Ack! I’m expecting! Talk about a suprise! So, now, the furniture. Anybody have any recommendations on cribs, car seats, etc?
How much room do you have? 
Actually, What’s amazing is how little room infants actually need.
We have a lot of Graco stuff. It all fits together - for instance we have snugride car seats. The seats clip into a base you put in your car (so you fuss with the seat belt only once in a while), and you can clip the seats onto a variety of Graco strollers. We have a duoglide stroller that we used to clip the seats into and now we use it for a regular stroller so it’s good for newborns (as long as you use the car seats) to probably 2 years plus. I think stroller/car seat combos may exist between brands. I think Britax is like the Rolls Royce of car seats. Since I have to buy everything in twos I haven’t had the opportunity. Our girls just grew out of the snugrides and now we have Eddie Bauer car seats that seem to be working fine so far.
We also have a couple of pack and play playpens. They fold up to the size of a golf bag and set up in 10 seconds. They’re pretty amazing devices in a baby furniture kind of way.
We have a changing table we got from the local Buy Buy Baby - some Italian brand I can’t remember. Anyway, a changing table’s great to have, especially if your back is a perpetual disaster area like mine. We didn’t use the cloth covers on the changing pad for the first 8 or 9 months because between twin girls and being delerious half the time we just wanted it to be so we could just wipe it down.
Sleep-wise you might want to try a bassinet, but it won’t be long before you need a crib, so you might as well just get a crib right off the bat and save the money you’d spend on a bassinet. How your baby sleeps - or how it doesn’t sleep - will determine what they sleep on. Then there’s a whole host of in-bed sleepers, co-sleepers off the side of the bed, and so on. We have a couple of Pottery Barn kids cribs. I got them using a bonus program at my job. They’re good solid cribs, but way overpriced, IMO.
Depending on the size of your dwelling you might want to get a dorm fridge for bottles so you’re not running all over the place in the middle of the night trying to quell the storm.
We used bottle warmers by The First Years. They were OK in terms of ease of use but how warm the bottle became was inconsistent.
In a thread I did asking about the cribs it was brought up that baby furniture is pretty heavily regulated and if something gets recalled you usually hear about it, so just about anything you get will be safe.
Well, not furniture, but I can’t recommend Avent bottle/feeding ware enough.
Their bottles have a nice wide opening that allows a more thorough washing, and the accessories are great (handles, nipple to cup spout)! I also used an Avent manual breast pump. The manual always worked better for me because I could adjust the suction with more finesse than with an electric or battery pump.
I’ve been very pleased with how the products seem to “grow” with the baby.
Now, for furniture, I recommend something along the lines of a convertible crib. With a little switching of hardware, our child’s crib will become a toddler daybed with safety rail. Then, further down the line, the whole thing will come apart to become a foot board and head board for a full size bed.
My husband loves things with more than one use/function.
FaerieBeth
Here’s a recommendation for co-sleeping. The difference in my wife’s alertness/happiness, as well as the baby’s overall comfort level, was immense once the crib got turned into just a playpen. Better still if the decision is made before the crib is bought.
The crib (upstairs) and the bed in the guest room (downstairs) became the changing tables. We bought a dresser to keep his clothes in, and several rubbermaid totes to store clothes he grew out of.
If you bottle feed (and I’m in the camp that says breast feeding is much better for the kid, I can dig up book titles if you (or your wife) need convincing, but even then Dad should still try to give a bottle (of breast milk) a day, just to give mom some alone time), crock pots double as good bottle warmers, or you can do what I did and just heat up a glass measuring cup full of water to boiling in the microwave and then put the bottle into that to heat up.
I also think that strollers are more trouble than they’re worth in most situations, and that baby carriers (like the baby bjorn) are more comfortable to negotiate crowds in. The only time the wife uses the stroller is when she’s going to the mall, then the stroller becomes her shopping card (and she has the kid in the carrier).
Pack 'N Plays are great. You almost certainly need one.
-lv
If you want a bassinet, get one of the playpen/bassinet’s.
Early on they are raised so they can sleep and aren’t at the bottom then you have a playpen to use when they are older.
