Top Ten Must Have’s for New Parents
Monday, May 26th, 2008BM and I read numerous books, blogs, and magazines in preparation for G arriving on scene. We talked with and picked the brains of our friends and family. The advice we received was great and has been very helpful. Now, having our own baby, we thought it might be helpful for the world to know what things we think are must haves for new parents.
As many of you know, BM and I are obsessed with making things run as smoothly as possible. We decided to compile what we hope will be our first of many lists to help your life be a little smoother once you and your newborn are home. We have tried to avoid the obvious things (think crib, bottles, etc), rather, we thought focusing on the things you might not have considered would be more helpful. So, here you go:
Wipes, Wipes, Wipes - We usually change our baby’s diaper about eight-ten times a day and use about two or three wipes per cleaning. If G gets busy, we sometimes use many more. Getting the baby cleaned up quickly between diaper A being removed and diaper B being attached is important (less you end up with a surprise on the changing table). Wipes are the key to keeping the baby clean and cleaning him quickly. Our favorites are the Kirkland Brand wipes from Costco.
Bouncy Seat - As with the wipes, I have no idea how our parents survived without the help of a bouncy seat. While it won’t be the most attractive piece of furniture in your home, the miracle it performs is worth the temporary damage to the Qi of the house.
Basically, the bouncy seat is a piece of cloth strung between a metal loop that balances on the floor and gives the baby a hammock type seat to kick it (as the kids these days tend to say :) The breathing of the baby causes the seat to bounce ever so slightly which encourages baby to relax and enjoy the ride. We use the Fisher Price Rainforest Bouncer which also has a battery power attachment that makes noises, flashes lights, and vibrates the seat. G doesn’t really enjoy the Las Vegas portion of the seat yet, so we just detach it and have a portable seat we can place G in whenever we need to sit him down to free up our own hands (think after a bath or after a feeding).
Changing Table - We have friends that are on both sides of the isle in the debate about a changing table. Some argue it is unnecessary and some can’t live without it. We are in the latter camp.
A changing table is a must have in our house as it provides a one stop shop for changing the baby’s diaper. It is a station that is always ready to accept the squirming baby and has all the needed items within arms reach (think diapers, butt paste, wipes, alcohol, q-tips, etc.) In fact, I would argue that having the changing table must improve the Qi of the house since it allows you to keep all the diaper changing necessities in one spot rather than scattering them around the house. Secondly, your back takes a beating with all the bending over you do with baby anyway and the height of the changing table is a big help. I don’t remember were BM bought our changing table, but I know it took about a half a day for me to put it together. In the end, it was time well spent.
Camera/Video Camera - I know this one is obvious, but we wanted to take the time to remind and encourage you to take tons of pictures of your new pride and joy. G is now six weeks old and I can see dramatic changes in his appearance from when he was born. BM and I try to take a handful of photos each week just so we have a record of his physical development.
Of course, having a digital camera makes the process even better because it allows you to share your photos or videos online with little effort. If you have a gmail account, you can share photos using Google’s Picasa service. As you might have guessed, I love flickr but I wouldn’t say it is the easiest to use to simply share photos with your family and friends. I also love Vimeo for sharing video with friends and family.
As with the other items described, we will write more in-depth reviews of online photo and video services as time permits. There are many other places online to store and share digital media - the point of this quick listing is just to remind you to have a way of capturing the growth and development of your new bundle of joy. You will love having the pics and videos years from now.
Noise Machine - If you cherish your sleep (trust us, if you don’t cherish it before you have a child, you certainly will once you have a newborn), then you need a good solid sound machine.
Last night G slept for seven and a half hours (he is six weeks old). The sound machine is one of the reasons BM and I feel G has been doing so well in the sleep department (we are knocking on wood all over the house right now :) The machine doesn’t have to be anything fancy, just something to make white noise but we find that the noise machine helps to mask our noises from the baby and it also masks his noises(the non-serious peeps and squeaks) from us. As I have mentioned in another blog entry, I am the kind of person that would be up at every little peep during the night. But, with the white noise at a sufficient volume, we only hear the significant noises that baby makes around the time of his feedings :)
We have been using a noise machine by Sharper Image, but we don’t love it and cannot recommend it. Hopefully, BM and I will find a better solution that we can share with you on OSK.
Swaddling Blanket - Again this item goes along with cherishing your sleep. The swaddle has proven to be another major factor in our limited success with G’s sleeping habits. At night, as part of his routine, he is swaddled very tightly and placed in his crib and allowed to go to sleep on his own.
