Food Storage Cubes

So food.  Munchkin is just starting to eat food.  Well, more tasting it.  It's kind of fun and very messy.  I'm one of those Mom's that decided to go with making Munchkin's food.  There will be more posts about that in the near future.....about recipies, books equipment and the like.  But for now.......cubes!

Rather than make food every day at the moment.  It seems silly for the amount he's eating I've been making up one thing and freezing it in "cubes".

I have a few "Baby Food" storage keepers.  I'm going to say you don't need to bother.  Ice cube trays work just as well.  I have the one from Kidco as well and it works well, but it's just a fancy ice cube tray.  So if you have ice cube trays I would just go with that, then empty them into ziploc freezer bags and go from there.  I have another bunch that have individual lids, but I don't think given the opportunity i would buy them again as the ice cube trays  and small tupperware containers are just fine.

You don't need anything special.

So there you go.  The post for the day.

Baby Bumpers & Sleep Positioners

So Houston we have a problem.  We're in the process of teaching Munchkin how to sleep in his crib.  It's a bit of a slog.  Well actually a lot of a slog, but that's all for another post.  I will share the "wisdom" we have learned then.  This is more about a specific issue with the crib.

Our little guy has learned to roll over in one direction so far.  He can get from his back to his tummy but not back again.  The problem with that is that he's not super fond of his tummy time and it wakes him up when he does it.  The rolling will improve with time, however, when he does this he often ends up with a limb sticking out of the crib which makes things worse for him.  

So I looked into what we can do about both issues.  For the rolling I thought about a sleep positioner.  You can find lots of them on the internets, but with a little bit of research it looks like they can actually be quite harmful to baby.  So don't get one.  Which is too bad as it would be so lovely to temporarily keep him from rolling onto his tummy.  At least until he learns to roll back.

Now I did get a better option for the Baby Bumper.  Baby Bumpers are in fact not recommended for cribs.  They can contribute to SIDS and suffocation, strangulation and all that unfun stuff.  But they do a really good job of keeping the limbs in the crib.  With a bit of piking around I did find an alternative.  A mesh baby bumper with no ties and the like.  Keeps the limbs in and breathing feasible.

We're hopefully going to be grabbing one today from Toysrus and we shall see how it works.  

Loveys

In our Quest with a capital Q, to get our Munchkin to sleep all by himself, we decided to get him a "lovey".  It's basically a little blankie that you snuggle with him and put him to sleep with all the time in order to get him to attach to it and feel secure with it.

I will warn you, some kids latch onto one, others don't.  Munchkin seems to be somewhere in the middle.  Who knows where it will go.  But he does like it.

The one we got is the giraffe from Angel Dear.  And the neat thing is that they will sell them in sets of three!  This is a good thing, trust me.  Especially if this becomes the toy they will not do without.  That way one can be in use, one in the wash and a spare in case of loss.

I was a little skeptical, but though....well why not get the three pack.  I figured perhaps if it got lost eventually I wouldn't be able to get another one.  Within a week I had used all three due to spit up on them.

We still aren't there with sleep yet, but that's a post for another day.

Picnic Blanket

This is probably not a super necessary item but I really like it.  Skip Hop makes a cool blanket for taking on  picnics and the like. I've only used it once so far, but it is really cool.  It is somewhat water resistant which is really good for slightly damp ground.

I really like it.  It's a good size, can be a backpack or shoulder bag and it has a bit of a cooler  bag.  The cooler part isn't very big but useful for a thing or two and zips off.

Skip Hope Central Park Bag

Swimming Floats

I started Munchkin swimming as soon as I could as I believe you can't start that too early.  Especially as we will be spending time at my parents cottage in the summers and well, that lake will just call out to him I'm sure. 

The swimming we've been doing has been really mostly play, but he's learning to be comfortable in the water.  The classes we are going to are we go to are run by Diaper Fit in Toronto.  The classes are kind of neat.  The first half hour is a fitness for Mom/Dad and the last half is for the babies with songs and getting used to the water.  He seems to like them.  I probably should have waited until he was a wee bit older (just a month or two I started him at just 5 months).  He was getting a bit cold by the end.  But he's pretty good now.


