Baby Products We Love

After only a couple weeks with our little man, we are definitely no “baby experts,” but we have learned a thing or two! So I will be sharing some tips and tricks that we have found helpful, as well as baby products that we have found useful to us and baby Morgan.

I will start with products first, in no particular order. I will leave out some of the obvious items (changing table, crib, etc.).

Helpful Products

Diaper Bag:

My mom bought me the cutest backpack-style diaper bag that I am able to fit several items in. These items include diapers, wipes, onesies, pacifier, burp cloth, baby lotion, travel changing pad, blanket, extra shirt for myself (shirts are bound to get spit-up on them or milk from leaky boobs – so it will be nice to have a spare when, not if, it happens). Now that it is starting to get hot and sunny out, I am going to start packing sunscreen as well. You may also want to toss in some diaper rash cream! The last time we used the diaper bag for a big outing, we needed to bring some milk because I was not going to be able to breastfeed, so we packed an ice pack in the bag as well.

Car Caddy:

I actually haven’t had to use this yet, but I am sure I will someday and I keep it in the truck at all times! Inside my car caddy, I basically keep everything that I would keep in the diaper bag so that if I happen to totally forget the diaper bag or if I run out of something in the bag, I will always have a spare in the caddy. There are diapers (current size and one size up), wipes, onesies, burp cloths, teething toy, pacifiers, pacifier clip, travel changing pad, and a little stuffed animal. Something I have not yet added to the caddy but will ASAP is an extra shirt for myself!

Bassinet: We bought a used Halo bassinet and I like it a lot! This is where he naps and sleeps. I have it right next to my side of the bed and we put our Boppy lounger inside it. I love that it swivels! This one may not be the exact one we have, but it is similar. If the price scares you as much as it did us, buy one used like we did!

Boppy/Snuggle Me Lounger:

We put the Boppy lounger in Morgan’s bassinet and that’s where he sleeps at night and naps during the day! We tried laying him in the bassinet without one, but he rolled around so much and wasn’t comfy so we added the Boppy. We have used it on the living room floor for his naps as well! We also have a Snuggle Me lounger which I also love, we just don’t use it as often. We keep it in the crib and I think we will use it more often when we start having Morgan nap and sleep in his room,

Boppy Nursing Pillow: I use this all the time for nursing! It is an arm-saver because babies can get heavy! I also brought this to the hospital and used it a lot.

Bouncer/Rocker: We haven’t used the rocker as often as I thought we would, but it is handy because it is light and we can move it into different rooms when we need to get something done but don’t want to leave him in a different room. I found this one on Amazon and I love the colors (and the price)!

Swing (electric): We do not put Morgan in his swing often at all because he honestly does not seem to like it much. We think he is just too small for it because he kind of slides down in the seat, putting him in an uncomfortable position. We are excited to use it once he grows a little more! My sister’s baby uses it when they come to visit and he seems to really like it! This one is super similar to what we have.

Hatch Sound Machine: We have the sound machine on basically at all times! We love it because Morgan loves it. We turn it on for naps and at night (we actually don’t mind the noise ourselves)! We keep it on the white noise sound. The louder, the better! The night light part of it is helpful too, for feeding him at night. My mom bought us a small, portable sound machine that we keep on his carseat, and we leave it on the white noise sound as well. In the hospital, we used a cute little stuffed sheep portable sound machine that plays a noise that mimics what it sounds like in the womb. I think our other two sound machines work better, though. Here is a link to the Hatch sound machine.

Tummy Time Quilt: Obviously you don’t need any specific quilt for tummy time, but I ended up wanting one just for tummy time rather than folding up a blanket and laying it on the ground. I have a weird thing about blankets being on the ground. We have four dogs so lots of hair and things end up on our floors! I bought one from Marshalls and love it even though we haven’t used it much yet! Here is a similar one on amazon.

Pump Backpack:

At first I didn’t think I would need a bag for my pump, but soon changed my mind when thinking about how often I will be pumping and knowing I am not always going to be at home to pump. The one I have even has a cooler portion in the bottom! I used the backpack just last night when pumping in the truck. Plus, it is super cute!

Carseat/Stroller:

This is an obvious item but I wanted to include it because I want to suggest that you purchase a carseat/stroller set because it is much more convenient! We have only used the stroller once so far at a Royals game, but it was so easy to just take the carseat out of the truck and set it right onto the stroller. The fewer times you have to get baby in and out of their seat, the better! Here is the one we have. We are also going to get one or two more bases – one more my car and one for Brett’s work truck. Once I go back to work in the fall, I will be taking Morgan to my mom’s three days a week, and Brett will take him to his mom’s the other two days.