Mine is a graco pack and play bassinet/playpen, folds up easily as described above and are wonderful.
If you get a changetable ,get one that also does double duty. Like one that is a dresser with a change table set up on top (which can be removed when no longer needed).
If you don’t plan to have any more kids anytime soon, get whatever you can that does double duty and is well made. Shop at consignment shops, you can get some awesome hardly used stuff for a great deal. This means it’s a one time expense and you aren’t constantly buying stuff to keep up with new demands (ie a toddler bed, then a full size bed as said above).
I love my bouncy chair, and my play stand. My son can’t sit up on his own just yet so if I need to do something I either put him on the floor (with the playstand, they are bright coloured some play music and have dangly toys. You can get a real nice one for not that expensive new) or in the seat, again with the playstand. He’s almost 4 months and he loves to be propped up in the seat with the playstand set so he can reach and bat at the rattle/look in the mirror.
As was said, when little they don’t need a lot of STUFF no matter what the stores/magazines tell you. I don’t have a lot of money and things but my son is a pretty happy little boy. If you don’t have much money get what you absolutely need, then spare a little extra for a couple extra things then give them lots of love.
Oh and another thing that is great, not really furniture but I love. Those links that clip together. I picked up about 45 rings that have different… not shapes but textures on them. Some extra big ones. The dinky ones that Discovery Toys sell are about as good as shower rings and really don’t clip on many things unless they are pretty thin. I got the Kids II Fun Links, for a better price than Discovery Toys, they clip easily onto thicker things, such as the car seat handle and the textures are great for when the sprout teeths because they can pick one that feels good to chew on.
AVent bottle system is great. We used the avent microwave disinfecting steamer. Also used the microwate to warm the bottles instead of a bottle warmer.
I like the co-sleeping thing although we never bought one a bassinet would have been great. Middle of the night, kid cries, roll over and let 'em feed. Mother would actually fall asleep in the middle of breastfeeding. A little later when it was formula, usually, I’d be the one with the bottle. Made for a lot better sleep for the parents.
We are planning on gettring a crib/ toddler bed combo. WHat brand? Who knows. The Graco is a really good idea.
Will I need a bottle warmer if I’m breastfeeding?
Is there a list of baby crap you need online anywhere?
Bottle Warming
My favorite is simply nuking a cup of water in a 2 cup container for a mo, then immersing the bottle in the water a few moments.
I’ve never had a bottle warmer work decently or speedily for me.
Mothers of many usually leave a small crockpot (potpurri) pot simmering all day to have hot water ready all the time.
Bottle Feeding
I too am a huge fan of Avent. Easy to clean, easy to use, simple system. Even if you don’t buy their bottles, buy their bottle brush. The greatest thing since life’s bread.
Breastfeeding
If you are going to be home full time, a hand pump (such as the Avent Isis) should do you well; it will give you the ability to pump a bit and share feeding responsibilites or get out of the house alone.
If you are going to be working part to full time, I’d suggest an electric pump. Rentals are fine, but think about how long you’ll be breast feeding; if it’s over six months you’re likely better off buying. I bought a Medela Pump In Style and found it was well worth it as rentals around here are $22 a week - and the PIS is just about as good as the rental ones.
I’ve got a converter kit for mine and pump direclty into Avent bottles.
Sleeping
I used the Amby Baby Hammock but had an active child (he got close enough to escaping that we stopped using it) and he ended up in a crib at 8 months. We’ve been co sleeping a lot lately (we were too scared to when he was younger because we’re big people, heavy sleepers) but trying to get him back into the crib.
I recently made my first trip to an IKEA. If I’d gone there before I got pregnant, I would have bought my crib there (and am still considering doing so, even though we’re at the nine month mark). They’re shorter and much easier for a shorty like me to get the kid in and out of there.
Playing
We started out with a pack and play baby cage that had a bassinette. Worked great. It also had a changing table, which was fabulously useful.
We didn’t use it much once he’d outgrown that part until he became mobile. Now it’s in our office as his play area when we’re working on the computers at home.
We got an excersaucer for him long about 3-4 months. Picture a table with a hole in it with toys surrounding the child (child seated in hole). Great fun, but I suspect he gets put into it a bit much at daycare so it’s not used for us much now. I hope to get a few more months out of it.
