Baby Monitors

Today's post is not about the actual baby monitors we tend to use in the house.  I'll do that one another day.  Today's is about an iPhone app.  I'm pretty excited about it, I just haven't tested it out yet.  I forget where I saw it on the intarweebs, but it seems pretty cool for when you are at someone's house and are putting the small person to bed for awhile.

Basically, you set the thing up, put your iPhone with the baby wherever you are stashing the baby and it calls the phone number you set when the baby stirs.  Kind of nifty I think.

babymonitoralarm.info/

I'll post again once I've tried it out and we'll see how snifty it is.

Bibs!!!

Let me just say that bibs are useful.  Very very useful.  Some more than others.  I was a terrible mother and didn't/doesn't really use the drool bibs.  I really should, but it's been just kind of easier to put him in a new shirt/sleeper.  Mind you my Munchkin has so many clothes it's insane.  One day the hand me downs will dry up and I'll be in trouble.

Anyway, today's bit is about the food bibs.  They are super important.  Especially if your little one is as messy as mine.  I think my favorite bibs so far are the almost fully body bibs with sleeves.  I have some super cool other bibs, but they don't provide the coverage needed.  My Munchkin likes the ones made out of terry cloth, but there isn't much protection as he stuffs it in his mouth.  All the plastic bibs seem to end up as capes which is no good because I'll just have to teach him later that super heros don't wear capes.

I currently have the Kladd Prickar bibs from Ikea and they are working pretty well.  I'm also going to see about grabbing some other ones too.  I think I need a couple more bibs.  2 isn't enough.    I think Kushies makes them too even thought they aren't on the websites.  I've seen them at baby stores.  I'm sure there are other ones out there too.

But the protection is essential.  They can get super awesome coverage with the food.

Wriggle Wrapper

So this is something really neat we just got.  It's called a Wriggle Wrapper by Phil and Teds.  It is a portable high chair.  I really like it.  I wasn't so sure I would, but I used it for a lunch outing today and it was fantastic.  My hubby used it on Saturday night when we were out for dinner for a friend's birthday.  The little man isn't quite able to use the restaurant ones yet.  He's a bit small.

I wasn't sure about it and actually hunted around and got it on Ebay.  But I really really like it.  You can secure them to a chair or in your lap and still have both hands free.   You just have to watch to make sure they don't steal your food/plate.

Now I realize most restaurants do have high chairs, but we do go to friends and family houses quite frequently and they don't have highchairs (and I don't expect them to either).

So I'm giving this 2 thumbs up!

Food!!

So I'm not quite motivated enough to make my own baby cereal.  Call me crazy but....  Since I would tend to prefer giving my wee man whole grains, I figured I should feed him brown rice cereal.  It's a bit hard to find, but I did find some.  There is a company that makes organic baby cereals, teething biscuits etc...  

Healthy Times

So far I'm quite impressed with them.  I've tried the Brown Rice Cereal, the Barley, and the Oatmeal and the teething biscuits.  We're sticking to the rice cereal for now.  He finds the barley a bit too bitter and the oatmeal gives him a bit of gas.  We'll try them again later.

One of the things I really like about this company's food is that there is no crap in it.  If you read the label on most baby cereals, there are a bunch of chemicals and crap like potato Malodextrin, Palm olein, powdered milk etc....  In the Healthy times, there is brown rice, an iron supplement, and a calcium supplement thing.  

So yeah, I think this is the way to go.  I'm not a rabid organic only, but I do think we should do as much as possible.  The less crap the better.  

It's a bit hard to find in stores, but lots of health food stores carry it, the Great Canadian Superstore tends to have it and the SickKids food store also carries it.

Skip Hop Diaper Pad

So I really like the Skip Hop Pronto diaper changing station.  It holds a couple of diapers and some wipes.  It is great for if you're going out for a bit and don't want to take the whole diaper bag with all the stuff.

I find it awesome for going for a walk or at the cottage heading over to the neighbours for a little bit.  No need to take the bag of everything.

Too Much Cute

This weekend my sister and her husband had a little friend join their family.  He's 6 weeks old and his name is Scrappy!  He's a pretty cute little kitten.  Robbie got to meet him yesterday.  At one point he was crashed out on the floor for a nap and a certain little kitten decided to come and have a look followed by a nap.  We almost died of the cute.

