The Mama Drama Guide to Baby Gear

When I was pregnant, I was so totally overwhelmed by the baby aisle(s) at Target and Babies R Us. I scoured reviews and sent emails to my few friends that were moms. Since we have a lot of friends who are expecting or have just had little bambinos, I figure I would share my top list. These are things that worked well for us and some that didn't. I have included links to most of the items on amazon.

Pregnancy:
Pregnancy Pillow. I definitely resisited this for a long time, mostly because they were $50. I kept hemming and hawing about the price. Finally, Bill said "Just buy it!" And I am so glad I did! Although the one I bought on amazon ended up being much bigger than I anticipated. Poor Bill, there wasn't much room for him in the bed. My other concern was that I would *only* be using it for the pregnancy. It actually ended up being quite useful for breastfeeding. I had a nice breastfeeding station on the couch with the pregnancy pillow to support my back so I didn't have to lean over too much.

Chiropractic Care. You obviously won't find this on amazon. At least I don't think so! I met with a chiropractor every other week. It was an absolute god send! I looked forward to my appointments. It made such a difference. Being so short and having a big baby, my back was WRECKED! She had a special table that would drop down to make way for the belly.

Maternity Clothes: I didn't want to spend a fortune, so I opted for Motherhood Maternity. Partially because they have an outlet store at The Great Mall in Milpitas. Maternity jeans are a godsend! In retrospect, I probably should have just bought a size of two larger of "normal" clothes in the beginning stages as maternity clothes do make you look a bit rounder.

On to the real baby stuff!
Baby Carriers.
Good lord there are so many of them out there, and hardly any of them are cheap! We got a few for free from friends which was really awesome to have a few on hand when we brought Callie home. We had just your standard, pocket sling. Callie hated it. She would scream bloody murder. It was as if I was breaking every single one of her little bones when I put her in it. We also had a moby wrap. Bill liked this one more than I did. I think it was the spatial reasoning/engineer in him. The moby is basically just one enormous piece of fabric that you wrap in all kinds of ways around your body, depending on what kind of hold you want to put the baby in. For me, it just took too damn long to figure it out and to deal with Callie's continued screaming in the meantime. We also had a baby bjorn. It was pretty good. Callie tolerated it better than the pocket sling. But it just didn't feel like there was enough support for her or for me. So I started researching and talking to other moms. The resounding vote? The Ergo. So I bought one. I found one that had a fun pattern on it:) It has a ton of padding on the shoulders for me and some good lumbar support as well. It also has a rain/sun cover that is attached. I also bought the wallet attachment, but have yet to use it, there really is a lot of storage in the ergo's front pocket that I just haven't had to use it. The really nice thing about the ergo is that you can hold the baby on your chest, on your hip or on your back so you can use the ergo much longer than other slings. I have yet to try the other two holds, but I'm sure we will soon.

Sleeping
We started out with a co-sleeper next to our bed. This was a nice setup for the begining. But in retrospect I would've moved Callie into her crib much earlier than we did. We kept it next to Bill's side of the bed so that he could have role in the breastfeeding relationship. Plus, I was so incredibly exhausted from the delivery and the recovery he was much more responsive to her cries, which ended up being a VERY good decision on our first night home since Callie started choking on formula...but that's another story... The co-sleeper was a good size and is relatively easy to take on the go. Not the lightest thing in the world though.
Eventually, we moved her into her crib in her own room which was the best decision! Her sleep had been getting progressively worse so I read On Becoming Babywise (in the meantime, I think I have read every book on infant sleep!) and we did some sleep training. We attached the Gentle Giraffe to her crib to give her some white noise to sooth her to sleep. We don't use it all the time, but it has come in handy quite a few times, especially when I try to get her to nap during the day.
Some items that I wish we had from the beginning were Aden and Anais swaddle blankets, and the happiest baby on the block dvd. People had told us about the dvd when we were pregnant, but I never bought it. It was amazing! Such good tips on how to sooth a baby. Would have made those colic nights so much easier. The doc on the video is super cheesy but the stuff works!
When we were in the hospital, they had this "baby channel" with thinly veiled product placement informational videos on how to diaper and that sort of thing. I told Bill that they should have just had this video on a loop! The swaddle blankets go hand in hand with the video. They are soft, muslin and extra long which is great for swaddling. Sure they sell these swaddle blankets with the velcro, but the velcro doesn't hold well if you have a strong, stubborn baby like we did! Plus, the size will really only work when they are newborns. Some babies need swaddling into and past the 3 month mark.