Now that Wolfie is mobile, we’re gotten him a push walker that converts to a riding toy. For now he’s having fun playing with the dipsydoodle noise makers attatched to it. I’ve seen and heard of accidents with traditional walkers, so I was concerned, but then realised we don’t have basements or second floors, so it was okay. When we do get a second floor, it will be a downstairs only toy.
Changing Table
I had a table that did fine for a while, but it’s now my sewing table again. I just change him in the crib or on my bed (while I sit).
Convertable cribs
I’ve heard a lot of people don’t use them as a toddler bed, mostly because the next baby comes too closely.
Carseats
I got an easy to install convertable (can be used for infant or toddler) but ended up using a travel system (Graco) Bucket/Carrier and base. Left the base in the car, snapped the bucket in and out…
The stroller that came with it was huge, so I got a universal bucket holder stroller and sold it when he out grew the bucket.
I still do not use the travel stroller much if at all. Too big.
Strollers
McClaren makes a good $100 stroller that’s an umbrella. Buy it. Sturday, lightweight, great.
Slingering
I still use my over the shoulder baby holder at 9 months and 24 pounds. At six months we started riding him on my hip rather than in a pouch in front, he loves it.
**
Babies R Us has a list of everything they want to sell you for the first 3 years of a kid’s life…
They are linked through Amazon.com if you want to read it…
I love my changing table ($10 yardsale)
I have never used my pack n play. Ever. The child it was purchased for turns 3 next month. It sits unused under my son’s crib. I highly doubt he will use it either. If you live driving distance from MA you are welcome to it.
I recommend a boppy pillow. This thing does it all. Great nursing pillow - holds baby wonderfully for bottle feeding too. Helps support baby for tummy time so he doesn’t feel smushed into the ground. Helps support a baby just learning to sit up.
A basinette (they are pretty cheap) for those first few weeks when you are just too tired to go far for baby.
A swing. They have some great swings that also vibrate baby and swing in both directions… I loved the swing. We just outgrew ours a month or so ago.
A good car seat. Never skimp on a car seat. The infant seats are great for the first few months when baby can’t do much at all. I’ve had two kids who outgrew them before they were six months old. They get heavy though, and fast, so for prolonged carrying please put the seat in a stroller - your arms will love you for it!
We switched from the infant seat into an Eddie Baur seat. They have a nice one that converts from baby/toddler/booster.
I know there’s more but I have to rescue my son from his sister… I’ll check in later!
Most importantly - get things that compliment your lifestyle. If you hardly leave the house you don’t need a lot of travel stuff - if you plan to leave the baby at grandma’s a lot see what baby really likes and only duplicate that stuff. I cannot tell you all of the things we tried and hated because they simply did not fit into how we do things.
Oh and go with simple clothes. Sure the other outfits are cuter but change a baby 12 times a day in one of those cute outfits… you’ll have tossed it into the diaper pail by change 3.
Congrats!
Welcome to the whole new world of the Baby Industry Telling You What You Will Need To Raise A Child, while our parents did it with less and still managed not to kill us somehow.
Bed
The crib/toddler bed combo I have always felt is a bad idea in general because the next baby always comes along when #1 is using the bed.
Toddler beds, AFAIC, are the greatest waste of parenting dollars. They are not in the bed that long to justify the $ and the bedding costs. A Twin bed with railings on it works just as good.
I heartily recommend going to IKEA for baby goods. Great prices for a great product.
**Advice Du Jour **
Ask all your friends who have older kiddies for suggestions on what they used and whatnot. I promise you, if they have any stuff ( gear) left over from the younger days, they will give it to you. Take all the freebies you can. In the long run you will say, " Why in the hell did I have to have a $700 crib that converts into the space shuttle? What was I thinking?"
Garage sales are a most excellent way to score all gear and clothes.
**Another vote for Co-sleeping **
A wonderful little bonus of this much poo-poohed sub-culture thingie is that when you go on vacation with your kidlets and are staying in a strange place, it’s no big deal for the kids to fall asleep. They just fall asleep with Mama or Daddy as usual. Camping with kidlets is a bit of a challenge as it is, but sleeping on a hot night with two human baked potatoes using you as a Human Futon is not exactly my idea of a restful night of sleep.
