Top 10 Newborn Essentials (Part I)

The peanut is no longer a newborn. She is now a BABY - she has a sense of humor, she squirms in your arms, and she sometimes makes faces at us that foreshadow her adolescence.

Like this one...

Back when she was a sleepy, snuggly, tiny, new person, we had a thousand things in our house that were marginally useful and a few serious workhorse items. I would have loved it if someone had separated the best from the rest for me before the painful, exhausted, overwhelming newborn days. So without further ado, here are the first five of my top ten newborn essentials (in no particular order). Warning: there be nipples ahead. Travel wisely.

#10: The Grovia Magic Stick

I don't mind touching the peanut's butt. I don't even mind it when some poo gets on my fingers. For some reason though, diaper rash cream really grosses me out. It smells strange and the white stuff gets into the cracks of my fingers and won't go away unless I scrub. Blech. For $13.90, you don't have to deal with any of that. The Grovia Magic Stick is like a giant tube of chapstick for baby butt cheeks. It smells really good, like something you'd find in a spa (no joke). You don't have to touch anything with your fingers. As an added bonus, it's made of lovely organic stuff.  (Even if it weren't, I would totally still use it.)  As if that weren't enough, it's also cloth diaper friendly. We've used it with disposables as well, and it works like a charm no matter what kind of diaper you use it with. It's more expensive than a tube of Desitin, but it lasts forever and is worth it, in my opinion. 

#9: A Breastfeeding Pillow

At first, I was too cool for a breastfeeding pillow. I didn't want to be tied to my house or to be one of those moms who lugs her boppy everywhere. My baby and I were going to be mobile. Out to lunch and time to nurse? No problem. At Target and time to nurse? Piece of cake! (You can see where this is going.) At the hospital, the lactation consultant cheerily told me I looked like a pro. Good job, self, I thought. We don't need no stinking pillow. And then, all of a sudden, everything fell apart. A mere two days after the peanut graced us with her presence, the girls hurt worse than I ever thought possible. To say I had "cracked nipples" would be the understatement of the year, let me tell you. I wept when she ate. I wept thinking about the next time I had to feed her. I watched the clock tick towards that three hour feeding mark with utter dread. I cried in the shower. I called a lactation consultant, who prescribed a stack of couch pillows "just until it heals." I ordered fancy nipple butter.  I balanced the peanut on the teetering stack of couch pillows, which shifted around and squished while she was trying to eat. Unsurprisingly, everything hurt and wasn't getting better and I felt like a terrible mother for hating breastfeeding. My doctor went so far as to tell me, "Yeah, that might not heal until you wean." ARE YOU KIDDING ME?? Then, one fateful day about eight weeks in, I was at a friend's house and went into her son's room to feed the peanut. She had a boppy and, in the absence of my teetering stack of couch pillows, I decided to give it a go. It wasn't immediate relief (we were way too far gone for that) but I could immediately see what all the fuss was about. I ordered a boppy on my phone while nursing. And then I cursed myself for being such a stubborn mule for eight weeks. It took almost another eight weeks for everything to heal - nursing injuries are no joke - but the fact that I am still breastfeeding is 100% due to the boppy. So buy the stupid pillow. It doesn't matter if it's a Boppy or a MyBrestFriend (although that one has the best name and looks like you could land an airplane on it) or a Mombo (which sounds like you should drink a cocktail while you nurse). Buy it and take it with you to the hospital when you go into labor and take it to Target and to restaurants and to the park. Embrace your status as "that mom who lugs her boppy everywhere." The irony is that you'll get a good latch early on and then be able to breastfeed without it, unlike me. TRUST ME ON THIS ONE. It's worth it. 

