Baby "must-haves"

I've really looking forward to setting up the new baby room.  That being said, I've been getting on Pinterest frequently for nursery ideas for the boy, and find that I keep finding these blogs and lists for new moms.    Now, I am all about encouraging one another, helping each other out, giving practical advice and suggestions for fun activities and such... in which cases, Pinterest can be awesome.  However, I also keep finding these lists of advice or things in which just seem so extreme.  Today I found (and have seen multiple other times) "Baby Must Have's!"   Aye aye aye... these people should get paid by the companies, they make it seem like your life as a mother will be terrible without these certain items... or that you will not possibly be able to take care of your baby without this one certain gadget.

One of the lists I saw that was extremely specific on things you "needed"

So to you new moms, or soon to be moms, DO NOT BELIEVE THIS!  Although I still consider myself a new mom, now that I've been down this road once before, and worked with kids for quite some time, I decided that sharing that you don't need all the things they say you need is worth sharing.   My sister did the same for me, and I appreciated her input when registering the first time.  Yes, some things are helpful, some things we loved, and some things were completely useless.  Some things you need because of safety (a proper car seat, for example...) but in most other cases, your kid will survive.

Some things that I think are a waste?
- A color changing hot water test duck.  Use your elbow to test the water...simple enough I think.
- A cart protective cover.  My kid will touch everything she can, then I will find her fingers in her mouth.  What she can, she will put directly in her mouth.  People come to my house, we go out, we go to the playground, we explore.  But oh no!  I don't know who all touched the shopping cart! Better cover that crap up!  Yeah, I guess I just don't get this one, and am not that opposed to germs.   If you are a germ a phobe... yeah, go ahead and get the cover I guess.

It's just so big and bulky of a thing to carry around with everything else, also, most stores provide disinfectant wipes now.

-baby bath robe.   We got one of these, and it was super cute, I loved it.  Totally useless.   It was too short to cover her legs, it took us too long to get her arms in it and it on her for it to be worth it. The hooded towels are much easier...or just a towel works great.
-A video monitor.   Now we would 'like' one of these, because we've had conversations about how funny it would be to watch her... but necessary?  No... we have the cheapest monitor there is, when she is crying, we can hear her... I guess I don't understand needing to see her?  Maybe there's a safety thing here I don't quite understand.
-Wipe Warmer.  I guess if you keep your house cold in the winter this could be nice.  Otherwise, I don't really see the use.

The list could go on... I've looked and giggled through these lists from every possible cushion you could put your baby down on (the couch worked nicely for us) to bath tubs (the sink also worked well) to feeding spoons (it's really not THAT hard to dip the spoon back in the container before putting it back in your baby's mouth).  Keep in mind I don't actually have most of these items, so maybe if I did my opinion would change.. but probably not.

I will say, there have been several things that have been helpful with having a baby.  And that might just have been for just me, maybe not for everyone, certainly not 'must-haves', but things I have found to be extremely thankful for.

-Wubanub.  IF your child uses a Soothie pacifier, this really did help keep it in at night.  Also, I found it is much easier to keep track of overall...she could hold it, stayed in longer, it was bigger...just nice to have all around.

-An electric swing.  Now, some babies hate the swing, so if that's the case, this would not be a 'must-have' for you.  If however, you find the only way you get sound sleep is with your child asleep in their swing...then I recommend a electric swing.  It was so nice never having to worry about batteries or making an emergency run for them.  Also, her swing had this nice 'rain' white noise to it...it was glorious. That being said, I could have a white noise machine to this list.  Anyway, she slept in it for the first 3 months of her life before she started sleeping in her crib.

This is the swing we received, we're pretty big fans.

-Swaddle Me wrap.  Yes, we could just swaddle her in blankets, so definitely not a "must-have" but these are just simpler, and we loved them.
-The Ninja.  Since I made all her baby food this contraption was FANTASTIC!  It was sooo fast and worked really well.  We also use it for our smoothies...yummy.  :)
Some other things that were nice? Bumbo, Boppy, gas drops, stroller, a fresh smelling candle, rash ointment... there's quite a few others, but like I keep saying 'must-have' title is a bit of a stretch.

My point is, there are very few actual "must-haves".. they need the basics: love, food, a place to sleep, a car seat, diapers, bottles, blankets and such.  If you can provide those things, you're set... you'll figure out what makes things easier on the way, and what you can go without.  There are still things that I think "oh that'd be nice to have", yet I'm unwilling to spend the money on them, so if you can think of any of those things before the baby, register it and let others get them for you.  In the end, all the things that just help make things with a baby 'easier' are really wonderful, even if you can survive without it.

If you don't believe me on how many lists there are, just google, or better yet, on pinterest, search "baby must have's"...it's crazy!  Also... what have you found to be completely useless baby items, or what do you consider to be a "must-have"?  I'm interested in knowing what you think, or maybe you COMPLETELY disagree with the things I've listed, I'd love to hear about it either way!

A Pregnant Woman's Dream Come True.

A few months ago, my sister told me about this research company that did diaper studies.  You just asked to sign up, when they needed you, they called you, supplied your diapers for the month, took them when they were dirty, AND paid you for it.  I was pretty excited about the prospect of this opportunity until I found out I didn't qualify because I work in the child care field.   Lame.

