Sunday, January 19, 2014

Monthly Favorites: Months Five & Six

When it comes to being a new mom, "free time" no longer exists. And if by some amazing miracle you happen to somehow get a couple of minutes to yourself, I doubt researching baby products is on the top of your list. Whenever my son is coming to a new age and needing new products, I heavily rely on my fellow mommy bloggers' recommendations. No need to waste precious 'you time' trying to navigate through the thousands of products out there only to find out they're poor quality or useless. So I decided to do my own monthly favorites posts to help out my fellow mommies!

I will also let you in on any deals or money saving tips with each product!

Monthly Favorites: Months Five & Six


1. Vulli Sophie the Giraffe Teether: Of course the infamous Sophie! This was Myles' Christmas gift from Santa. At the time, he wasn't really ready to use it, but by 5 months he loved it! It was easy to grab onto and a great texture to chew. I think that it is too big for it's age use though. For Myles, it seems a little hard for him to maneuver it around to get it in his mouth. A bit smaller would be more appropriate and a lot more useful. And no my son didn't instantly stop crying when he starting chewing on it (as the story on the box implies), but it is a quality product that, at the very least, helps with the dreaded teething process.

2. BabyGanics Bye Bye Dry Moisturizing Eczema Care Cream: Hands down the best skin cream around. I am a huge fan of BabyGanics. I am never worried about what is in their products and always feel safe using all of them on/around Myles. I used this for excessive dry skin (not eczema) due to chlorine exposure in the swimming pool. Once we started swim lessons with Myles, he began getting dry patches of skin on his stomach. His normal lotion wasn't making it go away, so I picked this up and it worked instantly. A little bit goes a long way with this cream and although Myles didn't have full-blown eczema, I would be willing to bet it works just as well on the more extreme skin conditions. 

3. Summer Infant Sleek and Secure Hand Held Video Monitor: I am very happy with this purchase. A baby monitor is one of the pricier baby items, so I was glad we found one that we liked with the first buy. I knew I wanted a video and sound monitor, but didn't need the most expensive one. I like the Summer Infant brand, so I just did a little research to compare their selection. The one I went with is their mid-grade and works perfect for our needs. You can link up to 4 different cameras to the one monitor and it has a talk back feature that allows you to talk to your baby from the hand held monitor to the camera base. The video and sound quality are good for both day and night. The only thing that could improve this monitor is a longer battery life. Even if it has a full battery when I go to bed, it is dead by morning. I hate when I frantically wake up wondering what time it is and if Myles has been up crying. So I always have to plug it in at night no matter what the battery life is at. All in all though, it is a great monitor for the price. I bought it at Burlington with a 20% off coupon. 
4. Miracle Blanket: Swaddling was a must with Myles from 3-6 months. Because of his excessive middle of the night wake ups, it was crucial for me to have him swaddled. If he wasn't, he would be flailing and squirming all over the place while I tried nursing him back to sleep for the 27th time that night. I guess looking at it that way, swaddling was more of a sanity saver for me rather than Myles :) Anywho, I had quite the Houdini baby when it came to swaddlers. He could get out of them all with minimal effort. We had all the Summer Infant kinds and the Halo Sleepsacks as well. Anytime his little arms got out, he would wake right up, crying for me to get him. He woke up enough for other reasons that I didn't need "breaking out of swaddle" to be on that list as well. I read somewhere about this Miracle Blanket and HAD to give it a try. This thing is the closest to being Houdini proof as possible. It has fabric that goes over the arms and the under the body, so that they can't get their arms out by moving them in and up (how Myles always got his arms out). Then it has the fabric that goes around the body. One side goes across the body once, but the other side wraps all the way around twice. This blanket was a life saver in the swaddling department. I found it used on eBay, but even brand new it would have been worth every penny for me. I highly recommend it!

5. Munchkin Fresh Food Feeder: Since Myles decided that after only a couple weeks of baby foods, he was over it, these feeders were a perfect alternative to purees. I would just cut up some fruit, toss it in, and let him chew away. These also work really well for teething. I would, and still do, put crushed ice in them and Myles will suck/chew on them for some relief.

6. myBaby Soundspa Lullaby Sound Machine and Projector: This is one of the best baby product purchases we have made so far. We have definitely gotten our money's worth out of this sound machine. We have been using it every night for over a year now with no problems. It has all the typical sounds (ocean, rain, heartbeat, lullaby, etc.) and also a really cool projector. Ours came with three different projection image disks: rainforest animals, water animals, and a nighttime scene. I normally don't use the projector because Myles needs it to be completely dark in order for him to fall asleep on his own. He really likes looking at it now though, so sometimes before bed we turn off the lights and let him watch as the animals go by. You can run both the sound and projection together or by themselves. It also has a timer for automatic shut-off at different time increments up to an hour. I let it run all night because Myles is a pretty light sleeper and it helps to drown out any other noises going on in the house while he is trying to sleep. I purchased it because I read that it helped with sleep. (I'm pretty sure 83% of my baby product purchases were to try to get Myles to sleep better!) I started off using the heartbeat sound, thinking it would remind him of hearing my heartbeat in the womb, and thus help him sleep. Well to be honest, I don't think it did much, so I decided to just change it to ocean. He still sleeps with it every night. While I don't think it necessarily helps him sleep better, I do think the white noise is soothing.

