Baby Gear Reviews - Durable Gear

Links go to the one I could find that was as close to what we purchased as possible. In many cases, the model/color/style has changed in the last year and so the prices are not indicative of what they were back then. 

Monitor – We registered for a VTech audio only monitor with 2 parent units. The sound is great and I can even hear him breathing sometimes. Occasionally I wish we had a video monitor, but I think I would have spent a lot of time looking at it instead of sleeping when he was little. This one had some issues after we had used it constantly for about 7 months. The base and parent units wouldn’t connect and kept beeping. (Well, it happened one other time too, but that was because we had the base plugged into the socket that the light switch turned off. Oops.) But when it happened for real, I called VTech and they sent a replacement right away.  (Status: Received as gift. Would have purchased this or something similar if we hadn’t. In retrospect would have considered used. If I come across a used video monitor at a good price I may get it.)

Swing – This was the last thing we bought, with the glider. Those were the two things we really just couldn’t decide on. I didn’t want to lose the space that a plug in swing uses, but I didn’t want to go broke on batteries for a portable swing. This one’s reviews claimed only one set of batteries during its useful life. We did have to switch the batteries about a month before we stopped using it, but that isn’t bad. I’m glad we went portable because we really didn’t have the room to lose with the big one. He took naps in this one until he was 8 months old. He has always slept great in the crib at night, but naps were always short. He would take marathon naps in this swing. We probably could have lived without it but it was a nice perk for not too much money. (Status: purchased ourselves at Amazon prices. Would have looked at yard sales (and been successful) if it had been the right season.)

Jumperoo – He still loves this. We don’t use it every day, but we use it frequently. He thinks it’s hilarious and it’s been interesting to see how he’s changed in it over the months. He is not in it for very long all the time, but he’ll jump for awhile while we read or play a game. It may move to the bedroom so he can jump while I shower now that he’s mobile. (Status: received as gift. Would have searched yard sales (and been successful) if we had not.)

Infant to Toddler rocker – I don’t know what made me want this so much, but early on I decided we would register for this instead of a bouncy chair. (Baby fact: bouncy chairs are not the same as jumperoos. I did not know that.) My main thought was it would grow with him and serve different purposes and so far it has. When it was little, we used the kickstand to make it flatter and could lay him in it wrapped in a blanket. We’ve occasionally let him sleep in it over the months when he has a bad cold to keep his head elevated. He takes naps in it still too because right now it lives in the office. (Status: received as gift. Would have purchased. Would have considered used.)

Rainforest Gym – LIFESAVER. I’m not saying this exact model is particularly extra wonderful, but a ‘gym’ that has dangly things and plays music was wonderful in this house. When he was brand new and a little jaundiced, we put it in the sun spot in the family room and laid him down in his diaper for tummy time/UV time. Then we would put him on his back and let him look at the lights and listen to the music. After a couple months he started hitting the toys. His whole laying-down life, he got enjoyment out of this thing. Extended times too. Enough for me to wash bottles or put in laundry. (Status: received as gift. Would have considered used, but definitely would have bought one.)

High Chair – We opted for the one that sits on a kitchen chair rather than a stand alone. We have a small kitchen with a step down into the sunken family room and didn’t want to have another piece of furniture in there. Our version reclines which was great. At one point he couldn’t sit, but if he was in the high chair he would be happy as part of the family and we could eat dinner while it was still hot. (Status: received as gift. Would have bought one of the same style. Probably would have purchased new since it’s something that will get daily use for a long time.)

Boppy – I know that a lot of people find these to be a waste of money and find they don’t use it, but while I was nursing this was wonderful. I actually had 2 because someone lent me one and I forgot to take it off the registry so I received another as a gift. That was even more wonderful because I didn’t have to bring it up and down the stairs. We also used it to prop him up on when he was little and then to do tummy time on when he was a little bigger.  I know there are different brands but I liked the shape of this one. I had a couple covers which was nice because they did need to be washed. I also had a protective cover to go under the cute cover which did a great job of keeping the pillow from getting yucky. (Status: borrowed one, received one as gift. Would not have bought the 2^nd one at full price after borrowing one. Looked at a consignment shop and they wanted more than I wanted to spend on 2^nd one, but may have spent that much for a first one.)