Baby Sign Language

Now I'll be the first to admit that I haven't been doing super duper amounts of this, but it's kind of a nifty idea to teach your baby sign language.  It can actually help improve their vocabulary and speaking skills etc...  I'm just going to mention here an iPhone app that helps when you can't remember the sign and you aren't beside your reference book.  It's pretty cool and not very expensive.  I would recommend it.


My Smart Hands

Baby Wipes

Yup a whole post about what to use when wiping your baby’s butt.  There are many different brands and I’m sure there are many different opinions.  I’ve tried a few different ones and I think at the moment my favorite for price and usefulness together is the Kirkland Brand from Costco.  But on to my reviews:

Kirkland Wipes

The Kirkland (Costco) wipes are my favorite I think.  The price is awesome and the wipes work well without too much perfume.  I’m not as fond of the package they come in as other brands, but that can be solved by taking them out of the package and putting them in an existing container (I like the Huggies containers and have saved them for that exact purpose).  Basically the little lid on the Kirkland packages doesn’t really stay shut very well. 

I would say the Kirkland ones are my favorite by far. 

Baby Life

I kind of like the Baby Life brand from Shoppers Drug Mart.  I’ve only really used them for their travel packs (a bit o the expensive side but they fit so well into my diaper bag).  The wipes are big enough, do the job and don’t smell too perfumy.

Pampers

The Pampers wipes are good.  Some of them can be on the perfumy side and they tend to be on the more expensive side too.  But I would probably  buy the Pampers one when they are on sale. 

President’s Choice Baby Wipes 

I must say, I’m a little on the disappointed side here.  Usually I’m quite happy with any of the PC products.  They are one of the reasons I shop at No Frills, Loblaws and the Great Canadian Superstore. 

Sadly in this case I’m on the disappointed side.  I find that the wipes are on the small side and therefore take more to so the job.  And there is more danger in getting poop on you too.  Other than the small size though they are ok. 

Rexall No Name Brand

I wasn’t fond of these ones.  They seemed a little thin and scratchy to me.  But if there is nothing else they will work.

Huggies Wipes

The Huggies wipes containers are fantastic.   I’m not quite as fond of the Huggies wipes.  They tend to be more expensive and on the perfumy side.  I’m not a huge fan of scents in my wipes.  I tend to refill the

Baby Swings

Well, I was going to do a review of the baby swing we have for the little guy, but it looks like they don't make it anymore.  I'm not terribly surprised.  It was a hand me down, hand me down.......  It's too bad they don't make it anymore as it's fantastic.  It is an old school crank model.  No batteries to replace or motors to make a weird noise.  Munchkin loves it.  He hated the other swing we borrowed.

That being said, there are a bunch of baby swings out there now that run on batteries etc... that I'm sure are quite good  I can't remember the model that was lent to my parents for the cottage when Munchkin is visiting, but it seems fine.  Not quite as awesome as the crank one, but pretty good.

So I'm sure all of you out there aren't going to find this terribly useful.  But babies do tend to like swings and especially if you can get a hand me down or something and have the room it is probably worthwhile.

Baby Connect iPhone App

I find this little app pretty useful when I need to track my wee Munchkin's sleeping, eating and pooping habits.  It's pretty cheap and super useful.  You can also have it on Multiple phones and it has a web interface.  So I recommend it.  And now Munchkin needs my attention so off I go!

http://www.baby-connect.com/

Soothers

I'm not going to get into the soother debate (the good v evil).  I'll let you all decide that on your own.  

Our little Munchkin isn't much on soothers.  Most of the time he doesn't want one, but then every once in awhile does.  We kind of wish he wanted one more.  He did seem to like them at the beginning (only the one kind) and then for some reason all of a sudden decided "NO I DO NOT WANT ONE".  Now he's wishy washy about it.

We've been using the Soothie brand by Phillips as that's what he had when he was in the hospital.  He has consistently refused all other kinds.  

We have gotten him some Wubbanubs so he can try and hold onto them a bit himself when he is in the mood for a soother.  He quite likes them even if he hasn't quite figured out how to really pop it back in properly.  He enjoys chewing on their hands and the sides of the soothers.  

Joe Fresh

Just sayin.....Joe Fresh has some pretty nifty inexpensive baby clothes.  You do have to check frequently as the stock changes, but it can be worth it.  Especially if you luck into clearance day.

