things I learned from visiting a newborn (and his mom)

In my preparation for welcoming our first child into our life, I've started to compile a list of both practices and products I should not continue life without. Visiting Laura in Georgia was such a sweet (though way too short) way to see how a mom I know and love and admire is handling the first weeks of parenthood, and also an excellent way to test out must-have products to add to our registry. Not that we have one yet. But say we do make one, at least I'll have some things to add to it.

Full disclosure, this post is most likely only of interest to pregnant people and moms. Just want to let you all know that I'm aware that I'm stepping into new territory here.



I'll start with practices and then move on to the arguably more exciting products. If anyone out there has suggestions, please do share!

Lighting: Laura is great about setting the mood for herself and for Judah when she's up in the middle of the night. She has her lights in their living area/kitchen on dimmers so she can leave them on really low all night. That way when she wakes up in the middle of the night, she doesn't have to shock herself awake with bright lights. (I smell a home improvement project coming).

Music: She's also conscious to turn on music when she gets up, which I thought was a really great way to create a nice space for nursing. It keeps her company if Jason isn't up with her and makes being awake so much more enjoyable. Definitely making a few "wee hours" playlists before February.

Diapers: We're going to use cloth diapers for our little one and I was pretty certain that we'd go the diaper service route (despite industrial strength bleach and all of that). But seeing how things go in their house, it's actually pretty easy to wash everything yourself. And I learned that we won't be using strictly pre-folds anyway (which are the old school cloth diapers that diaper services carry), because there are so many great options out there now. So if we're going to wash half of our diapers at home, we might was well just wash all of them. I'll report back on how that goes.

And I'm sure there's much more I'm forgetting. But I'm quite pleased with just these few little kernels of wisdom. Sadly for Brock, they also mean more projects added to our expanding pre-baby list. But quickly, look what a good sport he is: Friday night... we went to Ikea. Yes, either the happiest place on earth or the seventh circle of hell, depending on the day. We are so FUN! But we also have a much more organized laundry room/service porch. The joys of minor home improvements. And yes, nesting is kicking in to full gear.

And now for products that we clearly shouldn't live without:



Moby Wrap. Damnnnnn, those things are like large pieces of cloth miracle. I want one in every color and I will wear it exclusively for the first few months. They are like insta-quiet-sleeping-baby.

Ergo Baby. I'm going to say it, they're kind of ugly. But the coolness in function outweighs the styling. Laura's sister Becca wore her son Elan on her back to our wedding welcome cocktail party in her Ergo and it was the cutest thing ever. Plus they're supposed to be better for baby than the Bjorn. What do I know? Nothing. I just go with what I'm told.

Kiddopotamus SwaddleMe blankets. According to moms in the know, these auto-swaddle numbers are awesome. Especially for little babies when big blankets are just too much fabric.

Aden + Anais muslin swaddling blankets. I forget why (except that they are really pretty), but Laura said these are a must have. Okee-dokey.

Sound Machine. Anyone else use one of these? It seemed pretty nifty.

Kissaluvs, Fuzzibuns, and other cloth diaper alternatives. Aside from being much cuter than those kooky raincoat-style diaper covers that go over pre-folds, these are apparently really excellent from a functional perspective too. And I've been instructed to get the "one size" versions since baby can wear them from newborn to whenever he/she is potty trained or we give up on cloth diapering. haaa. And this leads me to the nifty washable diaper bin bag. Which played a big roll in convincing me that washing diapers myself isn't that bad. You just throw the entire bag into the washer and that's it. See, not too bad.

And, I haven't even entered the etsy black hole. I'm sure there's tons of cute handmade options for both diapers and diaper covers. If anyone out there uses or used cloth diapers and has any favorite recs, please share!


And then there's clothes...

Because I can't help myself, I've also started a bookmark folder of the cutest baby clothes I can find. Wondering this: do we actually register for SPECIFIC onesies and stuff? Like we want this onesie in blue stripes size 3 - 6 months?

Also, we are 100% committed to waiting until birth to find out the baby's sex, but um, shopping for clothes would be much easier if we knew.



Polarn O. Pyret- In love with these stripey clothes. I will start a stripes only registry on their site.

Kate Quinn Organics- Simple and pretty with great colors.

ittikid- Why do europeans insist on making much cuter fabrics than we do? Need one of each, again.

Bloume Baby- Just found this site. They don't tell you which brand their products are (annoying), but what they have is pretty cute.

So this was kind of a long post. I promise I will not be posting exclusively on baby stuff from now on. But it's kind of on my mind since we have, oh, ~3 months left until birth day.