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Miracle of miracles, I (a) was hungry this morning, and (b) had a specific idea of what would be good to eat. So we went to the Paper Moon, where I had a grilled mozzarella, tomato, and basil sandwich with garlic mashed potatoes. Mmmm. I've been wanting grilled cheese since yesterday - and not just any grilled cheese, but grilled mozzarella. Honestly? I think it largely boils down to salty. I wanted something salty, with little crispy grilled bits of cheese, and I was not disappointed.
Then we headed out on our Baby Gear Expotition, which was comprehensive as all hell. We looked at cribs, cradles, playards, swings, "travel systems" (combination carseat and stroller), regular strollers, and breast pumps, and rounded it all up with a swing through the baby clothes section to relax by cooing at the cuteness. The grand tour of the store was surprisingly helpful, mostly in developing our opinions of what we're looking for in gear.
Notes, mostly for my memory:
Crib
- Must have a one-handed mechanism for lowering the side rail. What possesses people to design a crib with a two-handed mechanism? Even if you don't consider the fact that I'll be carrying a baby (and why wouldn't you consider that?), my small arm makes it very difficult to grasp both ends of a crib at once. So lack of a one-handed mechanism is a deal-breaker, which is a pity, because the prettiest crib there was two-handed.
- Must have adjustable mattress positions, so that a teeny-tiny baby sleeps close to the top of the crib for ease of lifting in and out, but a bigger baby can't climb out.
- Ideally, would convert to a toddler bed/daybed.
Playard
Combination portable playpen/bassinet/changing table. We absolutely need one of these for our living room, not to mention for overnight trips. I like the Eddie Bauer version, but honestly, they mostly seem much of a muchness.
Travel System
You leave the base of the carseat firmly attached in the car, and the seat part of the carseat snaps into both the stroller and the carseat base. Or you can buckle in with just the seat part, in a taxi. A lot of them feel too big and bulky, and a lot of the infant carseats lack an ergonomic handle. Lack of an ergonomic handle is definitely a dealbreaker, because I bet we're going to be carrying the carseat around a lot. The ones with fully reclining seats are several inches longer, and the extra bulk seems to make a difference to maneuverability. The ones with one-handed steering are great. I'm still not sure we want to pick a travel system over a separate carseat and stroller. I'm also not sure to what extent using a sling completely replaces using a stroller, at least in the early months.
Breast Pumps
Boy howdy, are they expensive.
Clothes
Carter's brand is more expensive at Babies R Us than at the Carter's store, which seems backward. All the cutest baby clothes are "for boys," which means that if we have a daughter she'll start cross-dressing early.
We came back from the Expotition exhausted, and I took a long nap in front of the Orioles game. I don't know why I find it so soothing to nap in front of TV baseball, but I do. It was a conscious choice to sleep on the couch with the game on, rather than sleeping in our bed. Baltimore won, I am vaguely aware.
Now I'm making dinner: shrimp and green beans in garlic-sun dried tomato-olive oil, over pasta.
Good day.
Then we headed out on our Baby Gear Expotition, which was comprehensive as all hell. We looked at cribs, cradles, playards, swings, "travel systems" (combination carseat and stroller), regular strollers, and breast pumps, and rounded it all up with a swing through the baby clothes section to relax by cooing at the cuteness. The grand tour of the store was surprisingly helpful, mostly in developing our opinions of what we're looking for in gear.
Notes, mostly for my memory:
Crib
- Must have a one-handed mechanism for lowering the side rail. What possesses people to design a crib with a two-handed mechanism? Even if you don't consider the fact that I'll be carrying a baby (and why wouldn't you consider that?), my small arm makes it very difficult to grasp both ends of a crib at once. So lack of a one-handed mechanism is a deal-breaker, which is a pity, because the prettiest crib there was two-handed.
- Must have adjustable mattress positions, so that a teeny-tiny baby sleeps close to the top of the crib for ease of lifting in and out, but a bigger baby can't climb out.
- Ideally, would convert to a toddler bed/daybed.
Playard
Combination portable playpen/bassinet/changing table. We absolutely need one of these for our living room, not to mention for overnight trips. I like the Eddie Bauer version, but honestly, they mostly seem much of a muchness.
