Baby Necessities

Thursday, February, 24, 2010

I think I’ll kick things off with the things that I have found most helpful in my adventures as a first time Mom. As we all know, EVERYONE wants to share their war stories and must-haves when you are expecting. This is a practical account of the things that have saved my butt on numerous occasions. Of course, everyone wants to talk about the most fabulous cradle and bouncy seat. Well, Emily would sleep in a pile of dirt if I’d let her. So, let’s not worry with the obvious stuff. Everyone’s going to buy a play yard and a crib. So, what do you ACTUALLY need? A cart cover! That thing is so amazing, I’m not even kidding. My cart cover is a Kozypal and it is AMAZING. You can purchase them from retailers like Target for around $25. I checked in with Melissa at Kozypal for a few weeks and found that she was having a fabulous sale. I got my $62 cart cover for $35! The small compartments that the cover has, the loops for hanging keys or toys, and the easy elastic ties make my cart cover my favorite baby product thus far. I use my cart cover nearly every day and I highly recommend them if your child is anything like mine – chewing the metal on any cart she can wrap her teeth around!

My second favorite baby product has to be my sling. They are available in much more fun colors and patterns than they have been in the past, and they come in very handy when you have a newborn/infant. I never quite mastered the “vacuum with ease” aspect, but I still love my sling! It offers hands-free shopping and your baby can sleep nestled close to you, or ride around on your hip while your hands are both free. My sling is a product of Babies ‘R Us and ran around $40. I found that I could more easily slide into my sling than I could maneuver my front-to-back carrier.

My third and final favorite baby item is definitely a gadget. As my husband and I registered for our baby shower, we were incredibly overwhelmed with all of the things on the market for babies. What on EARTH do we truly need amidst all of these things? Of course, you want to have the coolest new items, and my favorite find in the gadget department would have to be the Boon Squirt Baby Food Dispensing Spoon. They can be found at both Target and Babies ‘R Us for around $7. The spoon holds more than one 4oz. container of baby food, and as you gently squeeze the bulb, baby food fills the spoon and you can 1. feed your baby one-handed, and 2. avoid a huge mess. I found this item to be PERFECT for shopping trips because I could load the spoon prior to leaving the house. Emily was surprisingly less messy when we used the “Boon Spoon” because I could control messes with my left hand while continuously feeding her with my right hand. A dream come true!