Thursday, February 24, 2011

My Wife’s $.02 PART II

As promised, here’s the second part of my wife’s input to all of my original posts.

The Bundle Me keeps him totally warm in the winter, but they also make a Bundle Me Lite, which works for spring/fall weather for those of you expecting in those time frames.

Another note on the car seat comparison between Britax and Chicco, we read some reviews of people complaining that the bases for the Britax seats didn’t fit in their car.  Besides the weight of the actual chair, that was another decision point for us.

My wife wanted to reiterate that the Dr. Brown’s Bottle Warmer is fantastic for nighttime.  Our kitchen is downstairs, so we don’t want to have to go downstairs, get the bottle, then wait 10 minutes for it to warm up in a pot.  So we go get it, bring it upstairs, throw it in the warmer for 4 minutes, change him, and it’s ready to go.

Most baths DO NOT come with slings.  The model we bought is the First Year’s Infant to Toddler Tub, which is very highly rated and does come with a sling for infants.  Again, until the belly button falls off, it’s sponge baths only, but once it does, this tub works awesome.

We apparently didn’t use paper towels for his butt.  Goes to show how much I pay attention.  The doctors suggested using washcloths, but that gets gross real fast.  We were using the real thin ones…gross.

My wife suggested registering for a booster seat in addition to the high chair.  They won’t need it for a while, but the Fisher Price Booster seat, it grows with them and can be adjusted.  It comes in a bit of a big box and you’ll have to store it for a while, and it’s only $25ish, but she thinks it’s a good registry item.  I’m not as convinced, as I hate storing big boxes.

I forgot to mention the Bumbo seat.  I guess it would go in the category of “Not needed right away, but may want to register for”.  It’s a little plastic seat that teaches the baby proper sitting posture and props them up.  Needed, but maybe not right away.  Up to you if you want to register for it and store it for about 6-8 months.

We received a lot of bath toys.  They’re all very cute and will be fun when he’s old enough to play with them.  But be careful with these…some of the squeaky toys have small holes and they squirt water, but that’s a recipe for disgusting mold.  We registered for the cups that drain water and they seem to get good reviews and can be dried afterwards.  We kept most of the toys we got too, but we’re going to be very cautious not to let him squirt water in his mouth or eyes or anything.

Make sure anything that is plastic that you register for or buy is BPA free.  You would think most items these days would be BPA free, but they most definitely aren’t.  I’ve noticed that a lot of the “Especially for Baby” brand products are not labeled as BPA free.  I know there’s some debate as to whether or not it actually causes any problems, but why take the chance?
My wife wanted me to reiterate that we’re big on the Soothies brand pacifiers.  The hospital uses them, the baby seems to like them, and they’re BPA free.  My son loves when we put our finger in the hole in the middle and he munches on it.  Boy, that last sentence really doesn’t sound good…

We’ve been using a lot of Johnson and Johnson stuff, and it’s all pretty great.  The shampoo, the moisturizer…all good stuff.  We registered for the Huggies gift set, which was a waste, but the Johnson and Johnson set was money.

Make sure you get a pretty spacious diaper bag…you’ll need a lot of stuff.  My wife started throwing a lot of information at me about how to pack a diaper bag, but I’ll make a different post for that.  The other thing is to make sure you get a neutral one.  We have a plain black Skip-Hop bag that works great and doesn’t make me feel like a woman.  My wife was nice enough to not register for one with flowery prints all over it and whatnot.  Ours also came with a changing pad, which was a nice addition.

We don’t use one of those diaper trash cans…we just use the disposable bags.  They work great, but make sure you get a lot of them. The Summer Infant ones come 75 in a pack for $4, and I buy 8 packs at a time.  That last me about a month and a half.  My son craps…a lot.  The Especially for Baby ones from BRU have a pretty strong smell, that was nice at first, but was making me nauseous very quickly.  The Summer Infant ones have a very slight odor that I still haven’t grown tired of.

Babies R Us might be the better option to register at.  Buy Buy Baby might be a superior store, as they make returns a breeze and you can use Bed Bath and Beyond coupons to save 20%, but most people have a Babies R Us right near them.  Buy Buy Baby stores are few and far between, and they charge shipping ordering online.  Remind people they can also order from Amazon and Diapers.com if they want to order something off the registry, and then just call the store (BRU or BBB) and they’ll mark the item as purchased on the registry for you.

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