Baby Week 18 - Planning purchases for baby #2
August 5, 2008
Those of you who know me know that I’m the “type A personality”, the planner, the person who needs to have a schedule, a backup schedule, and contact numbers for every outing (ok, that may be a bit excessive, but you get my point). For a while now I’ve been thinking about what we might need to purchase in order to be prepared for baby # 2. Since Xander isn’t very big yet, we’ve still got lots and lots of baby stuff, which is a big plus on a tight budget. However, I have paid attention and learned a great deal in my first attempt at motherhood, and I can see some things that might be useful this time around that I didn’t have the opportunity to make use of the first time. For those of you (family/friends) who are interested in the whole list, please check out my masterwish list.
- Bumbo Seat - this is a handy little invention of foamy-type plastic. Before baby is big enough to sit on their own (but after they have head/neck control) this seat is great - you can plop them in it, and then they can see and watch you, but you’ve got two hand free to fold laundry, make dinner, etc. Bumbo seats are also handy for slightly older kids because you can purchase add ons such as trays - then they’re great for things like a little light snack or lunch, etc. I didn’t learn about these cool little seats until after Xander was sitting on his own. Had I known earlier, I would have put it on a wish list for my baby shower.
- Graco Snug Ride Infant Car Seat - With Xander, we received a hand-me-down car seat. I was a little nervous about using it, but we knew the family, knew they had not been in any car accidents with that car seat, and it was still within the 5 year limit, and when I looked up the seat, there had not been any recalls on that particular brand. Since they’re expensive, we used the free one, and it worked out just fine. Unfortunately, it was made in 2001, so now it’s outside of the 5 year limit of “certified” car seats, so I’m in the market for a new one. We’ve been very happy with Xander’s Britax Decathlon seat, so I originally researched infant Britax seats. Unfortunately, Britax is quite a bit more expensive than other brands - especially for something that we’re only going to use for six months or so. From there, I moved onto the Graco site and found a similar seat for $50 less. When baby # 2 is ready for a seat that doesn’t detach from the car (I love the removable ones for infants - especially when they fall asleep!), then we’ll probably buy another Britax, but that’s about a year away from now.
- Mother-to-be Maternity Support - When I was pregnant with Xander, I discovered back pain the likes of which I have never known before. My doctors suggested a support band, but at that point, I was about 7 1/2 months pregnant, and I had a hard time justifying spending $30+ dollars for something I would only use for a moth and a half… This time around though, the back pain is starting early - I’m only 4 months, and I think I’ll buy this sooner rather than later.
- Made by Moms Pumping Band - I breastfed and pumped for the first six months with Xander. He decided then that he was done with breastfeeding, and after I got over being hurt at not being involved in the decision, I was relieved. One of the things I disliked most about pumping (aside from the eerie feeling of being a cow…) was loosing the ability to do anything but sit and hold bottles for 15-30 minutes at a time. It was boring, and uncomfortable and I couldn’t do much to distract myself, or even scratch an itch on my face. This time around, I’d like to have some more freedom to at least flip pages in a book - I think it’ll make the whole process a lot less tedious.
- Quick Clean Breast Pump Wipes - while we are on the subject of breast pumps, I was always struggling with how to quickly clean mine when I was done pumping - I put the parts in the dishwasher pretty much every day, but sometimes not until later in the evening, and I usually had someone else (Xander) distracting me by the time I had finished pumping. This time around, I’ll be pumping more at work than at home, so it’ll be even more important for me to be able to clean my equipment quickly and easily. I’m not sure why these are any better than the wipes we buy for changing diapers, but I’d like to at least try them out - even if I end up using regular wipes, that’s a heck of a lot easier than manually washing everything after every use!
- Pacifier Sanitizer - One of my biggest concerns about having a baby in January is that it’s going to be very challenging to keep our house relatively germ free. Xander was 4 months old when he started at day care, and he had 3 ear infections in his first year. However, in his first 4 months, we managed to keep him relatively healthy - no colds, coughs, ear infections, flu, etc. This time around however, Xander will be in day care, and bringing home germs daily. As he still uses a pacifier occasionally (mostly just to sleep) I can picture him whisking a pacifier out of the baby’s mouth and plopping it into his own. Sure, I could boil that pacifier again, but that takes a while, and then takes time to cool down, etc. I’m hoping that a pacifier sanitizer might help to minimize germ cross contamination, and if we actually find it useful, then perhaps we’ll start taking it places with us for those irritating times when babies drop their pacifiers on the public bathroom floor, etc.
- Wipes Warmer - When I had Xander, I thought this was a nice luxury item, but not something that I needed. I still don’t think it’s absolutely necessary, but I’ve noticed that on cold mornings Xander gets quite irritated with me when I change his morning diaper. The wipes are cold and of course uncomfortable, and he gets pretty squirmy. Since we’re not going to need to buy tons of things for this baby (hopefully!) then maybe we can splurge for a “luxury” item for the two diapered members of the household…
- Peek-a-boo Mobile - Mobiles are expensive. I can’t remember if I had one on my baby registry for Xander, but I didn’t end up with one before he was born. Then he was in a bassinet and by the time my mom and sister gave us a mobile, he was almost too old to appreciate it. He preferred to stand up and try to pull it down… Unfortunately, I broke that mobile a few months ago when cleaning Xander’s room… I think this time around I’d like to buy one ahead of time. I’m also picky about the mobile I choose. Lots of them look great when you’re looking at them, but when you stop to think about what the baby is seeing laying on his or her back, often it’s just the bottoms of those cool things spinning around. I like this mobile because the interesting stuff is facing the baby. It also has some fancy features such as a remote control, a night light feature, and it’ll play up to 15 minutes of music. It requires a significant amount of battery power (3 C batteries for the mobile, and 2 AA for the remote) so it’ll be interesting to see how long the batteries last with regular mobile use.
I’m sure I’ll think of other things that I need/want for the baby as the months go on, but as with every parent, I made plenty of mistakes the first time around, and I plan on learning from those and making all new mistakes this time around 
I think every kid develops their own set of entertaining and interesting quirks. Xander seems to come up with new ones every few weeks. One of his more recent and rather entertaining quirks is his fascination with trees. Sure, most kids probably find trees interesting at various points of development, that’s not out of the ordinary. Xander’s quirky little personality has decided that it is necessary to pet every tree and say “nice tree”. I’d like to be clear - we live in New Hampshire. We do not live in a city. There are plenty of trees in our back yard, there are trees surrounding our parks. There are trees at day care, and pretty much every spot that Xander inhabits has a backdrop of trees. So trees are not a new phenomena in Xander’s life. However, petting each tree, and telling it that it’s a “nice tree” is new.