New Mama's Favorite Things

With no apologies to Oprah, whose favorite things are frivolous and merely feed the consumer spending machine, here are a few items that my husband and I have found to be really helpful in taking care of a new baby:

• The Happiest Baby on the Block by Harvey Karp, M.D. Dr. Karp's philosophy is that the first three months of a baby's life are really like the fourth trimester, and thus to be soothed babies need to have their womb environment re-created for them as much as possible. This involves what he calls the "five S's" -- swaddling, side-lying, sucking, shh sounds, and swinging. This stuff really works.
• The Miracle Blanket. Henry, as we've learned, likes to have his hands up by his face, and when his arms are pinned to his side he will fight to get them free. None of our blankets worked well for swaddling him...until we got this one. He looks pretty cute all wrapped up like a baby burrito.
• Fuzzi Bunz diapers. We've been doing the cloth diapering thing, and it's been going well, thank you very much. However, Henry does not like to feel the least bit wet, so sometimes it seemed as though we were changing him every five minutes. Actually, sometimes we were. And then we discovered Fuzzi Bunz. They're what's called a pocket diaper -- an outer layer of waterproof fabric and an inner layer of moisture-wicking fleece. There's a slit at the back for you to put in whatever kind of absorbent insert you want. Once we started this routine, Henry was able to go the whole night without a diaper change. Blessed, blessed sleep.
• The New Native Baby Carrier. The first time I tried this Henry immediately stopped crying and fell asleep. Totally worth the $40. Of course, he's now too big to comfortably lie in the cradle hold position, but as he gets older I can use the New Native for the hip carry.
• Mother of Eden Stay Dry Breast Pads. Okay, so this one is more for me than for Henry, but until I found these I was leaking everywhere. I don't know about you, but like Henry, I HATE feeling wet. These are comfortable and keep me feeling dry -- and no surprise wet spots while out at the grocery store.
  

And there you have it -- a few things to make life with a wee one a whole lot nicer.

P.S. What does it say about the Oprah empire that this Blogger's spell-checker questions the word "blog" but skips right over "Oprah"?