All Things Supercinski

Kendra’s post about new mom advice and the Wolf’s recent post got me to thinking about the baby care items that I would recommend to expectant parents. Here are some of the things I thought of:

Rocker/Glider with Ottoman–This is probably the single most-used baby item that we use. If you have a nice Lazy Boy, that would do also. I have spent countless hours nursing and rocking Josiah (and falling asleep myself) in that thing, and its such a treat to have a comfortable place to sit and prop up my feet.

Sling/Baby Carrier–When babies are small, they want to be held. Moms, however, have things to do like brush their teeth, eat, start some laundry, etc. This helps you do both at the same time. Josiah had a hard time napping on his own until he was about 10-12 weeks old, so he could nap in the sling while I did stuff around the house. I still use it! After his shots on Monday, he would fuss if he wasn’t being held so I popped him in the sling and was able to vaccum the whole house and get lunch going with a nice, happy, quiet baby.

Diaper Champ-We got this as a gift from our friend Elijah and it has served us well these six months. It uses regular (or odor-shield) kitchen bags and does a fair job masking the smell. A bowl of baking soda placed nearby helps a lot.

All Free & Clear–Don’t waste your money on Dreft when All makes the same thing (no fragrances, dyes) for less than a third of the price.

Lap Pads-I had no idea what these were until Christine gave me a package at my shower. These little miracle-workers are squares of thick, somewhat waterproof cloth that you can lay anywhere a blowout is likely to occur–cribs, changing pads (unless you want to be washing that every day), bassinet, you name it–so that you don’t have to change crib sheets in the middle of the night, just remove the soiled lap pad. They also can absorb spit up.

Homemade Baby Wipes-We enjoy making our own wipes from Kleenex Viva paper towels. This week, I started using pieces of flannel that I hemmed as wipes that I can wash and reuse, since paper towels can get expensive and Josiah only goes every few days now. I just put the wipe solution in a squirt bottle. But even if you use the paper towels, they are still cheaper than wipes and you know what you are putting in them. Mix 2 cups water with 1 tablespoon baby wash, 1 tablespoon baby oil, and 5-10 drops of tea tree oil in a container with a sealing lid about the size of a paper towel roll, cut in half (you can easily cut these with a sharp knife–our santoku knife slides right through). Put the roll in the water mix, turn the container over and let it sit for 10 minutes or overnight. The cardboard roll magically pulls right out and you can pull from the inside.

Blender-My new favorite hobby is making Josiah’s baby food. I seriously love making his food. Perhaps it is my “acts of service” love language coming out, my enjoyment of making things myself, or my love of saving money, but I enjoy blending up homemade goodness so much that I have a freezer full of baby food! Making homemade food is cheap, cheap, cheap and fun. All you need is a blender and a kitchen. If you are really interested, there are some great resources online to help. I made some organic banana puree from organic bananas for $0.59/pound and pumped milk (free), making at least 10 “jar” fulls. At the grocery store, plain, not organic banana puree is $0.39 per little jar!

Safer Bather-This amazing pad makes bathing a baby a breeze. I first discovered it while babysitting Will Hoover as a baby. The pad lays in the tub and is nice and warm and doesn’t slip all over the place. It is guaranteed not to mildew if you hang it up after baths and you can throw it in the washing machine if and when the baby poops all over it.

Feel free to comment about your favorite baby care product, if you have one. If anyone is interested in a sling, don’t buy one online for $50–I can make you one much cheaper, maybe even cheap as free if you are a friend!

This entry was posted on Friday, August 11th, 2006 at 1:40 pm and is filed under General, Josiah. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.