I've been slowly accumulating things over the past 5 months that have made mom-hood easier. Ultimately, products are always something we can do without; several people have raised children prior to these inventions. So I shy away from claiming these are 'Must haves.' Yet, they have made the past several months go by more smoothly. I thought I'd share these with you all. I also shared my recommendations when Eowyn was just 3 months. Check out part one here.
I have mentioned this before, but I finally am feeling pretty comfortable in my mom state. It has taken a while. Eowyn's 7 1/2 months old. I give kudos to those moms that find their groove early on. I am not one of them. I still feel like I'm in a perpetual cycle of problem solving, but it doesn't seem to leave me the emotional wreck it once did (Praise All Mighty.) These products have in some ways helped that. Eowyn has a cold? I got some gadgets for that. I don't want to buy more wipes? Cloth wipes to the rescue. I keep side flashing people when feeding Eowyn? DIY nursing Poncho. Life has just been made a little easier. Read below for the other recommendations of the gadgets and gismos I'm glad somebody made.
Sleepers-Its basic. But near every mom agrees. If there's one thing Eowyn hangs out in ALL the time, its sleepers. Why? Because its a shirt, pants, and socks all in one zip. Sundays are pretty much the only day she wears all of her other cute clothes. And every Sunday we seem to lose a sock. So? Sleepers for the Win.
The Baby Bullet-I love this thing. I LOVE this thing. When purchasing things, the underlying motivator for us is often "Will this save us money in the long run?" So, when we got this as a gift from the parents, we were stoked. Why? Because a) it's awesome and easy to clean and does exactly what it says it will and b) we don't have to spend all that cash on baby food. Bonus, I think Eowyn likes it better than jar food. (Probably because its fresher and introduces a lot more textures than the good ol gerber container.) I am still figuring out how to make mass amounts and store it on the go. Any recommendations would be appreciated.
Vic's Baby Rub (Target/Walgreens)- Our rite of passage as parents happened a few months ago when Eowyn got a nasty cough and cold. She struggled and this stuff proved to work just as it did when Ben and I were young sickly things. Tried and true.
Grandma El's-This is my latest discovery. I could write a whole post on the saga that was Eowyn's most recent, and most severe diaper rash. It took us about a week to figure out it was ammonia burn from build up in our diapers, then we spent the next two week trying to strip all our diapers (which included switching detergents, boiling inserts, washing those things a gazillion times, and finally (the one thing that worked) we used good ol dawn and bleach. Check out the you tube video of how to do it here.) Needless to say, the diapers were now clean, but Eowyn still had the rash and I wanted to fix it fast. I used SEVERAL different ointments thanks to all the ones I received pre-baby plus a few of my own purchases and this is the only thing that seems to be working. And its cloth diaper safe. I've only had it for a few days-so we'll see, but I'm hopeful.
Shea Moisture Baby Eczema Therapy - Ben has eczema, our baby has it too (man, our kid has weird skin issues.) We tried lots of different moisturizers and this is what is working the best. Plus it smells good and it really does a great job of moisturizing skin. I kind of want another tub for myself.
Cloth Wipes-I'm not sure why its taken me this long to switch over to cloth wipes, but after my last batch of wet wipes ran out, I decided to go ahead and score etsy for some cheap ones (I wasn't really interested in sewing them all, especially since I don't have a serger-but several people find it quite easy to do, so if you'd like-there's that option!) I was also in search of a wet bag for my purse. Two for One Deal. Found them both together and snatched those babies up. I'm glad we did. Its been an easy transition. If you don't switch to cloth wipes I'd recommend buying normal wipes on amazon in bulk. That's saved us a lot of money.
Go Ga Ga Toy Line - Perhaps its because my child loves all things fuzzy, but this line with the wood, fuzzy fabric and fun colors has both Eowyn and I pretty happy. We have this and a giraffe and both are favorites for E. They also seem to absorb a lot of drool, so that can be a positive or a negative depending on how you look at it.
BumGenius Diapers-We have a smallstash of bumgenius diapers. One of the 4.0's and the rest FLIP. We also have a good lot of fuzzibunz. Now, no one likes to admit costly mistakes-and I don't know if I'll go so far as to claim it was, but I'll have to say Bumgenius wins over fuzzibunz in our house. We've had no issues with BG. None. Period. with sizing or fitting or leaking. We had the issues with cleaning them, but that was our whole stash. Where as with fuzzibunz, we still struggle with getting the right sizing, and thus with leaking. They ARE trimmer, more customizable etc. but Bumgenius seems to do the job better both with their 4.0 and FLIP line without any work. The link I provided is to a website called Cotton babies. I've gotten a lot of great deals through them.
Bummis Bio-Soft Liners-When we welcomed ourselves to the world of baby-food poop, we needed to problem solve. We were contemplating a diaper sprayer, but decided to give these liners a go. These have been especially nice not just for the occasional nasty, but also because we can use our non-cloth-diaper-safe ointments without fear of getting build up on our diapers.
Small Wet Bag- Finally got one for my purse. I would argue its not a need, plastic bags work fine. But when it came with the cloth wipes, I was pretty happy. I'm liking its ability to lock in smell and prevent moisture on anything else in my bag.
