Serving Tray

If you are breastfeeding you will most likely be spending a large amount of time on the couch. Once you have your Boppy and your baby on your lap it is hard to get up and move around so you will want to have everything you may need within reach. I keep a tray on the couch all day and it holds the TV remotes, my phones, a book, tissues, magazines and a bottle of water. My daughter also seems to time her meals at the same time I am eating mine so my husband often serves me my dinner on this tray. If you are planning on breastfeeding I recommend that you buy a tray to use during the first few months.

Kiddopotamus Portable Changing Kit

The Kiddopotamus travel changing pad can turn any messenger bag into a diaper bag. What I love is the pockets that hold diapers, wipes and ointments as it keeps everything within reach. Most public bathroom changing tables do not have room for your baby and your bag and the last thing you want to do is bend down to dig into your diaper bag to find the wipes while your baby is flailing around on the table.

If you haven't been able to find a "diaper bag" that suits your style then just add this to a bag you like. Besides, most diaper bags are overly bulky causing moms to over pack as if they won't be returning for weeks.

Safety 1st Steady Grip Nail Clippers

There are tons of reviews available for all of the big baby gear like swings and car seats but when it comes to small items I found it hard to find recommendations. My posts for small items will be short as there isn't too much to say about them but they are still important choices to make for your baby.

The first time you cut your baby's nails it is traumatic. I started out by just using a baby emery board as recommended by the nurse, but my daughter's nails grew too fast to keep up. I switched to baby nail scissors but those things were hard to master. I was scared of using the nail clippers for fear of cutting her fingers off but the shape of the Safety 1st nail clippers allowed me to be very precise in my clipping. They are easy to grip and you can cut the nails down lower without grabbing any skin. Now I only have to cut her nails once a week.

Safety 1st Diaper Pail

If you have it in your mind that you need the Diaper Genie please reconsider. When we were registering for baby gear I was convinced that we needed a Diaper Genie. I had no idea why, I guess their brand marketing had brainwashed me into thinking this was the only diaper pail that would work.

Fortunately I procrastinated too long and never got the Diaper Genie. The Safety 1st Diaper Pail that my mother gave me as a hand-me-down works great. The Safety 1st version costs about $15 less than the Diaper Genie and it uses standard kitchen size trash bags, instead of the $6 refills. We are using scented kitchen bags and we have no problems with diaper smell in the house.

Baby Gear Pros: Less expensive, can get bag refills at any grocery store.

Baby Gear Cons: None

Nursing Gliders

It seems like in every episode of the Baby Story on TLC, the parents have one of those huge gliding nursing chairs in their nursery. I feel that those chairs are over hyped and it is one baby gear item that you can definitely live without.

In the first few days at home I was convinced that our lack of a "nursing chair" was why my daughter was having trouble latching on. My husband and I came very close to going to Babies R' Us and buying one but I am very glad we didn't. After one week of nursing problems my daughter became a pro. I no longer needed 5 pillows to prop her up or a foot stool for positioning. I can now walk around and nurse her or nurse her lying down in bed. If we had bought one of those ugly chairs it would be collecting dust in the nursery as who wants to be sequestered to the nursery every time their child needs to eat? Nursing on the couch in the living room is a much better option.

Playskool Made for Me MP3 Player

A couple of weeks ago my daughter decided that she needed to be held all of the time. The minute I would try to put her down, whether she was awake or sound asleep, she would wake up and start screaming. This made it impossible for me to get even the most basic tasks done, like eating or peeing. I was so desperate one day to accomplish something that I just put her down and began vacuuming. She immediately calmed down and after 10 minutes went to sleep. The next day I tried the same trick except this time I didn't need to clean my house so I just let the vacuum run while I went through my to do list.

Not wanting to destroy my vacuum or waste electricity I searched for a white noise machine on the internet. That is when I discovered the Playskool Made for Me MP3 Player. It is a portable MP3 player for ages 0+ that can be loaded with your own music or sounds. I ordered one from Toys R' Us and we use it every time we put our daughter down to sleep. The pre-loaded music is OK but the key for us was downloading a 30 minute loop of a rainstorm that makes our daughter fall asleep and stay asleep longer.

Baby Gear Pros: Easy to use, lightweight and portable, great volume control, has settings that allow the music to play for 15 or 30 minutes and then the device will turn off.

Baby Gear Cons: Disappointing that the device is not rechargeable. It requires 4 AAA batteries that only last about 2 hours. We bought rechargeable batteries but it is still a hassle to unscrew the battery compartment and charge the batteries every day.

The device has colored lights that blink when music is playing. You cannot shut off the lights and this can be distracting for a baby trying to fall asleep. We have to cover ours with a cloth.

Playlist software only compatible with PCs.

Update: Our player broke recently. The MP3 unit seems to be the culprit as whenever we put it into the player it stops working but it will cycle through the prerecorded tunes without the unit attached. I reached out to Hasbro and discovered that they are no longer making this product. My guess is there were quality control issues given how quickly this broke for us with only light use.