New Mommy Essentials

I decided to do a post this morning on things that have been "essentials" in the first 5 months of having a baby. Mainly for my own memory, but also because I have several friends about to have babies and it really helped me when my friends told me what worked for them and their babies... so here goes...

Gerber cloth diapers... honestly I just used the plain diapers when he was a little newborn because I went through 10 a day... Hudson spit up so much I felt like I needed a new one every time he ate. Now that he is bigger we just use one or two a day... so I can use the cute ones :)

 Boppy Pillow. Amazing when I was nursing... and then after I was finished it sat in the corner until I figured out I could prop Hudson up on it to do tummy time...

 We used the swaddle me swaddle blanket (with velcro!, amazing so he couldnt break out at night) until about a month ago when Hudson was starting to roll over and I was afraid he would suffocate at night, so now we use the sleep sack... which I love just as much. Especially now that someone sucks his thumb and puts himself back to sleep at night.

 We love our summer brand video monitor. Hudson's nursery is upstairs, and I was/am a little OCD about making sure he is breathing, esp now that he puts himself on his belly to sleep at night and this is SO nice because I can zoom in and pan the room and I don't have to go upstairs in the middle of the night. Love it and well worth the money.

 Ok, I am a HUGE fan of MAM bottles (far left) and pacifiers. I found the bottles at tj maxx and only have 3 but they are Hudson's favorite. I also like the Dr. Brown bottles (far right) but they are a pain to wash but seemed to help with colic when H was littler. I just bought these tommee tippee (front) sippy cups for 4+ months babies to get H ready for a cup and he isn't sure what to think about it yet, but I will keep you posted.

 Love the Bumpo, H is just now really starting to like it because I can put toys on the tray for him to play with.

Gentle Giraffe, this is the car seat one, but we have the crib one too. H sleeps to white noise and this was a life saver with a newborn!

 H's favorite ducky toy. Its on his car seat but frequently makes appearances on his play mat, jumper... etc... he loves to stare at it, so cute.

 Happy lights bear. It sings and lights up, helps us get H to stop crying. Big fan of it.

H's play mat and giraffe. Being winter and all, we put his soft giraffe on the plastic to make it more comfy and warm. I have to wash it all the time b/c of the spit up, so make sure you get one that is machine washable! Ours has held up pretty well, its from dillards.

Froggy jumper. H has really just now started playing in this, and he really likes it. (note its placement by my treadmill, he will sit there and watch me too, its funny!)

I started H on this rice cereal. Then I read reviews and some news articles linking white rice in babies to obesity... so this morning I made my own brown rice cereal.

brown rice with some breast milk and water, boiled, cooked and pureed.

then put into ice cubes to freeze for later... we will see how he likes it. :)

 My to-do list... on a marker board... i love erasing things and i love lists, a must have for sure.

 A sleepy pup, she lays here all day every day, no joke. Sweetest dog in the world.

This isnt a "must have" but its our picture wall and we're pretty proud of it. I am so thankful that my hubby is an awesome photog and that we have all of these great pictures.

My mom just came and picked me and H up to take us to restock our groceries before it gets bad again... and while we were out it started pouring snow again.. So this is snow day number four, spaghetti squash in the oven (found it at bville neighborhood market today for those looking!), baby asleep and hubby just got home early since the roads are getting bad again from round two of the snow. I'm supposed to work tomorrow if the roads are drive-able. We will see.