Our little boy is 11 days old already. We’ve had a couple sleepless nights so far, but mostly it’s been a wonderful week and a half. I was noticing today that I can already tell that we’re not going to need some of the baby stuff that we have – and we don’t even have that much stuff, since we didn’t have a baby shower (the ladies I work with at the library threw a book shower for me, and everyone brought a favorite book, which I thought was a wonderful idea, but we didn’t have a typical shower with a gift registry and piles of baby stuff all around). We did get lots of hand me downs from friends and family who have already had babies, and we bought a few things from Craigslist (a sling, a pack n play, some cloth diapers…)
So far, we’re using the sling every day – it’s been a lifesaver. He loves to go for walks in the sling, and we can wear him around the house in it, with our hands free to do whatever else we need to do. We both love how it lets us keep him very close by and still be able to get other stuff done. It’s a sling that lets the baby ride sideways against the parent’s abdomen, and it’s perfect for now, although I think we’ll need to move on to an upright carrier by the end of the summer.
We’re using lots of baby blankets – we use them to swaddle him; we put them down on the floor for “tummy time” and we put them under him at night since he sleeps in our bed, they keep the occasional spit up off the sheets.
I’m loving the one piece outfits that are like a bag with arms and an opening at the bottom. They come down over his feet to keep them warm, and they make diaper changing a breezy – just scooch them up around his waist and change the diaper. No snaps, no threading noodly little legs into leg holes… Even though we haven’t bought any clothes at all, we have a whole dresser full right now. Lots of things that we got as gifts, and lots of hand me downs from friends. I can already tell that he’s going to outgrow a lot of them before he ever wears them. I’m tending to stick with the clothes that are simple, easy to wash, and easy to put on and take off. And he wears the same clothes for 24 hours – although that could change if he starts spitting up (for now, he’s only spit up three times in 11 days!).
We haven’t used the stroller yet, since we’ve carried him in the sling everywhere he’s gone so far. We used a baby swing a couple times, but he got tired of it and so did we. It uses batteries, which is a drag, and it takes up a lot of space. I think that will be getting donated soon. We haven’t used the changing table at all, since we’ve been changing his diaper on our bed. I’m glad we didn’t buy an actual changing table – we got a contoured pad that sits on top of his dresser instead. And for now, our cat has taken up residence there.  In fact, we haven’t used his room at all so far, although I’m sure that will change over the next few months.
I knew that we didn’t need most of the baby stuff that’s out there – but now that he’s here, we’re needing even less of it than I had imagined. All he really wants to do is nurse, get his diaper changed, snuggle with one of us, sleep, and be carried around. We don’t really need anything other than ourselves and some diapers to get all of that done.
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