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Parenting after a Loss
Ok ladies, next question (Waiting to Adopt)
As I get ready to register, in your opinion, what are MUST HAVE's and what can I do without?
I don't want to overwhelm people with a 20 page registery, and I don't want a lot of clutter that won't get used...but I want to be well prepared.
So - give it to me.
What are you happy you got?
What don't I need?
Anything goes...I am clueless and need to know!
This discussion has been closed.
Re: Ok ladies, next question (Waiting to Adopt)
1 word...BOPPY!!! lol...make sure you get a boppy pillow...It's a must have! Also...both of my kids LOVED their bouncers! I bought a sling and never used it...but some people are very happy with theirs. It's really more your preference. Oh...and a Jogging Stroller. They are awesome for everything!
HTH!
I definitely agree with the Boppy. It is great for feeding, propping LO, tummy time, etc.
We didn't use our swing much. We did use the bouncy seat a lot.
Also, a Bumbo seat.
sleep sacks to get through the cold months.
we used receiving blankets to swaddle, instead of getting a swaddle me. My mom actually made some larger receiving blankets with some material she bought at the fabric store. We still use them now, just to swaddle.
a diaper pail.
cloth diapers work for burp cloths and you don't have to worry about tossing them if they get too gross to wash.
hooded towels. we use regular washcloths now, but had a few of the thin baby kind for when she was tiny.
skip the mobile. we have the aquarium for the side of the crib.
Waterproof mattress pads for under the sheets. It will save the mattress from grossness.
I still wish we would have bought the video monitor instead of the sounds only type.
Don't need:
bottle warmer, wipe warmer
You gain strength, courage and confidence by every experience in which you stop to look fear in the face. -Eleanor Roosevelt
After 1 year of TTC#2 BFP May 2011 m/c #3 4w2d. Off to RE.
Round 1: Femara + Ovidrel +TI = BFP! EDD 2/20/12
2IF does not always equal 3IF...Surprise!
diapers (even if you get an infant I would not get more than 1 pack of newborn diapers by 8 pound 10 ounce baby was given size 1 even in the hospital), wipes, swing, bouncy seat (good for play and feeding a younger child), booster seat with tray (to eat at a table), car seat as part of a travel system (up to 20 lbs) and car seat from 20-100 pounds (make sure it goes higher than 30 pounds, crib, crib sheets, basinette with extra sheets (if you are getting an infant and he/she will be sleeping in your room for awhile...I use it until my child is about 3-4 months old, burp clothes, hooded towels, wash clothes, balmex (imo best diaper rash cream), aquaphor, aveeno wash and lotion (don't buy lavender scented in case the child has sensitive skin), infant tub, rattles, teethers (for the refrigerator), mesh feeders (awesome to put frozen fruit in for child to bite on and not actually get any food in his mouth prior to knowing how to chew and eat but when teething), blankets, swaddle me blankets, pacifiers, play yard (hanging toys), Boppy (for belly time and to lay in and also when learning how to sit to put around the child so the child does not fall over and hurt himself), clothes, onesies (at least 6 in each size), socks, dress sleepers are the best for infants for quick diaper changes at night, bottles (love Dr. Browns), bottle cleaner, bottle drying rack, infant and toddler spoons, sippy cups, stroller, diaper bag, changing disposable sheets, infant comb, gas drops, infant tylenol, if you get an infant right from the hospital you will need alcohol and cotton swabs for the umbilical cord, medicine dropper, baby food (stage depending on the age), bibs, insert for shopping cart for the toddler to sit in, monitor for bedroom, thermometer ...that is all I could think of!
Pack and play (is useless in my opinion other than I use it as my changing table in my living room), high chair is also a waste of money and takes up a ton of space (as long as your child is sitting well you can use the booster with tray and until he/she is sitting you can use the bouncy seat to feed your child. Wipe warmers are a waste too!
Sleepers with snaps down both legs instead of zipper down only one leg! (hard to pull leg out of non zippered side during diaper changes.
Lots of bibs (prefer snaps on instead of velco since velcro can pull other fabric in the wash cycle) Little ones drips milk down their chins making them smell bad. Also, they drool a lot.
