Baby Gear Review: Newborn Edition

The following is the good, the bad, and the useless from our first days with baby and his entourage of stuff... as always, your results may vary.

Diapers: Obviously since you can't know how big your baby will be before he's born, it's impossible to stock up properly in advance of the birth. We made an educated guess that Miles would be 8 lbs or close to it, so we had a ton of size 1 diapers, and a small handful of Newborns. Naturally here we are over two weeks in and still creaming through the NBs. To cope with this, I suggest that you ask that anyone who offers to bring over gifts after the birth should bring diapers. With all the craziness of keeping a days-old baby alive it is very easy to almost run out of diapers in the middle of the night and then you're screwed. Also, I think I had heard that babies go through about 10 diapers a day at first but the reality of this didn't sink in until we destroyed a 64-pack in under a week.

Wipes: I thought I had stocked up months' worth of wipes, but we are already almost through the jumbo pack. A big part of this is that when you are new to diaper changing, you tend to use eleventy billion wipes per poop, especially the early meconium poops. With time you can get it down to a more reasonable 2-3 wipes per poopy.

Clothing: Again with the sizes. Miles hardly has any clothes that fit him. I wouldn't have know this, but 0-3 seems to be geared toward an 8+ lb baby. When he first came home, the best fit was Gerber NB, which is quite small, since all Gerbers run small. He's now out of the Gerber NB but still in Carter NB stuff. The biggest issue we've had with clothes is really just for winter babies: almost NOTHING is long sleeved. And nothing has pants. He has a million short sleeved onesies, which are okay for being at home since we can swaddle him up, but when we take him anywhere we're usually forced to put him in 0-3 onesies, pants, and footies that are far too big. Obviously this won't be a problem for long, but next time I would definitely have a few NB outfits ready for any winter baby.

A place to sleep: I was so excited to use our little pack & play by the bed setup. So cute, so convenient, so perfect. Miles has probably slept a grand total of 3 hours in the thing so far. And maybe one diaper change on the lovely changing table attachment. I'm sure we'll use it more later when he has fewer nighttime wakings and I can more smoothly nurse in bed, but right now he's sleeping either in his bouncy chair or in my arms.

Swaddling/receiving blankets: I've read on some lists that you should have 2 or 3 - this is pure insanity. We've been known to go through 2 or 3 in a single day. Baby pees out the side of his diaper, poops out the back of his diaper, has a massive spitup, or let's say your house isn't exactly that clean right now and the blanket falls into an epic pile of dog hair - into the hamper it goes. We also sometimes double-swaddle when it's cold at night. We have 6 swaddlers and could probably go for another 2-4... I don't know, maybe we're just messy.

White noise: Someone gave us the Sleep Sheep and this thing is fabulous. Settles Miles down when he's tired but fighting sleep - what seems to set it apart is that it's nice and loud. There is a white noise feature on our pack & play but it's too soft even at max volume. Bonus feature is that it will help you sleep if you happen to have a husband who snores (and ever have the chance to actually sleep in the same bed with him....).

Hair dryer: (Speaking of white noise.) I busted out the hair dryer when Miles's cord stump was looking a little funky, to dry it off a little during diaper changes. The sound of it triggers INSTANT calming for the baby - it is wild. He stops crying, his whole body relaxes, and he just looks around contently. Now I just keep it by the changing table to cure any changing table fuss fits.

Car seat: Here is something I never would have known or looked for until I had a baby. We have a Designer 22 infant carrier. In order for the straps to be tight enough for safety, we have to tighten them every time we put him in it, and loosen them every time we take him out. This would be fine if, like some carriers, it was adjustable from the front. But it is not. The only way to adjust the straps is from the back/underside of the seat. I had never wanted to have to haul the carrier around into stores and everywhere because it's so big and I am so small, but it looks like I'm going to be stuck doing exactly that, because there is virtually no way to get him out of the carrier while it's still in the car. Kinda sucks. So look for front adjustable straps!!

Socks: If I could go back in time and ask people to NOT give us one thing, it would be BABY SOCKS. Holy crap we have a lot of baby socks. Miles could probably wear a new pair every day for a year, except that, of course, babies don't actually need to wear socks every day. So they are just taking up precious space in the nursery now. We plan to inflict the scourge of baby socks on the next person we know who's having a baby boy since 90% of the socks are blue. I'm pretty sure Carters et al can officially stop manufacturing baby socks and parents can just deluge each other with unused baby socks from this point on.

Pacifiers: We have a variety. I only have one comment on this subject: the paci that Miles likes best so far is a Nuk, but I noticed it has somehow accumulated a little water inside the nipple? That doesn't seem right... guess that one's going in the trash.

Nursing Pillow: I registered for the Breast Friend pillow because I'd heard it was awesome, but I didn't end up getting it. After Miles was born, someone gave me a Boppy that they'd never used. I know a lot of people do not love the Boppy for nursing, but I use it most of the time and like it. I think it probably works for me because I'm petite. I can see if you were tall and/or a bit fluffy it would not fit well for nursing. On me it fills the space between lap and breast pretty nicely.

Diaper Genie Elite II: My mother in law practically begged me NOT to get a Diaper Genie since she apparently had a bad experience with the first model. Apparently it's been improved so that now you can use it hands-free and with less hassle. We love the Diaper Genie. It is really easy to use and convenient to have right by the changing table. Once we start solids we may have a better idea of how smell-blocking it is, but right now it's working great. The downside is that you "have" to buy special bags for it that cost about $5 per refill - and we just finished the first one at less than 3 weeks - but it is really easy to rig it to take regular garbage bags. There are videos on YouTube on how do it.

Baby Wrap: I have the Ultimate Baby Wrap, which is the same as a Moby but cheaper and less of a status symbol (ha). On the day that gay marriage is legalized and people start marrying dogs, chickens, and hamburgers, I'm going to marry my Baby Wrap. I love it, Miles loves it, it is the single most beloved item of baby gear that we own. I just have to figure out how to nurse in the damn thing and my life will be perfect.