As a mommy to be, I poured through every article on the internet, read every baby book and spoke to every recent mother only to find out I still had no idea what I really needed to have a baby. I mean, REALLY NEEDED and USED REGULARLY. Had I known now what I known then, I really would've saved a lot of money and would've had people buy some more important things at my baby shower. Here are some of the top things I really needed and the top things I really did not need...
THINGS I DIDN'T NEED
1. Diaper Genie - For one thing, I hate the fact that you have to buy bags for it, for another, I hate how much labor has to go into it. When I had a disgusting, vomit inducing, get-it-out-of-my-hands-now, type of diaper, I wanted it disposed immediately! And then when it's time to empty it out...good lord! You get a sausage ring of poopy diapers from the past 3-4 days. EW! Dispose of yuck diaper in plastic bag, tie, throw in garbage pail. Throw out garbage frequently. Repeat. When you start potty training and you use pull ups, you won't be using the diaper genie. Final word on this: Don't buy a diaper genie, mine is currently sitting pretty with the extra bags on top of it, not knowing what to do with itself.
2. Wipes Warmer - What the hell was I thinking? More work than necessary and frankly, Julia didn't give a damn whether the wipe was cold or not.
3. Bottle Warmer - I froze all my milk in individual packets and when it was time to defrost a packet, we'd take one out and put it in hot water, thus warming the milk. And if we had milk in the fridge that was leftover from earlier in the day, we'd put the bottle in hot water. Why did I need the bottle warmer?
4. Bottle Sanitizer - I used it 3-4 times. It was a hassle. Washing bottles in hot water and boiling binkys and rubber nipples in a pot worked out a lot better for me and kept Julia healthy.
5. Diaper Changing Contoured Pad - We always threw our travel changing pad on the floor, bed, couch, somewhere and changed Julia.
6. Diaper Bag - I did use it but not too frequently and I hated it. It was bulky and really hurt my shoulder. I ended up using my stroller's diaper bag which, although just as bulky, slid right into the stroller when I didn't need it. In addition, when I wasn't using the stroller or needed to go out for a quick run, I was always looking to shove the least amount of things needed into one of my purses. Small and comfortable is good.
THINGS I NEEDED
1. Baby Gates - Have been and continue to be incredibly useful! I particularly love the ones you step on to open and really hate the ones that require you to use your hands. We regularly eat dinner in our living room, so bringing plates and drinks are easier when you can just step onto the pedal and your gate swings open!
2. Binkys - Although I weaned Julia off of Binkys after 5-6 months, I was a big fan of it. It really helped quiet her down especially when we were out in public.
3. Swing set, Jumper, bouncy chair - All loved and used by Julia regularly. It helped for sleepless nights and when I needed "a moment".
4. Ice cube trays for making my own pureed food in advance. I also used ones that were designed specifically for this too which made sending it over to my parents easy because it had a lid on it. But I would make her solid food in advance, puree them and pour them into my ice cube tray which also had a cover for it. After it froze, I would take them out and put them into a ziploc bag in the freezer. Whenever it was time to eat, I would grab one and heat it up. Simple!
5 - Orbitz Stroller and Car Seat - Oh how I love my Orbitz stroller, not a moment goes by when we are out that people ask us about it. It made our first year very easy to transfer her in and out of the car. The car seat easily rotated and snapped right in to the car via a base already in place and to the stroller which allowed us to rotate her any way we wanted. We didn't really need any other stroller until she was a bit older. The toddler car seat and stroller worked out well too even though the toddler car seat doesn't rotate or snap into a base any more, it's installed the same way any other car seat is. But on our trip to Disney, we just snapped her into her stroller from the car and that was that!
6 - Stroller cover/highchair cover - I loved this thing! This not only helped with a lot of gross out moments when Julia would attempt to mouth the shopping cart or high chair but it also worked when there wasn't a high chair available. I was still able to strap her to a chair at Dim Sum and not worry about her falling off.
I'm sure this list would be different for every mom out there, but for me, at least for baby number 2, I'll have a better idea of what I need to do....
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