Bumbo: I wanted one of these. I originally put one on the registry, but then a friend offered to loan me hers for the time period it was useful so I took it off. I made it a mission to find one at a yard sale and I did, eventually. It was hard to find because a lot of people hand them down to friends.(Of course once I had one I saw 3 at yard sales) ;) Like much baby gear, it was very useful for a short period of time. He had good head control but couldn’t sit for what seemed to be forever. The bumbo served him well at that time. (Status: purchased at yard sale. After a couple weeks and tons of sales where I didn’t find one, I checked at a consignment shop. They had a ton but couldn’t sell them until the recall solution straps came. They told me they were going to be $25 without tray, $30 with tray with the straps. They were $40 in the store without tray, so that was too rich for my blood. I paid $10 with tray.)

Shopping Cart/High chair Cover – We used this with high chairs in the beginning of the sitting era when he wasn’t great at sitting for long periods of time. I like that it has its own belt. I wanted to use it at Costco because the belt was lousy in the cart, but their carts are wider so it doesn’t work. I haven’t used it lately but mostly because it got pushed behind the couch when I took it out of the diaper bag one day and disappeared. I would label this as optional but only because I have to remember to bring it and then clean it if it gets dirty. Update: When I saw the picture in the Amazon listing to make the link, I re-remembered that it has a strap for sippy cups/toys. That could come in handy in the near future. Maybe it'll be more useful in the future. I reserve the right to revisit this thought when he's older. (Status: Received as gift. Would have considered used to buy one.)

Baby carrier – We knew from the beginning that we didn’t need one for every day use so we did not buy a fancy one. We got a simple one but hubby’s request was that it convert from front to back use. He doesn’t mind it, but we don’t use it often. He wore it more when the baby was lighter. Baby prefers the front facing strollers now, and when he was little we never took him out of his seat and moved him to the carrier if he was sleeping. He slept so well in the car seat/stroller that we didn’t want to mess with it.(Status: received as gift. Would have purchased. May have considered used if I could find one. Most used ones I saw were the fancier brands and more than I wanted to spend.)

Cow humidifier – We could have registered for or purchased a less cute model, but I like the cow. We use it every night now that it’s winter because the air is so dry. In the summer we only used it when he was sick. (Status: received as gift. Would have purchased, but probably would have forgotten to purchase until child was sick and it was 9pm the night we needed it. Would have done new because they’re hard to keep mildew free.)

Diaper Pail – We did not get the Genie because it has special expensive bags. Our Arm & Hammer one takes generic bags and uses baking soda. It works well enough. The older he gets and the more real food he eats, the harder it is. We flush anything that is going to stink too much and then bag the stinkier diapers with grocery bags before putting them in there. I will say it’s better than just putting them in a trash can because we tried that. (Status: Received one as gift, decided to buy a 2^nd for downstairs changing area. Bought both new. Saw used ones out and about but decided that was gross.)

Revising my last post

After a tweet from a friend, I went back and updated my last post with a status of each item. (Status meaning whether we bought it or received it as a gift, whether we would have purchased it ourselves if we had not received it as a gift, and which things we would consider getting used.) I’m not against used items at all and visited yard sales weekly in the late spring and early fall. However I have only purchased one thing from a consignment store. I find that in order to make sure the seller and the store earn money from a sale, the prices are higher than I am interested in paying for used items. At yard sales, I tend to pay between 1/5 and 1/7 of the store price. Consignment gear (not counting clothes and books here, just gear) tends to be much more than that. Most people on Craigslist lean towards consignment prices too. They’ll advertise their price vs the store price and think that makes it sound like a deal. (I say to them - It is – but I have to clean and sanitize yours and if you had a dog or if you smoke that’s too much work for me.)During the fall of 2012 when I was pregnant and yard sales were happening, I wasn’t pregnant enough to feel safe buying things. When it was time to register, have showers, and purchase things, it was not yard sale season. This affected what we bought new vs used to an extent as well.

