We're two months into parenthood and surviving just fine. Each day is amazing and exhausting, mind boggling-ly perfect and entirely scary. All at once. And there's nothing better in the world. Mabel, as a belated Thanksgiving thought, I'm so thankful to have you in my life. I don't know what I did before, but you've added a whole new level of happiness to each new day.
I have a few tidbits for those of you out there who are about to be mothers and fathers. Anyone else with some advice, feel free to add it to the comments.
One of the most bothersome parts of becoming a mother didn't have to do with the scary prospect of pushing a bowling ball sized person out of my vagina, but all of the consumerism associated with such an occasion.
Because of that, we didn't register for much. We took everyone up on their "Oh, we've got baby stuff you can have" that offered and ended up with way more clothes, blankets, car seats, cradles, bassinets, high chairs {. . .and things I still don't know what they're for} than we needed. There are a few things, though, that we ended up buying and loving, so I thought I'd list them for anyone in a "pregnant and I don't know what we'll need" situation.
This is the non-handmade list, and hopefully it's in time to add a few items to your Christmas wish list if you're feeling so-inclined.
Boppy. Save your back. Seriously.
Born Free bottles. Less burping, no BPA. {We had hand me down Dr Brown's but found out they were pre-BPA free. They were also good, but you couldn't put the whole bottle in the bottle warmer.}
Bottle warmer. Ours is a relatively cheap version from Target, but it makes warming bottles so much easier than using a kettle.It heats up the glass bottles in about 2 minutes. The plastic versions take a little longer.***
Snuggle Nest. Co-Sleeping isn't for everyone, but it does make it easier for us, and having Mabel right there in the middle of the night makes feeding and soothing so much easier. The deluxe has nature sounds and a night light, which is really nice for us, but not necessary. {Just ignore the creepy plastic-y family on the box and the website. You won't look so "perfect" the first couple weeks.}
A rocker/bouncer. We got the Brentwood and the sound options are really good, much better than most.
***UPDATE***Okay, scratch that, we had a bottle incident last night. The glass ones shouldn't go in the bottle warmer if they've been refrigerated. It heats them up too fast and the glass breaks. I repeat: The glass breaks. And that's not a fun thing to go through.
Also, I thought of another item to add to the list, though this was given to us. A Miracle Blanket. We used a hand-me-down Miracle Blanket and loved it so much we tried to find a similar, cheaper swaddle blanket. We bought the Kiddopotamus SwaddleMe. Yeah, not the same. The velcro is awkward to deal with when you have a wiggly little kid in front of you.
I have a few tidbits for those of you out there who are about to be mothers and fathers. Anyone else with some advice, feel free to add it to the comments.
One of the most bothersome parts of becoming a mother didn't have to do with the scary prospect of pushing a bowling ball sized person out of my vagina, but all of the consumerism associated with such an occasion.
Because of that, we didn't register for much. We took everyone up on their "Oh, we've got baby stuff you can have" that offered and ended up with way more clothes, blankets, car seats, cradles, bassinets, high chairs {. . .and things I still don't know what they're for} than we needed. There are a few things, though, that we ended up buying and loving, so I thought I'd list them for anyone in a "pregnant and I don't know what we'll need" situation.
This is the non-handmade list, and hopefully it's in time to add a few items to your Christmas wish list if you're feeling so-inclined.
Boppy. Save your back. Seriously.
Born Free bottles. Less burping, no BPA. {We had hand me down Dr Brown's but found out they were pre-BPA free. They were also good, but you couldn't put the whole bottle in the bottle warmer.}
Bottle warmer. Ours is a relatively cheap version from Target, but it makes warming bottles so much easier than using a kettle.
Snuggle Nest. Co-Sleeping isn't for everyone, but it does make it easier for us, and having Mabel right there in the middle of the night makes feeding and soothing so much easier. The deluxe has nature sounds and a night light, which is really nice for us, but not necessary. {Just ignore the creepy plastic-y family on the box and the website. You won't look so "perfect" the first couple weeks.}
A rocker/bouncer. We got the Brentwood and the sound options are really good, much better than most.
***UPDATE***Okay, scratch that, we had a bottle incident last night. The glass ones shouldn't go in the bottle warmer if they've been refrigerated. It heats them up too fast and the glass breaks. I repeat: The glass breaks. And that's not a fun thing to go through.
Also, I thought of another item to add to the list, though this was given to us. A Miracle Blanket. We used a hand-me-down Miracle Blanket and loved it so much we tried to find a similar, cheaper swaddle blanket. We bought the Kiddopotamus SwaddleMe. Yeah, not the same. The velcro is awkward to deal with when you have a wiggly little kid in front of you.
2 comments:
2 months!!! wow that went so fast! I still have about 2 months to go, thank you for this post. We've been saying yes to hand me downs too! We have enough clothing for the first 2 years! just amazing! I'll look out for more posts but feel free to send any tips my way, are you cloth diapering? we're going to give it a go! Congrats to all of you!!!!
We are cloth diapering. I love it. My husband is good with it, too, but doesn't seem to reach for the cloth diapers as often as he can. We keep some (biodegradable) disposables around for different situations like leaving her with the grandparents (who are intimidated by the cloth ones). I'll do a little post about the cloth ones soon, and if you have any questions feel free to ask. We're still stumbling through some things, so I feel like I have a good measure of the pros and cons of all the "stuff" there is out there.
Post a Comment