I can't believe Madelyn is almost 6 months old. I know, its been quite a while since I have updated, but since I have several friends with new babies, several who are pregnant, and just for my own record keeping, I have decided to do a random update of baby must-haves for the first six months.
I remember walking into BuyBuyBaby when I was about 12 weeks pregnant and have a mini panic-attack. Seriously...there is SO much stuff you can purchase for a baby. How do you know what you really need?? Everyone is different, but here are a few of the things that we have used pretty often. This is the bare minimum stuff, we have/use more than this, but could have easily gotten by with just this list.
Play and Sleep
Seriously, MUST HAVE. Madelyn slept for the first 4-6 weeks in a bassinet and woke up every 3-5 hours, and the first night she slept in this thing she slept through the night. We have the basic one that my mom got at a yard sale. It literally does nothing other than rock if Madelyn kicks the bottom part, but even on the carpet it doesn't really do that. They have ones that have mobiles and vibrate and rock themselves, which I am sure would make me love this thing even more. Everyone I know that has one of these loves them. It is baby magic. Madelyn is still sleeping in this, though we are planning on transitioning to the crib this weekend. Pray for us.
2) Fisher-Price Piano Gym, Kick and Play
Until about 3 weeks ago, Madelyn played on this thing every day from like 2 weeks on. It was a great way to get tummy time, since the top thing comes down and she could see herself in the mirror, and she LOVED kicking her feet and hearing music. The piano also comes off to play with once they are sitting. Now that Madelyn is rolling around and almost crawling (sad,,,,) she doesn't use this as much, but she was about to entertain herself for a long enough time on this thing for us to get stuff done.
3) A good swing.
We have one similar to this one:
There are about 6,000 swings on the market. We had two, this one and a larger one, but Madelyn never really liked the larger one that had more functions. This one plays music, vibrates and swings. Its pretty light weight and she still will swing in it sometimes when she is fussy, so we have definitely gotten good use out of it! Personally, I don't think its necessary to go out and spend hundreds of dollars on a swing, especially since babies are weird about what kind of motion they like, but some people swear by the more expensive ones, which I am sure are great.
4) aden + anais blankets
These are pricey, however, we love them. They are light weight enough for our georgia heat, big enough to use a nursing cover, easy to swaddle baby in if you're doing that, and super soft. Like, I want a queen sized version. I guess any blanket in this type of fabric would be fine, really, but these are cute prints, too :)
These next two can wait until a few months in....
5) Infant playseat
This is essentially a bumbo, but it provides entertainment while sitting in it. I'm not sure what Madelyn would do if she was just sitting in this with no little toys to play with. When she first started sitting in this she just kind of leaned back but she now leans forward in plays with everything (well, now she sits up all on her own), but we've used this from about 3 months on. A friend of mine used it earlier. We also use it as a high chair type thing some times to feed her.
6) Activity Jumper
This one is actually similar to the one that Madelyn has at daycare. The one we have she likes, but she doesn't actually bounce in it, and I think she would like it more if it did. Still, she's used it pretty regularly for about a month (starting at 5 months), and I see her using it for quite a while!
Feeding
1) Bottles
This is a duh. We use the Lansinoh Momma bottles. Madelyn prefers straight from the tap, but this is the bottle she has prefered from the beginning. In my opinion, it mimics a real breast better than most others. We tried Dr. Browns, which she did take but not as well as the lansinoh, tommie tippie, avent...bottom line, my advice is, don't get your heart set on a certain bottle before your baby is born. I knew this going in, but for some reason I wanted to use Dr. Browns when I wasn't nursing, and I took out/sterilized like three packs of them before she was born. Which in hindsight wasn't so smart when she didn't really like those. My suggestion would be to try one bottle (when you start bottle feeding, if nursing), and then when you find the kind you want to use and that the baby will take, buy more of those.
2) Storage bags
If you are pumping, these are the best milk storage bags that I have used. I have used the medela ones, and they don't freeze as flat. I also used the babies r us brand, and again, they didn't freeze as flat. They also hold more than the medela ones I used. I've only had one leak, also. For reference, I freeze in 5oz quantities, though I started with 4oz and moved up to 5. I send four 5-6oz bottles a day to daycare with Madelyn.
3) Breast pump
This is the one that I got for free from my insurance (THANKS INSURANCE). I wish I had two, one for work and one for home, but I just carry it back and forth for now. I do have two sets of shields/valves so that I have one I take back and forth to work and one I use in the morning at home and then I can just clean them all at the same time at night. I'm at almost 6 months of exclusively breast feeding Madelyn (minus the baby food she recently started eating). As a working mom, this would not be possible for me without this pump. I am sure that there are other great pumps, and I know you can rent some from hospitals, I have this one simply because its the one that was free with insurance.
4) Hands-free pumping bra
I have this one. The zipper stinks on it, so I just leave it zipped and pull it over my head. I also have this one but it doesn't really fit me right.
