Favorite Things: Months 1-3

Now that were are 12 weeks into this whole baby business, I thought I'd share some of the things that we have used and loved for these first few months.  If not to help other people, but to remind myself if baby two should ever come around...

Fisher Price Love U Zoo Swing

I can't even tell you how lost in the world we would have been without this swing.  It took David a couple tries to warm up to it, but once he did he took nearly every nap for the first 10 weeks of his life in this swing. It rocks both like a normal swing and also side to side. David mostly preferred the traditional swing direction and loved watching the mobile, listening to the lullaby's and looking at his reflection in the mirror ball. Now that he's older the seat sits up a bit so I attach some toys to the tray and bring it into the kitchen so he can swing and watch me cook. Life. Saver. I will truly be sad when he's too big for it or no longer likes it.


Miracle Blanket

I've written about my love of the miracle blanket before, but man I love it.  I still kick myself for not trying it again before things were totally out of control, but I'm so glad I finally did. I was terrible at swadding with regular blankets and he could totally wiggle out of the velcro ones, but since this one pins his arms down, there's no escaping! It might look like the "baby straight-jacket" but he never fusses when he's in it and usually calms right down. If you ever find yourself thinking "my baby doesn't like to be swaddled". I urge you to just try this for a couple nights. I am SO sad that he appears to be outgrowing it, but I knew he'd have to learn to sleep with his arms free eventually.

Dr. Brown's Formula Pitcher

Yes, we formula feed.  Since we do, bottle making takes up a chunk of our day. Those formula makers are tricky too, they make the scoops in 2 ounce portions, so whenever David is drinking odd numbered ounces (he's drinking 5 oz bottles now) we'd be throwing away a whole ounce of formula per bottle if we were making them one at a time. That's a ton of money down the drain!  With this pitcher we can mix nearly 28 ounces at a time and store it in the fridge, then when it's time to eat we just pour what we need! Perfect!  Highly, highly recommended for anyone that formula feeds!



Munchkin High Speed Bottle Warmer

When I was pregnant, everything I read said bottle warmers were a waste of money and babies shouldn't need their bottle warm. Well since we started making our bottles in the pitcher and they were kept in the fridge I really hated the thought of giving David cold formula. We tried dropping the bottles in a mug of hot water for a few minutes, but our water from the tap takes forever to heat up, I didn't want to mess with the microwave and when you have a screaming infant on our shoulder, time is ticking. This bottle warmer heats a bottle in less than 90 seconds (which at times still feels like an eternity) but it has made our lives so much easier and I think the warm milk helps settle David when he's really worked up.  Plus it has a neat attachment you can use to sanitize binkies!

Summer Infant Flat Screen Video Monitor

I was on the fence about getting a video monitor. Turns out I love it. However, I mostly have to keep the video portion off. I've found that when it's on, I get all kinds of crazy. I think every move is him waking up and find myself sitting there staring at him, just waiting for something to happen.  Usually I turn the video off or just use the hand held audio one.  It picks up sound really well and the lights let me know when he's crying when I'm doing something to where I can't hear like running on the treadmill or washing dishes. It is nice to be able to click on the video and see what he's doing through. It saves me a lot of trips into his room to check on him.

Nuk Pacifier

I had a ton of different pacifiers (or binkies as we call them) when David was born. I'd heard babies could be picky and that turned out be true. This is the one that he picked as his favorite.  We have a bunch of them so there's always one close by to grab. I still kind of hope he finds his thumb pretty soon so he can self-soothe, but I have a feeling he's gonna be a binky baby.  As long as he doesn't use one as long as I did (way too long) I'm alright with it. We also use Nuk bottles. We like' em.





Homedics SoundSpa Lullaby Sound Machine

Ah, white noise.  Where would we be without it?  Zach and I can't sleep without a fan on so we figured the little one would like some background noise too. We use this one on the "rain" setting.  It's on every time he's in his crib. I think it also helps drown out some of the outside sounds (like our noisy neighbors and barking dogs) and helps cue him in that it's time to sleep. It has a timer, but we let it go all night. I do wish it just had a "fan" or "white noise" setting instead of the droppy rain sounds, but it works. Oh and the projector totally broke after a couple uses. Kind of bummed, but oh well.



Tiny Love Mobile

Let's just cut right to the chase. This thing is hideous. It doesn't go with his nursery "theme", it's totally bright and really obnoxious looking.... and that's the point.  I was pretty anal when researching mobiles. I knew babies needed bright colors and bold contrasts to engage them and this is the one that kept coming up the winner in the reviews.  I guess the Tiny Love people know what they are doing because David loves this thing.  We don't use it for bedtime normally, but whenever I need about 15 minutes to do something like fold laundry or get the diaper bag ready, I lay him under this and he just stares and kicks and is completely mesmerized.  If he's fussy in the middle of naptime I'll turn it on and the shapes that move around click every few seconds and I think it totally soothes him back to sleep.  Plus it plays classical music. We like that.

Fisher Price Infant to Toddler Rocker

Another life saver. This sits on our kitchen counter. I keep the kickstand up so I can just pop him in the seat any time I need to do something like feed the dogs, eat breakfast, go to the restroom, let the dogs out or get a bottle ready. It vibrates, has a fun little toy bar and is really deep so he has plenty of room to grow into it. When it is in "rocker" mode it sits him up a little more so he can watch me cook or do dishes. We also use it when we eat so he can see us. Love this thing. I hope he likes it as a toddler rocker too.


Honorable Mention: 
-My cell phone - Wow. Who knew how much time I'd have to surf Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest during late night feedings?! What on EARTH did people do to stay awake before smart phones?? Seriously!
-Our Lazyboy Recliner- I am SO glad we got that thing. It might be big and kind of ugly, but I have spent hours upon hours in that thing holding David through naps, rocking him to sleep and even pulling some all-nighters back in the early days. Not to mention the fact that I practically lived in that thing during the last couple months of my pregnancy. So glad we have it.
- Yoga pants-  I think this is pretty obvious.
- Granola Bars & Diet Coke - There were several days where I lived on these two things alone.

And that's it for now. I'm sure I forgot a bunch of stuff and will smack myself after I push "publish" but perhaps I'll just catch them next time. For now, it's time for bed!