Baby Stuff

My wife is due in October and the shower is a month away. So we went to Baby's R Us tonight to register for things. The plan was to register for the things that I would care most about... the big stuff.

1. That store sucks. The sales people were of no help, basically telling us "pick a color". I don't understand why there are so many choices for everything. You would think a company would be more profitable selling just the best at the middle price than having a whole line of nearly identical products.

2. Whats with car seats? The bases should be universal.

3. How did we all live through childhood without the 2,000,000 safety products.

/rant

asoduk wrote: I don't understand why there are so many choices for everything. You would think a company would be more profitable selling just the best at the middle price than having a whole line of nearly identical products.

Why do you hate America?

asoduk wrote: How did we all live through childhood without the 2,000,000 safety products.

Think of the children!

1. bases are all universal. try to get a brand like graco or first step. they tend to share bases.

i have a 2 year old and was in the same situation not that long ago.

Don't tell me this.... My wife is due in January and I have managed to avoid Babies R' Us thus far. I have no earthly idea what we are going to do for all the safety gear. Recaro makes a mean baby seat though. Expensive but race car like.Expensive but race car like.

Consignment stores...learn to love them!

LopRacer wrote: Don't tell me this.... My wife is due in January and I have managed to avoid Babies R' Us thus far. I have no earthly idea what we are going to do for all the safety gear. Recaro makes a mean baby seat though. Expensive but race car like.Expensive but race car like.

I've had 3 of them. One for each dd, and one space when the wife's dd got hit and we got a new one.

Don't buy or register for any of that crap. We didn't buy clothes for the first ~18 months: people gave us bags of hand-me-downs. Get a carseat and a few bases on Craigslist. They have expiration dates on them now. Sure, people often freak out at the thought of a used car seat but if you're one of them, then consider just buying the bases second hand so all your cars have one. Bases are definitely NOT universal, but there are a few brands that share.

The new super expensive gadgets don't work any better than the basic inexpensive stuff. MIL got one of those fancy ass $270 baby swings that has like 6 different oscillation patterns. It was large and kind of noisy and the built in white noise maker sounded like crap. Baby didn't like it. We told her to get her money back.

Right now a swing just like this one is saving our sanity with our 5 week old daughter. She sleeps so much in it I worry she might become dependent on it! http://www.target.com/p/comfort-harmony-portable-swing/-/A-14580482?ref=tgt_adv_XSG10001&AFID=google_pla_df&LNM=14580482&CPNG=Baby&kpid=14580482&LID=9pgs&ci_src=17588969&ci_sku=14580482&kpid=14580482&gclid=CM7Y08u39cYCFQoKaQodLH8Jiw

eff babies is us, register at target. same stuff, less selection, way cheaper.

i registered for a 6 pack of guinness and a bag of gummy bears and my aunt actually brought them to the baby shower for me.

Stuff you definitely need: bottle warmer. Swing. Car seats w base system (we like Chicco). Cheap Stroller. Baby carrier (I like infant into, wife does Moby wrap). Pack and play. Baby gym.

Stuff you don't: wipes warmer. Expensive crib. Expensive stroller. Changing table. Sleep.

Bumbo chair. Mary loved hers.

Also, pick a car seat/base NOW. Put in car where it's going to go. Get used to it. I didn't until i went to bring Mary home from hospital, and discovered that I ccould have my kid and be able to drive, or have my wife and kid and couldn't operate the pedals. Wound up selling the car.

I have a 6 week old. There is no avoiding that crap. My kid already has more toys, clothes, and nicer furniture than I had until I was 18. Luckily a lot was hand me down stuff, but holy crap. I opened a 529 the day we got his SSN and will just tell people to take 90% of the money they were going to spend on plastic E36 M3 for me to trip over and donate to his college fun instead.

Yes, embrace consignment shops if your wife will let you. Most baby E36 M3 is only used for 6 months before they grow out of it anyway.