Not that my little man needs any more clothes at the moment.  But ti is cool to keep an eye out for anything super nifty.

Carters Baby Clothes

I must say, I really like the Carters baby clothing.  It's generally very well priced, super cute and fits well.  I've had several people give me some and it's been some of my favorites for dressing my little Munchkin.  That's pretty much all I have to say about them.  Cute, good price, fits well!

Baby Food Storage

Just thought I would share a couple of things about baby food storage.

Freezing is awesome for storing baby food.  I basically make a batch of something (say sweet potato) and then put it into an ice cube tray an freeze it.  Then I put the cubes into a ziploc bag.  This way I don't have to make a million special things a day and I can take a couple of cubes out at a time and defrost them depending on how much I need.  Now it doesn't work with everything, but it does work for a lot of veggies and fruit.

They do sell special "baby food" trays and I was loaned a couple.  They're good, but you can use an ice cube tray too.  You probably already have a couple and they are cheaper than buying the special ones.

That being said, I did get one of these.  They been kind of useful when making a batch of something and I want to use the next day.  I don't find the tray part terribly useful, but the little containers yes.

Teething Rings

Teething Rings are awesome for the little ones.  Their poor teeth hurt so much when they are growing them.

I've tried a couple of different teething rings and so far he's really only liked two of them, but I'm going to try again with the others.  The first one is Sophie who will get her own post.  So I won't say much here, except you should get one.

The other is the Ringley Teething Ring.  Munchkin seems to like chewing on Fabric so is is a great one for him to have.  I had originally thought it was jus super gimmicky on the "organic" bandwagon type thing, but he really does seem to like chewing on the maple ring and the fabric bits.  I got the Ringley Straight and he's quite happy with it.

The ones that haven't worked so well yet are the ones that are filled with fluid and put in the fridge to be cold.  I think he's going to change his mind about that sometime soon when the teething gets really super sore.  I get the feeling he's just not so sure about the cold feeling yet.

My husband's and my fingers are also great teething rings according to Munchkin.  Just thought you might want to know that.

Tracking your Baby

Hmmm, Tracking your baby. That kind of sounds like you're going to be putting a microchip in them and following them with a GPS tracking device.

So when you're a brand new parent, you are expected to track everything your baby does. Even though you are a sleep deprived goomba. So you need to know exactly when and how often he/she pees, poops, eats etc.....

Now I'm not so good with all of this type of thing on a piece of paper. I'm just too too tech oriented. And of course you tend to leave the piece of paper at home and decide you're going to remember to do it later, etc... and so on. Then you forget. But the one thing you always have with you (well most of us anyway) is your phone. I have a iPhone personally so this all for this. There is an App in the ITunes store called Baby Connect I think it's $3.99 or something like that. Not sure expensive.

In it you can fairly quickly put all those nifty bits of info. You can even have multiple people do it. There is a web interface that goes with it so you can have the grandparents be able to put the info in. It's all account based. So you can have multiple accounts and the info will go across.

It's not a perfect software, but it's on the neat side and has done well for us in tracking feeding and the other end. It's also handy because you tend not to forget it when you go to the doctor and they ask you questions about it.

Sophie the Giraffe

So this Sophie....a little rubber giraffe.  How special can it be.  It seems like she's the toy du jour and in ever baby's hands.  But really?  A little rubber giraffe?  And it seems a little expensive for a teething toy.  Munchkin's was a gift but I think they are $20 or something like that.  But all the Mom's were saying you can't live without them and the babies love them to death (some giraffe's are nekkid from having their spots chewed off)

I was on the skeptical side about this.  And I was actually going to write this post from the point of view of "Every Child but mine loves Sophie".  He just didn't seem to interested in Sophie.  Then of course as soon as I was contemplating writing a post from that point of view, he just grabbed Sophie one day and started chomping down on her nose for all he was worth.  So now there is a daily chew on Sophie's limbs/head session.

So yeah, I would recommend getting one and even if your little one doesn't seem interested at first, keep offering the Sophie and see what happens.

Amaze

So you may find that babies are on the messy side.  From both ends at times.  This can all lead to some laundry stains that are hard to get out.  My Mom told me I should get this laundry booster called Amaze.  It's a little hard to find, but I can get it at the Loblaws at Queen's Quay.  I'm sure it's available in other placed but that's where I get it.

