I love how all the baby stuff you are enticed into buying is labeled "gear," as if you're preparing for a treacherous backpacking voyage into some mountainous third-world country. We have just been through several weeks of gearing up for our own arduous journey: through the hallowed halls of the Babies 'R' Us in suburban Dublin, CA, with nothing but our trusty bar-code gun standing between us and the pitfalls of potentially annoying, inconvenient or even unsafe baby gear.
This might sound melodramatic, but we did put a lot of time and energy into researching our baby gear choices before we registered. As is typical with us, we consulted Consumer Reports as well as ePinions and other online resources, but the best recommendations we got were from some of our parent friends. My high school friend Melissa prepared this in-depth guide to all the different decisions she and her husband had made for their little girl Reilly, and how each product worked out for her. Other friends shared their own experiences. At the end of collecting this information, I felt like the murky and overwhelming world of baby products was pretty easily sorted out for us.
Here's a little of what we learned so far — hopefully it will come in handy for parents-to-be who come after us:
Strollers. A lot of our friends told us to run, run away from the big travel systems (regular-sized strollers plus infant car seats that fit down inside of them). They are huge, expensive and evidently very difficult to lift and fold. Friends recommended an infant car seat that fits onto a lightweight and inexpensive "stroller frame" (a.k.a., a car seat carrier), so you can lift the baby out of the car without waking her up and cart her around, then very easily fold up the stroller frame when you get back to the car.
There was also the question of the next tier of stroller, the stroller she will eventually grow into when she begins to sit up. We were ready to just do a mid-sized stroller with plastic wheels, but some wisdom from Alisa's friend Heather changed our minds: if you plan to walk outdoors with the stroller at all, don't get plastic tires. Heather, after twins and another child, has lost many, many plastic wheels. Plus we need something that's easy to maneuver, since I'll be walking the dog along with the stroller. So, we actually chose a jogger stroller with inflatable tires. It is SUCH a smooth ride, so easy to steer, and actually has cup holders and an iPod dock (I'm not even kidding, though that of course is not the selling point -- it's just a sweet stroller). Plus it's only 23 lbs., so I can easily lift and fold it.
Car Seats. We only chose an infant car seat for now; the convertible one we'll buy later. Melissa pointed out that it's important to find a seat that works in cars that don't have a base installed (such as if the grandparents wanted to put the seat in their car using the belt), and that some of the more expensive models, like the Peg Perego, don't have that feature. Consumer Reports also chose lesser-priced seats over the Peg Perego and others for safety and reliability. We chose the trusty old Graco and a Graco stroller frame to go with it.
Carriers. Our dog walker, Lori, strongly advised getting the real thing: the Baby Bjorn. Supposedly it has better back support than the knockoffs. Per a suggestion by Alisa, we ended up registering for the Baby Bjorn Air Carrier, which adds some extra ventilation.
Also, when they're very small the babies really can't hold their heads up enough to go in the Bjorn, so Melissa said if she had to do it again she'd get a sling. I love these and see them everywhere around here (this being almost-Berkeley), so I registered for one of those too.
Swings and Bouncers. My friends Melissa and Amber both advised us to invest in the swing that moves in both directions — the Fisher Price Baby Papasan Cradle Swing seems to be the product of choice. We almost opted for the companion vibrating seat, but Amber highly recommended a real bouncer, the bouncier the better, and Andrew had so much fun playing with them in the store that we had to register for one of those.
The Pack 'n' Play. There seems to be a little anxiety on everybody's part over the baby sleeping situation. "You're not going to make her sleep in the nursery downstairs right away are you?" many people have asked worriedly. Our downstairs is a little dank now but I promise we're fixing it up to be lovely and bright; meantime, we needed to worry about temporary sleeping arrangements. Portable crib? Bassinet? Co-sleeper? Luckily, Melissa put a bug in my ear that the Pack 'n' Play can double as a bassinet. Sure enough, these things have built-in bassinets as well as changing tables — point being, you can use them anywhere in the house or travel with them and you'll always have a place for the baby to sleep. Beautiful. We skipped over all that other stuff and just went for the Pack 'n' Play. (Also, notice how nobody calls them playpens anymore? Now they're "play yards.")
High Chairs. We haven't gone here yet, because we frankly didn't want to have to store stuff we were not going to use right away, but I've had a few people tell me to skip the high chair and just buy a travel booster seat, because it's much easier and doesn't take up as much room.
That's kind of it for the big stuff. Other random tidbits of advice we've received: avoid buying clothes in the very small sizes because the baby will grow out of them right away. Just buy as many side-snap clothes for the first few weeks as possible, because you can't use onesies until the belly button heals and pulling shirts over their heads is a little traumatic at first. Don't spend too much money on a diaper bag when a backpack will do. Get the firmest mattress, the top of the line breast pump, and the sleep positioner with an incline because babies like to be on an incline. My head feels full with these tidbits of wisdom, and I know it is only a minute part of everything I'm about to learn as a new mother. I'm just thankful for the wiser women who have gone before me and are willing to share what they've learned from their own adventures.
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