As for the boppy, if you are of larger stature (as I am, I’d guess a good 60 pounds overwieght) I’d forgo the traditional boppy pillow and buy the pattern for one and make it LARGER than the pattern.
What I did was lay the pattern out, trace around it about an inch (bear in mind this pattern is made with a 5/8 seam built in), cut it at the traced line, and sewed it as close to the edge as I could. (this wasn’t entirely successful as it made the hole smaller)
There’s also this link to making your own, but I don’t know how good it is. I’ve just used the one.
I also own a ‘real’ boppy I got on clearance for 9 bucks. I keep it in the car and use it on the road (pulled over in the shade).
Do not ever microwave breastmilk
Do not EVER microwave Breastmilk
If people give ya good stuff, tell them thank you, you[ll check out the recalls on it and get back to them. A 3 year old crib needing a new nut might be fine, but a 60 year old crib is not. Always get a new mattress.
I have a used glider chair (so easy to nurse in compared to the sofa) - everything else was new because we were the first kid on this side in this area. But at mom’s we used a used excersaucer, a used highchair, we were given a used (but safe and checked) travel system (stroller ugh, carseat/bucket and bases).
Start checking out consignment shops, too. Lotsa decent safe kids stuff there.
Not a parent, but my mum trots out these two pieces of furniture as life-savers to anyone planning kids, so I will too.
-
In the bathroom, built at right-angles to the bath, up againt the wall, we have a kind of chest at waist height, like a toy box, but taller. Mum used it with the flip-top lid down as a changing table and seat, open, it doubled as a laundry basket and storage box.
-
My sister and I are only 14 months apart, so instead of toddler beds they bought those bunk beds that come apart, they had detachable side rails too.
In their time those beds were pushed together to make a double, separated to make twins, built up as normal bunks, and as L-shaped bunks. My youngest sister is 16 and still sleeps on the top bunk, with the bottom for sleep-overs, and a desk under the L.
I have a fifteen month old daughter.
The items I have found most useful are:
a car seat
a pack n play
a boppy pillow (essential for breastfeeding)
a nursing bra
a diaper bag
a breastpump
items that were not useful:
changing table (I change daughter anywhere)
a crib (she doesn’t like this very much)
nice outfits (she gets dirty all the time)
item I wish I’d had:
co-sleeper next to my bed
If you’re breastfeeding I cannot recommend co-sleeping enough. It’s easy once you get the hang of it. If you get a little side car next to the bed you don’t have have to get up in the middle of the night.
Try buying baby clothes at garage sales. They’re cheaper that way. Babies outgrow everything very quickly.
Good luck!
As far as furniture is concerned, we have bought two sets of Ragazzi for our kids. It is very nice, very useful kid/baby furniture. It will last and hold up much better than some of the cheaper stuff out there.
I asked a similar question on Ask MetaFilter before my 3 week old came along, although mine was more oriented toward the non-furniture stuff.
Anyway, after three weeks, I find that:
–we don’t have a changing table (no room for one) but we seem to do just fine. We’ve thought about buying a pad and parking it on a little-used desk in our bedroom, but haven’t got around to it yet.
–Haven’t used the crib at all yet. We have a bassinette in our bedroom, and baby occasionally sleeps with us, usually when he wants to be awake and we need to sleep. He’ll be content if he’s near us, and falls asleep after a while.
–He’s turning out to be quite the fussy spitter-upper. Painful gas, apparently. Thank God he doesn’t scream for hours like some babies, but he needs lots of comforting, back-patting, and such to keep him from screaming. It’s been helped a lot byDr. Brown’s bottles and sitting in a bouncy chair. We have a “Kick ‘n’ Play” bouncer which he seems to like. I really wanted the “Soothing Massage”, but my husband came home with a different one. But sitting upright makes him feel better, as well as the vibrations. All but the very cheapest bouncers come with a vibration feature now-- it’s supposed to simulate riding in the car. Also, if your baby spits up much, forget burpy cloths. We use full size towels, and even so, he still gets spit-up on the carpet. And he’s not even a projectile spitter, like some babies.
