My Favorite Baby Advice & Baby Items

I often get emails requesting advice on my favorite baby products and what I have found to be most useful. So, I’ve cut and pasted my response into a blog post with updates as things keep changing. She’s growing up way too fast!

1) Birthing Advice. I didn’t really read any childbirth books. Chris and I took natural child-birthing classes together, and our instructor was super knowledgeable and really knew her stuff. She had answers for all of our questions and research to back everything up. The classes were beyond helpful, and I felt totally prepared. If you’re hoping for a natural childbirth, I would highly recommend hiring a doula. Ours was a doula/RN/midwife, and she was awesome. She helped us put together our birth plan and even attended a doctor’s apt. with us to go over the plan with our OB. Originally, we hoped to stay at home and labor as long as possible with her there, but things did not go according to plan (you can read my birth story here). However, it was great to have her there b/c since she was a registered nurse, she was able to unhook all the monitoring equipment so that I could walk around. The nurses at the hospital knew and trusted her, and just left us alone. I would hire her again in a heartbeat. Everyone did tell me to read Ina May’s Guide to Childbirth, but with the classes and our doula I felt totally prepared. I did check the book out from the library but never got around to reading it.

2) Food for Mama & Baby: I love love LOVE Nina Planck’s Real Food For Mother & Baby. The book has wonderful dietary advice for pregnant women, nursing women, and first foods to feed baby. I love the author’s philosophy – it just makes so much sense. As far as solids go, we started out doing Baby Led Weaning and have incorporated some purees into the mix. I make all of Summer’s food, and her favorites are sweet potatoes, blueberries, and plain goat milk yogurt.

3) Sleep. Oh my goodness, I cannot stress the importance of sleep for your baby. I was totally underestimating the amount of sleep Summer needed, and we kept mistaking her sleepiness for hunger. (Everyone tells you will be able to distinguish between tired and hungry cries after a few weeks. Well, I hard a hard time with that one.) I kept reading that babies need to be up for no more than 2 hours, and this was so true! When she was a newborn, she would just catnap for 20 minutes here and there making for really long days for me, but again, we were feeding here when she was actually just tired. At about 5 months, we started to get into more of a regular nap schedule. From what I’ve read, the first 4 months, you just do what you need to do to get the baby to sleep. After 4 months, you can do some sleep training, but until then the baby will cry b/c he/she needs something – diaper change, he/she is uncomfortable, hungry, just wants to be close to you, etc. There are several schools of thought on sleep schedules/training for babies, and we had great success with Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child by Dr. Marc Weissbluth. Again, babies need a ton of sleep, and I used to think that if I could keep Summer awake longer in the afternoons then she would sleep better at night. Um, no, the more sleep she gets, the happier she is, and if she is up for longer than she should be, she gets over-tired, and things just go downhill from there. Summer now falls asleep all on her own with little to no crying. Since she was about 5 months old up until now (she’s 8 months), she’s been napping twice a day, usually from about 9 to 11 AM and 1 to 3 PM and then sleeps from about 6 PM to 6 AM every night.

4) If you’re planning to breastfeed, have a lactation consultant help you as soon as you can. The nurses were no help to me in the hospital – they saw Summer sucking and said, yeah that looks fine. Even the LC at the hospital wasn’t much help, and just sent me home with a pump, telling me to pump every 2 hours since Summer seem to have no interest in feedings (she was so small and we couldn’t get her to eat – all she wanted to do was sleep). Anyway, we found a good lactation consultant that did home visits, and without her, I would never have made it as long as I did with breastfeeding.

Chris and I always said we didn’t want a lot of baby stuff, but we have found everything listed below to be very helpful…

1) For the car seat, we got a Chicco Travel System. It’s great and comes with a carrier, base to put in your car to hold carrier, and a stroller. You can pop the carrier right onto the stroller while the baby is an infant. When Summer grows out of the carrier, we’re going to get a Britax as everyone tells me they are the best and totally worth the price. We never did get a fancy jog stroller as I prefer to wear Summer on walks, but when I don’t, the stroller that came with the Travel System works great.

2) We got this crib from Amazon and I love it. It’s smaller and low the the ground which I like. Plus I love the design – very classic, and it converts into a toddler bed.