Nursing. Ahh the ups and downs of nursing. This is probably where I struggled the most and in desperation, bought shit that didn't work. First thing first: breast pump. I told myself I didn't need one because I thought to myself, "I'm staying home for the first year, so I don't need one." Wrongo Dongo. If you ever want to leave the house by yourself when you have a newborn that eats every 45 minutes, you need one. I got one from a friend, the Medela Swing, but it didn't really work well for me. Oh and while we are on the topic, Medela likes to tell you that you shouldn't share pumps with other people. I talked to a lot of people about this and pretty much all of them agreed it was a way to get people to pay $200 + for a pump, rather than buying one on craigslist for half the price and just swapping out the tubing and the breastshields. So that's what I did with the Swing. The suction didn't really work very well, so we found a 15% coupon for babies r us and bought the top of the line medela pump in style. And I am glad we did. It works much better. Sometimes it doesn't work as well as I think it should, but it does the job. Sometimes I end up hand expressing if nothing is coming out during my pumping session. The pump in style comes with a shoulder bag that was handy when we took our show on the road down to san diego. It also comes with a cooling bag and a blue ice pack, also very handy for travel. I also bought a car charger for the motor, so we were truly nursing on the go!
I really struggled in the beginning of timing my pumping and my nursing sessions with Callie. I would try to do it when she napped, but she sleeps so lightly that the motor would wake her up. So I tried this to cut down on the time it took. Total and complete waste of money. It went straight into trash. It never allowed me to pump both sides, one side always seemed to be off with the breastshields.

Nursing Pillows. Without a doubt, Boppy is king. We got a Boppy and a My Breast Friend. The MBF sounds good because it has a piece that snaps around you so it doesn't move around too much, but it just wasn't comfortable for us. We actually ended up buying another boppy. Because Callie had reflux when she was born, she couldn't sleep flat on her back without choking or waking up. We spent some very long nights with her trading off sleeping on our chests. In desperation I called our doula and she told us to use the boppy. Genius! Even though there is an enormous tag on the boppy that says not to let your child sleep on the boppy pillow, it worked wonders. It was a comical scene with Bill and I practically falling off the sides of the bed because we had Callie between us on the boppy. I found a way to cram it into the co-sleeper, which is why we needed another one! Oh and make sure you buy a couple of extra covers. Spit up happens, my friend, spit up happens a lot.

Nursing Cover. Before Callie arrived, I bought the only one they had at babies r us. Total piece of crap. There was no way for me to see Callie to make sure she was latched on right. So I went online (thank the good lord for the internet!) on searched out the best reviewed ones. And the verdict was Bebe Au Lait nursing covers, more specifically known as Hooter Hiders. They have really fun prints and you can use them as light coverings for the stroller too. I don't leave home without it!

Nursing Bra. Nursing bras are all about soft material and easy access. This wrap nursing bra from motherhood maternity was really nice for the first few days/weeks when only the lightest material will do! Later, I bought this one from Bravado. Very nice. But a word to the wise, don't put it in the dryer. I was crushed when I went to put it on the other day and the hooks had straightened out so they were useless.
Nursing Clothing. I bought a lot of clothing from Motherhood Maternity. Some of it was really nice and worked well, but some of the fabric didn't have enough give to get the girls out easily without ripping seams. This tank top was one of all time favorites. This one was useless. It was just too tight and the last thing a recently pregnant woman needs is a tight tank top. These nursing tanks from Glamourmom were much better. They had more of a give to them and were great for layering. In retrospect, I bought too many of them! Now I just buy somewhat loose fitting shirts that are easy to lift up or down rather than forking out for the expensive nursing clothing, but it definitely was useful for the first few months when you feel like everything is just hanging out in the wind!

Diapering. We had decided to do cloth pretty early on, because my dad wanted to get us the diaper service at Tiny Tots. Love love love tiny tots! It is a glorious thing to just put a bag of diapers on the porch on thursday mornings and find clean ones in their place! The only other thing we experimented with were reusable wipes. Nice idea, but they didn't stand up to repeated washings very well at all and sometimes you have a diaper that requires multiple wipes. So it got to the point that I was washing them every day and finally just said, screw it. So now we use the 7th generation chlorine free wipes. We felt ok about it because they won't take a gazillion years to degrade in the landfill.

Diaper Bag. A well packed diaper bag is key.
Originally I bought this one, but I quickly realized it wasn't working out. It didn't fit very well on the stroller and it just wasn't made all that well. Plus it was pretty girly, so I knew Bill wasn't all that keen on it. So I went to timbuk2's website and designed a bag. We've always loved timbuk2. Their bags are indestructible! And they have a waterproof liner that is easy to wipe down and clean. Plus it doesn't scream "DIAPER BAG!!" so we can use it after we are done with diapers. When I was deciding, I told Bill "The one thing that I would be really missing on the bag was some sort of bottle holder." At the time, I was pumping and feeding Callie in public with bottles because public nursing was tough. Bill told me "But they do!" And showed me this accessory. After I stopped laughing, I ordered it. So that's what we use and we love it! Its super comfortable with the padded strap and fits everything we need: cloth diapers, wipes, nursing cover, toys, extra clothes, food, you name it!

