Okay, so this blog is about my life with my kids and I thought it would be fun to take a minute to sing the praises of some actually useful stuff I've run into during my stint as a mama.
Now there's a whole lot of crap out that the tv and magazines and even other mamas will tell you that you need when you're pregnant. Don't believe them, most of it is useless garbage.
First big 'ol piece of useless garbage I bought was a crib. Luckily I got one from IKEA so I didn't spend a fortune on it. And I should say that after some brainstorming we did finally make use of it with kid #2. I lowered our bed, lowered the crib mattress, took one side off and raised the whole thing to match the height of our bed, pushed the two together and stuffed a quilt in the crack! Ahhh, now it's useful!
Okay, so not every one co-sleeps, obviously I didn't think I would. Then the baby came along and I realized I didn't want to put him down in a crib in another room and it really wasn't working the way all the media images of it did. For us it would go like this: nurse baby to sleep, do limp arm test, yes baby is asleep, lower baby very carefully into crib..... this is where it all goes wrong. See at this point one is suppose to be able to place baby in crib and baby stays asleep, mine never did. so I gave up, starting lying down nursing baby to sleep and then every so carefully and stealthfully sneaking off the bed!
So the crib, your call. Possibly useful and possibly a good place to hang your clothes.
But this is suppose to be about useful things, so I'll try and stay focused.
First useful thing I bought was a sling! Any sling will do, just take the time to figure out how to use it, it's not hard! I don't know how many people have told me their baby didn't like the sling. Well to put it bluntly, I just don't believe them. I've had two babies now and they both loved it! They just weren't using it right or enough or something. With Margo I also bought an Ergo http://www.ergobabycarrier.com/index.html This thing is awesome! Yes, I love, love, love, love my Ergo. I had bought a big Kelty backpack that I never used because it actually hurt my back. I have scoliosis and the way the kid sits up high just threw my balance off and made my back hurt. The Ergo is so simple and amazing. Any soft-structured carrier works, the Mai Tai is the same idea, you can even make one. The important part is the baby sits next to your body and your center of gravity. At 20 months I can still haul Margo around in this comfortably. I've gone snow-shoeing, hiking, etc.... it's fabulous. I sold the Kelty to a woman on Craig's List but I almost blew the sell because I was signing the praises of the Ergo to her....
If you like to walk, which I do and you have a big heavy kid, which I do... you should probably bite the bullet and get a jogging stroller. You just can't beat those big blow up tires for going over bumps. Going up and down curbs with my 45 pound 3 year old was killing me in my old stroller, so I just wasn't going for walks like I use to and I don't jog, so it seemed silly to get a jogging stroller but.... I finally did wise up and get one used on Craig's list and it's been great. I'm once again heading out and going for big walking adventures around town! Yeah! Best part is I didn't spend a chunk of the kid's college money it.
Another handy little thing for diaper days is the "Skip Hop Pronto Mini-Changer" http://www.skiphop.com/mm5/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Store_Code=SH&Category_Code=ACC&Product_Code=202000
I ran into this at a kid's store one day and bought it even though I cringed a little at the price for this little thing. It turned out to be extremely handy. It's a little harder for use cloth diaper users, it was obviously designed for disposables, but I managed to stuff a couple of cloths and wrap in it. I could snap it to the belt of the Ergo for walks and away we went.... Also extremely handy for snapping quickly to stroller handles.
Did I mention that Margo is potty trained!!!!!! Well she is:) I would love to take credit for this but she really did it all on her own.
Here's something I bought for Sollie when he was potty training, I saw it on the same shopping trip when I bought the mini-changer and thought it would be a good idea and it's inexpensive at $10. http://www.potette.com/ It's the "Potette" a little collapsible, take along potty. This thing is really small; actually fits in a backpack or small tote bag. Because Margo is so young for potty training (she started at 18 months), she can't hold it as long as older kids. And she's a girl and a small girl at that, you can't exactly have her go pee in the bushes (something I did/do with my son). Enter the potette, I can't even begin to count how many times this thing has saved us from an accident! The only thing I'm not crazy about are the weirdly scented disposable liners. As a cloth user it's kind of hard to just toss those things but I'm getting a little use to it. It's awfully convenient and we only use it for emergencies, so I justify it. I've thought about using a plain old plastic bag and a cloth diaper but then you'd have to haul the wet diaper around.... but in theory you could. I've discovered that I can buy more disposable inserts with our Amazon.com Prime membership (free two day shipping), so I'm sliding a little on the disposable stuff. But you know I did buy disposables when I was using the diaper service for back-ups, so I've never been very pure about it....
Any way, I think that's all the things I love for now that I can think of. See, there's really not a lot. If there's a pregnant woman out there readingt this, my advice is wait until after the baby is born and then see what you really need.
No comments:
Post a Comment