The Baby List #2

This is an ongoing segment I'm writing about things I found useful or not in the baby realm.  (take a look at a baby registry sometime, there is an absurd amount of "stuff" for little's these days, and it's hard to know what you need and what you don't - these are some of the things I did and didn't like!

It took many months for me to get some time to write a few more items on my Baby list of what I loved and what I should have skipped when it came to Baby T, but here we are (Finally!)

You can read my first post here:  Clicky clicky


Diapers: 

When I last left you I was talking Diapers - and boy was I ever!  I was about to jump into my Kirkland love affair, so I'll fill you in on what I found with my beloved Costco Brand.  Cheap, and awesome - to sum it up!  We switched to Costco, and never looked back... until recently, but I'll get to that in a second.  They were cost effective - about $35 a box, which gave you around 200 diapers (depending on the size... the bigger the diaper, the less in a box, but the price was always the same).   Very few leak issues, or skin irritations.  I loved them!  I stopped stressing over diapers for a long time there because I finally found the right brand!  Until now.  Now the stress is back mainly because, Inara inherited my full and curvy posterior, and to quote Sir. Mix-a-lot, Baby got Back.  This has been a reason for some leakage in the past as the pocket in the diaper that holds the goods, ends up being filled with fleshy adorable cheeks, causing us to size up prematurely just to accomodate.  This would not be an issue if she was actually wearing the size that the weight range on the box suggests, however due to the abundance of cheek she possesses she's rocking the 35lbs+ size when she's only 28lbs.  The weight written on the box is hardly the issue, except that all diaper manufacturers seem to assume once your kid is in the 35+ range it's time to potty train, so size 6 is as big as they get.  The problem, is that I have an 11 month old wearing size 6, who needs to size up.  And it's too early to start potty training.

So what's a Mama to do?  Well Research first of all.  I discovered that the ONLY brand/style of diaper that is made for anything bigger than a size 6, are Pampers Cruisers, which have a 7.  A very hard to find 7.  Once we finally got our hands on a package we wrapped our little one in the extra large diaper and went about our day, and in true Pampers fashion, it leaked.  All over my jeans.  While I was out with friends.  Turns out, Pampers are still not an "all the time" diaper.  Thankfully when we needed it the most (overnight) it's been pretty awesome, and we are still making due with the Kirkland size 6 diapers during the day.  ***Edited to Add***  So we just discovered Inara appears to be allergic to the Pampers size 7, as she is developing some eczema around her tummy and thighs where the diaper comes into contact with her skin.  Awesome.  Guess it's back to Six's and Leaks.

So it seems for my little one, the Kirkland get too small and leak out the leg holes (overnight mostly), but this is usually solved by sizing up, until you run out of sizes.  The Huggies, although awesome around the legs, seem to be cut for "low rise" baby pants as less then enjoyable matter seems to come up the top at the back.  And Pampers are now great for when she's sleeping, but leak when she's up and moving around (which was the oposite issue back in January when I wrote List #1 - it was the Huggies that worked for night, and Pampers were awesome for Day... go figure!) and give my little bunny a rash.  Costco - I'm begging you, make a size 7.  You had hands down the BEST diapers!!!!!



Moving on then....

Diaper Bags:

I'm a hands free sort of gal.  I don't like purses with the little handles at the top that you have to hold on to, I dislike shoulder bags slightly less and don't even get me started on clutch purses.  My purse is a cross body bag- always has been, always will be.  I like to have my stuff with me, but shifted to my hip or back so it's out of the way.  When it came to Diaper bags my thoughts were no different.  Ben and I picked out a messenger style bag by Jolly Jumper.  I was adamant I wanted cross body, Ben wanted something non-girly/frilly and the one I happened to look at had stroller straps, so bonus!  Turns out, it was perfect!!!

My little bug outgrew her infant car seat when she was 3 months old, meaning rather than tucking her into her little seat in the house, carrying her to the car in one hand, and just clicking the seat into place in the car and heading out for the day, we now have to carry her in our arms along with everything else we need with us to the car, and then get her into her seat there.  It's kind of a pain.  Especially since Inara is not the cuddly type - she likes to look around, and for months when you picked her up, she would lean back and whip her head around to see everything she could see.  It was definitely a two hand job to get her to the car, and I didn't have any extra arms for shifting a diaper bag strap back up onto my shoulder as I fumble for my keys.  The cross body messenger style is such a life saver!  I have a routine now - when I am getting ready to go out, I get Inara all ready in her coat and shoes and put her in a place I can easily grab her (it used to be on the floor, but now she's a crawler, so I usually stand her up in the play pen).  Then I put my jacket on, cross my purse over my body, cross the diaper bag over in the same way, take my keys out and put them in my right pocket to lock the door (or tuck them in the band of my pants if I don't have pockets) shift the whole load behind me, and pick up Inara.  This way the bags are with me, but out of the way.  Several times I've been hooked on the back screen door as I try to leave, but I feel that would happen with any other style of bag too.   I can also fully strap Inara into her car seat in the car before even taking off the bags too, as they are behind me and out of my way!