Anyway, for the first part the babies get to float in these floats

I really like them and Robbie seems to as well.  You can get them for $22 at Toysrus in the summer season.  I've already bought one for the cottage.  They are by a company called Swimways.

Swim Diapers

There are a couple of things about swimwear to talk about I guess.  The first is the Swim Diaper and then the actual swimsuit.  I think I will save the swimsuits for another post.  So shall we go right in?

I will be captain obvious here and say...well normal diapers won't work so well in a pool or lake.  So yeah, don't do it.   You do have 2 options with special swim diapers.  One is the disposable route and the other are reusable swim diapers.  I have nothing to say so far about the disposable ones.  I haven't used them yet. Both Pampers and Huggies make them.  I haven't used them for a couple of reasons.  The first being that Munchkin has been too small so far for them to fit properly and the second being that the pools I've been taking him to don't allow disposable swim diapers.  I might get a package for the summer at the cottage, but I'm not really sure if I will.  I think perhaps the reusable ones will work just as well.

I have two kinds right now....The Kushies and the Bummis.  The Kushies one seems to work quite well. No complaints there.  The Bummis I haven't used yet because it is the next size up, but I think that perhaps at next week's swimming class they will be in use as the current swim diaper is getting a wee bit small.  

Most public pools seem to want you to use the reusable ones these days so it's always best to check before you go.

I will warn you though, the swim diapers are pretty much designed to keep the poop in.  they don't do much to keep the wee in.

I'll do a post once I've tried out the Bummis swim diapers on how they compare with the Kushies.

Bumbo

Everyone wants a Bumbo these days.  We like ours.  We haven't used it a whole lot, so I am glad this is one of the things we got on Craigslist.  It was half the price and in good condition.

I'm sure we will be using a little bit more as we go along and start to feed the wee guy.

A few words of caution about the Bumbo.

• many babies are too big too fast to take advantage of it
• according to the nice   occupational therapists at Sick Kids they shouldn't be overused as it can make the babies back muscles overdevelop too soon. That being said, they said using one occasionally isn't a bad thing.  

So I think as long as you aren't using it for hours on end and too soon, you should be fine.  

Gagou Swimsuit

The bathing suit I'm currently using for Munchkin is one by Gagou Tagou.  Sadly I'm not all that impressed with it.  It's cute and it fits well but it hasn't held up so well.  I've taken him swimming all of 6 times and the fabric is disintegrating.  You know how that happens after awhile with your bathing suits being used in chlorine for a long time.  I just think the suit should last more than 6 swims before that happens.

It's a bit disappointing, but I guess it happens.  The funny thing is that I usually love the Gagou Tagou stuff.  It's generally very cute and has held up well.  But I guess every company has a lemon product once in awhile.

Co Sleepers/Bassinets

So here's the thing about our little guy.  He likes to be with us in bed  He didn't seem to like the cradle we were putting him in.  Actually correct that, I was so tired with having him home at first that I would bring him into bed with me to feed him and then fall asleep.  This is generally not the safest move out there.  But he wouldn't really sleep in the cradle either it would seem.  So we went out and got a co-sleeper.  The one we got was the First Years Cosleeper.

They cost about $50 at Toysrus and other places.  We ended up buying it off Craigslist.  It was half the price and the person had used theirs twice.

Please do note that pretty much all the medical community says not to let your baby sleep in the bed with you.  There are a number of dangers, such as rolling over on the baby, bedding doing suffocation etc.....

The cosleeper worked reasonably well.  I will caution you not to get one of this particular kind unless you have at least a Queen size bed or are going to kick the hubby out.  My hubby and I were pretty much sleeping on the outside edges of the bed.  It does make for safer sleeping for the little one.  Another thing to consider is that they will grow out of it fairly quickly.  We only used it for a couple of months.  He grew too long after that.

I think perhaps if I was to do it again, I would either make sure I got out of bed to nurse and put him back in the cradle (avoiding the whole sleeping in the bed issue even though it can be super cuddly at times) or perhaps look into one of the  Arms Reach Cosleepers.  They look like they could be useful.