DIY-Nursing Poncho. I have a nursing cover, and I like it quite a bit. But I have found that I've had the occasional "flash your friends" from the side because my daughter is an acrobat and likes to fling her little legs in the air just as soon as she's hooked them under the corner of the cover. Looking for a solution, I found this DIY and am loving it. I made two for about 15 bucks and I actually like one of them for everyday wear. I did change the DIY instructions a bit. (She just says to sew one line, when I actually prefer the poncho to be even on both sides, meaning I cut 7 or so inches to one corner, and left 7 or sew inches on the other and sewed to the bottom conrer( imagine a teepee or an upside down V for the hole where your neck goes. Comment below if you have questions.) But its a great poncho and can be made in less than 30 minutes.
Go Ga Ga Toy Line - Perhaps its because my child loves all things fuzzy, but this line with the wood, fuzzy fabric and fun colors has both Eowyn and I pretty happy. We have this and a giraffe and both are favorites for E. They also seem to absorb a lot of drool, so that can be a positive or a negative depending on how you look at it.
BumGenius Diapers-We have a smallstash of bumgenius diapers. One of the 4.0's and the rest FLIP. We also have a good lot of fuzzibunz. Now, no one likes to admit costly mistakes-and I don't know if I'll go so far as to claim it was, but I'll have to say Bumgenius wins over fuzzibunz in our house. We've had no issues with BG. None. Period. with sizing or fitting or leaking. We had the issues with cleaning them, but that was our whole stash. Where as with fuzzibunz, we still struggle with getting the right sizing, and thus with leaking. They ARE trimmer, more customizable etc. but Bumgenius seems to do the job better both with their 4.0 and FLIP line without any work. The link I provided is to a website called Cotton babies. I've gotten a lot of great deals through them.
Bummis Bio-Soft Liners-When we welcomed ourselves to the world of baby-food poop, we needed to problem solve. We were contemplating a diaper sprayer, but decided to give these liners a go. These have been especially nice not just for the occasional nasty, but also because we can use our non-cloth-diaper-safe ointments without fear of getting build up on our diapers.
Small Wet Bag- Finally got one for my purse. I would argue its not a need, plastic bags work fine. But when it came with the cloth wipes, I was pretty happy. I'm liking its ability to lock in smell and prevent moisture on anything else in my bag.
DIY-Nursing Poncho. I have a nursing cover, and I like it quite a bit. But I have found that I've had the occasional "flash your friends" from the side because my daughter is an acrobat and likes to fling her little legs in the air just as soon as she's hooked them under the corner of the cover. Looking for a solution, I found this DIY and am loving it. I made two for about 15 bucks and I actually like one of them for everyday wear. I did change the DIY instructions a bit. (She just says to sew one line, when I actually prefer the poncho to be even on both sides, meaning I cut 7 or so inches to one corner, and left 7 or sew inches on the other and sewed to the bottom conrer( imagine a teepee or an upside down V for the hole where your neck goes. Comment below if you have questions.) But its a great poncho and can be made in less than 30 minutes.
B. Baby Blocks-My sister recommended these and I like this toy line a lot. The colors are great, and Eowyn likes to gnaw on them. She's just getting the hang of grabbing and tossing them too.
Nosefrida The Snotsucker Nasal Aspirator-Yes that's its' name. Okay. So, I was scoring the internet one day and stumbled upon this guy. After reading laugh-out-loud reviews I showed Ben and he said "Wow that's gross, and funny." and that's where we left it. Those crazy people. Until about a week later when Eowyn was struggling to breath while eating. Should we do it? We did. We purchased this bad boy and there was no turning back. Not only does it fix the problem waayyy better than the bulb (Because really-does that thing even work?And its impossible to clean.) this is all sorts of satisfying. There's a filter so no nasty boogers get into your mouth or anything, and she can breath again without me going at her with that blue bulb for several minutes. This takes seconds. It definitely has made Eowyn like me a little better when she has a cold.
JJ Cole Satchel Diaper Bag- I like cute quality bags. If you've known me, you know that when I get a purse I run that bad-boy into the ground. Take my Jo totes (the yellow camera purse I love), that was my one and only for two and half years. But it was breaking, and baby was coming. So, I found this beauty, saved it to my favorites and sat on it for 6 months. I got a gift card during a baby shower and bought this. Still proving to be durable and is able to hold an incredible amount of things. Plus its got like 12 pockets which makes my organized-prone heart happy. Cost per wear is now in the cents range. .28 as of today. (Nerdy, but cool.)
Dr. Bronner - Castile Soap-I use this to make our cloth wipe formula. A lot of people just use water, but after our nasty burn/ rash, I wanted to make sure Eowyn was clean. Other DIY wipe solutions require all sorts of essential oils and this seemed to be an easy way to skip that. I add a few drops to our water solution, and pour it over the wipes. Some people love this stuff for the thousands of other ways they can use it (clean your floors, wash your hair, do your laundry...), I've just used it for our cloth wipes and its mild enough to not agitate. It'll last us forever. You can find it in the beauty aisle at target.
So there you have it. I don't get any perks from recommending these, they are just my opinions.
What are a few of your favorites? I'd love to know.
I 100% agree with you about bumgenius over fuzzibunz. I have found, that if the fuzzibunz leak if they don't fit perfectly.
ReplyDeleteWe use disposable wipes--I'd love to hear more about your cloth wipe routine.
Glad we are swapping ads! I will send you my button tonight!