Google for people with the same car as you. Luckily my beater (98 SL2) fits car seats with ease. All the paranoia about baby seats beingOMG NO MORE SPACE!!! THE SEAT IN FRONT IS USELESS!! YOU NEED A CANYANERO AT MINIMUM! turned out to be nothing.

My rant:

It amazes me how much people will compromise the safety of a car to be able to see the baby, or for comfort. Put a nice big mirror on the headrest as well as a huge clunky window-shade on that window and visibility out that corner/behind the car goes to nothing. You don't need to be looking at the baby when you are driving. You should be looking at the road. Get off my lawn.

The only thing I found that place good for was the nursery furniture. We found the floor model of the last years style for a song and talked them down even more. Other than that...

Kroger brand diapers, wipes, everything are every bit as good as the name brands and half the cost. Clothing is a crap shoot because you never know what the right size will be and it will change overnight. We spent epic dollars at the consignment shop on clothing since for the first 18-30 months the clothes have no wear on them before they age out. In fact we bought a ton of stuff at the consignment shop for pennies on the dollar that still had the original tags attached. Same for shoes. Here's a hint: if they aren't actually walking yet, the shoe is purely decorations so no need for $100 baby air jordaches or whatever.

Two gadgets that I can advocate though are: the garbage can/twist thing for dirty diapers and the Medella breast pump. Totally worth the money. Esp the pump - dress the child in your old tee-shirts if you have to in order to afford the pump. At least that's what my wife says. I wouldn't know.

I always looked at it like this: cavemen managed to successfully raise their babies to the next generation. It's really hard to screw it up. Just enjoy the ride, don't stress out, and things will work themselves out.

Bottle warmer: coffee mug with hot water. Stick bottle in hot water while you change diaper before feeding. Job done.

I refuse to warm bottles. When my wife is in class I warm the frozen breast milk pouches until they thaw, that's it. Fridge temperature is fine.

I took advice from a friend: If someone gives you a bottle warmer or wipe warmer... throw that thing directly in the trash. If you are out in public, traveling, etc. you won't have either of those things with you and your child will be quite upset when he/she receives a bottle or wipes not warmed to their expectations.

My wife and mother in law have the cold bottles covered, haha. Daughter doesn't care about cold wipes, she is at her calmest during diaper changes for some reason.

Re: breastpumps. Your insurance might cover one for you. My wife got a Medella pump for free.

We're in a very fortunate situation with A LOT of hand me downs. TONS of clothes and non-safety stuff. Chicco or Recaro are the brands we are between for seats. Its looking like Chicco for infant, and Recaro for convertible. I know that Prince William chose Britax. I know to too much.

Re pump: insurance gives a credit. We liked the Phillips mainly due to our like for other Phillips stuff and the bottles look easier to clean.

Regarding the consignment stuff: We're not opposed to it at all. No sense in paying retail.

So from those that have done this before: I know most of the seats are designed for the anchor points in modern cars. What do you do when you have a car without those fancy attachment points?

Bonus points for seats currently available that fit in a 944 (for slightly bigger kids)!

asoduk wrote: We're in a very fortunate situation with A LOT of hand me downs. TONS of clothes and non-safety stuff. Chicco or Recaro are the brands we are between for seats. Its looking like Chicco for infant, and Recaro for convertible. I know that Prince William chose Britax. I know to too much. Re pump: insurance gives a credit. We liked the Phillips mainly due to our like for other Phillips stuff and the bottles look easier to clean. Regarding the consignment stuff: We're not opposed to it at all. No sense in paying retail. So from those that have done this before: I know most of the seats are designed for the anchor points in modern cars. What do you do when you have a car without those fancy attachment points? Bonus points for seats currently available that fit in a 944 (for slightly bigger kids)!

