I have a friend who recently had a baby and posted a similar list - I thought it was a fantastic idea (especially since I have LOTS of friends due within the next few months) - (there really must have been something in the air! lol)
I want to share some things we've found indispensable since we've welcomed Samuel into our lives...so here's a list of products we love and cannot live without!
*First off, a SNUZA HALO alarm.
I am obsessive - completely obsessive with control! :) I was like any new mom and thought for sure that Samuel would stop breathing if I didn't watch him ALL NIGHT LONG. My poor husband got no sleep as we stayed up with him night and day to make sure he kept breathing. We found this alarm and it changed our lives! It's not like the motion alarms that are put under the crib mattress - those are incredibly touchy and increbidly LOUD - this is a small alarm that clips to the front of the diaper. If the baby stops breathing/moving for 15 seconds, it vibrates to startle the baby. If after 3 vibrations the baby still isn't moving/breathing, it alarms to alert you to check the baby. The alarm doesn't sound like a siren for the end of the world either - it's loud enough to be heard in the room or on a monitor, but not nightmarishly loud enough to cause a heart attack upon waking.
It's about $150, which is pricey, but we were more than happy to pay up in exchange for sleep!
*Summer Infant babytouch color Video Monitor
This is another component to my obsessive-sleep-watching. :) This monitor is wonderful! It had great night vision, can be controlled/moved using the parent-unit, and has a charging base as well as a battery pack. We've already put our little man in his own room only because we had no room for his bassinet in our bedroom - so this is wonderful!
This has also been used by my husband to freak me out when I'm feeding Samuel in his room - I'll suddenly hear a voice through the monitor saying "Hello, Beautiful" followed by the camera follwowing me around the room. lol
It's great now, but will be great when Samuel is a toddler and gets out of bed - we'll be able to scan the room to find him!
*Aden & Anais Muslin Swaddlers
Oh my! These little guys have been used for everything - swaddlers, burp clothes, changing pads, blankets, nursing covers...
I put them on my registry, not expecting anyone to pay $50 for 4 muslin blankets...but one kind soul purchased them and they've been one of my favorite gifts! They wash so easily and are light enough and big enough to use for anything!
*SwaddleMe Swaddlers
Samuel LOVES to be swaddled - only one arm in and on arm out, though :) These swaddlers are amazing because they're so easy to swaddle a squirmy baby and they velcro to keep a squrimy baby swaddled all night. They have a velcro flap at the waist so baby doesn't need to be completely unswaddled when changing a diaper.
*Arm & Hammer Diaper Pail
Short and sweet: cannot even smell the explosive formula diapers once they're in the pail. Explanantion enough :)
*Bourdeux's ButtPaste
There are two kinds - the pastey kind and the cream kind - I hate the pastey kind - it's too hard to get out of the tube while holding still a squirmy baby and trying to hurry so a little baby boy doesn't christen his surroundings. The cream kind is the best - easy on - except the first few times when I ended up with it all over me, all over him, and all over his clothes - ha - rookie mistakes!
Last, but not least...
*Phisoderm Baby Wash
My baby boy smelled SO SWEET in the hospital, but once I got home and washed him with Johnson&Johnson, he didn't smell as sweet. Later I found a sample from the hospital of the wash they used - Phisoderm - (buried in the piles of stuff brought home from the hospital and thrown in the floor for the first week home - aka - survival week!)
It smells SO sweet - makes their skin SO soft, and is great for diaper rash, or so I hear :)
Anyway, those are a few of my choices. I'm sure I'll have more "must-haves" later on (aka - Baby Bullet, once I can break that out of the box)!
Thanks for reading!
