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Preggo stuff, Baby Stuff, Toddler Stuff...post your best finds here!!

Date: 1/6/2010 10:08:43 AM
Author: meresal
Day 3 of registry research... I''m on pg 15...
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Jcrow- I can''t say you didn''t warn me!

FYI- Do you mind if I use your real name on here? I feel so weird typing Jcrow when I know you, but I know you are very good about your privacy on here, and don''t want to use it if you don''t want me to.
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eeks, i''d rather you not... well at least not my last name. though if you use my first name, i may not recognize it as i naturally scan posts for jcrow
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Date: 1/6/2010 11:40:45 AM
Author: jcrow

Date: 1/6/2010 10:08:43 AM
Author: meresal
Day 3 of registry research... I''m on pg 15...
11.gif



Jcrow- I can''t say you didn''t warn me!

FYI- Do you mind if I use your real name on here? I feel so weird typing Jcrow when I know you, but I know you are very good about your privacy on here, and don''t want to use it if you don''t want me to.
37.gif
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eeks, i''d rather you not... well at least not my last name. though if you use my first name, i may not recognize it as i naturally scan posts for jcrow
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haha, that is what I figured! I''ll stick with Jcrow!

lulu- When you go thru it be sure to have a notepad handy and have Word open on your desktop. That way you can copy and paste things onto one sheet based on "item" and then print them off later! lol! I swear there is a system to it!
 
wow meresal going through the whole thread is crazy, girl!

there are a few old threads where moms posted their 'must haves' for their starter registry lists. gingerb started a thread on it maybe 4-5 months ago as well, something with registry in the name.

i did a skeleton registry and then had 2-3 friend moms look at it and they told me their 'must adds' to it and i went from there. i only wanted the basics really.

things friends have told me who just had babies recently:
--can't have enough waterproof pads
--all they wear are the kimono/snap sleeve tshirts or onesies and diapers to start (but i knew that already haha)
--your baby may not fit into NB diapers so don't get too crazy with buying NB (size 1 usually is like 8lbs+)
--a few PS moms loved the aden and adais swaddle wraps so i got 8 of those

other randoms that we love so far and kid isnt even here yet:
--grobag digital egg room thermometer ...we LOVE This and its only in OUR room. we might have to get another one
--itzbeen digital timer for things like bf'ing timing
--kiddopotamus snuzzler for carseat
 
I am hoping you ladies can help me out! DH and I want a high quality stroller that will last for at least a couple of children. Right now we REALLY like the 2010 Uppababy but I''m having major sticker shock... I think its something like $669 plus the carseat adapter plus the rumbleseat if we have kids close together. I''ve been through all of the Babygizmo youtube stroller reviews and have read through almost all of this thread (although it has been a while) and was wondering if there are any interesting strollers out there that I don''t know about but may fit our needs. We''d like it to be fullsize, larger wheels in back but preferably not air-filled, reversible seat, and have an attachment for a second child. We really like the fully upright seat position and higher canopy on the uppa. Does anyone know of a different stroller out there with these features but cheaper than the 2010 uppa? Do we think the uppa''s price may go down a few months after its release?
 
meresal - that''s what i did, copied and pasted...

mara - haha, i read this thread at least 3 times. plus the preggo thread since there''s some good info there too.
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what do you love about the grobag egg thermometer? i saw them but didn''t think it was needed...?
 
I couldn''t live without my Moby wrap when my DD was first born.
 
Ditto to Mara''s list.

I couldn''t live without these things the first few days/weeks:

Miracle blankets! Or some type of idiot-proof swaddle
Diapers
Wipes
Onesies, preferably kimono
My Brest Friend BF pillow (or Boppy)
Itzbeen timer
Swing (but this is subjective, some babies hate it)

That''s it and that''s all.
 
Date: 1/6/2010 3:11:09 PM
Author: ChinaCat
Ditto to Mara''s list.


I couldn''t live without these things the first few days/weeks:


Miracle blankets! Or some type of idiot-proof swaddle

Diapers

Wipes

Onesies, preferably kimono

My Brest Friend BF pillow (or Boppy)

Itzbeen timer

Swing (but this is subjective, some babies hate it)


That''s it and that''s all.
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where did you find the kimono style onsies? i''ve just seen the t-shirts.
 