If bottle feeding, a bottle drying rack and microwave sterializer are a life saver. Check the microwave size before you register for a sterilizer to make sure it fits.
Diaper pail (we have the genie elite II)
Video Monitor ( we live in a 3 floor townhouse though)
My most favorite item was the moses basket. I got one for a gift and never planned on using it. I use it all the time as ds fall asleep in many places. It also made his transition to the crib wonderful. We would put the moses basket in the crib.
You gain strength, courage and confidence by every experience in which you stop to look fear in the face. -Eleanor Roosevelt
After 1 year of TTC#2 BFP May 2011 m/c #3 4w2d. Off to RE.
Round 1: Femara + Ovidrel +TI = BFP! EDD 2/20/12
2IF does not always equal 3IF...Surprise!
Here's my list:
Video monitor, boppy, moses basket (we too thought this was great for transitioning him to his crib as we put the moses basket in his crib), waterproof pads for crib, sheet savers, swaddle-me's, hooded towels, bibs, cloth diapers to use as burp cloths, bouncy seat, cradle swing, yoga ball (awesome for bouncing baby to sleep), thermometer, infant tylenol, infant mylicon, white noise machine (we started with a sleep sheep but now we use a Marpac and it drowns out a lot of background noise and will stay on all night vs other noise machines that turn off), and playmat.
I think nightgowns are the easiest for changing diapers in the middle of the night, IMO.
We use Playtex VentAire Advanced bottles and we like them. DS took a paci at the very beginning and soon decided he didn't like them, but when he did take a paci, it was a Soothie.
Now that DS is older, we love his Bumbo, highchair, and jumperoo.
I'd also suggest you get a carseat and a Snap n Go vs getting a travel system. Once LO has the head control, just get a lightweight umbrella stroller. If I could do it over, I wouldn't have purchased the whole travel system, but I still would've bought the Chicco carseat.
I used a Moby when he was very little although he never really liked it. We use a Beco Gemini now and it's the bomb.
I am so excited for you and that you are moving forward in your process!
Must Have:
- Swing -- a cradle swing specifically (and make sure you can plug it in not one that only runs on batteries)
- Sleepers -- lots!
- SwaddleMe's -- but I would buy just one to start because it's hit or miss with each baby whether they like to be swaddled. LO loves it.
- Aquarium sound machine -- for the side of the crib (Also, I wish we had one for the bassinet in the PN
- GoCrib - I won this on babysteals.com and would have never bought it for myself without trying it but it is definitely worth the price because it gives me a safe place for A to play on her playmat in the living room where the dog can't get to her but she can still look around at her surroundings and watch me while I get things done.
- Play mat with lots of toys that are detachable so you can switch them out
Didn't/Haven't need(ed):
- bottle/wipe warmers
- mobile
- Boppy -- I wish we would have had the My BreastFriend for nursing if you plan to nurse (which you can!!!) and a Boppy newborn lounger for supporting LO.
- Sound-only monitor - Our house is small so I can hear her, but I wish we had a video monitor so I could see her from anywhere.
honestly, it's really a matter of trial and error. i asked a lot of my mom friends about their must haves and turns out, i didn't even need them.
my LO really loves her play mat and always has. she did nnot really like the bouncer or the swing but i'd recommend registering for at least one of them so you have the option of putting LO down in a place other than a crib or pack n play, even if it's just for a few minutes. and i'm all about getting a sling or wrap or something to wear baby in, but honestly the ones at babies r us are pretty much crap, except for the moby. so a moby's good.
I didn't read the posts so I'm sure I'm going to contradict some stuff. But pretty much, everyone of us has different must haves and different items we consider waste-of-space items that the other person loved. So here are mine:
Sleepers: you'll get these anyway so no need to register for clothes. But babies live in little footed sleepers the first few months.
Blankets: again, not really necessary to register for these as you'll get tons. But if you do register, the adan and anais swaddle blankets from target are AMAZING. We used them for everything and still do one year later. They are stretchy and light weight. DS was only swaddled for a few weeks but we continued to use these to lightly cover his carseat when we were out, to use as a changing surface on the floor, to lay on, etc. Now he sleeps with them at night.