Congrats! Boy, do I have a lot to say!
ValleyGirl (12 weeks) has far far more clothes than are really necessary. Family and friends just keep showering her in the items, because it’s oh-so-cute to buy for little girls. I heartily recommend holding off on buying any baby clothes yourself until you see what you get.
Actually, I recommend holding off on buying many things until you figure out what’s right for you and your baby. We used our bassinet for maybe a week, despite great plans to the contrary. Thank goodness I got it at a yard sale.
Which reminds me – find a good consignment shop and you’ll be happy. Also, don’t be shy about accepting hand-me-downs – I got my boppy, swing, crib, vibrating chair, baby backpack, and more from friends, and saved a lot of money. (As others have said – check for recalls. The swing had a recall; the piece that fixed the problem was free from the company’s website.)
I love the Graco infant car seat – we have two bases, one for my car and one for MrValley’s car. I just snap her out of it, carry it into the store and plop it in the carriage. I didn’t get the stroller combo because of where we live. Carefully consider your terrain and when you’d be using it. Instead of an infant stroller, we’re using a jogging stroller with lockable swivel wheel (great on unpaved roads and for jogging), and a Baby Bjorn Active carrier. The Active carrier is pricey, but I just used it to walk all over DC with ValleyGirl, and my back was not sore at all. I also use it when walking the dog.
Another vote for the Avent Isis hand pump. Easy to use, clean, and assemble; also, remarkably effective. And though I don’t use formula, I am using a somewhat nicely designed diaper bag that I got at the hospital free from a formula company, oddly enough. The diaper bag I paid for is sitting in the closet.
Finally, if people ask you what the baby needs, I recommend saying books! I could live without so many of the baby accessories that companies try to convince you that you need, but I can’t imagine living without my shelves of wonderful children’s books.
Semi-hijack: Can I tell you what a relief it is to hear about other people co-sleeping? I’ve been doing it lately, and getting quite a bit of flak. I was actually thinking of starting a confession thread to see if anyone else shares my dark secret…
I’ll give the con side to co-sleeping.
We slept with my daughter in the room for a little while the first few nights. Babies breathe loud. Then they stop. Then they start again. This will keep you awake as you startle yourself into going to give the baby CPR conviced she is dying. Its normal (both the overactive ears and the apnea).
My son slept with us for a long time. He’d actually sleep with my husband all night but at 2:00am I’d move to the couch, tired of getting kicked constantly. When we moved him out, my husband started getting something more like a regular sex life again. But for a long time it worked really well, we’d net out the most possible sleep. The problem really was child number two - four of us were NOT fitting in that bed.
Some small children like to sleep horizonataly across the bed - get dibs on the head early if you are going to use this method, being awaken at 2 am by getting kicked in the face lacks a certain charm.
I could never breastfeed lying down anyway. We needed to be sitting up - in a chair with arms, with privacy. In a certain hold. And start on the same side every times. My daughter was - and still is - quite stubborn about such things.
My daughter never enjoyed sleeping with us (until around 3 1/2 - she is four now and will take it at any opportunity). My son LOVES to sleep with us, but kicks and hogs the bed.
(I think when co-sleeping works, its great. It just isn’t going to work for all families. Keep an open mind about stuff like co-sleeping. Sometimes parents who LOVE the idea discover it doesn’t work in practice for them, and parents who would have never thought they were the type, discover that it is the best thing imaginable because it nets the most sleep for everyone.)
Borrow as much stuff as you can. You really don’t use it for that long and there is enough to spend money on (if you are near the Twin Cities, I have an oak Jenny Lind crib in my basement).
This site is really a good resource: http://www.babycenter.com/
They also have a email you can sign up for. Put in the baby’s date of birth, and the email tracks the age and what should be happening. Myself and all my friends that have signed up all thought it was pretty good stuff.
of course, they also send promo material and try to sell stuff, but i thought it was a pretty good trade off.
Thanks so much. I know this reply is late, but I couldn’t get a SDMB paid account until now. What brand is it? We are totally in driving distance of MA. We’d even give you some $$ for it. 