Baby Non-Essentials

I was pretty strict about the type of items I wanted in our home.  Because we have a small place, I wanted to ensure that we only had the necessary items and that many of those items would either do double duty or do something very well in order for it to even come across our threshold.  Thus, we don't have too many unnecessary items for Grace.

Cozy in her big girl towel

Here is our list of items would could have happily done without or have done without:

Baby Towels-- I didn't register for any baby towels so naturally I received four different kinds. I tried using them when Grace was a newborn but it just didn't work out for us.  Grace is too small and those towels were not absorbent at all.  She quickly graduated to our adult-sized towel.  Ours are much softer and because they are more absorbent, I have a better grip on her when pulling her out of our sink or bathtub.

Baby Bathtub-- We never used one of these because I didn't feel like we'd have the room to do it.  I'm glad we chose not to.  Grace did fine in the sink but because she's so tall, we had to move her to the bathtub.  Now, I just fold a towel in thirds and lay her out on there.  It slightly elevates her above the water and gives her a soft but secure surface for her.  We'll continue to do this until she can sit on her own.  If I had to do it over again, I still wouldn't buy the baby bathtub but I would definitely move her onto our bathtub a lot sooner.

Infant Carseat-- I knew Grace would be a big baby so I opted to find one of the best convertible car seat that works best for newborns all the way to toddler.  Our First Years True Fit Premier fit that bill perfectly.  Without the detachable headrest and with the ability to recline, it had all the safety features of a true infant carseat but without the bar and detachable base.  Some may say starting off with a convertible seat has major disadvantages-- especially when having to remove the baby in the cold and rain.  While those are valid criticisms, I'd like to point to my baby who can be put in and taken out of her seat while fully asleep (not every time but pretty often).  All babies eventually have to move to convertible so they might as well get used to a little jostling early on.

Cloth Nursing Pads-- I really wanted to like these.  I even bought two boxes to get myself started before I had Grace.  Yet, almost every cloth pad I looked at had cotton as the side that was supposed to face inward.  While cotton may breathe, it does not wick away moisture.  Sure enough, when I had a real chance to test these puppies out, they failed miserably.  They stuck to me and when I would peel them off my skin would come along with them more often than I would like to remember.  Even though it's wasteful, I've had to stick to the disposable Lansolin pads.  Thankfully, I only have to use them overnight now.

Nursing Glider-- Some people really love their gliders.  We have an old lazyboy in Grace's room that we use instead.  I've used gliders to nurse Grace at other people's homes or in our church's nursery.  Every time I've used it, Grace has had her legs caught in the wooden slats.  I've had to twist my body around so that her legs face outward instead of to the sides and hope she doesn't bang her head on the other arm (she usually does despite my best efforts).  It would really screw up my back until I realized I should probably just sit on the matching ottoman.  So that's what we do now.  Thankfully, the arms are nice and low on our lazyboy so Grace's legs just rest on the top and with the fully cushioned arms, she is in no danger of getting her legs caught again or her head bumped.

So those are some of the big non-essentials for us!