3) The swing, a lifesaver those first few months. Summer loved it and often fell asleep in it, and now I use it when I need to do stuff around the house and want to keep her entertained.

4) We didn’t get a bassinet but opted for this Pac-N-Play. It’s great b/c you can use it as an infant bed and a crib when you travel, but it can also be used as a playpen. For the first few weeks, we co-slept or I had Summer in the Pac-N-Play next to the bed. Then we started putting her in her crib and I slept in the guest room right next to the nursery. So, it wasn’t inconvenient to feed Summer in the middle of the night. However, if I was sleeping in a room far away from the nursery, then I would probably use the Pac-N-Play so she could be closer to me. If you get the Pac-N-Play, I would get two of these quilted sheets for it. Update: Summer loves playing in her Pac-N-Play. We keep it downstairs in the dining room, filled with a few toys, and refer to it as Summer’s Office. She happily sits in it and plays while mama drinks her morning coffee. For traveling purposes, we recently purchased this PeaPod for naps and bedtime.

5) Baby Monitor - We got this one, and it’s fine. Some people told me to get a video monitor, but for us, I didn’t think it was necessary.

6) Baths – We got this bathtub. We used it for Summer’s very first bath in the bathtub.

7) Diapers – Pampers Swaddlers. We’ve tried several other brands but always go back to the Pampers Swaddlers. I tried the Bum Genius cloth diapers but was not a fan. They leaked horribly for us. For nighttime, we use Huggies Overnights. No leaks. Love them. We purchase our diapers in bulk on Amazon. Sign up for Amazon Mom and save save save!

8.) Wipes. I use cloth wipes, and I wrote a blog post about them here. Update: My wipe warmer started to smell funky, even after bleaching it. So, for now, we’re using disposable wipes – we just use the Kirkland brand from Costco and have had no problems with diaper rash.

9) Swaddling blankets. Swaddling is key – really helps calm a newborn down. We use the Happiest Baby on The Block method, and these are my favorite swaddling blankets. We were given a ton of different ones, but I only use the Aden + Anais are they are a great size (really big) and they are made from Muslin which is a really breathable material. If I use anything else, Summer gets hot. We swaddled her a lot in the beginning, but now she prefers to have her arms free, and so I just swaddle her lower half. Update: No longer swaddling, but still use the blankets all the time – carry one in the diaper bag, car, etc. Great as a stroller cover, etc.

10) Bottles. I planned on breast feeding exclusively, but that didn’t work out as planned. So, we use the Medela bottles. I never researched bottles as we had to supplement Summer with formula one night and just bought the bottles our lactation consultant had with her. They’re fine. If you do bottle feed, I would recommend buying a bottle brush for washing them and this bottle dryer.

11) Pacifier. We didn’t plan on using a pacifier as I read it causes nipple confusion, but Summer always wanted to comfort suck, and so we ended getting her a Wubbanub, recommended by the lactation nurses at the hospital. She loves it, and although we don’t give it to her during the day, she still sleeps with it every night. It’s a Soothie Newborn pacifier which you can buy at Target, and I was told that it is good for training the baby how to suck at the breast.

12) Diaper Pail – I have never been a fan of Diaper Genies. I baby-sat a lot growing up, and they just seemed more trouble than they’re worth. We use this diaper pail - it’s small and simple. I empty it once a day and use Target or Trader Joe plastic bags to line it. I threw a few Arm-N-Hammer scented discs made for diaper pails in the bottom, and we’ve never had a problem with smell. I got those at Target.

13) Bac-Out cleaner. This stuff is amazing. I make my own detergent, but if anything gets stained with formula or poop, then I squirt some Bac Out in the washer, and it gets it out. I’ll also squirt it straight on a stain or spot clean with it if Summer spits up on a quilt or something. Love it! CD bought me some for my birthday. How romantic, no?

14) Cloth diapers - You can never have enough of these. We keep them all over the house and use them as towels and wipes when we’re feeding Summer.