Strollers. We registered for this travel system by Chicco. It worked well but if I had to do it again, I wouldn't do a travel system. The whole transfer from the car to the stroller works if you have a baby that doesn't wake up at the slightest movement! So if I was going to do it again, I would buy this car seat and just get the Bob. The problem with the travel system is that the stroller under the carseat leaves something to be desired. The buckles really aren't easy to use or comfortable for Callie. The convertible carseat is expensive, but it does both rear facing and front facing so you can use it until they are 70 pounds! The bob is crazy expensive, but it is for a reason! It is awesome. We were lucky to get a deal on one from a friend. But I love it!! And they do sell an adaptor to put a carseat on it, so you can use it from day one.

Swing. We got this swing off of our registry. We used it a lot when we first brought Callie home. The only problem with it was when you would turn on the lights/music part of it would get stuck and would make a loud clicking sound which would obviously wake up a baby! We kept telling ourselves, "send it back, send it back and get a replacement." but then we would have had no swing for some crucial days, so we never did. And still it sits in the garage.

Teething. Ahh the joys of teething. We, like everyone else, love Sophie. Every kid seems to love this damn giraffe. I have yet to meet a baby that doesn't go crazy for it. Its worth every penny! We also really liked the rasberry teether. We also used teething tablets that have since been recalled, since Callie hated the orajel stuff.


Feeding. When we progressed to solid food, Callie was about 5 1/2 months old. We tried the gerber cereal but she sooo wasn't interested. Then I took a whiff and knew why. It smelled disgusting! So we opted for the Earth's Best cereal and she loved it! That brings us to spoons. We started with these spoons. The nice thing about them, is they turn white if the food you are giving them is too hot. Not really an issue with cereal, but when we progressed to purees it came in handy. The other nice thing is that they are pretty flat so they can try to suck the food off the spoon pretty easily. The only negative is the metal handle. Callie use to get her little fingers wrapped around it and wouldn't let go. Prying them off wasn't easy! After she got the hang of it we moved up to these spoons. And we still use them. They are awesome! One thing that I bought that was a total waste was the Boon Spoon. It sounded like a great idea but if you have a piece of food that is too big for it, it gets stopped up. Which of course leads one to push on the back of the spoon harder when...SPLAT! Baby food all over your baby's face. I'll admit it, I laughed a little. And then I threw it away. It would probably work well with bottled baby food because it it so thin and runny.
When we started doing purees, I was amazed at how easy and cheap it was to make it myself. I used this website for ideas and tips. For storage, we used Baby Cubes. But once we discovered what a bottomless pit our daughter was, we opted for some bigger, cheaper gladware containers. The only problem with the baby cubes is that you have to be sure that all of the sides of the lid are down before you freeze them or they will pop up in the freezer and you end up with freezer burned food. After a couple of days in the freezer, I would pop them out and store them in a gallon size ziplock bag to save some space in the freezer.
I also bought the Baby Cook. If I had to do it again, I probably wouldn't but I'm not really sure because it was so damn convenient. The nice thing about the baby cook is you can steam, reheat and puree all in one little container. The problem we had? After a couple of months of heavy duty use, little plastic pieces were left behind on the base when I would pick up the container. Other people have had trouble with rust as well. So now I just steam in a pot and blend in my mini cuisinart chopper.

When we first started with solids, I would hold Callie in my lap. That quickly stopped working. So I got the Bumbo Chair. It is awesome! It also promotes healthy sitting posture so they can sit up faster too. But soon enough, she figured out how to escape it, so we knew we needed a high chair. My aunt bought us this high chair, so we started using it, but again our little escape artist couldn't be contained and was basically standing up in it. So out into the garage it went. At least the cat seems to be enjoying the playground in there! I checked reviews and talked to some other moms and opted for this one. It is perfect! Very easy to set up,doesn't take up too much room and easy to clean. You can even put the tray in the dishwasher. I wanted one with a tray because we are starting to have Callie feed herself, so it works well.

Bath. Bathtime was one of my favorite times when Callie was a wee baby. Well it still is! We got an infant tub from a friend but really only used it for the first couple baths when we brought her home. It was just too hard to keep the water warm enough for her. So eventually we just took her into the bathtub with one of us and that worked just fine. The only other things we bought for the bath was a bathmat, because she slips around a lot and was going swimming! We also opted for a faucet cover since she kept hitting her head on it.We opted for this one since it seemed like the least obnoxious one they had at babies r us. We certainly were not about to Elmo our bathroom up!