Baby Items Review ... (Big Item Edition) (updated)

Much like a wedding registry, a baby registry can seem overwhelming. However unlike a wedding registry, it's hard to get a grip on what you'll use if you're like me and know nothing about babies before you have one. I know that when we did our wedding registry we absolutely ignored at least 1/2 of the recommended items. Partly because we weren't having a huge wedding, partly because we didn't expect friends to pay the prices for some things the list was suggesting, and partly because we had a lot of stuff that we didn't need to get new versions of. We assumed the suggested baby list had a lot of padding too so we didn't know where to start.

I did some googling for must haves and must ignores but mostly I crowdsourced my list. My main go-to people were my coworkers. We have similar schedules, similar incomes, and similar needs as far as daycare and the fact that the babies don't spend all day every day in our homes once they reach a certain age. I also work with a lot of practical people that I thought had a reasonable thought process behind the baby gear they use and buy.

I do not follow the purchasing opinions of very many blogs, because I feel like it's a competition for who can have the coolest stuff sometimes. HOWEVER, some (in particular Baby Cheapskate) is great for figuring out the best prices to spend and when to jump on a sale if you know what you want. I often get new things for almost consignment store prices.

So here's my thoughts on what we registered for, received, were handed down, and bought (new/used) as of now, at 10.5 months.

CAR SEATS:

Infant Car Seat - Chicco Keyfit 30 - We asked for the 30 rather than the 22 so we'd have 8 more pounds until he grew out of it. Turns out he hit 30 inches way before he hit 30 pounds, but that's not true for all babies. I miss this car seat EVERY DAY. Bonus - all 3 times he puked all over it, we were able to easily take off the cover, machine wash, and drip dry. The straps weren't that easy, but it was nice that the cover was that easy. (Status: Would not consider a used one. Received as gift. Would have paid full price ourselves if we hadn't. Worth it.)

Car Seat Base - We spent the money on an extra car seat base. While it did not get used daily like the other one, it was great to have one in both cars and not have to deal with buckling the seat in every time. Especially since our 2nd car is only 2 doors. Ease is important! (Status: Would not consider a used one. Purchased at full Amazon price. Worth it.)

Convertible Car Seats - We did not buy these until he was 9 months old. Car seats have expiration dates (who knew?) and so we figured there was no point in wasting a years worth of time while they sat in a closet. We got two Britax seats (A Roundabout 50 and Marathon which will hold him until he's 70 pounds) which surprised us in the long run. All car seats have to pass the same safety tests, so you really just pay for size, comfort, and doo-dads like cup holders. We bought seats at the end of the model year around Black Friday and saved $60 on one and $100 on the other. So while I would recommend waiting a little while to buy them in general, the expiration dates are pretty far out, so if you know what you want and you see a good sale, jump on it. The real reason we went with these was for size, because we both have cars instead of SUVs. (Status: Would not consider a used one. Purchased on sale. Would not have paid full price due to cheaper reasonable alternatives.)

STROLLERS:

At times during our buying period, there were deals to get the Chicco stroller with the carseat and a base or some other great package deal. That's a stroller that turns into a useful stroller after the infant carseat days were done. I have friends who have purchased it and like it. However, almost everyone at school recommended not getting the 'system' stroller. Most of them said they wound up buying other strollers to fit their needs (an umbrella for space, a double one when the 2nd kid came, a jogging one for fun, etc.) and didn't use the system one for very long. That's the route we went and have been happy with our decision but I understand why others are happy with the other one, especially people that have space for it.