Oobie, We have the 2009 Uppababy Vista and we love it. Olivia is 7 weeks, we used the bassinet a couple of times for walks around the neighborhood, but since it got cold we''ve been using the Graco car seat adapter which works great. She''s not big enough for the regular seat yet. The only complaint is that it takes up most of the trunk space in my Honda Accord, but any full size stroller would do that. Unfortunately, I don''t think the price goes down throughout the year, but you might be able to get the 2009 at a discount and I don''t think there were too many changes for 2010.

My must have list after the first 2 months:

Swing
Bouncer
Olivia loves being held, but sometimes my arms get tired and then she loves the swing and bouncer. These are also the only places she really likes to nap.
Lots of onesies and sleepers - that''s all she''s wearing and I go through several a day.
Boppy pillow
Stroller that accomodates infant carseat - Olivia falls asleep everytime she goes in the car, so it''s great not having to wake her when we get to a restaurant or store.

Things that were a waste for us-
Miracle blanket, swaddling blankets - Olivia could not stand to be swaddled and hasn''t been swaddled once since we left the hospital. Of course, some babies love it. I''d maybe buy one to try but wait and see if your baby likes swaddling before going crazy.
Sling - She hates the sling and wails her head off everytime I tried to put her in it.

Just a note on sizes, I recommend really waiting until your baby is born before buying a lot. Everyone told me not to buy newborn diapers and clothes, but Olivia is almost in 2 months and still in both newborn diapers and clothes. I had to buy a bunch of both. Of course, she''ll eventually use the bigger clothes and diapers i bought, but if you are buying season specific clothes (snowsuit, fleece onesies, etc), I''d wait.
 
JCrow- I had a really hard time finding them as well. I recently found a bunch at Target- some cheap but cute Gerber ones. Also, the Dwell line at Target has some. You just have to keep looking everywhere you go, unfortunately! I did see some expensive ones in fancy stores, but didn''t buy any of those.

Maybe someone else has some suggestions on where to find kimono style????
 
Ditto what China said. Finding kimono onesies that were not an arm and a leg was hard. I found a lot online but they are like $12 each! The ones we got came from Gerber (Target has them in stripes) and Dwell, both at Target. But I can't recall if either of them had attached mittens...which the tshirts DO. So we have a lot of kimono LS tshirts with mittens, and we have like 5 kimono onesies, and we'll do those and diapers mostly and sleep sack or swaddle. If you know anyone who can pass down items to you for NB especially, do that instead of buying because they grow out so fast.

Also I know this is in another thread but a new mom friend told me Gerber runs small, Carters runs big and Just One Year runs a little small. Her baby was 9lb when born and 3 weeks later is still wearing NB kimonos, but FITS into 0-3m. I used her sizing when I was prepping our sizing since I'd like to get the most use out of stuff so I have more 0-3 than NB.

Also re: swaddling blankets... some moms have told me they didn't like any of the kind of ready-made swaddle items meaning the blankets that come with velcro and stuff. Some people seem to like them and others said they could never get the swaddle tight enough so the kid didn't squirm out. Most moms that had a lot of swaddle success said they just used bigger blankets (like A&A)...so we only got 1 pack of the organic velcro ones (gift) and the A&A ones. And even if he hates the swaddle we can use the A&A as blankets for carseat, stroller etc. The velcro swaddlers are basically only for swaddling. Not multi-function in case your kid hates it.

ETA oh re grobag egg. It's def not a 'necessity'. But my gf told me her brother got it and she loved the thing. It just sounded so fun. So she got us one for my shower. And we put it in our room to try it out. I FRIGGIN LOVE IT. It's more amusement than anything else I guess...but the function is to show you what temp the room is just by the egg being a certain color (so you can just glance over) and the idea is that the 'right temp' for the baby's room helps reduce SIDS rate. The egg wants to keep the room pretty chilly, between 62 and 68 degrees, BRRRR!! It basically does not want the child to be too warm and sleep too deeply. It also makes faces to show you if its happy or sad along with color change. She said her brother's baby's room is always too hot so the egg is always ANGRY. HAHA.

So now we have had it in our room for like a month and I find myself looking over when I get up at night, to see what temp the room is...and it functions a little like a night light in that it brightens the room just slightly. So Greg wants to keep it in our room so we might have to get another one for the baby, I don't know why but it just cracks me up. Anyway I love it, I plan to get one for the shower I am going to this wkd.
 
mara - thanks for the egg info. funny, what will be the baby''s room is the coldest room in the house! i thought that would be a bad thing. guess not. our room is the hottest. we have to leave the bedroom door open [i always slept with it closed before] otherwise it gets too hot.
 