So basically you can pre soak all your poopy, puked on or messy food covered clothes, blankets, bibs etc... and the majority of the time the stains come out.  I haven't tried it on blueberry or beets type stuff.

So you should get some.

Red Food Dye

Well this is probably a Captain Obivous thing, but stay the heck away from anything with Red Food dye in it for your little one.  A good percentage of children/babies react to it in some form or another.  And yet for some unknown reason, we still get a large percentage of things like medicine with red food dye in it.  I mean really.....an infant doesn't care what colour their Tylenol is.  Trust me.....get the dye free stuff.

I used to get migraines from red food dye, so I've been avoiding it for my little Munchkin.  But I've been having a hard time with the grape flavoured tylenol and was told that all infants love the cherry.  So I bought some cherry and took the chance with the red dye (I later found out that apparently the dye free cherry does exist, I just can't find it as of yet).  He loved it but........   I gave it to him about 1/2 an hour before bedtime.  By the time we put him in bed he was a little choo choo train.  His arms and legs were going a mile or two a minute and he showed no signs of slowing down.  I brought him back down to his Dad to entertain for 1/2 an hour so I could get a little nap in.  He put Munchkin in the Jolly Jumper where he went to town for a 1/2 hour and still wanted to keep going.

So yeah......your child can either be hyper or get a nasty headache.....so stay away from the red food dye.

Food Making Equipment

Since I'm giving this making my own food a try I had to get a couple of things.  A steamer and a food pureeing device.  I ended up buying the Hamilton Beach one specifically for babies.  But pretty much any one of the small ones will do I'm sure.  I find the one I got a bit noisy, but I don't know if it's any louder than the others or not.   For the steamer I just got a low end Black and Decker.  It works just fine.

Now if you want to make large batches of something, I would suggest using your larger food processor if you have one.  For instance, the other day I pureed 4 mangos at once.  It would have been a pain in the small Hamilton Beach one.

I also bought a metal steamer basket that you can put over a pot.  The reason I got that one is because I get the feeling that when I steam beets and blueberries I will end up with a stained steamer machine.  Not that the steamer will work any less well, but.......

Gassy Baby

Our poor little munchkin suffered from some really wicked gas when he got home from zee hospital.  They had put him on domperidone to help his digestion while he was there and just continued it when he left the hospital.  One of the side effects of this is wicked gas.  The poor little guy was miserable.  Then I found some stuff that helped.  It's called Oval here in Canada.  Man does this stuff help.  Even now when he occasionally gets a bout of super bad gas it is so helpful.  I really recommend this stuff.  Just pay attention to the label and check with your doctor before using it with your little one.  They pretty much say that on all the labels of all the baby drugs and being that they are so wee and all, I figure we should do what they say.

Sprout Right

Sprout Right is a Canadian book which is always good to have.  It covers the basics of nutrition from your pregnancy through toddler land.

I've found the book pretty helpful.  Mostly for introducing foods to the Munchkin and the basic recipes to get you started.  It's helpful to know that Rice Cereal constipates babies and how to avoid that (mind you according to me it's simple.....don't give it to them).

It's not the only book I'm using, but it's one of them and I find it helpful.

You can check their website our at Sprout Right.  In addition to the book, there are workshops, menu plans etc.... and so on that you can buy.

Photography

Sometimes you want some professional photos of your baby done.  Snapshots are great, but depending on your photography skills........  You might want someone else to do a few photos.

It can be super expensive for those on a budget (like us), but we found a nifty way to get some photography done.  Today we participated in a workshop called Simply Babies through Art Strollers.

Basically is a photography session where you are interacting with your baby in an Art Cafe (in the gallery section). There are other babies and their families too.

The photographer Andrew was fantastic.  He made us feel really at ease and the process was fun.

We haven't seen the final images yet and won't for a couple of weeks (which is totally fine), but you can check out some of his other photography at his company Clear Pixel Images.

I would definitely recommend this to anyone.  I think we are also going to check out some of their other offerings as they looks quite interesting and affordable.

Passport Hints!

So today was the day we went to get Munchkin his passport.  I've got a couple of bits of advice to make it go smoother for you.  Thankfully I accidentally got it right.

Make sure when you are registering the wee one's birth you get the 2 versions of the birth certificate. I think they are the long and short forms.  You need the long one for the passport application.  And it sucks to have to wait to order that one then do the passport.  Thankfully I had the one we needed.