I had a graco snugride 30 and later a recaro pro....something in the back of a cooper s. Nice thing about hatches with short overhangs, you can just put baby in through the trunk. Works like a charm and makes people in the parking lot freak, which is good for a laugh. As far as no latchez- most modern car seats are designed to work just fine with shoulder belts. As a matter of fact, above a certain weight, its recommended that you use the belt and not the built in latches. One good thing about babies r us, theyll let you install any seat they have on display in your car to test. We did it for like 4 hours one day.

Bottle warmer- we had one. My kid was so damned hungry though, he'd have gnawed on the boob milk frozen if I let him. YMMV.

LopRacer wrote: Don't tell me this.... My wife is due in January and I have managed to avoid Babies R' Us thus far. I have no earthly idea what we are going to do for all the safety gear. Recaro makes a mean baby seat though. Expensive but race car like.Expensive but race car like.

The Recaro baby seats are pretty heavy but very good, especially for side impact protection. They also hold up very well over time, so you might be able to find used ones on Craigslist. I actually gave away a couple of them last year that we didn't need anymore.

Recaro ProRide at our house was the first one we got. We have had several others since but the Recaro is hands down the nicest child seat I have seen.

A lot of it is just junk. Get what you know you will need and worry about all the extra "accessories" later if you find you need them.

Babies R Us = Walmart with nothing but kids crap. My wife even hates going there.

And I WISH I would have thought to register for a sixer and some gummibears. I know some of my buddies would have bought that, and it would have been hilarious.

SIMPSON makes a race ready baby seat with a 5 point harness. Just saying.

also if you are going to be walking around a lot with the baby they make strollers that the car seat clips into, then when they get older it just has a regular seat. The seat also can fold flat for easy diaper changes and has the bottom basket for supplies. my daughter is 3.5 and we still use it for trips we do a lot of walking on.

those small cheap strollers are ok for short trips but being 6'4" i am bending over to push it and the small wheels get stuck on everything. I love using the big one, just more ergonomic, but even folded down it does take up quite a bit of room

I see a lot of comments about getting used car seats.

Keep this in mind. THEY DO EXPIRE, just like helmets.

Appleseed wrote: SIMPSON sells a baby seat made by someone else with a 5 point harness, so you think you're buying a race seat. Just saying.

FTFY, unless things have changed in recent years.

You are now entering one of the greatest consumer rip-off zones ever devised. You will spend hundreds, if not thousands of dollars on crap you don't need because the first baby is the best target demographic ever created. Any time you balk your own family will do the closer better than any sales rep.

When you have your second... you will get by with 1/10th of the E36 M3 because you know better. But you cannot avoid the pit on the first one here in the US even though the Koreans can pop them out in a rice paddy and still finish out the day before taking them home to a dirt floored shack where they flouish just fine without $79 plastic airplane mobiles that play Mary Had a Little Lamb until you lose your berkeleying marbles.

There is nothing I can do to help you except say that I managed to fit two toddlers into the back of a '91 911 without car seats because the little 2+2 seats fit kids perfectly and they lived to tell the tale. If they hadn't I was in a real pickle for defying the tribal customs for sure. I put them in the back of a 2 door E36 M3 in car seats we got at the showers too. So... you don't need to sell your cool car - but you probably will.

Car seats are an epic scam. ABS plastic expires but the seatbelt holding it in the car never does. LOL. Right. I have a 15 year old seat you can have in the rafters of my garage. It's fine. Really. Well... there is probably a lot of metal dust in it now. No one will allow you to do that though. Because it's says right on the material provided by the very people who sell them that it expires. Who better to know when they need to sell another one? Grandparents who didn't even have seatbelts in their cars will go apeE36 M3 on you for attempting to use a 5yr old seat, nevermind a 15 year old one. It must be fresh like milk! For the children. And Capitalism!! Hooray!

I also gave away unused diaper genies and playpen/cages, bags of onesies and go-go buggies because you only use that E36 M3 for a month then never again and everyone you know buys two of everything so half the E36 M3 goes in the attic. Do you know how many little plastic coated spoons you really need? berkeleying ZERO.