(no subject)
Sep. 25th, 2004 08:22 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rivkaMiracle 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.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2004-09-26 05:46 am (UTC)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.