Wednesday, January 23, 2013

baby essentials :: part I

its funny how after you become a mama, people come to you asking for parenting advice. while its flattering, i often find myself dumbstruck at what to say. i mean, im barely surviving here! what do i know about how to sleep-train or what a newborn baby needs? but i've had a few emails asking me what are the essential baby thing one needs to prepare. its really nothing much compared to a list that a girlfriend emailed to me!! but i'll split it into two parts...


truth is, the day we brought blake home from the hospital, we had near to nothing baby at home. in fact, our girlfriends called on our way out from the hospital and i'd told them that i needed to pop over to pick up a few baby things. like diapers. and some diaper cream. and wet wipes. that basic!! 

but since we've survived and passed our 3 month mark, here are a few basic things we can't live without. most of these things are of course personal preferences and due to our space limitations. there are a tonne of cute and adorable things we now own and love but they're not essentials. 

:: clothes :: 


you'll get a TONNE of these when your child is born. its like the number one favorite gift! no one can resist a itsy bitsy outfit for the little one. and will wanna see your little bub in it. so hold your horses when clothes shopping. also they grow out of them so fast. there are some darling outfits blakie got ONE wear out of. my heart hurts just thinking of them cuteness. 

onesies :: we bought one set of gender neutral newborn onesie which looked ridiculously small but blake wore it to death cos he came out all twiggy and tiny! also, my wise girlfriend gifted me sets of onesies in "allender-approved" colors for each age category from carter's, mothercare & petit bateau. so we're stocked up till he is fifteen! :)

baby mittens :: we missed this boat completely but needed them! blake was super active from birth and got a few too many scratches. but he couldn't fit regular size mitts so we needed super teeny ones. bring these to the hospital because they don't provide you with any in singapore. 

 socks :: one thing. babies don't need shoes. i didn't believe it. but its true! but we were gifted a whole bunch of super cute socks from etiquette that go with everything!

:: sleep ::


crib :: i wished i could get over the look of a pack & play because in my opinion, that's the most sensible sleeping option. but in my head, i had an image of a peaceful sleeping baby in a white wooden crib, under his handmade mobile, soothing nursery music in his own room. but right now, we had a huge crib wedged in our bedroom, mobile in the guestroom, white noise playing in the background, tripping the two dumb adults tiptoeing and speaking in hushed tones. we picked up our crib from ikea. its inexpensive, convertible & we plan to turn it into a sofa bed or reading nook when he's older.

bassinet :: mum was very keen on a bassinet. but we simply didn't get to it. and by the time woke up from the newborn baby haze, he was too big for it! but something like this would be super duper cute!

crib bedding & sheets :: i had in mind a certain look (see above) so i had mum make all of his sheets for him. one thing to note, if you have a gassy baby with frequent reflex issues, be prepared to be washing your sheets pretty often. we have four in frequent rotation and protect our mattress with absorbent pads. 

rocker :: we got a eames-inspired white rocking chair from lushlush. we have it next to the window and hold him rocking when he is particularly fussy. 

sound machine :: in the first few weeks, he needed it for solid naps and bedtime. we were gifted a sleep sheep but because he napped in different spots around the house, we also downloaded a free white noise app and had it in all our devices. he likes the beach waves crashing one.

pacifier :: we want him to be addicted to a passy. so we've tried a few brands. but have failed so far. he's duly noted our preference but now has learnt to pretend to hold his passy but stick his little fingers into his mouth sneakily. if this is a sign of how he's gonna be as a teenage boy, im very worried.

baby monitor :: daniel is a bit of a tech-geek so he did his research. it was also one of the first baby things we bought! our baby monitor from withings had night vision, temp, humidity and even has a two-way microphone and we sync it with all our apple devices. when we do remember to use it, he can spy on his child from the office. its compact and i love that we can watch him even when we're away from home. i guess we'd use it more often when blake moves into his own room (soon).

swaddles :: we still use the classic cloth swaddle because we have one squirm baby at hand. daniel is a champ swaddler but occasionally we can hear blake's little grunt in triumph and when we peek over the crib, he is fist pumping but asleep. we were also gifted aden + anais sleep sack & ergo cocoon and hoping that he will graduate to them soon!