The kind doesn't really matter, but if you are pumping, this makes life much easier. It is nice to be hands free while you are connected to a machine :)
Miscellaneous
VERY IMPORTANT. I have literally never seen these on all of the lists I read of baby must-haves. Never. And they are SO necessary. We used them as a liner in the bassinet, and then we also lay it on top of the changing pad. Trust me, if you had to change the cover of the changing pad every time it got dirty, you'd be washing that thing every other day (especially in the early days). We lay these on top of the changing pad cover, and then if we have a particularly messy diaper, the liner gets the gross stuff, and we can just take it off and put another one down in two seconds, rather than having to change the cover all the time. I also laid one down in the pack n play when I needed to change her diaper in our bedroom. Or I'd lay it on the floor in the living room to change her...you get the idea. Get them. You won't regret it.
Diaper rash cream is another one of those baby-by-baby situations. Some people swear by that butt paste stuff, some swear by a&d, some desitin...you get the idea. The butt paste has never really worked for us. A&D works okay, but this honest healing balm WORKED MIRACLES. Madelyn battled a darn rash for a month that not even prescription stuff touched. Put this on and THE NEXT MORNING it was gone. Seriously. She starts to get red and I put this on, and within hours she is healed. I love it. I DO like their diapers, but they are pricey, especially when you can use coupons for other diapers. I got a great deal on two months worth, but once we run out I may go back to other diapers to see how she does now that we have discovered this healing balm. We will see.
I didn't have the infant insert, so I couldn't use this until Madelyn weighed 12 pounds, but its been a life saver when shopping. Believe it or not, baby carriers are not actually supposed to go on top of grocery carts. They have special carts that baby carriers strap into to make that practice safer, but its impossible to see around the baby carrier if you use them, and running into stuff while shopping isn't fun. Placing the infant carrier in the cart is a better option, but then you have no room to put merchandise. Enter the Ergo. I strap Madelyn on and off we go. Normally she falls asleep on me. Its pretty comfortable. It is easy easy and convenient. I did use a Moby wrap when she was smaller, which I also LOVED, but it takes watching youtube videos to figure out and I didn't feel as secure once she got bigger, and its not fun to stand in the raining wrapping that dang thing around you 100 times for 5 minutes. I've heard there are better wraps than the Moby, but really, the ergo is quick and easy. There are other, cheaper options for baby carriers, but make sure you do research! The popular Baby Bjorn apparently has been linked to hip dysplasia because of its design.
Infant carriers (with an infant in them) are HEAVY. Stroller systems are HEAVY. This frame holds only the infant carrier and is super light and easy to move around, when the larger strollers can be harder to steer. There is a baby-trend one that holds other types of car seats besides graco, and I highly recommend one of the two. We have a jogging stroller, also, that the infant carrier clicks into, and we will use it when Madelyn outgrows the infant carrier (we use it now for walks around the neighborhood), but this frame is super convenient for now.
5) Diaper Bag
Y'all, let me tell you about the diaper bag. The one I originally ordered was big with lots of pockets and a cooler compartment, and it was HUGE and did not fit under either stroller we had. I finally got this bag, which Marcus and I both LOVE. It can be carried as a back pack or a regular bag, has a cooler compartment, plenty of pockets, is small enough to fit under the stroller, but also has straps to hook it to the handles of the stroller or to a grocery cart. It carries everything we need. When looking for a diaper bag I highly recommend checking to see if it will fit under the stroller or hook onto it, and that it has a cooler compartment for bottles or food.
6) Changing Pad
This has also been a life saver. It holds diapers and wipes and lays out flat on changing tables (or on the floor in those terrible establishments that don't have changing tables). Quick and easy to fold up with one hand, and can be thrown under the stroller or grabbed when just running into the store quickly. Our diaper bag came with one similar to this that we leave in Marcus' car, and then this one we have in the diaper bag.
Absent from this list that a lot of people include:
Bouncer seat - while we do have one that we use, Madelyn prefered the swing, and in my opinion you don't really NEED both. The vibration on ours is loud. I really only kept the darn thing because it turns into a toddler chair when she is older.
Swaddlers - I found it easier to just use a blanket, but Madelyn did not really like being swaddled after 3 or 4 weeks old. She also outgrew the medium/large size pretty quickly. Again, every baby is different, but they were more complicated in the middle of the night for a diaper change than using a blanket.
Other random stuff:
A note on the stroller - If you are not an on-the-go type of person, a frame stroller may not be necessary. If you ask my husband, he will tell you I always have somewhere to go. If you are a home body, a frame stroller may not be necessary because you will rarely use a stroller so the whole system thing may not be necessary. Similarly, a jogger doesn't make much sense if you aren't active or wont be pushing a kid around a ballpark to watch older kids. I actually would like to get a sturdy umbrella type stroller for when Madelyn outgrows the infant carrier, because that jogger is intense.
On buying new - with the exception of the car seat and the crib, I am all about buying second hand. Car seats could have been in an accident and cribs could have been recalled, so I am particular about buying those things new, but as long as the parts can be washed and sterilized, yard sales and consignment sales are a great place to find baby items.
