Baby Registry: Our Favorite Baby Items

Thursday, January 3, 2013

Well I finally have sat down to compose what I knew what would be a lengthy post. So many of my friends and blog readers have been asking what our favorite baby products are. I know so many expectant mommas right now, so this one is for you! I will try and make it non specific to twins, since most of ya'll will be having just one babe and if you have any questions about anything or anything twin related, just ask. I have broken things down by category and DISCLAIMER: Every mom has an opinion on what is best for their baby, I am by no means telling you that these are the only way to go, they just happen to be our favorites :)

1.Diapering

We have an arm and hammer diaper pale...


This or the diaper genie is nice, but not as MUST have. We only put poopy diapers in it bc you have to buy refill bags to hold the diapers, so we just throw pee pee ones in the trash
. Honestly the refills aren't that expensive and we don't go through many bags at all. In fact, we haven't had to buy any replacements yet, and our babies are almost 5 months old. 

Wipe warmer... I thought this would be perfect for those first weeks of middle of the night diaper changes. They would be nice and toasty so you wouldn't have to wake the babies up with an icy cold wipe, so we bought one but I wouldn't recommend. We never use because it doesn't work well.
 The wipes are luke warm by the time you take them out of the warmer and put on your baby's bottum. 

As far as diapers go...

Pampers swaddlers are our FAVORITE diaper. These are what they used at the hospital. I am sure every baby's shape is different but we have tried huggies as well and we have found that swaddlers are the best. We have the fewest blow outs with these. Our babies now wear size 2 and probably wore newborn for about 5 weeks.

As far as ointments go...
While this is potent, it works AMAZINGLY. We have only had to use once for diaper rash and once for an irritated neck. Both times the skin was healed in less than 24 hours.

Wipes? Any will do, some are better than others, right now we are using Costco wipes.


2. Baby Gear

As far as carriers go, we haven't really used them lots, but we have Moby wraps and they are nice!

If you have one, just get on youtube and look up how to wrap them, it's much easier than trying to read the instruction book.

Stroller... we obviously have double, but all my singleton mom friends love the city mini select.

We have these two...


Above is the snap N go double.


Above is the city mini jogger that we have. 
Car seats. No recommendation here, just make sure its compatible with your stroller.
 We have these...
Hadley's

Jack Henry's.



Pack n play. We travel lots, so this is a must for us. We keep one set up in our living room too, for diaper changes. We just have this basic one...

Bumbo Seats...

We have them and they are great! It is a good way for babies to sit up and try new things. Are they a MUST have? No.

Bouncer. We have this one...


It is the Fisher-Price Rainforest Jumperoo bouncer. And we are setting it up TOMORROW because our babies are just now old enough to use it, we will let you know how it goes.

We have enjoyed having bouncy seats and swings, but honestly I think have one or the other would be fine. Jack Henry loved the swing, and we usually just put Hadley girl in a bouncy seat. Here are the ones we had... 


They are both Fisher-Price Snug-a-bunnies. We loved both.


3. Feeding

I exclusively breastfeed so all my knowledge on feeding is breastfeeding related. 

Feeding pillows. If you are going to breast feed you will definitely need one! I use the My Brest Friend pillow for twins, and I couldn't live with out it! They make one for singletons too and I also have boppy pillow for each baby which are great for tummy time, breast feeding and propping your baby up. I love both the brestfriend and the boppy!
Sorry for the cheesy photo, and yes this is how I feed the twins. 
I will do a whole separate post on that :)

And the boppy...
I am a big fan of pumping so you can allow others to feed or while you are gone, your baby still can get breast milk. I rent a hospital grade Medela pump... the symphony. I also have to get up once in the night to pump, so make sure you have a pump! 

Bottles... I use Medela. They match my pump so it just made the most sense and we like them. 
These bottles come in sets of three. I have 3 sets of 5 oz bottles for babies 0-3 months and I have one pack of 8 oz bottles (for babies 4-12 months) I need more of these!

I also use the medela pump and save storage bags. They are nice to freeze and you can pump INTO them...



You will also need the Medela pumping kit that has the tubing for your pump...