:: play ::

play gym :: our girlfriend insisted that blake needed one of these. and true enough he did! we have the fisherprice play gym. it plays music, it has dangley animals and it screams "we have a baby in the house!!" but we enjoy a few moments of peace when he plays on that mat and we now can sing the tunes that plays incessantly from the gym! i can't decide if its cool or not.

lounger / playmat :: poor little blake doesn't have any of these. he lounges on quilts, guest futons and props himself up on pillows or our sofa! this is our attempt to keep the baby clutter at bay.

lovies :: we were gifted a few blankies but blake has taken to slobbering over his jellycat bunny & bunny soother. we're on a mission to acquire a few more of them so we can have them in rotation.

:: feeding :: 

breast pump :: this is one item i can't live without. because of my oversupply & frequent mastitis, i was recommended to use a manual pump and have been using one from medela. for ease of shopping, we also use their bottles, storage bags, teats & accessories. we pick most of our nursing gear from mums and babes out of convenience. blake took to the bottle really easily so we didn't have to try other brands. if we even go to formula milk, i'll definitely go for the playtex drop-ins. i saw a girlfriend using it and am jealous that she doesn't have to sterilize bottles.

drying rack :: we recently acquired the munckin deluxe drying rack from isetan cos there are so many baby things taking over our adult rack. i love the color (white) and how it stores our weird little syringes and straws upright.  

:: changing ::


changing pad :: so, we know we might get into trouble for this. but we needed to work with our space and we did away with a changing table. instead, we use our dining table. also instead of a classic changing pad, we got a super soft white bathmat and have been using that. we have a pee pad that we use when changing him, to catch any diaper mess but if accidents happen, we wash the entire bathmat. easypeasy. when its mealtime, we roll up the bathmat, sanitize it and reclaim our dining table.doesn't work for all, but it works for us.

diaper & wipes :: we are still using the same huggies wipes as we received from the hospital. when we are almost at the end of the pack, we save it and stick it into his go-bag. so we don't need to buy travel size packs. as for diapers, we experimented a bit and our favorite brand is merries (less leakage and suuper soft!) we also like their clear wetness indicators. we use a bigger size for bedtime because our dirty boy sleeps through the night in his diaper so it helps to keep the leakage in.

hankies :: we bought two dozen of plain white hankies for yucky boy things. we find them in all corners of our home! you can find them in local baby stores 12 for $6!

creams :: we have a huge tub of sudocream and put a little into a makeup jar for our go-bag.

that's all for today!! the bubsie is stirring from his nap!
to be continued!!

xx

14 comments:

  1. Babies come with a long list of things, don't they! I can't wait till the boys are older and I can give away all their bulky baby things and reclaim some order in my house ;)

    PS. I have always thought a sound machine was ridiculous and unnecessary. A friend gave Ry one (in the shape of a frog) - he was so dependent on it to sleep in the first few months we used it till the batteries went flat!

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    1. i know what you mean!! it'll be nice to not have bright toys spoiling the clean aesthetics of a modern home huh?

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  2. this entry is soooooo timely. (:
    im nowhere near getting married, let alone having a babyy.
    but this is gonna be helpful hehe!

    -graffitidust

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    1. hehe im glad! i sat here typing and typing and getting worried that im scaring people off babies!! :)

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  3. Thanks Zhing! Very helpful list for a mom to be like me. I am 5.5 months and haven't bought ANYTHING! :(

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    1. hahahah don't worry! :) i had a baby in my arms and we had hardly anything too! good luck with your pregnancy! hope you're enjoying it!!

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  4. Wow... very helpful babe, will come in handy when i do become a mum :)

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  5. wow. that's a huge list! I'm too overwhelmed. lol

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    1. hahaha!! i know! don't cave in to peer pressure!!!! :) :) :)

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  6. this is great! helps me cut down on research a whole lot! I'm kinda overwhelmed at the moment cos I haven't got the necessities sorted out as well, guilty. :P

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    1. don't be!! :) at the start they really sleep tonnes! so unless you're really strict with confinement rules, there is still time for you (or the husband) to duck out and pick up things that you really need!! :)

      hugs! give your belly a cuddle from blakie!

      xx

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  7. Just re-reading this and bookmarking a couple of items to add to the list. And I thought we were nearly there... lol!

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    1. heh! you're never done!! we started with nothing and our home is packed to the brim now!

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