Past the Boob and Blanket

In less than 6 weeks time, my little boy (he’s no longer a baby) will turn 1 year old. I’m sure I will have a very emotional post when that time finally comes. Since we aren’t there quite yet, I’d thought I’d give a run down of the items in the past year that have made Life with Baby a wee bit easier*. I could lie and say that I’m doing this for you all, but really, I’ll most likely use this post as a reference point for when I get invited to future baby showers. But you know, feel free to find it useful if you want.

NOTE: Some say that all the gear you need for a baby is a boob and a blanket. I’m not saying that’s not true. I AM saying it’s not 1850 anymore and if you can afford it and it makes your life easier than why the fuck not?

THE FIRST THREE MONTHS

Gerber Burp Cloths

I got a set of 4 of these for a baby shower gift. While I had other burp cloths, these absorbed more and dried faster than any other I had around. Since Henry was a reflux baby and we dealt with A LOT of spit up, we went through these pretty fast and I ended up buying another set of 4 to lessen my laundry load. While I have lost one or two in the last year, I still use them regularly for the odd puke\spit-up\drool. In fact, there appears to be one wadded under my ass at the moment. Ow.


Muslin Swaddle Blanket

OK, I was totally about swaddling. I had swaddle gear galore. I had thick swaddle blankets and thin swaddle blankets and fleece swaddle blankets. I even shelled out for (what turned out to be) the completely useless Miracle Blanket. About 3 weeks after Henry was born, I got a muslin blanket as a gift. It Was\Is Awesome. First of all, the spring Henry was born ended up being very warm and I didn’t want to swaddle him in anything that would make him too hot. The muslin is very thin and also very breathable. It also wraps well. You know when you over stuff a tortilla and the tortilla just collapses? That’s what a non-proper swaddle blanket does. The muslin just seems to “stick” to itself making it perfect for swaddling. Plus, when Henry threw up on this blanket, because it’s so thin it would dry really really fast. It also turned out to be a great blanket to cover him in the summertime when he was past swaddling.


Trumpette Baby Socks

These were another baby gift we got. I was astounded when I found out how much these 6 pairs of socks cost when I went to go buy another set. I ended up shelling out for another set because these socks, unlike all the other fucking socks I had tried to put on my son’s feet, actually stayed on. Oh sure, I could have bought Socks On but I couldn’t help thinking that those things make your kid look like their wearing an orthopedic foot brace. As an added bonus, I got so many compliments on these socks on a daily basis that I felt like Style Mom of the Year even though I was wearing Haven’t Been Washed in Two Weeks jeans and a scrubby pony tail. Quick note – there will be a point in your baby’s life that he will pull off socks. There isn’t a miracle sock in the world to help you then.


Cable Television

I don’t care if you are a normal television watcher or not. Until your sweet baby starts sleeping 5 hours at a stretch at night, you WILL find yourself up at 3 in the morning (and 5, and 7 etc.). I’m not saying that cable television will give you quality programming (you’ll be too tired to appreciate it anyhow) but it will give you an option of 90’s sitcoms or bad reality shows or some cheesy 80’s movie and not 4 channels of infomercials pimping miracle bras and laundry soap.


3 – 7 MONTHS

Baby Gym


To this day, this and the activity center below have been the best purchases so far. While we only ended up using the gym for 3 ½ months before Henry started crawling, it was 3 ½ months of pure joy. He loved it under there. If you are currently holding a 3 month old baby thinking to yourself, “I would love to get the dishes done and maybe check Facebook” then get yourself a baby gym. We put him under there and he’d happily play and coo and do whatever it is babies do for over an hour at a time before he started fussing for some parental attention. Don’t get me wrong, we didn’t keep him there all day – maybe once in the morning, once in the afternoon – but it gave us enough time to do whatever it was that we needed to do. *Sigh* I miss the baby gym.


Life Factory Teether Ring

This was yet another gift we got. I remembered when I received it I was all “oooh, a rubber ring….yay…” but seriously, it was Henry’s absolute favorite by the time he reached 4 months. It’s really inexpensive too (unlike the rest of the items on this list) so there should be no reason why you shouldn’t have one.


Ella’s Kitchen

I think I mention Ella’s Kitchen packet food more than I really should. I could really just put down “Organic Pureed Food in Packets” and be done with it because I’m sure there are other products just as good. In all earnestness, I really had these grand intentions to make and puree all my own baby food. “It’s a lot of work,” I said, “but it’s cheaper and it will be worth it.” Fuck That. When you have a baby, the less work you have to do, the better. To be honest, I did TRY at first. I made a huge batch of carrot and parsnips, then some pumpkin, and I think potatoes. You know what happened? Henry wouldn’t eat them. I spent 3 hours cooking and I ended up throwing it all away. It was after that that Ella’s Kitchen became a staple.


Bright Starts Around-We-Go

OK, listen. If you live in the UK, this is a really pricey item. We were very fortunate that we found one 30 miles away for twenty pounds (on Gumtree). The one we have also is broken in the fact that the electronics on it have so much sand in it from the previous owner in no longer functions. All this doesn’t matter. We picked this up when Henry was around 5 months and we are still using it. It’s safer than a walker and it also keeps him entertained (and contained) while we do other things. Very important feature once baby starts crawling. Knowing what I know now, I would have happily paid full price for this if we hadn’t found it used.


7 MONTHS TO PRESENT

Aqua Pod


Once Henry grew out of his little baby bath (I was tired of cleaning the all counters and floors every day after he had his 5 minute bath – he’s a splasher), I was really sort of scared of transitioning him into the big bath. Babies are slippery when wet and I had this envision of washing his bottom and him slipping out and being underwater and even though I was right there I couldn’t grab him because babies are so damn slippery when wet and he’d drown and it would be all my fault for washing him in the first place and I’m going to drive off a cliff now. So yes! We got the Aqua Pod from Mothercare (I’m sure they have something similar in the States) and now life is very happy during bath time.


Fisher Price Ducky Rattle Stacker

Even before he grasped how to stack the rings on the pole, Henry loved playing with the rings as rattles. He still does. This is one of those toys that he plays with so much, sometimes I hide it so that he plays with some of his other toys.



Touch and Feel Books

It really doesn’t matter what the story is or who makes the book or whatever – touch and feel books are where it’s at…according to Henry. I’m grateful that he already seems to be drawn towards books but the Touch and Feel ones are the ones that he returns to over and over again. He doesn’t so much as “touch” and “feel” the books as he does scratch them, but you know, whatever. The ones we do have that he particularly likes are the “That’s Not My….” Series. We have “That’s Not My Dinosaur” and “That’s Not My Penguin”. I’m sure once he turns 21 I’ll be able to find him, “That’s Not My Beer” and “That’s Not My Venereal Disease”.

Sleep Sacks

They call sleep sacks ‘Gro Bags’ here in the UK. It’s the same concept; it’s a sleeveless sleeping bag that the baby wears. We’ve been using the Gro Bag ever since we stopped swaddling and it’s been working out really well. While I know we all didn’t grow up with sleep sacks ourselves, I look at how much Henry tosses and turns at night and it truly makes me wonder why we all weren’t freezing our asses off growing up. We currently have a Gro Bag that fits 0-6 month olds. Henry is just squeezing into still. As I was dressing him tonight, I may have teared up a bit thinking that I’ll have to soon replace it. Shut up. Mothers cry at stupid things.


0-18 YEARS

Vodka

Need I say more?


*I hope this doesn’t need to be said (but I’ll say it anyhow) but I am not getting paid to endorse any of these products. I swear. If I was getting paid, I’d be too busy booking my holiday to Italy to write this silly blog post.