First Stroller - Chicco Keyfit Caddy - This is only useful while you have the infant car seat, but it was a lifesaver. During the months of my recovery where lifting physically hurt, I could (reliatively) easily pop the car seat from car to this thing and be on my way. We took it to California and it was super easy for that too. I needed something light, and this fit the bill. Some people think this is a waste of money because it can't be a stroller on its own, but even though this was a gift I would have spent my own money on it for ease of use. Not having to get a baby in and out of a car seat to put in a stroller is worth a lot to me. Also not having to deal with a big stroller since I have a car rather than an SUV was helpful. This could live in the trunk and other stuff could go in there too. (Status: Was a gift. If we were buying ourselves, we would have looked for one on sale or used. The time of year we needed it was not good yard sale time, but I did see some. When we heard a set of grandparents was going to buy it, we checked a couple consignment stores and it was only $10 less than new. That made it worth it to get new, to us. Worth the price for the convenience and would have purchased it new.)

Jogging Stroller - Bob Revolution - Do we need this? ABSOLUTELY NOT. It was our splurge. I got it for 50% off list price (people were actually looking for more on Craigslist when I got it on sale from Amazon) and used some Amazon gift cards people gave us. It was Mike's father's day present because he's a runner. We have used it in just as a regular stroller and it's a little bulky for that, but I would definitely bring it on a day trip instead of just an umbrella stroller. The 3 wheels make it pretty maneuverable. I researched jogging strollers for a long time before deciding to pull the trigger. One thing that was sold me was the fact that you can easily switch whether the front wheel can pivot (for regular stroller use) or not (for jogging). It's big, it would take up most of the trunk if it lived in there, and it's heavy, but we're happy with it. It will last until he's super heavy, too. (Status: purchased ourselves. Would not have paid full price. Was not willing to pay 50% list for used when I knew there were 2 sales a year that good online. Never saw a used one on sale for less than 50%.)

Umbrella Stroller - I got one at a yard sale for $10. It's simple, but has a mini canopy. Nothing exciting, but easy to keep in the car now that he's in the convertible seat. It shocks me how much stores charge for umbrella strollers. (Status: purchased ourselves. Would not have paid full price. Always planned on buying one at a yard sale.)

FURNITURE:

Crib - I had a nice one on the registry to start. But then I realized after spending $350 on the crib, we'd have to spend more money on the kit to convert it to all the things it does. That seemed silly. Cribs are another federally mandated safety thing, so I had no guilt in switching to a Graco one that was under $200 for the whole thing. It has served him well so far. (Status: received as gift. Would have purchased ourselves if not. Did not consider a used one.)

Mattress - We got one at BRU that was flippable - firm for infant, more give for toddler. Then we came home and read the reviews and they weren't good. I did more research and settled on this one. http://www.amazon.com/Safety-1st-Heavenly-Dreams-Mattress/dp/B004044LD4 I'm fascinated by it. It has held up great so far, and the best part is it's weight. I can lift it with one hand. AND IT IS SO AFFORDABLE! Baby things are like wedding things - expensive because they can be. I would recommend this to everyone. (Status: received as gift. Would have purchased ourselves if not. Did not consider a used one.)

Changing table - Ours is from the 80's. It's a dresser with space for a changing pad on top. It has been my extra dresser since I was a kid. I like the height. I like that it was free. :) (Status: Hand me down. If we had to buy one, we would have gotten an Ikea or similar dresser and cheap changing table with shelves.)

Pack n Play - These were hard to price compare. It seems like most baby items make different patterns for different stores. The patterns have also changed twice since I had the baby. I had to make sure to look at features rather than official names. We registered for one that has no bells and whistles. People told me that the changer and newborn napper didn't work for very long so we decided not to bother. He actually has only slept in this a few times, at a friends house and when we had a full house here and he was in our room. Also we used this as the bassinet in our room for the first couple weeks of his life. It's been in our family room since he was about a month old and we used it as the downstairs changing table. I eventually got tired of bending because it was an awkward height. He's been mobile for a day now, so it's possible we will drop the mattress and turn it into a playpen to contain him if we have to leave the room. (Status: received as gift. Would have purchased if didn't. Have not seen one in good shape at a yard sale for a reasonable price, but if we ever do we'll get one for the grandparents house. Consignment stores want more than I am willing to spend used.)