I did however end up on their 'list' of other research trial opportunities.  I receive random emails where I fill out a survey, if my answers seem to be what they're looking for, they will call me up, and I can either go in for whatever they are testing, or they can send me samples to try out, and give them my feedback.  Recently, I received a questionnaire all about candy, and they must have liked however I responded because I got a call a few days later.  After a couple more calls it was set up for me to come in to do 'taste sampling'.   For my time, they were going to pay me.

Reese's Peanut Butter cup sampling AND money?! YES!

I show up today, get set up, go to the room, and find out we are sampling Reese's Peanut Butter Cups!  I cannot even begin to tell you how extremely excited I am at this point...you mean to tell me, I get to eat Reese's Peanut Butter samples and you're going to pay me?!  Really??  Excellent!  Oh...but it only gets better.  I eat my first peanut butter cup, and answer some questions.  How was it?  Amazing.  Did I like it?  Loved it.  How was the chocolate?  How did it look?  How was the peanut butter? How was the peanut butter/chocolate ratio and so forth.... my answers?  excellent. excellent.  excellent...excellent!  MORE peanut butter cups!   I ate my peanut butter cup, and the 2nd sample is brought out, another peanut butter cup, I answer pretty much the same. "Chocolate and peanut butter is soooo gooood!  yay! more peanut butter cups!"  Then I ask how many samples are we having today?  7.   SEVEN!   7 WHOLE peanut butter cups!  That's 3 and a half candy bars!  Are you kidding me?!   I start realizing, I do not in fact, need to be eating 3 and a half candy bars, so my next sample I take just one bite and start answering the same questions... but wait... hmm... how was that peanut butter?  I better try another bite of this sample to make sure I know for sure.  Next sample... one bite... yum.... but wait... am I sure how I really feel about the chocolate on that one?  Better take another bite...  You can see where this is going.... I didn't eat 7 whole peanut butter cups... but it definitely got out of control pretty quick.

Honestly, I couldn't tell much different between them... they did in fact taste different, and I remember one was not as good, another was really good, but they were all peanut butter and chocolate and I felt like they really couldn't do much to screw that up.  My taste results were probably not what they were hoping for in that my scale went from "excellent" to "more excellent!"

What could be better than sitting around and eating Reese's Peanut Butter cup samples while pregnant?  Going back for ANOTHER 3 days of Reese's sampling!  AND... remembering I'm getting PAID for this!  I kept giggling to myself as I ate my samples thinking "Is this really happening? Am I eating candy AND getting paid?!  This can't be real!"  As I left the research facility I called a couple friends just to tell them my good fortune, I honestly couldn't believe this was happening to me.

Only the best dessert...ever. 

That should be enough right?  Eating the best candy and getting paid for it... but it does in fact get better.  Tonight was our staff Christmas dinner... where we ate at my favorite restaurant, Paulo and Bills.  After eating candy all afternoon and getting a delicious dinner that 'should' have been enough... no need for dessert right?  Wrong.   You forget that Paulo and Bills makes my personal favorite dessert on Earth... the filo brownie!  Man, that'd be too much sugar in a day... I do NOT care... it's SOOO goood!   So yes, I ordered it... and thus ended the best day of my pregnant life.

Clearly this day has left an impact... as I am writing an entire blog about my day of eating.  You're welcome.  We'll just see how I'm doing here in a few days when my 'study' is over and I am crashing from sugar withdrawl...

Siblings

I've been thinking lately how Vi is going to be a big sister to a little brother.   How that will work... what their relationship might be like... if they'll love each other as much as I hope they will...things like that.  While thinking about what their relationship might look like I've been thinking about my own relationship my my siblings through the years.

Nichelle and I played together a lot, but she was rather girly, and I 'was' a rather rambunctious tomboy. I'd play lots of fun imagination things with her, we'd dress up, pretend to take care of babies and things like that.  I'd pull her Barbies heads off and chop off their hair... you know...the typical girl stuff.  When that got boring, it was also nice to have Brian to play with.

 Brian and I could build mud forts in the back yard under the swing set, or built awesome Lego castles, or race tracks for our race cars. We all fought violently and swore we hated each other at multiple times in our lives...but the second someone outside of our family messed with one of us... there was hell to pay.  Especially with two cousins across the street... you didn't want to mess with a Horner kid, only we could pick on each other.          

Overall, I kind of had the best of both worlds with a sister and a brother not too far apart in age.  I have a completely different relationship with them both, and I consider them both invaluable.  Nichelle and I talk a ton...naturally as sisters do, about anything and everything.

  Brian and I talk...not as much, but get each others humor, we're kind of mean to each other, but because we think we're being funny.  While Nichelle came to visit us a couple times while we lived in Colorado and Brian didn't... Brian took off work, both to help us pack up and move TO Colorado, and again to move BACK from Colorado.  He didn't get to go enjoy the mountains, he worked to help us out...that's who he is.

I was going through the pictures on my computer and find all these 'cute' pictures of Nichelle and I... and only weird/silly ones of Brian and I... kind of sums us up pretty well I would say.   Either way, I think I have the best siblings in the world, I am incredibly thankful for them, and look forward to watching my own kids form special relationships with their siblings!