I think we paid around $400 for ours, which was an amazing steal since it was over $800 at Babies ‘R’ Us. Definitely an investment that was so so worth it!
2. L’ovedbaby kimono onesies – Early in Luca’s pregnancy, Ben’s sister gave us the great advice to set aside some money every month to buy NICE, organic baby clothes. I’m so glad we listened and had a nice little stash of these (admittedly expensive) onesies. The stuff we bought at Carter’s just doesn’t compare to the quality and durability of these items (we love the L’ovedbaby brand in general, and the kimono-style onesies were perfect for nervous new parents). We were visiting my sister once when Luca was tiny and wearing one of these, and she even commented on how thick and soft the fabric was. Let me be clear: Luca wears plenty of Carter’s now because we aren’t millionaires, BUT. It made me feel good to have nice, soft, organic cotton on his tiny newborn body. (And plus, they last a great long time, so we’ll get plenty of use out of these in future kiddos.)
3. Wipes warmer – The wipes warmer is at the top of the list on every “Things You Don’t Need for Baby” article, but I consider ours a total essential. That’s very likely because we cloth diaper (and so use cloth wipes also), and I wanted a pretty and functional place to store our wipes (not just some plastic container). This one functions perfectly for what I wanted, and it looks good in the nursery too. Luca was born right when the weather started getting COLD, so I did feel better about having warm wipes on his sweet little newborn tushy too.
4. Skip Hop changing wristlet – This was a baby shower gift from Ben’s aunt (hi, Karen!), and it still gets so much use! It is the absolute star of the show for travel. It’s perfect for road tripping when we just need to do a quick diaper change in the backseat without getting the whole diaper bag out. And then when we get to our destination, it makes a handy little changing area on the hotel bed. We’ve taken it to Chicago and Nashville and will take it when we go to Colorado later this month. Love. It.
5. NoseFrida snot sucker – The least glamorous, but one of our most essential essentials. Nothing works like the NoseFrida! As a bonus, they have amazing customer service, and if you happen to lose one of the blue plastic pieces, they’ll send you a new one for free!
6. My Brest Friend nursing pillow – So the Boppy was the ubiquitous nursing pillow until a few years ago when the My Brest Friend came on the market. I did a lot of research into what was better and ended up purchasing a MBF…and then I got two Boppy pillows handed down to me. 😉 Honestly, I was glad to have them all as it was nice to keep one upstairs and one downstairs (and then we moved into a house with a third level, so it was perfect). I do prefer the MBF though because it’s more supportive and goes all the way around your body, so it worked better for the early days when baby was most floppy. Plus, nothing beats shouting to your spouse, “Babe, have you seen My Brest Friend??”
7. Skip Hop playmat – It was a challenge to find a play mat that came in something other than crazy bright primary colors. This one was a little spendy, but it fit the “forest friends” theme we had going, and it looked wayyy better than most of our other options. Not to even mention that I bought it when Luca was like 6 weeks old, and he didn’t stop using it until a couple months ago! When he was tiny, he liked laying on his back and looking at the toys hanging down, and then when he could sit up, he loved batting at everything and grabbing all the toys that were at his eye level. I thought he would outgrow it way sooner than he did, so definitely a good buy.
8. Fisher Price Deluxe Rock ‘n Play “Sleeper” – This is practically every parent’s number one “must-have” item, and it is definitely super useful! I do actually really miss the days when I could put Luca in here and take a long – hot – shower. Or do really anything alone without worrying about him getting into stuff! Ohh how nice that was. {I HAVE to mention though because I’m an annoying safety freak… this is NOT recommended for baby to sleep in. I actually hate that it’s called a “Sleeper” because it should not not not be used as a sleeping surface. Baby on his or her back on a flat surface, ONLY. Okay, done.}
9. Dria nursing cover – Confession. I only tried to use this as an actual nursing cover once. Maybe twice? Guys, some babies just won’t do it. And I can’t blame them! Try eating a sandwich with a blanket covering your face. Not easy or pleasant. Anyway, I gave up using a nursing cover pretty much right away, and now I just use the two-shirt method or, more likely, I just hike up or pull down whatever I’m wearing and get the job done. (#normalizebreastfeeding) ANYWAY though, this cover is still on my list because it has so many other uses! It works brilliantly as a car seat cover, a lightweight blanket, a stretchy swaddle, an impromptu picnic blanket, a burp cloth… like honestly, anything you can think of, this cover can do it. It stays in my diaper bag at all times because it’s so versatile.
10. Chicco Liteway Plus stroller – We got this stroller because it worked with our infant car seat (the Chicco KeyFit 30 Zip, also highly recommended), and it’s been an awesome tool since day one. But I didn’t realize how amazing it was until Luca and I tagged along on Ben’s work trip to Chicago. I was alone with the kiddo for five days, walking around the crazy busy city, and I was SO glad to have this thing! It’s an umbrella stroller, so it’s lightweight and compact, but it also has more heft than the average umbrella stroller, so I was able to stow my diaper bag and other items in the bottom and not worry about any sturdiness issues. I would recommend this stroller even if you don’t use a Chicco car seat. It’s good.