Gilder - We got a simple one with an ottoman from Walmart. I couldn't decide if I wanted one because this was on a lot of people's "eh" list. I am very very glad we bought it. It was only about $100 on sale last January/February (lots of baby sales then!) which is why we did it. Some of the BRU ones are over $400! I didn't want to spend on a nursery item what we could spend on a nice Lazyboy for the family room. We don't use the ottoman much now, but I did when I was nursing. This is another item that has almost the same version in many stores. The BRU one of the same brand is 3 inches wider and $300 more. Bizarre. (Status: Purchased ourselves. Considered used, but with my nose I have a hard time with upholstered things that come from elsewhere. They soak up too many scents.)


My brain hurts and morning nap time is almost over, so I'll do other items another day.

Nursery

A twitter post reminded me today that I never documented everything we did for our DIY nursery. Many moons ago I showed my husband a few Mario nursery pictures online and he decided from that moment that we were going to have that theme. He didn't care if we had a girl or a boy, that's what he wanted. (I was not willing to do it for a girl, and since I really didn't want to find out what we were having it almost didn't happen.) Since he talked me into finding out, and we knew a boy was in our future, I decided why not.

We couldn't afford to do the Think Geek decals and we're not artistic enough to draw a whole world scene on the walls like some people, so we had to decide how to approach it.

My googling led me to a variety of crafts including cross stitch patterns and quilts. I technically can cross stitch, but it takes me forever and I'm not very good. My mom is better and is retired, so I asked her to make that for a Christmas present. 

I figured we could do something red with white polka dots to have the style of the Mario mushroom. Originally I was going to have just a red crib skirt, but I noticed in lots of pictures and people confirmed that once you drop the mattress, the crib skirt pools on the floor so I once again farmed out a job to my mom using this pattern. It ties on the mattress frame and we can adjust it so that when we drop the mattress it will still be straight and not dragging.

A friend painted a picture for us as a surprise, which was great because it gave us something big. We spent time at Lowes looking for the right "Mario Sky Blue" paint which wound up being "Beach Sparkle." Luckily I didn't have to paint - hubby and FIL did that!

While I'm sure the cross stitch picture took the most time in general, the pictures over the changing table took me the most time. I used quilt patterns I found as inspiration. I was going to make them 1" squares of paper originally, and glue them to a set of art canvas from the store. But to fit the canvas, I had to make them .75" squares. I didn't trust my ability to cut THAT MANY squares perfectly, so I used Excel to change it up a little. Instead of doing all squares, I made strips where I could. (I used cell merge on Excel so I could see what I was doing.) 

Original patterns in excel using only squares:

Turned into strips:

First, I used leftover wall paint on the canvases so that any place that didn't have a picture would just blend in with the wall. I taped the strips/squares to a piece of scrapbook paper and then used modpodge to get it all together. At first it was horribly bubbly and I was sad that I had wasted all that time for it to come out lousy. But luckily as it dried it got better. It's not as good as I wish it was, but it is ok. I learned that Stampin Up cardstock's weight is much better than average stuff. The white and black cheapy paper I used caused most of the problems.

We found a stuffed coin box at Best Buy, a friend sent a stuffed mushroom, and my mom covered a small lamp and pillow with the same fabric as the bed skirt. For the curtains and shelves we used red to keep the mushroom color going. Finally, we splurged and bought the Nintendo font letters from someone on Etsy. (No longer available)

The final product! (It makes me laugh to look at these pictures from right around when he was born, because nothing is that organized now!)

10 Months (9 days late)

Size: 26 inches, 18 pounds 9.6 ounces (What, you say? He shrunk? I know. Confusing. But I'm marking it here because at his GI appt on the 8th, that's what they measured. We even had them do it again. However, even though they have a fancy measuring board, the sticker isn't the whole length so I think the sticker was put on in the wrong place. Especially since he's been over 26 inches for months in multiple offices.)

