Little Iddo is almost six months old. There is evidence of her presence in our family in every room of the house. I quite enjoy it. These are some of our favorite baby items that she enjoys or that make things easier for us.

Travel & Safety

Britax Marathon Car Seat – There’s no way I could carry an infant seat with my back and shoulders as they are. And we didn’t like the idea of buying a car seat she’d use for less than a year before we had to buy another one. This one has worked great. Yes, she looked super tiny in it when we brought her home from the hospital. But she was super tiny.

BRICA Baby In-Sight Auto Mirror – It’s such a comfort to be able to glance in the rear view mirror and check on her. When it’s just her and me in the car it’s a real peace of mind. And I can watch her play with the light and shadows on her hands.

Baby K’tan Baby Carrier – This was recommended by a friend and I love it. We’ve been using it since she was born. It’s t-shirt material so it’s been super easy to wash when she spits up on it. It doesn’t add that many more layers when I’m wearing it. It’s compact when I’m not wearing it. I keep it partially on me when I’m driving as an extra reminder there’s a baby in the back seat. It’s comfortable for my back and shoulders. It kept (almost) everyone from touching her when she was born. I’ve breast fed her in it at football games. She’s about 17 pounds and we’re still going strong with it.

AngelCare Movement & Sound Monitor – Definitely worth the cost. It’s gone off twice and that is two times too many, but we’ve been able to immediately get in there and wake her up when it’s happened. I don’t need a video monitor because I’m not going to watch it when we’re all sleeping. Sound and motion are plenty.

Diapering & Cleaning

Flip Diapers – We have 8 covers, 27 full sized inserts, and 12 newborn inserts that we use at night to double up with a regular insert for extra absorbancy. They work great. The only blow-outs we’ve ever had were when she was wearing disposable diapers (so basically when we’re at church), making me curse disposables and praise cloth all over again. We did use disposables at first because we were keeping baby oil on her backside so the meconium would slide right off and that worked great.

Planet Wise Wet Bags – The small size is the perfect size for holding wipes, a few diapers, and a small bottle of hand sanitizer. It’s what we grab most from our diaper bag. The medium size is perfect to keep in the diaper bag for when I decide she’s wearing cloth when we go out or for when she spits up all over everything she’s wearing.

First Year’s Infant To Toddler Tub – She HATED the bath at first. But this has been great. She still reclines in it. It’s easy to fill and empty. There’s a thermometer so we know we got the temperature right. Before she figured out splashing we used it on the counter and now we set it inside the regular tub.

We bought a few bundles of cheap washcloths at Wal-Mart and keep a stack in every room  in addition to the flannel burp cloths we have to catch spit-up or clean up what we don’t catch.

Sleeping, Eating, & Playing

Aden + Anais – The muslin swaddle blankets are wonderful, especially in our weather. They made swaddling her easy with their size and how thin they are. And one easily stashes in the diaper bag. The one or two times I’ve covered up while breast feeding in public I threw one of these blankets over my shoulder. Now that she wiggles more she sleeps in a sleeping sack and it’s great. If she spits up on it (which she has, it’s often what wakes her up), I can rinse it out in the morning and have it be dry by night.

I bought myself a Crane elephant humidifier several years ago. The mist comes out the trunk! Iddo gets to use it in her room now. They say babies and young kids can catch 10-12 colds a year. And really the only thing you can do for them when they get one is keep them comfortable and help them breathe with a humidifier. Iddo’s working her way through cold #2 right now.

Kushies Washable Nursing Pads – We bought two packages. Should’ve bought three. The flannel is super absorbent. Because I’m apparently part cow I frequently double up on them and that covers it. I can’t imagine how many disposable ones I would’ve gone through by now. A tube of lanolin has also been a life saver and I have some basic spaghetti strap tank tops I wear underneath my shirts so I don’t expose my belly when she’s eating.

Toy links – we hang toys on her activity gym with them. We put several on one like a rattle for her. She chews them, shakes them. They’re great.

I made an activity gym for her. She even sat at it in the bouncy chair we got from some friends, which was great for her reflux to keep her more upright. Some other friends gave us an excer-saucer, and she loves that. We got her a Bumbo when she outgrew the bouncy chair. We just bought a Fisher-Price booster seat for her to use as a high chair now and a booster seat when she’s a bit bigger. Brett and I were able to eat Thanksgiving dinner at the same time while she sat at the table and watched us.

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Sure it’s true that you just need a place for the baby to sleep and a way to feed and diaper the baby. But there are things that make all that easier. And nobody, babies and parents alike, likes to be bored. I think some of the things we’re getting her for Christmas are so we have something new to play with her. She’d be happy with the cereal box Brett is going to get her.

There are certain ideas related to pregnancy and babies that I do not allow in our house.

First – “baby brain”

The research just doesn’t back up that pregnant women lose their memories or brain cells. In fact research shows that a pregnant woman’s brain is a hive of activity (Scientific American: The Pregnant Brain as a Revving Race Car and BBC News: Pregnancy baby brain lapse ‘a myth’). A pregnant woman can also be tired. And just like anyone else, cognitive ability does suffer with exhaustion.

Second – “nesting”

It isn’t called nesting when you get ready for adult house guests. Why would it be any different when getting ready for a newborn house mate? We all get the urge to clean or make our house feel like home at times. Setting up house is not restricted to pregnant women.

Third – “binkie”

It’s not the item I’m against. It’s the word. I really don’t like that word. It’s a pacifier. And certainly not a pacie. I wasn’t bound and determined that Iddo would want/need one either. We bought one kind, the Soothies brand. And that was it. If she hadn’t liked that one, we weren’t going to go out and buy different ones till we found one she liked, she just wouldn’t use one. At this point she’ll use her pacifier, thumb, finger, two fingers, three fingers, entire fist, all about equally. And that’s perfectly fine. Just don’t call it a binkie.

Fourth – “lovie”

I’m sorry, but the word just sounds dumb to me. Call it a security blanket. Call it a favorite toy. Call mine Purple Kitty. But don’t call it a lovie. Whatever Iddo settles on as her security object will not be called a lovie. And we won’t limit where she takes it or when she has it either. It will not be restricted to naps or long car rides. If she wants to drag it to the park or the grocery store, that’s fine. If she wants to take it to college and only leaves it home on her mission because she didn’t want it to get fleas and sleeps with it right up until she gets married at 31, that’s fine too (Brett says she’s not getting married till she’s 32 though). If she settles on something inappropriate as her favorite object, we’ll negotiate a trade. But otherwise it’s up to her to pick something, and up to her to name it. So help me if she names it “lovie.”

Fifth – “terrible twos”

This isn’t an actual stage of development. In order for something to be a stage it has to be pretty much universal, every person on earth goes through it at roughly the same time in their life. Since the “Terrible Twos” can happen anywhere from one to four and seem to be confined to rather middle-class industrial type people (called WEIRD in the literature for Western Educated Industrialized Rich Democratic), it is therefore not a stage at all. Neither is this whole “emerging adulthood” thing, which is just an excuse to put off growing up and accepting responsibility till the end of the 20s at the earliest.