But don't but this because my lactation consultant gave me this kit. Most likely they will give you one in the hospital and they are like 50 bucks at babies R us. 

Burp cloths... I use these cloth diapers from babies R us as burp cloths...

 They are so cheap and absorbant and you'll go through so many
!

Bottle brushes... I use babies R us brand. I is hard to clean bottles with out them.


I didn't get a drying rack, dishwasher rack or bottle warmer because I usually just breastfeed, and don't bottle feed enough to need all of that.  To warm bottles, I just microwave water and set the bottle in it for a couple of minutes or just run the bottle under hot water.


Bibs... Right now I just use any soft bib since they aren't eating anything beside milk. And I have some plastic ones for when they will eat solds. I havent gotten spoons or cups or anything for after breast feeding so i cant recommend anything like that.


Pacifiers... We use soothies...
and mostly, our favorites... Wubanubs



They are basically soothies with a stuffed animal attatched. They were recommended by my bestie Savannah. They are nice because you can find them easily with the big animal attached and they stay in babies mouth while laying down because of the weight of the animal. Babies love them and they are just too cute! I wish I had introduced the paci sooner but lactation consultants said not to use any type of artificial nipple until a month old because of potential nipple confusion. But honestly, my babies were great nursers and I dont think they would have been confused and now they don't take a paci really well because I think I waited to long, so for our next baby, I will introduce sooner. Becuase its nice for a baby to take a paci for those times that you are out in a public place and need baby to stay quiet :)

More Baby Gear...

Play mat- We have gotten TONS of use out of ours (from Pottery Barn kids)

So nice to use from a very early age. It's nice to have but not a NECESSITY. 


BLANKETS
 
Okay these are important. I have actually written a whole post on swaddling. It will be published as soon as I can figure out how to load a video on to it. So look our for this post :) Our babies sleep 9p-9a and I really think swaddling has a LOT to do with it. So heres what youll need..
.
Summer brand 'swaddle me" swaddlers for when they are really little. They velcro into a swaddle...


Next... As soon as they fit into them (I think around 8 weeks or so we started)  I MOSTY HIGHLY RECOMMEND....
THE MIRACLE BLANKET.
It is WONDERFUL. It is literally called the miracle blanket and you should youtube it to see how it works. I have a video of us swaddling our babies in it (thats the one I can't figure out how to post) It's kind of like a baby straight jacket but our babies love it and I think it really contributes to their good sleep habits.


 
Aidan and Anias swaddler blankets. Another FAVORITE of mine. These are kind of expenseive but SO CUTE and really multi purpose. We swaddled them when they were newborns, we lay them out for them to have tummy time all the time, you can use it to cover your self while nursing, you can use them to cover the car seat so people cant see the baby while you are out and they are still really little and you can use as a burp cloth. They are made of Muslin so they are light and breathable and they become softer and softer they more you wash them :) They are really soft and cute and come in tons of cute patterns. To put it simply, they are just my favorite...



A white noise machine. We LOVE this because it helps them sleep with out waking up to noise you might make. It drowns our background noise and mimics the womb so they SLEEP. We have this one...
It's the marpac dohm. This was the third I bought, I returned the two prior to it because they were not loud enough, but to be honest this really could be louder. My Sister in law has the BEST one that is no longer sold... she bought it at Radio Shack 11 years ago... hers is SUPER nice and loud.


Water proof mattress pad (any brand)
 and a couple sets of sheets
...  We use Pottery Barn Kids Sheets. They are high quality and just TOO darn cute...

We have the polka dot and elephants! 

We also used bumper pads, there is some controversy about safety but honestly, I think they are completely safe and SO beautiful. 

BATH

We like...
Burts Bee's Baby Shampoo and lotion. The baby Shampoo and wash come in both a gel and a creamy type gel... creamy is better. 

 PUJ tub... 
Again, when I can figure out video, I have already made a whole entry on this tub...

Its awesome. It doesn't take up a bunch of space and is so easy to use. More on this later.


Changing table cushion with pads. We like these...
Ours is cream colored.