The stroller straps have been awesome too!  My diaper bag has two 6" long straps hanging off of the main shoulder strap with snaps on either end to clip to your stroller - then the diaper bag hangs just under your stroller handle leaving the under storage area free for shopping bags or your purse.  It also makes it super easy to change Inara in public because everything is right where you need it and super accesible rather than having to dig under the bottom of the stroller seat while holding a squirming kid with the other hand!

All in all - LOVE this bag!

Baby Clothes: 

I buy all of Inara's clothes second hand.  All of them.  Kids are expensive!  If I can cut costs some where it's going to be on clothing that she will only wear once or twice!  I scour the "baby buy and sell" pages like a hawk, and now and then when I see a post for a large lot of baby girl clothes, provided the size fits, I'm on it!  It's in this way that I bought 3 laundry baskets of clothing for $60 before Inara was born, and then most recently got another massive garbage bag for just $50.  All in all I think I've only spent about $300 in total on all of her clothes!  Anything I can't get in large hauls through the buy and sell pages, I find at Value Village.  Just the other day I scored some awesome warm winter clothes, jackets, boots and hats for Inara there for just a few dollars.  Give them a good wash, and they are good as new!  Especially considering at this age, baby clothes are not super lived in - kids are typically only in things for a couple months at most, and then it's a new size.  I let other mom's buy brand new, and then I scoop in to buy the used clothes off of them for super cheap!  My daughter still looks super adorable, and I save a ton of cash!  This was especially helpful when my daughter was sizing up every 3 weeks, and growing at an alarming rate!  


Speaking of Baby clothes....

Baby Leggings:

I swear by these things!  It's the same as Yoga pants for adults!  They keep you warm, are suitable as pants in public situations, and they stretch to allow comfortable movement if you have an extra couple of pounds you are working with!  As a result of Inara growing so quickly she has ended up in sizes long before she reached the age that go with the size.  Baby sizing starts with months - Preemie, 0-3mo, 3-6mo, 6-9mo, 9-12mo, 12-18mo, 18-24mo and then 2T, 3T 4, 5, 6 before getting into Small, Medium Large etc.   These sizes are supposed to coincide with their ages, but my little girl hit 2T when she was 7 months old.  As a result I found that when I bought 2T jeans or pants they often were straight leg, or narrow in the thigh to accomodate a skinny toddler running around having burned off all their baby chub once they started running.  But since I was dressing my chubby baby still, her legs would not fit in a lot of pants.  Enter the Leggings.  Leggings have been amazing for Inara!  I dressed her exclusively in leggings and stretchy shorts for the whole summer until she started slimming out around 10.5 months of age and jeans started fitting her a little better!  Jeggings (leggings that look like Denim jeans) are an abomination on teens/adults, but they are adorable on babies!

Tranquil Turtle:

This was a baby gift from a good friend, and ended up being a super valuable item in our nursery!!  This turtle shines a moving blue light on the walls and ceiling that mimics the reflection water gives off, as well as plays an ocean wave sound, and a little soothing tune.  When Inara figured out standing, that's all she wanted to do - all day, every day.  No naps were had, and bedtime was 3+ hours of constantly trying to lay her back down, only for her to pop up moments later amused with her new skill.  Enter the turtle.  Out of sheer frustration one night after a week of her new no-sleep routine, Ben turned on the turtle and put it in her crib.  Inara still stood for a while, but also kept looking back at the turtle as she was interested in the colors and sounds coming from it.  The next day for nap time I turned on the turtle again, and this time she sat with the turtle in her lap and eventually laid down and slept.  The turtle was enough of a new distraction to keep her sitting in her crib rather than standing, and when she was seated she was close enough to lay down and sleep - where as with standing she kept jumping and pulling herself up, so her exhaustion had no hope of taking over.  I love that turtle.  It worked for weeks!  (of course nothing works every time!  Kids like the switch up the routine as soon as you think you've got it figured out!)



Okay.... I've been writing this thing for a while now, and my brain is turning to mush as I type, so I think I'm done for this round of Baby List!!!  Until next time!