A Few of My Favorite Things - Baby Edition

Am I the only person that has scenes from The Sound of Music flashing through my mind right now? Specifically the "when the dog bites" line when Maria wraps herself in the curtains and has the  "I should make the children clothes from these ugly drapes" revelation.

Anyways, when I was pregnant with Caroline, I went through all of Riley's hand-me-downs. Sometimes, I had a difficult time remembering what was useful at each stage. So that we don't go through the same problem if we should have a third Brown baby, I'm going to jot down what we found useful during the first two months. I'm pretty sure most people won't be all that interested in this, but I want to have a record for the future.

Since we didn't have any major nursing issues, we used pacifiers from very early on. Both of my girls preferred Avent Free Flow Pacifiers over any others we tried. 

I love the Aden + Anais swaddle blankets. They are a great size, light weight, and adorable. I have used them for swaddling and so much more (they make great nursing covers because they're so big!).

Yep, that's a hair dryer. Before we had kids, a man at our church was telling us that his daughter used one of these to calm her newborn baby. At the time, I smiled politely and on the inside thought, That's odd. When Riley seemed to be having what many call the witching hour, the conversation I'd had popped into my mind. Willing to try just about anything, I grabbed the hair dryer, plugged it in and put it near Riley. It worked! Riley could be in the middle of a full blown melt down and she would be asleep within seconds. It was amazing. 

If you're going to be using this method for any length of time, you probably should try picking up a noise machine like this one or an app for your phone. I use the free Sleep Machine app on my iPhone for when we're out and about. Having your hair dryer plugged in all the time is definitely not the best idea in the world. According to the google "research" I did, it apparently costs $0.21 to run a dryer for an hour... that would definitely add up if you were running it as much as we did when Riley was a baby.

We've definitely found gas drops to be a necessity! Both of our girlies have been quite gassy (rivaling my brother and his friends for sound and smell). These drops definitely seemed to help them in that department. I didn't find Gripe Water to be nearly as effective at anything except stopping hiccups. 

While those are a few of the necessities, these two items are things we've really enjoyed but could definitely survive without. 

I love the monthly onesie stickers I purchased from Little Baby Bumblebee on Etsy. If you're not familiar with them, they're just a translucent sticker you slap on a white onesie. There are the cutest designs for girls and boys (I espeically love the stick on ties with the months written on them) and I think they'd make a fantastic baby gift. 

I also love the Canon 50 mm (1.8) lens. After I got my DSLR, I read review after review on this lens and decided to go for it (I actually paid for it mainly with Amazon gift cards I'd won through Swagbucks). I haven't removed it from my camera since it came in the mail. It's perfect for taking shots of my kids - I love the crispness of whatever is in focus and the blurriness of what's in the background. 

Now that I've thoroughly bored you with a list of items I've loved using for my babies, I will end here. I could probably keep going for two days. I always appreciated reading posts about baby items that were useful (or not)... I'll have to do a post on the items we definitely didn't need sometime. That list could prove to be quite lengthy.