Baby Gear Add-ons ~ First Months

While a baby really only needs love, there are a few add ons that can be pretty helpful.  As Jaime develops and is trying to master new tricks I add new toys and gear to our collection.  And then there are the items that you realize might just be nice to have or are a necessity at a certain point such as bottles.  Here are a few favorites that we have discovered and added to our growing collection of baby gear.

Add-ons During the First Months

• Somewhere to sit - we love this infant to toddler rocker and really like that he will be able to use it longer than most bouncy seats.
• A Gym - Jaime loves his play mat gym.  Before he was born I was eyeing the versions with softer colors but it is the bright and primary colored objects that catch his eye.  We swap out the toys so that there is variety.  This has been great for independent play - he gets laser focused on swatting, grabbing, kicking and talking to the toys.
• Baby Mirror - The sassy crib and floor mirror has been well received.  When we use it at tummy time Jaime giggles and smiles and keeps his head up for a very long stretch.  It is nice to have add some variety for tummy time so this has been a nice addition to rotate in every so often.  It can also buy you some time if a nap is cut short and you need just a couple more minutes to finish your lunch by attaching to the crib, mama's gotta eat too!
• Bottles - The Dr Brown glass bottles have worked for us.  It seems every baby has their preference for bottles so I am glad that I didn't stock up on any one kind before we knew which he would take to. 
• Wipe warmer - I thought these were kind of a waste pre-baby.  But when he was needing a lot of late night diaper changes the squawking basically stopped when I got one.  Definitely a nice to have but was a baby appreciated addition.  I use this one with flannel wipes but you can get ones for disposable wipes too.
• Stroller - I was planning on waiting until he was ready for riding along on runs before getting a stroller but this summer was so unbelievably hot that using the babycarrier wasn't always practical.  Our infant carseat doesn't have a stroller component but the jeep universal cruiser carseat stroller has worked out great as an alternative to babywearing on hot days.
• Resources - Wonder Weeks and Kelly Mom have both been great resources.  The first weeks I found myself on Kelly Mom a lot!  And Wonder Weeks has been helpful to read as he approaches various stages- having it on the kindle made it easy to read during a sudden needy phase.

Diapers.com is awesome for add ons as they have free shipping for orders of $50 and have a nice variety.  Sure, sometimes getting out is nice but sometimes just clicking around and selecting a few new toys along with basic necessities (such as baby soap, nursing pads, etc) and having arrive a day or two later is pretty great so you can do something fun for your getting-out-of-the-house time.