Okay, now some of the purchases that weren’t worth it. (Ben’s loving life right now. #eyeroll)

1. Eight ounce bottles – I bought these fancy Comotomo bottles on a trusted person’s recommendation. She advised getting several bottles in both the 5 ounce and 8 ounce sizes (for when baby gets bigger and drinks more milk). WELL. I didn’t know then what I know now: that breastfed babies shouldn’t ever eat more than 4 ounces at a time. I know it’s different for formula fed kiddos, so these bigger bottles definitely would have been useful if we had gone that route, but we’ve literally never used them and likely never will. (And honestly…..Luca has had mayyybe 20 bottles in his entire life. We could have bought ONE bottle and been done with it. Live and learn!)
2. Sleep sacks without a swaddle – I don’t know why I didn’t know about sleep sack swaddles until after Luca was born, but I was so so lucky that someone handed down two of them to us. Baby loved his swaddle, and the only sleep sacks I had purchased were ones without the swaddle function. By the time he grew out of being swaddled, it was way too hot to put him in a regular sleep sack. So add these to the list of Things We’ve Never Used.
3. Sound machine – Okay, to be fair, I didn’t actually buy this, but it was on my list of things to buy. And I’m glad I didn’t! We just never really thought to use white noise until recently when Luca started liking it at night, and for that, I purchased an iPhone app that I actually love called Sound Sleeper. I think it cost $4.99 and it’s awesome for many different functions, sounds, and portability.
4. Multiple buntings – Luca was a late fall baby, so I pictured needing lots of warm warm clothes to get through the winter. I have no idea why. We honestly stayed inside for like the first four months of his life! And the thing about a lot of these big, thick buntings is that they’re not safe for the car seat. (Note: The one linked here and in the photo above IS car seat compatible! But most of the big puffy ones are not.) So maybe if we had gone on lots of outdoor adventures that didn’t involve the car, multiple buntings would have made sense? But we live in the suburbs now, so…we pretty much drive everywhere. I don’t know. For our limited cold weather exposure during his infancy, one warm bunting would have been 100% sufficient. Maybe 150%.
5. Kiinde system – Okay, first: I think this system is BRILLIANT for moms who pump and bottle feed a lot,  moms who pump at work and bring it home, etc. It’s an incredibly efficient system and prevents you from having to wash and sterilize bottle parts like all. the. time (which is so annoying). I really like the brand and the products and would highly recommend this whole system to the aforementioned moms. Buuuut. As mentioned, my baby hardly ever takes a bottle, so I just didn’t get the most use out of this system that I could have. Essentially for me, it just included some really expensive milk storage bags. 🙂 Oh! Also a nice organizer for the freezer, and a great warmer. If you’re in my boat (a SAHM who doesn’t pump that often), I’d recommend just getting the warmer. But seriously, a good investment if you pump a bunch!

So there you have it, and if you’re wondering if my baby fever calmed down by writing this post, IT DID NOT. Off to go make a new Evernote list for things we need for our next baby (if and when and God willing and all that jazz). 😉

xo!