Also, make sure you go to a passport picture place that knows how to photograph infants.  They have rules such as no hands in the photo and some more.

So yeah, there you go!

Ring of Neglect

So what may you ask is a ring of neglect?  They are those nifty activity centres you can plop your child into and do some stuff assured they are safe.  They are kind of like those now illegal walkers we had as kids, but with no wheels and toys attached.

This one is a Baby Einstein Discover and Play Activity Center.  I don't have one so I have nothing to say about it, I just used it as an example.  I do think most of the Activity Centers are probably quite good, I just don't have one. 

We wanted one, but our house is very narrow and full of stuff (if we're not careful we could turn into hoarders, well no, but we too have too much stuff).  And in my mind they are a bit expensive.  So we ended up buying the Kidco Go-Pod.

I really like it.  It folds up into nothing and has a carry bag.  We took it to the cottage for the weekend and it didn't take up too much room in the car.  The other thing I like is that it is easy to move from room to room or just fold quickly out of the way.  You attach your own toys to loops on the pod which is kind of neat as you can change the toys that they get to play with.   I would recommend this to just about anyone.

We aren't using ours too much right now as our guy is a wee bit small still.  His head barely pokes up above the edge, but that will change shortly I'm sure.  I think he's in a little growth spurt.

As a note, apparently you shouldn't be leaving your child in them for super long periods of time.  It's that whole thing about overdeveloping muscles again like the Jolly Jumper.  We have been told we should only use it about 20 minutes a day.

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

The M Coat

It can be tough being pregnant in the winter.  You don't really want to buy a new coat just for a few months and quite frankly, the selection of coats in general for pregnant women sucks.  Unless you want to spend big bucks, you tend to look like an unfashionable blob.  

That being said, the M Coat was one of the best pieces of clothing I bought while I was pregnant.  It was most practical for me as I was very pregnant in the winter since I was due at the end of January.  

It's a fantastic winter coat that you can wear when pregnant, not pregnant and for baby wearing.

The M Coat

It's a bit expensive when you are on a budget, but you can wear it for years.

Nursing Tops

Since i've gone and had and offspring i've obviously become more interested in clothing that facilitates breastfeeding.  For the most part I've been very disappointed.

I bought a couple of nursing tops from Thyme Maternity.  They were on the expensive side for glorified T-Shirts and after about 2 washings they looked like I had washed them about 50 and they looked a little on the worn side.

Then I tried a Gap nursing top I got from ebay.  I was much happier with this, however I did have to get my mom to modify it a little bit so it wouldn't gape.  Also, the V-neck is a bit low for people wearing nursing bras.  Their sizing is on the larger side so I should have bought a medium.  Mind you I did get a medium about a week ago and it still needs a bit of modification.  The up side though is that is is super comfortable.  The Gap does have comfy T-Shirt material.  The other downside is that you can't buy them in Canada as they stopped selling them in Canada reasonably recently.

I did find a really good shirt.  And it's a Canadian company too which makes me happy.  This company Momzelle makes fantastic t-shirts.  I ordered 1 and  a couple of tank tops.  They are super comfortable, the openings are easy to use and they just make me happy.  Also in the grand scheme of things they aren't that expensive.  They are more than I would ever want to pay for a t-shirt or tank top, but at the same time they are less expensive than many of the other nursing tops out there that can go for about $70.  I would recommend these shirts to anyone.  I bought the V-Neck Nursing T and the V-Neck Nursing Tank.

Welcome!

In December 2010 I had my first child.  He's a sweet little boy and I love him to bits.  As all expecting mothers are, we are bombarded with all the advertising and gadgets etc.... that we absolutely NEED in order to have out children grow up healthy, safe, and having fun.

In reality you don't need every single thing out there.  And I've found that not quite everything is as useful as it seems.  At least to me.  Recently a number of my friends have become pregnant and have asked what items I thought were useful and where to buy them.   I was putting together a straight spreadsheet to send to them, but this is something that will be constantly updated as the little guy grows older, so I figured I would start a blog and share it with the world.

Most of the locations for buying items is Toronto as that's the area I live in, but items will all have links to their websites if they exist.

As a disclaimer, my reviews are based on what I liked which may be different to things other people liked.