Used Baby Stuff

I'm on a roll with that unsolicited advice again.  Used baby stuff can be super useful.  I would say 90% of my little guy's clothing has been passed along by friends.  We have also borrowed/been given a bunch of baby gear.  It saves money and keeps stuff out of landfill.  These little ones use stuff for such a short period, it just makes sense.  So below is a few good places to get used stuff.  Keep in mind I haven't been to a bunch of them yet, but I will be in the future.

Craigslist.org -  I did get a Bumbo off the site.  Craigslist can be annoying at times but it does work too!

Kiiji.ca

www.mybabystuff.ca - I haven't actually shopped there yet, but it looks cool.

Once Upon a Child -  I haven't been yet, but probably will at some point.

There are more resources and I'll probably put a page up at some point with more of them as I come across them.

Jolly Jumper

Let me start this by saying.... Babies in Jolly Jumpers are cool!  They love them.

As you can see here they really do love it.  That was my little guy doing the jumping.

But we have been warned to use it by the Occupation Therapists at Sick Kids.  Apparently it can cause the muscles in the legs to overdevelop and bowed legs I believe.  We have to be a little bit more vigilant about things because our wee guy was a preemie and they are watching him more closely.

That being said....I think almost all of us used a Jolly Jumper at some point and we seem to be ok.  I would think that a moderate use of a Jolly Jumper wouldn't do any lasting harm.

Breast Pumps

I seem to have acquired a very intimate knowledge of breast pumps.  I spent the first 2 months of Munchkin's life pumping many times a day since he was in the hospital and was fed through a tube in his nose.

These days I don't really pump except when I've been trying to get him to take a bottle which I've had very little luck with.  I will probably pump a bit for his cereal when he starts that but other than that I don't need to pump much now since he won't take a bottle.

So I have had experience with 5 (yes 5) different breast pumps as follows:

Breast Pump @ Sick Kids

Ameda Hospital Grade

Medela Consumer Pump

Medela Mini Electric

Medela Symphony (Hospital Grade)

Let me say first off, pumping is not the most fun experience on the planet.  My poor boobs were super sore and it took awhile to get used to it all.   It's probably not like that so much if you are only doing it occasionally.  And now on to my thoughts.

The best pump (go figure) was the retro looking one at Sick Kids.  But I hope that none of my readers ever have to experience that.  So that will be all I have to say on that pump.

Hospital Grade

For the hospital grade ones (which you can rent), I liked the Ameda the best.  It was the most similar to the one at Sick Kids and I felt did the best job of getting out the milk.  Also, the way their tubing system works, no milk ever gets into the tubes leading to the pump itself which can get gross in my opinion.  If you should ever have need of a pump for a few weeks because of a issue (like being in the hospital) I would recommend renting one from the hospital rather than buying one of the hospital grade ones.  If you know you are going to be doing a lot of pumping anyway, I would suggest getting one of the consumer models.  Sick Kids rents the Ameda ones and  Mount Sinai rents the Medela ones.

The Symphony was fine, I just liked the Ameda better.

Consumer Ones

The only one I've used has been this one Medela Consumer Pump.  It has done a reasonably good job.  It's not as powerful as the hospital grade ones so I always kind of felt that it hasn't done as good a job as the hospital grade ones.  That being said, it did a perfectly good job.  I do think though that if I were buying one to use at home (the Medela was very kindly loaned to us by friends), I would most likely get the Ameda consumer model based on the experience with the hospital grade.

The Medela Mini Electric.  I just got this one.  It was a steal at a Garage Sale at my cottage for $20.  I couldn't pass it up.   The person had only used it once.  She prefers the manual pumps.  I've only used it a couple of times.  But it does an ok. job.  If I was doing a lot of pumping I don't think I would want to depend on it.  It is a one boob at a time and not as powerful.  The pros though...Super portable and it can run on batteries.  I would probably get the Swing or Freestyle if i was buying one new though.  They seem just as portable and a little more powerful.

So there you go.  All I know about breast pumps.  It really is all about what suits your needs and pocketbook.  They can be very expensive.

Happiest Baby on the Block

Some of our friends gave us a DVD to watch before the baby was born.  It was called The Happiest Baby on the Block.  They said it was well worth watching and would change our lives.  