We also like "sheet savers" to use over the pad so if they have a mess... you can easily change it.


SAFETY

We havent baby proofed the house yet because our babes aren't mobile yet.

Monitor. Okay, so this is a SPLURGE but we have the summer video monitor and LOVE it...
We love it for obvious reasons! Wouldn't you love to check on your baby with out going in their room and disturbing them? We have one camera for each babe, and it switches cameras every 8 seconds so we can check on both.

 
HEALTH

They will give you a bulb syringe at the hospital so dont buy one.


Little baby nail clippers for their tiny paper like nails
.

This is a good one... the temporal thermometer...

You just swipe it on baby's forehead, it takes like 2 secs and BOOM, you have their temp. You can do it while they sleep.

OTHER

Plenty of books. Our favorites are any about God or Jesus. Babies love to be read to and we think it is important to plant biblical truth in them from the start.

GOWNS
I love these for when babies are super teeny and you have those late night diaper changes. Makes changing them quick and easy, plus SO adorable...

And two things our babies love...


Sophie the giraffe, she is from France, so fancy, and you can scoop her up at PB kids. 

Our babies also love these little pottery barn thumbies...

Hadley has the pink bunny and Jack Henry has the tan elephant. Great to put in the car seat with them. They can put them up to their faces and snuggle them. So soft. 

I hope this helps! We were incredibly blessed with three very generous showers that helped us become "equipped" for twins. We are so THANKFUL for all our friends and family who showered us with love, prayers and gifts. 
Happy Registering! 

6 comments:

  1. So helpful Kathleen!! Thank you... I know that post had to be pretty labor intensive :)

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  2. Soooo, I just have to add my two cents. (for the second time. the first time i spent forever pecking it out on my iphone and then the comment vanished. grr) Not a huge fan of the Moby wrap. I got this when Gabe was born and I never felt fully supported in it- it hurts my back after like 15 mins and its so huge and cumbersome to take out in public and try to wrap. I love love love the Ergo carrier! I really like the twin snap n go stroller! It's so easy to fold up and unfold and the storage basket is plenty big and the cup holders are great! I need a double stroller for when the twins won't tolerate sitting in their carseats for a long period of time though so I'll be asking you in a while how you like your's. Gabe used the Rainforest jumparoo and loved it! I'm so excited for when the twins can jump jump jump around in it. It's precious and fun for babes. Totally gonna try the wubanubs. Sounds nice. We use Avent pacifiers but they do take the hospital gumdrop pacifiers when they are in the car and love them so I think the wubanubs would be nice for in the house so they stay in better. I totally agree with what you said about nipple confusion. I don't believe in that. I say pacifiers ALL THE WAY!! Can't wait to try the Miracle Blanket when they outgrow their Swaddleme. I also really love the Aidan and Anias blankets. They are amazing!!! Definitely a splurge but worth it! Oh, and Sophie the Giraffe is so posh. Duh, she is from France. I'll have to get another one of those so both of the twins can have one. I love this post. You are amazing :) Oh, and Hadley and JH keep getting cuter and cuter. I can't wait to snuggle them soon!!! Can you believe how old they are?????? TIME GOES BY SO FAST.

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  3. This post is great! I am 15 weeks pregnant with twins, so I was very interested to hear your take on baby gear. Any twin-specific baby gear you have found you wouldn't want to live without? Also, does your insurance company cover the rental cost for the breast pump? Just curious, if you don't mind sharing. I really, really want to breastfeed, but admit that I am a bit intimidated at the thought of nursing two! I really enjoy your blog, keep up the good work!

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    Replies
    1. Lisa! I am so sorry I have not written you back until now, 2 months later! You must be like 23 weeks now? There really isn't anything specifically geared toward twins except the brestfriend pillow that I can't lie with out! Our insurance did not cover the pump but yours might! I know nursing two can be quite overwhelming but you can do it! You really can, if you want to, stick it through the first month and you will get it down. I'm still nursing them at over 6 months.

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  4. I think you posted the complete items that a baby should have. This is really helpful. baby products philippines

    ReplyDelete
  5. Nice post.
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    ReplyDelete

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