There’s so much stuff out there for pregnancy, babies and kids. I’m on my second pregnancy and have a 18 month old so I can’t speak too far past that stage but so far we have certainly found some favorites along the way that I thought I’d share.
The shopper in me loves to find great deals and great products so I’ll share my personal recommendations here.
Pregnancy:
While pregnancy is wonderful and all, it can certainly be uncomfortable. In order to sleep well, I bought this body pillow and never looked back. This to me is a MUST HAVE. Additionally, the cover that comes on the pillow is a royal pain to remove and get back on after washing so this zip up pillow cover was also essential.
I’m not a small girl, and definitely not small on the bottom half so maternity jeans/pants posed a problem. They would hang just a little too low and that inner thigh chafing is a KILLER. So these were a lifesaver. Worn under pants, jeans, dresses, you name it. They also make a full tights/nylon version which is awesome as well.
I also find a lot of the maternity tops to be a bit low cut. Dresses too. So camisoles are a must have. I love these with the built in bras but it is definitely best to try to also find actual bras in the right size. I’m pretty sure I’ve left the house and gone to work looking pretty inappropriate with some nipple action that was not properly concealed behind just the thin fabric of the camisole.
Baby:
This is by far our favorite baby item. Unfortunately it doesn’t appear as though they are made in the US anymore which is a huge bummer as we wanted to get a second one. We just ordered something else to try out so I’ll have to post again if that is good. The Gro Egg is awesome. It’s a room thermometer that glows a color, red if too hot, and blue if too cold. Green if “perfect” or ideal temp and orange if acceptable but on the high side. Our old house heats/cools funny so it avoided a lot of arguments in terms of us keeping a comfy temp for the baby. If you can find a US version of one of these, jump on it!
I don’t necessarily have a specific recommendation for a bassinet, but TRUST ME – get a good one. Spend the money. We first got a cheap one because hey – the baby will only be in it 2-3 months before we intended to transfer her to the nursery/crib so what’s the big deal? The big deal is that the baby is not comfortable on a thin little mattress. So just my $0.02, get a decent bassinet.
We swaddled our first baby in the beginning. It was quite the task to figure out the best way to do it. We tried using receiving blankets and some of the other swaddle products out there and by far the Miracle Blanket was the best. We definitely recommend those. And for later, the Halo Sleep sacks were just awesome as well.
We bought a couple wipes dispensers and just buy cases of wipes for refilling purposes. This one is fantastic. Easy to fill, easy to use.
For an infant tub, we got this one. It’s great because it was perfect for a tiny baby, great for a bigger baby and even now we use the external thermometer when we fill the tub to make sure it’s not too hot.
We don’t have a ton of space so we used a space saver high chair that straps to a kitchen chair. It served us well enough but was a bitch to clean. The straps got nasty and taking it apart to get to them was such a pain. Now that she is bigger, we have her in this booster seat at the table. Very easy to use/clean and extremely transportable. We scored ours at a flea market for $8 but it is definitely worth the price to buy new and wouldn’t hesitate to grab another if/when we need it.
I definitely have more to recommend and am trying some new products this time around so hopefully I’ll have some more feedback soon.
The Curly Knitter 