If you have a child you know that you can’t have JUST the child - you must also have a variety of gear, gadgets, toys, tools, and miscellaneous items designed especially to help you do something with said child. Besides the items for safety (car seats, for example), I think the best doodads are those that make your job as parent a little easier in some way. I was a little surprised actually by some of the things that I thought were silly or unnecessary before I had Veronica, but now I can’t live without.
Item number one is definitely our swing. While she’s not swinging in it as much now that she’s getting bigger (and quickly reaching the weight limit), for the first few months of her life it was a Godsend. We have the Nature’s Touch Baby Papasan Cradle Swing by Fisher Price. It was a bit of a splurge, and I’m sure there are other, simpler swings that would have served just as well, but I do love ours. It looks SO comfortable, I wish there was an adult version! She has fallen asleep in it more times than I can count. When she started getting older and more aware, she began to enjoy the detachable toy/activity tray. She also loves looking up at herself in the mirror. I’m so glad we didn’t try to get through those first months with just her bouncey seat, though she loves that as well and we got much use out of it. The bouncer is a perfect example that sometimes, simpler is better. We got one of the least fancy ones in the store, and never regretted it.
We realized we needed a swing when we watched the Happiest Baby on the Block DVD, which is my second recommendation for must-have baby gear. A co-worker loaned it to me, and when I saw it and tried Dr. Karp’s “Five S’s” for calming baby, I wished that I had watched it while I was pregnant, instead of when Veronica was already at least six weeks old. Gosh, why didn’t anyone tell me? Well, I’m not going to let that happen to anyone I know, and I tell all pregnant women that I know to get this DVD, or get it for them as a shower gift!
Another item that I never thought about before I had a baby was a nice blanket. Not a receiving blanket, but a great, big, fluffy blanket for spreading out on the floor. I guess I assumed that when my daughter was awake she’d be in one of several places - her bouncer, her playpen, her high chair, being held by a parent. I’ve found though that there are plenty of times when baby doesn’t want to be in a piece of equipment, doesn’t want to be held, and the playpen/play yard really doesn’t give her enough freedom to roll around and “express herself.” For those times, it’s best to put a big blanket on the floor and then put baby in the center, with toys spread around her. This is where my daughter has learned to roll over, sit on her own, and is now learning how to crawl. We use an old quilt, folded into a large (about 4ft by 4ft) square, then put a big polar fleece blanket from Old Navy on top of that. The blanket is soft, washable, and colorful (washable is really key here). Sometimes she plays on her own, sometimes her father or I lay on the floor with her. I’ve spent many rewarding hours on this blanket, having my hair pulled and listening to a baby laugh like an evil genius! (Another great place to put baby for explore/play time is the center of the bed, especially if you have a king-sized bed. It’s easier on your knees, too!)
A friend of mine told me while I was still pregant that I should get some cloth diapers. “You’ll use them for everything,” she advised me. I couldn’t imagine what she meant and kind of forgot about it. Needless to say, once Veronica came home I sent my husband around the corner to Target to get several packages of cloth diapers. We call them “burp cloths” and they are the multi-purpose, can’t-do-without baby item. I’ve found that the little rags that are sold as “burp cloths” in most stores just don’t cut it - they’re too thin or too small if they’re terry cloth; and the heavier flannel-type ones are too thick and unwieldy. The cloth diapers, while I can’t ever imagine putting them over my baby’s butt, are perfect in both size and texture for mopping up stray formula, spit-up (on her AND on me), drool, baby food…you name it. They’re actually best after they’ve been through the wash a few times and reach the perfect level of softness.
The final item I want to sing the praises of is the so-called “play yard,” or what our moms used to call a “playpen.” We have a Graco Pack-n-Play, and we could not live without it. I suppose when I was pregnant and setting up our adorable nursery, I had this fantasy that whenever our baby needed a diaper change, we’d do it on the lovely changing table that matched the crib and bookshelves; that whenever she needed a nap she’d take it in that beautiful crib; and that when she played, well…I hadn’t really thought that far. In any case, I had no idea how much I would want to avoid the trip up and down the stairs in our house after having a C-section. Those first few weeks I basically came downstairs in the morning, and stayed downstairs all day, then made the return trip at bedtime - and never carrying the baby. I was pretty happy then, that some time in the 9th month, we’d decided to buy the pack-n-play and set it up (I think I actually bought it with the money that my father gave me at my baby shower some months earlier) downstairs in the family room. Veronica gets a diaper change on that table upstairs maybe twice a day now, and only sleeps in her crib when she is down for the night, never for naps. Pack-n-play was a really smart purchase.
Of course, I also could make a list of things you supposedly can’t live without when you have a baby, but we never found any use for at all. But that’s another post.