#8: Short-Sleeved White Onesies

Even if it's winter. Even if you think the ones that say "Daddy's Little Princess" or "The Littlest Slugger" are the most adorable things ever. Even if you have a thousand cute little outfits that you can't wait to put your bundle of joy in. The peanut is wearing a short sleeved white onesie most days. Under a dress and leggings so her belly doesn't show (and get cold) when I pick her up. Under a sleeper (and a snowsuit) when it's seven degrees out and we have to walk to daycare. By itself when I'm tired of being cold and crank up the heat so our house feels like Miami Beach in the summer. She grew out of her newborn onesies and we didn't have any bigger ones and I didn't know what to do. I broke out the "Daddy's Little Princess" set but they always show through the neck hole of whatever is on top. I'm also against emblazoning my child with a logo at such a young age (and/or in general), but that's a discussion for another post. The long sleeve onesies are warmer, but get all bunched up under other long sleeves, making everyone frustrated. A pack of white onesies in each size to last a kid through the first year of life might be the best shower gift in history.

#7: HoMedics Sound Spa Lullaby Relaxing Machine

Everyone wants the Sleep Sheep. He's cute and he makes "white noise" sounds. What more do you need? In our case, something that doesn't shut off every "forty-five" minutes. The forty-five is in quotes because when your baby only sleeps until the white noise stops, you only sleep until the white noise stops, and even if it's actually forty-five minutes it feels like about forty-five seconds. Everything starts looking rather dire rather quickly and don't even get me started on what happens when the Sleep Sheep runs out of batteries. Enter the fine folks at HoMedics. No, they are not a group of prostitutes with medical degrees (badum CHING). They make many varieties of white noise machines that (1) run as long as you want them to and (2) plug into the wall so you never run out of batteries.  Although the photo shows a little "30," making it seem like this is a time-limited device, there is an option to turn off the timer altogether. The peanut likes the ocean sounds. I prefer the rainforest, but it doesn't seem to keep her in a deep enough sleep. The three song options are sort of weird and whiny and the heartbeat option sounds like the Law & Order bomp-BOMP over and over again (so. creepy.) I've never used the projector part for long, but the peanut seems impressed when I do. Those oceans though, are pretty much the best ever. The peanut has an adult version of this sound machine at daycare, which comes with lots of water noises. I believe they use the "brook" setting and apparently all the kids sleep forever at nap time now. YOU'RE WELCOME. 

#6: Halo Sleep Sack

We watched a few Harvey Karp videos on YouTube before the peanut was even a glimmer in our eyes (Thanks, Brian and Jenn!) and we were totally sold on the swaddle. We got seven thousand Aden & Anais muslin blankets as gifts, which worked great to swaddle the peanut when she didn't move, ever. Once those little arms started flailing about, though, she busted out of her muslin swaddles faster than you could say "Thank goodness, she's finally asleep." Enter the Halo Sleep Sack, a.k.a. the Baby Straightjacket. Two strips of super strong velcro attach the straightjacket part, so it's flail-proof. It zips from the chin to the toes so you can sneak in the bottom and change a diaper. (Both of these features differentiate this sleep sack from the other two that we tried - one had no velcro and the other forced us to unswaddle for a diaper change.) The baby in the photo looks loosely swaddled to me. The peanut, however, requires seriously tight swaddles or she flips out. If it's too loose, we'll hear this emergency cry coming from her room and there she is, with her little hands sticking out of the top, looking at us like, "WHERE DID THESE HANDS COME FROM?" Then we tuck them back down and she falls right back to sleep. I've tried to break her of her swaddle addiction by leaving one arm out, to no avail. That one arm waves around like it's battery powered and there is no sleeping. I can't say I blame her though - if my arm were flying around and knocking me in the face, I wouldn't be able to sleep either. At any rate, the Halo sleep sack is a must have. If you have a summer baby, they come in a nice light cotton too so you don't cook your child. See? They think of everything. 

Will these five things make your baby sleep through the night immediately and make you feel like the best mom/dad ever? No chance. However, they will make your life a little bit easier and that, my friends, is all we can hope for. 

The remainder of my Top 10 will be in the next post.  Thanks for reading!