Wipe Warmer: I told myself I would never get a wipe warmer. I said baby will just have to deal with the cold wipes! But then I caved when I saw how uncomfy cold wipes made Morgan and I realized I wouldn’t want to feel a cold wipe on my bum either! They have definitely made diaper changes less brutal for little man. My sister-in-law picked this one up for us from Target.

Diaper Genie: We were going to just use a regular trashcan with a lid, but we are so glad Brett’s mom picked up a real Diaper Genie for us! Those breastmilk poops are something else.

Disposable Changing Pads: As much as I would like the cute changing pad sheets to show all the time, it is not worth washing them every day. The sheet WILL get dirty – all the time! These disposable changing pads are nice because if they get a little dirty, you can wipe them off. If they get really dirty, you can just toss it and not have to add another item to the wash! My sister found these on Amazon for herself, my mom, and me.

Monitor: We actually haven’t used the monitor yet as Morgan sleeps in the same room as we do, but we know we will use it a lot once he is sleeping in his own room! My mom bought us this one.

Small Fan:

I found a cute little fan on Amazon that I actually purchased to use during labor & delivery (which I did) and I have used it in the nursery, too! I keep it next to the rocker where I nurse Morgan. Snuggling and walking around with a baby all day can really make you work up a sweat and since newborns like to be warm, I don’t really like the have the overhead fan on. So it’s nice to have this little fan pointed just at me to keep me cool!

Reading Pillow:

This is actually for nursing for myself. Since Morgan is sleeping in the bassinet in our room, sometimes it is easier to just nurse him while I am sitting in bed. I needed something to lean up against so I found this giant pillow on Amazon and it works great! it’s a little pricey but I needed a good-quality one.

Tips & Tricks & Other Handy Things

Gas Relief

About the third or fourth night home with our new little baby, he screamed for about 2.5 hours straight nearly driving us to insanity. We had done all we could do to make Morgan happy and did not know what else to do! We decided he probably had gas and that’s why he was so uncomfortable. My sister had told me about a FridaBaby product called Windi and that it saved her sanity one day with her newborn. They are little tubes that you stick up your baby’s booty and it lets out trapped air, followed by baby’s poo. Brett left Morgan and his lungs to me that night while he drove up to Walmart to buy these so-called life savers, but when he arrived, he found Walmart closed and I don’t think we have ever been so disappointed in our lives lol! Luckily, we had given him a teeny bit of Mylicon and I think that may have been what relived his discomfort, but it was not a quick fix. We didn’t get to sleep til 2am! We wanted to try gripe water because I had heard good things about it, but when I called a nurse helpline that night, she said they advise waiting til baby is at least 2 weeks before trying gripe water and Morgan was only 1 week old.

I told myself that we will never again be caught without those Windi things again, and my sister-in-law picked some up for us the next day. A couple days later, my mother-in-law was with me at my house when Morgan started showing signs of gas discomfort again. She tried the Windi on him and it worked perfectly!

So basically, three things to have on-hand for a gassy baby are the Windi, Mylicon, and gripe water!

Sleep Help

There for a while, we really struggled with getting Morgan to sleep. We seemed to have a harder time getting him to sleep at night than we did during the day. His days and nights were all mixed up, of course! Brett’s step-dad mentioned how when his first son was a baby, the only thing that could get him to sleep was the sound of a hairdryer. We didn’t think much of it until one day, Morgan was laying in his bassinet wide awake and I was drying my hair and he next thing we knew, he was fast asleep! So now, every time we lay him down for a nap or to sleep at night, we play the sound machine and run my hairdryer! We keep it on the cool setting, of course.

We have also found that putting his blankie in the dryer while we rock him to sleep before naptime/bedtime is very helpful. Who doesn’t like snuggling with a warm blanket!?

This tip isn’t specific to sleeping really, but Brett likes to dip Morgan’s pacifier in sugar water to keep him satisfied when he’s fussy or when we are trying to get him to sleep and Morgan likes it, too!

A tip that we actually learned from our photographer, Shelby, is to rub his nose, eyes, eyebrows, etc. to get him to close his eyes. She did this for his newborn photoshoot!

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I hope other mamas & expecting mamas find this helpful!

Paige