Things that make my life easier and more items I like.

1. Frozen meals. All I can say is I'm so glad I did this. I managed to freeze several meals for us before the baby was born so all we'd have to do is reheat. It was wonderful to have real meals that first week or two when I wasn't up to cooking.



2. Mylicon gas drops. I'm not really sure they do a whole lot of good, but it seems to help a little.



3. Here's the swing and vibrating chair I like. I also prefer Avent bottles over others. The Dr. Brown bottles I hear are good, but they look too complicated for me!



4. A couple months before I delivered, I was talking with co-worker pregnant with her 1st about cribs. She was considering getting a crib that wasn't outrageously expensive and someone with one baby told her if she went cheap, it'd never last through 2 kids. This mother spent $600 on her crib. Now I'm sure it's a nice crib, but does the baby really care? No. We got our crib from Target and it was Jacob's bed, Clara's bed and is now Isaiah's bed. And it looks just as good as it did 4 1/2 years ago. My advice would be to get cheaper and if you budgeted more for a crib, put the differnce into a savings account for the baby.


We never used wipe warmers and everyone I know who had one said it dried out the wipes and they stopped using it after about a week. I do want to get one of these before I go back to work. We have a 2 story house and i think the night feedings will be easier for Daddy when I'm at work if we have chilled bottles and a warmer upstairs. And the less hassle it is for Daddy, the less likely I'll get 3am call that the baby won't stop screaming. I never used a sterilizer. Boiling water works and is cheaper. And in the middle of the night, when the baby wakes up, I don't (gasp) use wipes if he's only peed. I do during the day, of course. And obviously if he's pooped I do, but I found that it just wakes him up more, and diapers pull all the moisture away from his skin. Anyway, these are just things that have worked for my family.