Kimono tops/onesies - I think I might be the only mom who didn’t care for kimono tops. The ones that I got for M hit right at her belly button stump, and I found that annoying and not any better than just regular onesies. Just me. The ones we got were Gerber. Size at least one size up with Gerber.


Swaddling blankets – I got one 4 - pack a+a muslin blankets this time, and am excited to try them out since they get such good reviews. I also got one miracle blanket to try out. Last time, we got the Carter’s receiving blankets. They are pretty small, and M grew out of them pretty fast for swaddling. But we still use them for the stroller and carseat now.


Diapers – I would grab as many newborn diapers as possible from the hospital, buy a small pack of newborn size and get a box of size 1 to start. Even if you still need newborn size after you are done with the pack, you can run out and buy more. But you don’t want to be stuck with lots of newborn diapers. I love Pampers Sensitive Swaddlers for the wetness indicator.


Mara – thanks for the reviews on the Grobag Egg. I might get one. We have a digital clock with a thermometer in M’s room, but it’s not very good.
 
As for registry, here is my input on what others said...

Ditto Mara on getting a lot of waterproof pads. I didn''t even register for these, but ended up getting some as a gift, and went out and bought a bunch more. My baby spit up all over EVERYTHING, and this saved me from having to take the cover of the swing, bouncer, etc to wash them all the time.

I know everyone here loves the kimono style shirts, but for some reason I was not such a fan. I like regular onesies much better. I disliked the Gerber ones, because they do run small, and my kid was always too long for them. I think the quality of the Carter''s ones are much better.

I didn''t buy any diapers or onesies in newborn size, since they say they only go up to 8 lbs, and I was sure my kid would be over 8 lbs at birth. He was born 8 lbs 8 oz, and I used the newborn diapers and wipes for the first couple of weeks, until he was about 10 lbs. Luckily I got some newborn diapers as a gift, and my sister gave me a bunch of newborn clothes as hand me downs, or I would have been unprepared. Even if you are expecting a big baby, I''d get a few newborn size things at first, just in case. You can always return them if you don''t end up needing them.

Definitely get some bigger blankets for swaddling. We had about 30 swaddling blankets given to us as gifts, and there were only two that were big enough to swaddle my long boy. We ended up buying a bunch more of those. They were Koala Baby from BRU, but I would have tried the A&A blankets if I would have known about them then.

Also, I could not live without our bouncer. I put DS in it in the bathroom with me so I can take a shower. Best. Invention. Ever. I am dreading the day he outgrows it, since I won''t know how to contain him while I get myself clean.
 
I also don''t think kimono ts are the be all and end all of newborn dressing. Regular old onesies worked fine for us. We loved using waffle type receiving blankets for swaddling. The waffle weave meant stretch which meant we could really wrap her up tight. I agree take everything on your baby''s little cart. They will charge your insurance for it anyways.
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Date: 1/6/2010 6:45:56 PM
Author: Tacori E-ring
I also don't think kimono ts are the be all and end all of newborn dressing. Regular old onesies worked fine for us. We loved using waffle type receiving blankets for swaddling. The waffle weave meant stretch which meant we could really wrap her up tight. I agree take everything on your baby's little cart. They will charge your insurance for it anyways.
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Ditto on everything Tacori said! We weren't overwhelmingly in love with the kimono ts either. We used regular onesies and tshirts with no problems. Definitely take anything and everything you can from the hospital. And I also agree on the waffle receiving blankets. They give a good swaddle as does the miracle blanket which I also really liked. The muslin blankets are good too but I ended up with 2 packages of 4 and ended up returning one of them. In all honesty, you don't need a million blankets. People kept giving them as gifts and I returned so many of them! We never used a swing either. Got one as a gift, never opened it, took it back and had a big credit at BRU. You'll be amazed at how much stuff you DON'T need as well as the stuff you will always need like diapers and wipes.
 
I liked the kimono stuff at first, then went onesies once I gained a bit of confidence. I was kind of an inept momma though!
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we plan to do kimono prob the first 1-2 months, hopefully after that i can get the onesies over the head without too much fuss (i am a rough handler!)... we have a TON of over the head onesies so i will have to figure out how to make it work!

re: swing, bouncer etc...any of that you can borrow from someone, def take advantage of it. we didn't want to store any of that or get stuck with it later...so we did get a small bouncer, but our neighbor lent us a swing that their kids LOVED and it's in great condition...i am so happy we don't have to keep it as it's huge! same with a snap n'go and even an infant car seat if possible (since they outgrow them)...we got an infant car seat as a gift but we got a hand me down as well which i gave to my mom and we borrowed a SNG.

the aden and adais wraps are 47x47 which seem huge to me. we got 8 of these and 2 of the velcro swaddlers and pretty much returned all the other small receiving blankets stuff we got. i didn't want 500 blankets.

tacori etc where did you guys get the waffle weave blankets? i havent seen them at target etc.
 