We first started using a large square stretchable cloth swaddle, but found it wasn’t sufficiently tight enough during the night for G’s strong fits of squirming. He is already over 11 pounds and strong enough to escape your basic swaddle. After waking up several nights in a row to G having the swaddle blanket up over his face or loosely wrapped around his neck while the rest of his body was uncovered, we decided there must be a better way. And, if you spend five minutes on the internet looking, you will see numerous better mousetrap swaddles. We ended up going with the swaddle made by Snug and Tug, which keeps G tightly bound throughout the night (which prevents the baby from accidentally waking themselves up because they don’t have full control or understanding of their arms and hands).
ItzBeen - We think one of the keys to getting a baby into a routine is to have a routine that you live by. Maintaining that routine in a significant sleep deprived state is very difficult and that is where this little device comes in. The ItzBeen has to be one of those often overlooked items that is a must have for new parents.
Basically, it is an easy to use egg timer that allows you to mash a single button and have a timer start counting the duration since you pushed the button. The machine is a small handheld device that can track four different times at once. We use it to track how long it has been since a diaper change, feeding, and how long G has slept. The forth button comes in hand for different things, usually associated with breast feeding. But, with the ItzBeen and a small notebook, we are able to keep up with and keep our baby on a solid routine which helps keep our sanity.
And for those of you thinking, “Oh, I can keep up with how long it has been since the baby was fed or changed,” think again. BM and I used to have pretty good memories but that all changed when we had a baby. I think the baby gods give you a baby, but they take a large portion of your brain power in return - see our post “Babies Eat Brain Cells” for more insight.
Easy Access Outfits - As adults living in the world of mass marketing, it is easy to fall prey to cute clothes made for a baby. But, BM and I now believe the people designing baby clothes have never changed a squirming and somewhat fragile little baby. You see, many of the clothes we have run across are not very easy to put on or take off. As you probably guessed, a baby isn’t able to hop up and use the toilet like adults are supposed to. Instead, for some strange reason, evolution has continued to allow them to go to the bathroom on themselves which must explain the zillion dollar a year business of diapers. Unfortunately, we have seen many super cute clothes on the rack at our favorite stores that don’t take into account that the baby’s diaper has to be changed many many times a day. When changing a babies diaper, let me assure you, having to struggle to get the child’s clothes off (evolution won’t let them change their own clothes for some reason).
We love the small bodysuits that snap up the front and down both legs or in between both legs. This allows us to quickly unsnap the bottom portion of the outfit, change the diaper, and be back in business in the amount of time it might take to simply completely remove one of those other super cute outfits. You will also be changing baby due to spitting up way too many times and pulling an outfit that does not open all the way up over a baby’s head and arms is not very fun for you or baby. Think lots of fussing.
One Million Burp Cloths - We were lucky, we had some friends that helped establish our massive burp cloth collection at BM’s baby shower. We had no idea we would need so many. Turns out, we keep at least two ready for action in every room the baby lives in. We also keep a small stack in the rooms where he spends most of his time. While our baby doesn’t spit up all the time, he does seem to be average in that he spits up regularly (we talked to the doctor about it and she wasn’t worried at all). When people come over to see the baby, they get to wash their hands really well, grab a burp cloth and then hold the baby - you see, BM and I don’t want to see our friends’ clothes ruined with a good burp.
AAP Book - The American Academy of Pediatrics have a great book (Caring for Your Baby and Young Child) that we have been using as our baby bible. The book is amazingly informative and easy to ready. It is divided into sections depending on age so you aren’t stuck reading 500 pages just to find the one tidbit of information you are looking for.
If you are lucky enough to live near a Publix Supermarket, you can join (for free) the Publix Baby Club and they will send you this fantastic book for free. The book addresses birth through age five.
Help and Sense of Humor - These two kind of go hand in hand and I struggle with the sense of humor part sometimes. But, I think if you know going into having a baby that you will most likely need help and that you will be somewhat emotionally drained, you will have a better time in the early part of being a new parent.
In our case, we are very lucky to have my mother-in-law and my brother living nearby. They both love helping to take care of G which allows BM and I the opportunity to go to dinner or see a movie if we want. Or, if you are in the first weeks of newborn life, having someone around might just prevent you from going crazy due to the lack of sleep.
We have heard stories from friends of ours that didn’t have friends or family that could help out (I know, we are friends, but BM and I had no idea they could use our help - mostly because we hadn’t gone through it ourselves). We have also heard stories about friends coming over to cut grass or clean the house. And, as I think we have mentioned in the past, we had numerous friends bring us dinner when G first cam home which relieved that simple burden of having to think of and prepare dinner for the family that night.
Bottom line, don’t be afraid to ask for help. And, know that things should get better as time goes by so try to have a sense of humor when the crap hits the fan (literally :)
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