Travel System
You leave the base of the carseat firmly attached in the car, and the seat part of the carseat snaps into both the stroller and the carseat base. Or you can buckle in with just the seat part, in a taxi. A lot of them feel too big and bulky, and a lot of the infant carseats lack an ergonomic handle. Lack of an ergonomic handle is definitely a dealbreaker, because I bet we're going to be carrying the carseat around a lot. The ones with fully reclining seats are several inches longer, and the extra bulk seems to make a difference to maneuverability. The ones with one-handed steering are great. I'm still not sure we want to pick a travel system over a separate carseat and stroller. I'm also not sure to what extent using a sling completely replaces using a stroller, at least in the early months.
Breast Pumps
Boy howdy, are they expensive.
Clothes
Carter's brand is more expensive at Babies R Us than at the Carter's store, which seems backward. All the cutest baby clothes are "for boys," which means that if we have a daughter she'll start cross-dressing early.
We came back from the Expotition exhausted, and I took a long nap in front of the Orioles game. I don't know why I find it so soothing to nap in front of TV baseball, but I do. It was a conscious choice to sleep on the couch with the game on, rather than sleeping in our bed. Baltimore won, I am vaguely aware.
Now I'm making dinner: shrimp and green beans in garlic-sun dried tomato-olive oil, over pasta.
Good day.
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Naps in front of baseball bames are an under rated luxury, aren't they?
And oh yeah, baby boy things are terminally cute... so teeny and so butch they make the head to swim. Little bitty flannel shirts make me go awww in a way that girly things don't. There was a size 9 months aviator's leather jacket (with WWII unit patches on it!) at the air museum and they had to drag my MIL and I out of the shop, pointing out the jacket cost $150 and would fit the nephew for about twenty minutes. *sigh*
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The website pictures don't show how cute they are in person because of the lack of scale, I think.
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I asked her to write up a list of stuff that she recommends for you. Will also ask about the condition of her dual breast pump kit, and whether she'd recommend that brand. She hasn't had to use it in quite a while now, with Miss N. being past 2, but I'm sure she can provide an opinion.
The snap-in rear-facing baby seat is a great thing to have. The lower portion just goes into your back seat and stays there.
While slings are great, you'll want to put the baby down at times, thus the need for a stroller.
As far as strollers go, a lightweight umbrella stroller is useful for short distances and for providing a place for the little one to sit while you're doing things. The small wheels are problematic on anything but the smoothest pavement. For actual walking over any distance, the best strollers are the three-wheeled jogger strollers that are designed to be pushed by running parents. They work fine for walking parents too, and have the advantage of really good wheels and tires mounted on a strong flexible frame.
More as I can get info from 'Manda.
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Breast pumps are amazingly expensive. You want $300? To use the boobs god gave me?
But because I supplemented, I will also tell you that a week's worth of formula for supplementation is about $30. And it's not, you know, breastmilk. Which makes the pump seem not-as-bad.
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I also wanted to mention, and your comment about breast pumps reminded me, that lots and lots of baby gear gets handed around, and having someone loan or give you the stuff their children have outgrown is the ideal way to get the stuff that makes life easier and to go lightly on your budget and on the planet.
The stroller carries diaper bag and other things, as importantly as it carries the baby. Don't be surprised to find yourself carrying baby in a sling while pushing the stroller. If you walk to the store, get one that will allow you to bring things home.... my first stroller couldn't really deal with a gallon of milk, though I made it work somehow.
Also, new moms have a tendency to overpack the diaper bag, not knowing what immediate disasters await, so expect to have the most non-baby gear with you at first, and to adjust downward as your expertise with your baby grows.
K. [my top choice for new mom advice, which I'll offer here because I'm feeling advisory, even though its off-topic: Expect to wear maternity clothes home from the hospital]
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That makes sense. My mileage varies principally because my right arm is only half as long as the left, which means that even with a crib mattress in the highest position I wouldn't be able to reach down properly with the side up. Fortunately, when the baby is larger and I have to lower the crib mattress, the baby will also be able to assist a little in lifting (for example, by sitting up, or at least by not needing its head constantly supported.)
The stroller carries diaper bag and other things, as importantly as it carries the baby. Don't be surprised to find yourself carrying baby in a sling while pushing the stroller. If you walk to the store, get one that will allow you to bring things home.... my first stroller couldn't really deal with a gallon of milk, though I made it work somehow.