Clothes: In 9-12 months, length and arm length are ok, but baggy

Eating: 5 bottles that are about 5.5 ounces, plus 2-3 containers of stage 2 baby food. Continuing to super-spit-up anything more textured than stage 2 purees including chunky food, plain old regular not that chunky apple sauce, and puffs. The GI doctor referred us to our local Infants & Toddlers intervention program to get him checked out by an OT (occupational therapist). The goal is to get him to eat before he hates food from spitting it up all the time. Fingers crossed. Also got the go ahead to try foods with soy as an ingredient. The plan was to have him eat the real puffs instead of the everything-free organic ones we found. Since he isn't willing to actually eat puffs, that is complicated. In reality, the allergy doesn't matter as long as all he wants is stage 2 foods, but we want to know because passing the soy challenge is a step on the way to passing the dairy challenge. SO...we pulverized about 10 regular puffs with soy, added water, and fed some of that to him. Luckily it tasted good and he was game. Now we wait for a diaper to check. (It's been almost 24 hours and he isn't screaming with a tummy ache, and he slept all night, so we're hoping for the best.)

Sleeping: Still 11-12 hours at night (except on school days where I have to wake him up early, however there have been very few school days in the last 3 weeks) and a couple naps on an average day.

Physical: He started pulling himself up, but only on one knee or with one knee/leg bent at a funny angle. He gets frustrated when he tries to lean for something and then winds up on his tummy, but at least he's trying to lean for things now! He really likes to stand, either at the ottoman or the play table. (Truthfully, it's gotten better in the last couple days but it wouldn't be fair to officially document that since I"m writing late. So that will have to go in the next month's update.)

Vocal: Lots of talking, d, b, g, p, and n in consonants.

Other: Total of 6 teeth (4 on top, 2 on bottom)

2013's Books

The 23 books I managed to squeeze in this year...Many are YA and or late elementary chapter books, but some are grown up books. I didn't have the brain power to read for much of this year. The baby was born around #5, because I remember working my way through that in small chunks. I remember reading #6 and #11 in even smaller chunks while I was nursing, attempting to hold the printed books in one hand. #20-24 were in the last couple weeks of the year when TV ended for the winter break. I watched SO much TV this fall because it was easier to do when I was exhausted from work and the baby went to bed. Hopefully next year there will be more!

1. Matched Ally Condie

2. Crossed Ally Condie

3. Reached Ally Condie

4. Someday Someday Maybe Lauren Graham

5. The Storyteller Jodi Picoult

6. Six Years Harlan Coben

7. Wonder RJ Palacio

8. Thin Space Jody Casella

9. The PS Brothers Maribeth Boelts

10. Mighty Miss Malone Christopher Paul Curtis

11. The War for Late Night Bill Carter

12. Medicine Men Extreme Appalachian Doctoring by Carolyn Jourdan

13. Looking For Me Betsy Rosenthal

14. Ungifted Gordon Korman

15. Calico Joe John Grisham

16. Heaven is Here Stephanie Nielson

17. See you at Harry's Jo Knowles

18. The Light In The Ruins Chris Bohjalian

19. Laughter, Tears, and Braids Bruce Ham

20. Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe by Benjamin Alire Saenz

21. Reconstructing Amelia Kimberly McCreight
22. Drama High: The Incredible True Story of a Brilliant Teacher, A Struggling Town & The Magic of Theater by Michael Sokolove
23. The End of Your Life Book Club by Will Schwalbe

Wrapping Gift Cards

I'm not a huge fan of giving gift cards for presents. I enjoy thinking about and finding things I know people will like. However, I don't mind getting them ... so that makes me realize that thinking of the right gift card for someone can be a good gift in the long run. But if I do give a gift card, I like to jazz it up a little rather than just handing it to them.

Here are some of the gift card holders I made this year. While I found most of the basic ideas on Pinterest, I did tweak each of them to fit what we were giving.

Coffee cups, whether for a non-Starbucks card,

 or a Starbucks card. (The light did something - I did make it cup shaped but it looks very rectangular in this picture)

 This one is good for anything movie themed.

 This is to a sports bar, so I used sports paper and color schemes.

 This one is just a restaurant, but I liked the design so I went with it.

 (It opens up like a wallet)

 This one didn't photograph well, but I made the holder a little longer, with tan paper, and aluminum foil instead of designed paper...trying to go for the "burrito" look since that's where it's for.