15) Bouncy Seat - Honestly, we use the car seat carrier more, but the bouncy seat was nice to have around when Summer was alert and I wanted to have her next to me while I was busy working on something. Update: We don’t use the bouncy seat much anymore as Summer gets pretty bored sitting in it and keeps trying to sit up and move forward. She now loves sitting in her Bounce Bounce Baby Activity Zone.

16) White noise machine. We were given this one as a gift, and I do turn it on when I put Summer down for a nap. Any white noise will work, and you could even just download white noise off iTunes.

17) Baby Carrier. I bought a ring sling from here and carried Summer around in it when she was a newborn, and now I use it for hip carrying. It’s great for when I’m doing stuff around the house or shopping. For walks, I carry Summer in a Babyhawk Mei Tai carrier, and she loves it. I’ve taken her on 2 hour walks in it, and it’s super comfortable. Update: We also purchased Ergo Carrier from BabySteals.com which allows me to carry Summer on my chest or back. Great for dads! For now it’s too warm for baby wearing. Summer gets too hot in her carriers and stays cooler in her stroller.

18) As far as clothes go, we were given almost everything. Buy a lot of onesies – don’t get many newborn ones as he/she won’t wear them for long, but do get several 0 to 3 months. We love the sleepers with feet as it’s really hard to keep socks on a newborn. My favorite place to buy baby clothes is probably Old Navy.

19) Boppy pillow - this is great for breastfeeding. Mine came with a cover with a hide-away strap that can convert the boppy into an infant holder, and I used to sit Summer in it often. It’s still great for propping her up as she’s not sitting up on her own yet, but it won’t be long!  Update: Summer started sitting up on her own 2 months ago and we no longer use the Boppy that much. I do sometimes place it behind her if she is sitting on a hard surface just in case she should fall backwards.

20) Bumbo Baby Seat - We have the one with the tray, and Summer started sitting in it at about 3.5 months. So funny b/c she would always slump to the side, but it makes a great first infant seat.

21) Baby shampoo/body wash – Summer has sensitive skin, and we use this California Baby Wash or Dr. Bronners, and they both work great.

22) Books. Look Look was the only book Summer would pay attention when we started reading to her. She’s now enjoying story time more, but Look Look is still one of her favorites. It has something to do with the contrasting black and white images – newborns love it. Also, make sure you look into Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library to see if it’s available in your area – if so, your baby can receive a free age appropriate book up until the age of 5. We love our Dolly books!

23) If you plan to breastfeed, here is some info on pumping. I never made enough milk for Summer (tried everything to increase my supply, but not much has helped). Anyway, after 4 months, Summer was starting to prefer a bottle more and more, and since each nursing session was taking up to an hour, I decided to stop as it was just getting to be too much. I’m still pumping, and Summer gets about 1/2 breast milk and 1/2 formula. We rented a Medela Symphony Pump from the hospital, and it’s great. I’ve done some research, and if you need to increase your supply, then a hospital grade pump is definitely your best option. It cost us $75 a month, and your insurance may even cover it. If you simply need to maintain your supply, then I’ve heard the Medela Pump In Style is a great option. If you do end up pumping for some reason, I highly recommend a hands free pumping bra – makes the time go by so much quicker as I could read or email while I pumped. I sometimes even fed Summer her bottle when pumping. I just made mine using an old sports bra. Update: I weaned myself from the pump when Summer turned 6-months old.

24) We opted for this booster seat rather than a high-chair. It was much cheaper, works great, and Summer can sit right next to me at our dining room table.

25) One of the best pieces of advice I received was to skip the glider/rocker and purchase a LaZBoy or some type of recliner for the nursery. You will spend hours in this chair and buying something super comfy is totally worth it!  Trust me, if you have a vaginal birth, you will NOT want to sit on a hard surface those first couple of weeks. A recliner is great too, because after feedings you can simply recline back and take naps with your baby. Those quiet moments together with Summer asleep on my chest are some of my favorite memories from her first few months. Plus, you can always use a LaZBoy in another room after you’re done with it in the nursery. I’m pretty sure CD has big plans for ours post-babies.

26) Best Diaper Bag = a favorite backpack. Easy as that. Tried the Skip*Hop thing, but ended up ditching it after a few months.

Hope this helps any mamas-to-be or friends of mamas-to-be out there!

Tagged as: Family, HEABlet