Things I couldn't have made it without

So in the past few months I have had many friends that are having babies or have gotten pregnant, and they have asked my opinion on various baby items(like I'm some sort of expert). I remember being so overwhelmed before registering because of all the different choices to make. Maybe if there weren't 4500 different kinds of bottles babies wouldn't suffer from nipple confusion! Generally, I have taken all my advice from Brooke since not only has she gone through all this twice but she actually researches products, my mom, and my aunts, and then figured out what works best for my kid, as all kids are different! There are definitely some things that I would recommend to anyone, and here are a few things that I don't know how I would have made it without or have made life much easier!

Baby Einstein Aquarium

Brooke recommended this to me and it sounded like a cool thing because it has a remote that hangs on the door so that you can restart it without the baby seeing you. What I didn't realize is how obsessed Carter would be with it! He still loves it, and now he pushes the button to start it anytime he wakes up during the night, then goes back to sleep on his own. It also has a button on top that is a nightlight feature to look into the crib. I have used it a lot!

Homedics Sound Machine

This has been awesome for travel. It has like 6 different sounds, but Carter likes the ocean one the best. It also has 3 different discs for projection, and the little projector thingy rotates so that you can shine it on the wall or the ceiling. It also has a timer, but we just leave it on all night.

Boudreaux's Butt Paste

I discovered Boudreaux's when I worked at a daycare in college. I got some at a baby shower, and quickly discovered that it worked the best on Carter. For some reason the prescription rash creme only exacerbates the situation, and other cremes seem to do nothing. Obviously other people may have different outcomes with other products, but I am a huge fan of this.

Johnson and Johnson Lavender bath wash and lotion

I also recieved a crazy amount of bath products and lotions for shower gifts. I got a lot of the lavender scented bedtime lotion and bath wash, and it has turned out to be my favorite. I'm not sure if it really is soothing for bedtime purposes, but I really like the way it smells, not like typical baby lotion. Now that Carter is older and I don't lather him up after every bath, I have taken to using it for myself! :)

Gas drops

These are such a necessity! I honestly did not really use the Mylicon brand very much, as I am El Cheapo and Target's Up and Up brand was significantly cheaper, but they have the same effect. I had a very gassy baby on my hands!

Tylenol

No link or picture needed. :) Again though, I usually get the Target brand tylenol and ibuprofen.

Playtex bottles Drop-in system

I chose to go with these style of bottles, and luckily Carter was not picky about the nipple style. My mom had used the early version of these when Caleb was little, and I knew that I wanted something easy and with the least amount of parts. All this hype about the Dr. Brown's and other kinds that reduced gas, but the have so many dang parts and each one has to be washed every use! I'm sure they work, but on these all you really have to wash is the nipple and ring unless the rest of the bottle gets dirty. And you can get accessories that attach to the breast pump for milk storage. (And FYI-Target makes the bottle bags for cheaper too!) I did not use the brown colored nipples though, as that freaks me out for some reason. Why can't they just be clear?

Medela breast pump

I borrowed Brooke's pump, which looked kinda like this picture. Those suckers are not cheap! I just bought my own accessories for pumping. I was very pleased with this brand, although I have not heard of anyone using other brands so I had nothing else to go on. If you can't buy one or borrow from a friend, I know there are places you can rent from. Its pretty user friendly, and easy to carry around with you. This bag and I were like BFF's attached at the hip for 4 months.

Baby Einstein car mirror

I grabbed this item just before I made my first post-baby solo trip to Waco. I had visions of a screaming baby and needing to pump and horrid traffic, and I gladly threw down the money for this in an attempt to prevent Carter from a total meltdown. You'll be glad to know that we made it safely to Waco on that trip, in the rain, but minus major meltdowns, although any minor issue might have pushed me into the full blown panic attack that I was on the verge of. Anyways, Carter was only about 2 months at the time, and it took another month or so for him to even realize it was there. It is still something that he likes to play with. It has various settings of music, lights, music with lights, but the selling point for me was the timer. That little red sun at the top? That guy is the knob to choose the time setting up to one hour. Not included is the umbrella that you will need to reach the yellow restart button after the alotted hour time slot so as not to pull the car over. But I would never do that....

Graco products

Another Brooke recommedation. When I asked her "Where do I start with this freaking registry??" she said if you stick with Graco as far as the bigger items, you'll be good. I used the travel system that included the stroller and infant car seat, and also a Graco pack n' play. I've also since purchased a Graco convertible car seat once Carter outgrew the infant seat. I have been very pleased with everything that I used, and have seen that in terms of safety they generally recieved ratings comperable to the more expensive brands. I just cannot personally justify spending $300 dollars on a car seat that has met all the same safety standards as my $90 one.

Please take any of my opinions with a grain of salt. And do not for one second think that I was paid to endorse any of these things, or Target for that matter, although we all know that I would be their personal spokesperson for free! I wouldn't even know how to go about getting paid for endorsements, nor would any company care about my opinion. I also think it will be fun to look back in a few years to see what ancient products I used in comparison to what will be current!