Baby Essentials

Nathan is 7 weeks old today. It's hard to believe that he is already 7 weeks old, but it is also nearly impossible for us to imagine life without him. He just fits so perfectly into our family. We have quickly learned that babies come with a lot of gear. He is slowly taking over our family room. I know everyone has their own opinions, but here are my favorite baby essentials in this house. Here is my very late Quick Takes Link-up:

1. Bright Starts Bouncer Seat: Nathan naps in this seat all the time. He gets all snuggly and snoozes away. It's the only way I can get anything done.

2. Chicco Keyfit Caddy: This stroller is perfect for a quick trip out. It's compact, lightweight, and the car seat clicks right in. I can single handedly open and close this stroller, and that says a lot because I'm ridiculously weak in the arms. Steering is smooth, and it squeezes through narrow aisles at the store. Love it! This stroller is the key to me getting out and about with this little guy because the car seat alone is ridiculously heavy, hard to carry around, and takes up a ton of space in your cart at the store. (I do like his car seat, but really it's just a car seat. I feel like they are all pretty similar.)

3. Homedics My Baby Humidifier: This recommendation is not so much for the humidifier but rather for the sound bar. The sound bar on this humidifier comes with a white noise button. Hello sleep! We used to have to rock Nate to sleep when we put him down at night. Now we put him down awake and he will just calmly lie in bed and fall asleep to the sound of the white noise. It's a beautiful thing. You can turn on the sleep timer for it to turn off after 30 min. which is really nice to not have to get out of bed again. My only complaint so far is that the humidifier does seem to get some condensation from the mist. Like I said, we like it for the sound bar, so I guess my must have here is just a sound bar with white noise.

4. O Ball Rattle: A close friend has one of these for her daughter, and I wanted it immediately when I saw it. We were lucky enough to receive it as part of a gift at our shower. It's such a simple little toy, but we love it. The rattles on it aren't too loud and obnoxious, and when Nathan can start to grip, this ball will be easy to grab. He even held onto it for a bit today.

5. Mam pacifiers: Originally I was all about the soothie pacifiers that hospitals pass out. The other day I gave the Mam pacifiers a try because we had received them as a gift, and I had finally gotten around to sanitizing them. He takes these better than any other pacifier we have tried. They don't pop out of his mouth nearly as much, and he is more likely to take it when upset than others. 

6. Halo Swaddle Sleep Sack: We are certainly believers in swaddling. Nathan does seem to sleep longer and more soundly when he is swaddled, but we had such a hard time mastering the swaddle with a blanket. We tried several different kinds of blankets, including those that were meant for swaddling. Then we were introduced to the swaddle sleep sack. It's so much easier and works like a charm. At first, Nate fought us when we tried to swaddle him with the sleep sack, and he fought hard. Now we rarely get so much as a wimper. He knows the drill. What used to be a big ordeal with lots of frustration in the middle of the night is now a 1 minute part of our routine. The white noise goes on, he gets wrapped in the sleep sack, and to bed he goes. 

7. Pampers diapers, burp rags, and zip up sleepers: These are some of the more basic items, but they get us through the day with less frustration and less messes. We tried a couple brands of diapers, and we have had the most success with Pampers. After talking to many people, it seems like everyone has a different opinion on diaper brands, but these are what we have liked best. Since changing to Pampers we haven't had any more Houdini leaks. (We had him leak through 3 times onto people without getting the actual diaper wet.) Burp rags are a must in this house. We go through several each day. He is starting to be big enough to effectively use bibs, but for a while the burp rags served as both bib and burp rag for us. Finally, zip up sleepers are a must at night. We have used both the snaps and zip ups, and the zip is much better for those middle of the night feedings. Who really wants to snap at least 10 buttons on a squirming likely screaming child in the middle of the night. I've done it, and as cute at the snap jammies are, the zip ups just make more sense.

These are just some of our favorites in this house. I don't know that it will necessarily be helpful to anyone, but I know I have always liked picking other people's brains about what is really necessary in the world of baby essentials. These are just some of our favorites because they work for us. You probably have your own list of essentials. I just thought it would be fun to document ours. Who knows if this list will even be close to the the same next time around. It seems like every baby is different.