nerd alert!

[vernacular_life]

Well, I have entered Full On Research Nerd with baby stuff. 

I have started collecting lists of recommended products/must haves and finally started putting them into The Spreadsheet to make in-person shopping easier.  We're even talking a column for web links, store location, and if I will put it on a registry. 

SO, that being said, anyone who has any cannot-live-without products for now up until whenever, list 'em!  I'm talking clothes, cd's, a special kind diaper rash ointment, couldn't-live-without toy, etc.

Its like wedding planning, but worse.  WAY worse

Comments

[harri-cady.livejournal.com]

Do you think it's worse than wedding planning because it's more important, in that it's your child's life instead of just a party to get married?

Good luck with it all! You sound uber organized :)

[vernacular-life.livejournal.com]

I think its worse than wedding planning because there's so many saftey and quality issues to be concerned about, not just 'will it look good for 6 hours'!

I'll research the hell out of a new tv stand, and that's just 1 thing! I don't even have my list of babygear complete and my head's swimming...

[go-dawgs.livejournal.com]

Its like wedding planning, but worse. WAY worse

Something to look forward to!! ;)

I obviously have no experience or advice to give, but my SIL couldn't live without her Boppy.

[tinksdust.livejournal.com]

If there ever comes a time for us I'll be a research freak as well (and so will Andrew). We research everything!

[vernacular-life.livejournal.com]

i thought of you guys last night when I was making my list!

Part of the problem is that there's so many manufacturers and so many different styles of everything that its hard to keep straight. Before 4 months ago, I only knew Fisher Price and Graco did baby stuff!

I know that I'm going to be much more well-informed than the sales people when we actually go into a store to see things in person, and Judd will laugh at me with my giant spreadsheet!

[tinksdust.livejournal.com]

I'm sure we'll have some sort of spreadsheet too. We've got one for all the stuff we want to get along with prioties, how much we estimate it'll cost, actual cost, etc. We've also had some pretty extensive spreadsheets for car options.

I think it's easy to get overwhelmed with things like baby stuff. For me having information in an organized fashion (that's easily sortable) makes it less daunting.

[tray85.livejournal.com]

Happy spreadsheeting.

The one thing we get a lot of use out of are sleep sacks. After we stopped swaddling Katie, we started putting her in a fleece sleepsack over her pj's. Otherwise she kicks off her blankets and freezes.

We love the First Years "Sure Comfort Deluxe newborn to toddler tub". It has a grippy mat and thing that helps newborns not slip down.

More later...

[vernacular-life.livejournal.com]

ooho! both of those are good! I've seen the sleep sacks, and figured even though baby W is an April baby, know its still chilly for the first few weeks!

[georgy-girl.livejournal.com]

A friend of mine just started listing baby and maternity stuff on Ebay - her username is serv1999. At the moment, there's only maternity clothes and girl clothes (she has 2 girls), but I think she has a whole bunch of stuff set aside to put up. May be worth a look... :)

[monkeysmama.livejournal.com]

Impressive and yet very, very scary!

I have to give my thumbs up for Motrin Infant's non-staining meds - Nora likes how it tastes. Won't take any other meds.

I also love Balmex Clear - way less icky than the white diaper cream.

And a boppy.

And lots of cloth diapers to be used for a multitude of baby needs.

Diapers I LOATHE: baby dry. They suck. Never ever ever buy them.
Diaper I like: Pampers swaddlers, huggies ultra, pampers cruisers.

Onesies and long sleeved onesies rock.

Robeez and Bobux are great slippers.

[vernacular-life.livejournal.com]

I've already got a few packs of cloth diapers on my must-have list! My mom STILL uses old ones from my brother and I as dust clothes!

[tray85.livejournal.com]

ITA with monkeysmama on the Pampers Baby Dry diapers - ugh! they are awful. Cloth diapers are great for everything.

Non-staining meds are a must. We discovered this AFTER lots of things we own got stained pink.

We use saline drops every day for her nose. Turns out the generic kind for $2 is the same stuff as the $7 baby kind. Don't you just love the baby industry?!?

Oh & steal everything from the hospital. Their nose sucky thing works better than the kind you can buy.

The medical kits from BRUS seem to be a bit of a waste. I don't use anything in them and the quality is poor.

[cesariohaines.livejournal.com]

Let me start off by saying that if most of the stuff I have wasn't given to us as gifts, we probably wouldn't have bought most of the stuff, even though we used almost everything (since we HAD it, why not).

Ellie was a swing junkie. It was where she did 90% of her daytime napping those first few months...although she had no problems sleeping in the bassinette/crib at night. So for us a swing was a must...we even bought a travel swing for when we visited the grandparents.

We also used the Incline to Sleep when she was little:



It kept her on her back when she was swaddled, and the side pillows are velcroed on so you can moved them as the critter gets bigger. We used it until she was about 3-months old.

There is way more, but I won't subject it to you all at once! :P

[vernacular-life.livejournal.com]

man, that baby looks comfy!

as for the swings, i've heard either the kid loves them like crazy, or hates them. I'm hoping ot borrow one at first to see if baby is a fan or not!

[tray85.livejournal.com]

Boy - I really should be working. A tip FWIW - we didn't know about sleep positioners, so we propped up the bassinet in the pack-n-play with towels under one side(under the mattress). To keep her on her back, we rolled up small baby blankets and tucked them on each side.

[djoyusone.livejournal.com]

Worse than wedding planning? You're scaring me.

[vernacular-life.livejournal.com]

well, I didn't go that overboard with wedding planning (my friends/family wouldn't suffer long term damage without a gift bag in their room!!)

The other 'wild card' is that for wedding stuff, you really didn't worry about safety recalls.....most of it was just appearance and cost.

I will say that looking at the long list of wedding dress makers and not knowing any of them is like looking at crib and stroller manufacturers!