I never loved the kimono onesies either.

Honestly for the first few months they wore almost exclusively footie pj''s. With zippers not buttons! They were winter babies so I assume this would change to onesies for summer babies.
 
Mara, BRU maybe. Can''t really remember. I am surprised Target doesn''t have them. Look for material that is the same as long john''s. I bought expensive ones and flannel ones but none worked as good as the cotton waffle weave ones. Hard to tell on my computer screen but it looks like these are what we are talking about.
 
we''ve barely received any gifts at all and yet we''ve already gotten 2 blankets. and i bought a pack of the white a+a 47x47 blankets because they were on sale...
 
Sizing - if it helps anyone, George was born at 7 lb 15 oz. He fit into the Gerber 0-3, Carters NB, and Carters 0-3 (baggy) at birth. He outgrew the Gerber 0-3 and Carters NB within two weeks, but wore the Carters 0-3 until he was about 6 weeks old. In my experience, Just One Year fits somewhere in between Gerber and Carters but is made for fatter babies. Gerbers and Carters both fit George well, and he''s on the skinnier side.

We had a bunch of the kimono tees and only really used them a few times. I prefer just regular old onesies.

We only have one waffle weave swaddling blanket, but it was definitely my favorite. So another vote for that kind! I''m pretty sure it came from BRU.

A few things that I don''t see mentioned above, that I would personally put in the "necessity" category for a newborn:
Burp cloths (prefold cloth diapers work perfectly)
Nursing tanks, absorbant breast pads, post partum supplies (pads, etc)
Lots of books, magazines, and DVDs for you

Baby Monitors - Ours died. We''re now looking for an audio monitor that works well, and don''t need video or motion or anything fancy. I see that DD recommended her Fisher Price Dual Connection Monitor a while ago, but I''m reading mixed reviews of it. Although reviews that I''ve read of most regular monitors are very mixed between people who love it and think it has crisp sound, and people who say that you only get static all the time and it''s worthless. Does it just vary based on the monitor itself rather than the brand? Anyway, DD, do you still like yours? And does anyone else have any other recommendations?
 
Blen, you might want to consider a video monitor. I HEART our Summer''s video monitor. It is so useful once they get to be toddlers and get into trouble.
 
Date: 1/6/2010 10:49:31 PM
Author: Tacori E-ring
Blen, you might want to consider a video monitor. I HEART our Summer''s video monitor. It is so useful once they get to be toddlers and get into trouble.
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Ditto! Blen, I know you''re cosleeping, but I still think it would be fun to have. I wanted a video monitor once Amelia got older...I want to know what she does in there when we put her down and she''s quiet but not sleeping. I almost still want to buy one, but it''s a lot of money when we don''t think we''re having another. If you are planning on having more than one, get a the video monitor!
 
Point taken. The thing is that my in-laws told me that they''d buy us a monitor if we just told them which one we''d like, and I''d really feel bad asking for a $$$ option as they''re already being so generous to us. Hmmm.
 
do you ladies have a link to the specific video monitor you love? i had a non-video monitor, but am now considering just putting the video one on our registry.
 
Blen, I can''t remember how much I paid but it was on sale at Kohl''s.com I know Burk got her video monitor on ebay. I don''t think they are that much more than the high quality audio. Plus it improved my sleep b/c I honestly think I used to get her too soon. Now I wait until she is standing. Other times she has fallen back asleep. That right there is WORTH the price.
 
Jcrow, I have the one that TGal posted. Two of my friends have the same one (older model) and love it. Both have two kids. They had to buy an extra camera but can view both kids using one monitor (A and B).
 
Date: 1/6/2010 8:31:45 PM
Author: neatfreak
I never loved the kimono onesies either.

Honestly for the first few months they wore almost exclusively footie pj''s. With zippers not buttons! They were winter babies so I assume this would change to onesies for summer babies.
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See, I HATED zipper footed PJs. Most zip from bottom up that I got so the entire body was exposed for a diaper change. I''m probably the only person on the planet that found the button ones easier.

Moral the story is that moms like different things, I guess!
 
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