I would tend to agree.  This video gave us a number of methods to help with the screamies and get him to sleep.  I highly recommend the book or the video.  Probably the video more as it demonstrates the techniques in a good visual way.  

This DVD has in depth instructions on Swaddling among other things.  I will be posting some helpful (hopefully) information on swaddling in a future post.  

Winkel

This toy seems to be one of the super popular "everyone must have it" toys at the moment.  And you know what?  I think they are right.  My little guy loves it.  When I purchased it, I gave it to him right away in his stroller and he clutched it all the way home.  It's great for working on motor skills.

It's made by a company called Manhattan Toys and most baby stores have it.  I've noticed that most of the independent toy stores seem to sell it for less than Toysrus.  Just in case you wanted to know..... I got mine at The Toy Space at King & Bathurst.

Emergency Diaper Bag

Every once in awhile, I will post some unsolicited advice.  Feel free to follow it or ignore it as you can with all of the things I post.  This one does seem particularly good.

Keep an emergency diaper bag in the car.

You just need to put a few diapers, some wipes and perhaps a change of clothes, and some other essential you can't live without.  The diapers and the wipes are the key I think though.

One day my husband and I went to visit a friend in the hospital and when we got there I realized I forgot the diaper bag.  Thankfully we didn't need to do a diaper change and were quite close to drugstores if it became an issue.  But while I was there I was speaking to some grandmothers waiting for the birth of a grandchild and their advice was keeping this little emergency kit in the car.  So we have done that.

Just make sure as your baby grows to put the right size diapers in :)

As a note, we didn't buy a new diaper bag for this.  Any bag will do.  But we used the free one from Nestle that they sent us with formula samples.  It even has a change pad.  You can sign up here for one.  Don't expect it until close to when your baby is due.

Bottles

I can't really comment on bottles myself.  My little guy has consistently refused to take a bottle since he was born.  But there are a huge amount of bottles to choose from and I think it is pretty much a case of trial and error if you are going to use a bottle.

I guess my recommendation on bottles is to only buy one bottle of the type you are going to try and then if it works out get more.  No sense in spending a lot on a set of bottles only to find out that your baby hates that particular kind.

So that's pretty much it when it comes to bottles for me.  We are going to try and teach the little guy how to drink out of a cup.

Go Bag

Here's some more of that unsolicited advice.  I recommend packing your go bag a bit on the early side.  I didn't have mine when the little guy got here 7 weeks early.  I was just thinking about it.  It's better to be more prepared than less.  You could end up having to use icky hospital shampoo or risk having the wrong clothes brought to you etc.... and so on.  Now none of it is really the end of the world.  Hospital gift shops can help out with a lot, but still.... probably a good idea.

I will also throw this out there.  If you happen to need to go to the hospital because of possible labour.  Make sure you bring the camera and the phone charger.  If you happen to need to stay overnight it's very handy.  My iPhone's battery was super close to death by the time I had the baby.  It was running on fumes when I wanted to tell the world about the baby.

Lillies of the Valley Coat

I loved using my M Coat so much for carrying Robbie around in his carrier in the winter.  It was so easy.  Insert baby and go.  No need for winter stuff for him.  I wanted something for fall and spring that would work as well.  The down M Coat is really for winter.  So I did some research for something that would work for spring and fall.

I found this a lovely coat from Lillies of the Valley.  She is a local artisan and I really really like the babywearing coat i got from her.  The only thing that would have added to the coat is a pocket.  But I like pockets.  The coat is super comfy, looks good without the baby and kept us snuggly.  And I found the zip up bit to keep your chest warm great.  That was a bit of something missing from the M Coat.  

Now this coat won't block out the wind being polarfleece, but I didn't find that to be too much of a problem, but some people might.  

Green Baby Bargains

I signed up for this company's mailing list awhile ago.  Basically every day they have a "deal" on a baby product.  You basically have that day to buy it.  They do seem to have some neat stuff and good bargains.

I should say that I haven't actually bought anything from them yet.  I just haven't actually needed the items that they are selling when they have been selling them.  However, a friend of my has bought stuff from them and was quite pleased with what she bought.


Green Baby Bargains