5AF Parenting Thread

[NTP66]

What were some of the more unnecessary things you bought for your babies, the first time around?

Oh man, if you had asked this years ago, I'd probably have been able to provide an entire list. I honestly can't recall what we bought that we wound up not using.

[NTP66]

I will say that the #1 thing we bought was Dreft spray. That **** got out everything - and we still use it to this day.

[meow]

That’s a tough call. Some things that were unnecessary for baby 1 were necessary for baby 2 and vice versa.

An expensive baby carrier that goes on your chest. The inexpensive ones that are built like an infinity scarf are way better anyway and this product isn’t has important for your first baby. It’s way more important for your second.

A dedicated chaining table. Buy a nice changing mat instead. Then you can change a diaper anywhere

Swings are a gamble. My son hated it. Daughter loved hers

Bottle warming stations are a scam. Microwave it without a nipple and slightly shake it.

[NTP66]

I agree with meow.

[meow]

I’ll ask mrs meow this too. I’m sure she can rattle off more. Although. The more I think about it, her wheelhouse is more “no one tells you to buy this, but it is amazing” type. So kind of the oppose of @obhave ’s question

[count2infinity]

My wife is very schedule based and had some serious pregnancy/postpartum brain (lack of sleep n’at). We got a pocket nanny. It’s just a glorified timer, but you change a diaper, press a button. It resets the timer so you know exactly the last time they were changed. You feed them, press a different button and it resets the timer so you know the last time they were fed. Some you can set alarms too. They’re like $30 and we’re definitely worth it for us until we got into a groove and could really understand what the kid wanted.

I’ve seen people say they’re pointless, but it worked well for us.

Also, cloth diapers are great. For spit up rags and cleaning, not to use as actual diapers.

[count2infinity]

I can’t recall anything that we had that was pointless. We got way more baby spoons and dishes than we could use, but beyond that, we nearly used everything.

[NTP66]

Flipping the script, when it comes time to bottle feed, buy every single brand bottle nipple available to you and test them to see which one they accept. Our daughter refused every brand we bought until whatever the last one was, and that was the day before she started daycare. We were worried that we'd have to keep her home longer to figure out a solution.

[NTP66]

The one she settled on was from NUK, I know that much.

[meow]

I’ll ask mrs meow this too. I’m sure she can rattle off more. Although. The more I think about it, her wheelhouse is more “no one tells you to buy this, but it is amazing” type. So kind of the oppose of @obhave ’s question

She says: wipes warmer. baby bathing chair. clothes that are pulled over their head - get everything with snaps. baby shoes. small bottles - only buy the 8 oz bottles and not the small 4 oz ones.

[count2infinity]

Ohh… cloud island pjs. They zip from top down so when you need to change the kid, you unzip up. Makes it way easier.

[Kane]

Concur with meow on the 4oz bottles and the wipes warmer. Not worth the time. Also, as nice as they are, some of the 4 Moms stuff is hit or miss. Our family went in on a Mom-a-roo for the small 'om and he was never really enamored by it. We had better luck with a Graco model.

[shafnutz05]

Good stuff from meow. Agree with all of it.

You can microwave bottles. As long as you are not an idiot and understand how convection works. Just give it a little shake and you're golden.

[Kane]

Yeah, those bottle warmers are a pain in the ass.

[Nuge]

Agreed on the 4 oz bottles. Go straight to 8. My son didn’t really mind colder formula. I’d fill up a 32 oz yeti-style cup with hot water and put the bottle in that for a minute or two just to knock the chill off and then gave it to him.

[robbiestoupe]

We didn't even use the microwave, just got a pot, filled it with hot water, and let the bottle sit in there for a minute or two.

Another life saver was a swaddling blanket for night/nap time. Wrap your baby in it like a burrito. It prevents them from whacking themselves in the face involuntarily as they sleep, which they do quite often.

[robbiestoupe]

I'm dragging my feet signing my boys up for sports in the fall. We take the summers off for sports, and it's well deserved. Running them around to various practices and games is very stressful with two working parents. Even though my wife only works 3 days a week, practices always end up on one of those days.

I really enjoy being an assistant coach when I can, or just watching them play. As long as they are having fun, it's great. But wow does it make for long days when they are in different age groups meaning different days of the week for practice. I really don't know how my parents did it with me and my brothers.

My neighbor (daughter’s best friend’s parents) has this issue. Her one girl plays in an older league, and the other plays in my daughter’s. First girl has practices T and Th, other is M and W. So the parents have to split duties.

Just signed the oldest up for soccer. Middle child wants to play ice hockey. We'll see how the schedules work out, but this may be a disaster.

[NTP66]

Yeah, swaddling blankets worked really well. We ended up finding PJs that were basically swaddlers with velco, I think.

[King Colby]

Agreed. Forget about warmers. We do the yeti mug thing for 10 mins to get the bottle closer to room temp. And wipes aren't that cold.

My 3 kids absolutely loved the swing. We used a changing table for the first 2 but are using a mat for the 3rd (per meow above) and it's so much easier.

Sleep sacks... get em! We use the swaddling type for when they're newborns... allows you to put both arms in, one arm in, or both arms out.

I'd say just don't get too many "things" to put them in when they're not being held. We found that a playmat, swing, boppy is plenty

[King Colby]

And Ha! We certainly fell for the 4 ounce bottle charade. My 2-week old is probably a week away from needing the 8-ouncers. My middle child I swear to God was eating >4 oz at like 5 days old lol

[Kane]

Swaddling was something I could never master. Damn nurses made it look so easy, but whenever I'd try he would just kick his way out in minute or two. Swaddlers helped immensely.

[meow]

We hated the velcro ones. That teeeeearing sound.

The key is to put your knee on the kid’s chest to get it as tight as possible

[Beveridge]

Buy a bum paste spreader. Easily the best thing we bought. Also, swaddle blankets are a big wish we did it for the first because it made it super easy with the second.

And until they are sleeping through the night, don't even think about getting sleepers with snaps. Ones that zip from feet up and if you double it with a swaddle that opens at the bottom, you won't be disappointed. Makes those night time changes simple and you don't have to undo and redo the swaddle.

[meow]

See. Bum paste spreader is a waste IMO. Just your finger and smear the excess into the new diaper.

[Beveridge]

See. Bum paste spreader is a waste IMO. Just your finger and smear the excess into the new diaper.

The best item we put on the register.