First Aid. Babies get sick. And it sucks! When Callie had her first (and so far, only) cold she was so unhappy. I emailed the madres and asked for advice. One of them said "Get a nosefrida. It works wonders." I was also sick at the time so I asked Bill to pick one up. If I had known what it was, I might have thought twice. But, I'll be damned if that thing isn't the best thing out there to help babies with stuffed up noses! That's right. Its a snot sucker. But the nice thing about it is that its way gentler than the bulb syringes that they give you at the hospital and you can actually clean it out, unlike the syringes.
Other first aid items we bought was this set. But most of it we don't use. Really what you need is: a baby thermometer, nail files/clippers and a medicine dropper. It would also be helpful to have a little baby saline and gripe water around, especially if you are doing any kind of air travel.

Baby Timer. You don't necessarily need a baby timer, but it really helped us. We had a baby that always gave us the signs that she was hungry, even if she was tired. So it gave us peace of mind. At first I used the Itzbeen timer. But a few days in it went ballistic and kept resetting itself. For some reason it always seemed to happen around 1-2am and I would freak out. I thought to myself, "there's gotta be an app for this." And there is! Its called Total Baby, its like $4 and it rocks! You can keep track of feedings, diaper changes, sleep, baths, medications, food, vaccinations, doctor appointments, you name it! The other nice thing is it saves all your information so you can see the trends. We still use it to track Callie's sleep. Worth every freaking penny.

So that's it! That's my list! Good god, that's a lotta crap. But hopefully, it will help some of you new mamas out there!
Mamas, any other items to add that you liked?

Baby Sweet Potato Fries

Now that Callie is eating table food, I am trying to get away from just giving her purees so she can work on feeding herself. She loves sweet potatoes (yams) so I decided to try a baby friendly version of sweet potato fries.
I took a sweet potato, peeled it and cut it into small, baby friendly sizes. Tossed it with some olive oil, ginger and cinnamon. Then put it in a single layer on a baking sheet covered with foil. Bake at 350 for about 20-30 minutes, depending on how mushy you want them. Callie loved them!!


My taste tester approves!

Trip to Monterey

We took a really nice day trip to Monterey on Saturday. I was totally wiped from the week and from being sick the previous week. I really just needed to get out of dodge for a few hours to reset. I had talked to my friend Valerie about going. I just wasn't sure if Callie would be into it. She told me she had taken her daughter at around Callie's age. That was enough for me!

We had breakfast at Hobbees before we left and made the drive to the aquarium. Callie slept most of the way. When we arrived it was late enough in the day that it wasn't too crowded. We got to see some great things (although one of our favorite exhibits was closed. No weirdo sunfish for us.)
Our first stop was the sea otter exhibit. Callie loved it! She tried following the frolicking otter all over the tank, not an easy job! While there we met two deaf women. Thanks to our work with baby sign language (American Sign Language) we were actually able to communicate with them! It was so cool! We knew what they were signing when they told us that Callie was a "beautiful baby." I was able to say "Thank you" and we talked about the signs we were working on. Also at the otter exhibit I noticed a teenage couple in formal wear. I thought to myself, "Well that is an odd choice for a before a formal dance activity." As the afternoon wore on it became clear that their dance was being held at the aquarium. It made for some interesting people watching with all the families and the teenagers in corsages and tuxedos. One of Callie's favorite exhibits was the place where all of the anchovies are all swimming in circles. She was trying to follow all of them ! Her head was all over the place.


Video of her and the fishies!

Yay! Jellies!

At the Seahorse exhibit
We went into the kids section, the splash zone as well. It was a little chaotic with the bigger kids, but she had fun.


Callie makes a new friend...Shocking, I know.
One of the funniest things was The Rocky Shore exhibit. There is a spot called the wave crash. It is so cool, it has a walk through tunnel where water kind of explodes over the glass every 30 seconds or so. We had first come across it when we were outside. It scared the crap out of Callie! I had her in the Ergo so she would just grip me really hard and bury her head in my chest. It made for a nice hug, even though she was scared! We stopped in the bookstore before we left. While Bill was holding Callie, she reached out for a little stuffed otter, so of course we bought it. We also found a board book about otters for her.
After we were done we walked up and down cannery row. We stopped for dinner at Sly McFlys.

Callie's new stuffed animal needs a drink, obviously.
Since Callie is finally eating table food these days, it makes eating out a lot easier. But I have noticed that in most places "Kids" menus are not designed to be healthy at all! They are clearly designed for picky eaters:) Mac and Cheese, Chicken tenders, hot dogs, etc. Not really what I want to give Callie at such a young age. So it was breast milk for her and she had some of my rice as well.


Some silliness at Sly McFly's.


After dinner, we walked to one of my favorite spots, Ghiradelli! We got a banana sundae (Callie got most of the banana, with a little ice cream!). After that we were ready to call it a day and headed home.