Boppy: We didn't BF and we LOVED our boppy. The more expensive boppy covers are softer and thicker and worth the price. I got 2 covers and that was more than enough. We used it to hold him when bottle feeding and he slept on it on our laps for naps. He will sometimes still go and lay against it for support.
Bedding: No need for a set - you can't use the comforter and a lot of us don't/won't use the bumper. Register for a few (2-3) crib sheets, a dust ruffle (if you want one) and 2 mattress pads. You don't need anything else for the crib. A regular mobile is a waste.
Mobile: The regular kind don't really do much and are a waste. We hung a decorative wooden mobile over his changing pad for interest and then eventually bought a projection mobile when he was a few months old. It plays for 20 minutes, projects images on the canapy or ceiling, etc. Must more interesting and we still use the music box part now to lull him to sleep.
Bottles: love our born free. Love, love, love them. If you aren't sure, register for 2 bottles from 2 or 3 manufacturers. Try them the first week and then decide which you prefer. We did this and born free was the absolute best so we went to target and bought 12 more that first weekend. You'll want a drying rack, a bottle brush, and a dishwasher basket. We wanted 2 baskets - we put all the parts, including the bottle caps in the basket, so we can only fit 3 bottle parts in each basket so we needed 2 baskets to wash 6 bottles at once. Also, we loved our dr. brown's formula pitcher. It made formula-making super easy and reduced the bubbles that shaking creates.
Bouncy & Swing: Loved both. DS slept in his cradle swing (fisherprice starlight cradle) the first few months. It plugged in so no batteries were necessary. The bouncer was also super helpful - we could move it from room to room and take it with us when we traveled to visit family/friends. He loved the vibration and around 3 months old he started to play with it. We had the fisherprice rainforest bouncy seat.
Burp clothes: He didn't spit up much, but we still used a bunch of burp clothes. Our favorites were the folded cloth diaper types. Big, absorbent, soft, etc. I'd aim for 10 of these. We kept one in each room of the house plus a few in the diaper bag and some were always in the laundry.
Those were pretty much the necessities for us those first few weeks. After that we needed a few rattles, tummy time mat, high chair, baby bath tub, etc.
Have fun shopping!!
This! And tons and tons of sleep sacks - so easy to change them in the middle of the night. DH had a thing against DD wearing pants (he could never get them on her and thought they were a PITA) so she lioved in sleep sacks for the first couple of months.
I highly, highly, highly recommend the Rock N Play Sleeper from fisher price. As soon as we started using it DD started sleeping for long stretches. And now STTN.
We like Dr. Brown's bottles. And be sure to register for like a million burp cloths. Didn't realize we would use so many, but we go through a TON.
Both the bouncer and swing are invaluable.
We never got a PNP, and it would be useless in our house. Our house is small, so between the bassinet in our room (which rolls and is very light), and the crib, we have plenty of places for LO to sleep. I know that there is a changing table attachment on the PNPs, but when we get up, I don't want to wake DH, so we go to the nursery and use the changing table anyway. LO had some digestive issues, and would cry every time we changed a diaper, and then she would scream until she was fed again. So a quiet feeding in the middle of the night never happened for us.
The bottle warmer is a good idea in theory to me, but our cheapie bottle warmer makes things much too hot, and is therefore useless.
My DH is a great swaddler, but he was never able to get a good swaddle with traditional receiving blankets. Much too small. I love the Aden and Anais swaddle blankets from Target. They are lightweight with a little bit of stretch, and huge, which we love. I also really like the Halo Swaddle Sleepsacks for nights that are colder, and when I don't feel like doing all the work in a traditional swaddle.
My Avent bottles work okay some of the time, but they leak like crazy! I really wouldn't recommend this as your primary bottle type. It's too frustrating to get the seal just right when you have a screaming baby in your hands.
I truly underestimated how many diapers and wipes we would go through when we were using disposables. I would definitely stock up on these ahead of time!
GL!
I never used a boppy.
I recommend going to the BRU website, and looking at registries, that usually can give you a good idea of what you need.
Get the best stroller and carseat you can afford, and a video monitor (digital)
Thanks so much ladies!
I'll look forward to shopping around.
If you have anymore great insights, let me know.