Good point. I do walk to the store or the library, since we live in a dense urban neighborhood. So I probably will want a stroller I can use right away, and one with cargo capacity. Thanks.
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The crib that converts to a Big Kid bed is a good idea. They learn to climb out of their cribs at a suprisingly early age. The first time your toddler comes into your room after you left them in their crib is a complex moment. Filled with awe, concern, pride at their acccomplishment and perhaps a little "what might have happened" terror.
But that's a long time away.
K.
Stroller/carrier
And in the stroller, she can sleep while I sip coffee and read cafe magazines.
Many of the clothes I bought for Linnea are "for boys". They're adorable, and don't have sequinned "Sexy Princess" motifs (I exaggerate, but not much).
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The sling utterly replaces the stroller as long as you're not doing anything but walking along with the baby only, maybe with a diaper in your coat pocket. If you're doing some normal thing like going shopping and to the library, with the baby, you need the stroller because you wear yourself out otherwise carrying the baby plus everything else. Look for a light stroller with a tray underneath for putting the shopping/library books on.
When I was going up the hill home once, with baby Zorinth in the stroller, and the tray heavily laden with library books and shopping, the rear left wheel abruptly fell off and ran away downhill into traffic. I stood there holding the stroller from rolling away and staring at the wheel with my mouth open. I may have been saying "Gak!" or "What do I do now?" A total stranger went out into the road and rescued my wheel, and then another total stranger fitted it back on for me, saying that he'd had that brand of pushchair (stroller) and that this was a Thing that Happened. It never, thank goodness, Happened again.
Though that reminds me of an entirely unrelated other funny thing that happened on exactly that same piece of road.
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n.
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My sling pretty much completely replaced the stroller, with the exception of trips to cons and the like. But I don't live in a place where I can walk over to the corner store to pick up a couple of things, so I expect YMMV. You can't use an umbrella stroller until they are at least a few months old. But travel systems are bulky and not very manuverable. We borrowed a stroller that folded down flat for our first trip, and now he's big enough for the umbrella stroller. We also uase the stroller for our evening mile walk - although I;m thinking of starting to sling to increase my workout...
Detachable carseats - these are only good to 20 lbs and/or 26 inches. Depending how big your baby is, and how quickly it grows, you may get very little use out of it. My friends Scott and Sue had to upgrade to a "convertible" carseat at 2 months. Liam is still fitting comfortably in his (which is on loan to us from Scott and Sue.) Many people go directly to the convertible seat, since they can fit from newborn to toddler. But they don't come out of the car. An added note - it takes me two arms to carry the baby bucket with Liam in it. It's THAT heavy. So I rarely take it out of the car. Plus, because I had a c-s, I wasn't allowed to lift anything heavier than just Liam for the first 6 weeks, when the it would have been most helpful.
Oh, and when it comes to convertible seats, Britax is far and away considered the best brand on the market.
Breastpumps are expensive, but as wired has noted - still cheaper than formula! Rental pumps generally average out anywhere from a little more to a lot more based on how long you pump. A note on used pumps - only rental pumps are completely sealed. All other pumps on the market have the possibility of becoming contaminated with their owner's bodily fluids. That said, I'm going to be getting a used pump from a coworker/friend. But I sure wouldn't buy one from Ebay. You will need an electric pump to go back to work - there are some excellent manual pumps these days, but they take much longer than is practical.
Carter's are definitely the best baby clothes, but be warned - they run quite large.
Phew - hope that's not overload. And as a sneak peek into your future, I thought you should know that I typed this entire post with one hand while holding a sick sleeping baby with the other one.
No suggestions, but a warning about a product
Just saw this in one of the newsletters I get via email, and since some of the folks who read your LJ have mentioned the Baby Bjorn, I wanted to pass along this recall notice. Full details at this URL:
http://www.cbc.ca/consumers/market/recalls/reclfull/2004/16sept2004.html
Hope you don't mind my hijacking your journal for this, Rivka.
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I saw this stroller just the other day and thought it was brilliant. This photo does not do it justice, though, because it has tons of storage behind and underneath the baby seat. And two cupholders! One for mama's chai and one for a bottle.