7. Pampers Splashers Disposable Swim Pants: Since I use Pampers for our regular diapers, I figured I would just stick with them for our swim diapers. I have been using them for over a year now and have no complaints. They take water in quite well and don't get too big and bulky. I like how they are easy to tear at the sides, so you can 'rip' them off instead of having to pull them down. It's a nice convenience with a wet baby. 
8. diapers.com When Myles was a newborn through about 8 months, I did most of my shopping for him online. During that time, it was very hard for me to get out because I had absolutely no energy and I wasn't comfortable going places with Myles by myself yet. I have always been big on Amazon, so using diapers.com was a no-brainer. Free Shipping on $50+ and you get cash back rewards. It's only 5%, but it's better than nothing. Also they always let you know when they have e-coupons for diapers and they make it so easy to use (just one click)! I always buy the biggest box they have available because the more you buy, the cheaper they are and I know they will get used! They ship same day and sometimes it even comes by the next day and an added bonus: you don't have to go to the store!
When it comes to being a new mom, "free time" no longer exists. And if by some amazing miracle you happen to somehow get a couple of minutes to yourself, I doubt researching baby products is on the top of your list. Whenever my son is coming to a new age and needing new products, I heavily rely on my fellow mommy bloggers' recommendations. No need to waste precious 'you time' trying to navigate through the thousands of products out there only to find out they're poor quality or useless. So I decided to do my own monthly favorites posts to help out my fellow mommies!

I will also let you in on any deals or money saving tips with each product! - See more at: http://www.theeverydaymomma.com/search/label/Monthly%20Favorites#sthash.1AcRe0Nn.dpuf



What are some of your favorite baby/toddler products right now?

When it comes to being a new mom, "free time" no longer exists. And if by some amazing miracle you happen to somehow get a couple of minutes to yourself, I doubt researching baby products is on the top of your list. Whenever my son is coming to a new age and needing new products, I heavily rely on my fellow mommy bloggers' recommendations. No need to waste precious 'you time' trying to navigate through the thousands of products out there only to find out they're poor quality or useless. So I decided to do my own monthly favorites posts to help out my fellow mommies!

I will also let you in on any deals or money saving tips with each product! - See more at: http://www.theeverydaymomma.com/2013/11/monthly-favorites-month-three-four.html#sthash.XIdCmIxW.dpuf
When it comes to being a new mom, "free time" no longer exists. And if by some amazing miracle you happen to somehow get a couple of minutes to yourself, I doubt researching baby products is on the top of your list. Whenever my son is coming to a new age and needing new products, I heavily rely on my fellow mommy bloggers' recommendations. No need to waste precious 'you time' trying to navigate through the thousands of products out there only to find out they're poor quality or useless. So I decided to do my own monthly favorites posts to help out my fellow mommies!

I will also let you in on any deals or money saving tips with each product! - See more at: http://www.theeverydaymomma.com/search/label/Monthly%20Favorites#sthash.1AcRe0Nn.dpuf

12 comments :

  1. April @ 100lbcountdownJanuary 19, 2014 at 7:15 PM

    I'll be hitting all of these milestones soon. These are great to keep on the backburner for then. Thanks for sharing and linking up with Countdown in Style! Don't forget to come back on Friday to see if you were featured!


    ~~April~~
    100lbCountdown.com

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  2. I used pretty much all of these too.. soo good!! Good choice's ;)

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  3. I think they are all pretty popular items, but they really work! I always look at others' recommendations as a basis for picking stuff out myself. Bloggy moms are the best :)

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  4. Glad I could give a little help, that's why I write these posts. These are all really great items. Thanks for stopping by!

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  5. The giraffe looks really cute. No wonder your baby likes it. Other things look cool too and very useful for someone with a small child.
    Visiting here from the This Momma's Meandering Mondays and enjoying your blog!

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  6. These are some good ideas to have. I actually don't think JR wanted to be swaddled at this age if I'm remembering correctly. He got is first tooth at 4 months so by this time we definitely needed something for teething! Thanks for sharing this one with us too!

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  7. I love Sophie!!! She's so awesome and should be a staple in everyone's home ;) ~Jenna

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  8. Totally agree! I wish they had a mini version. I know my son would have loved that too. I think some how my dad's dog ended up with Sophie though :( RIP

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  9. Some of these sound like some really neat products. I think #6 would have been my favorite. They have so many more things out now for the little ones, than they had 10+ years ago. Hope you have a great weekend and thanks so much for linking up with Meandering Mondays!

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  10. Wow four months is early! Myles started teething at 3 months! EVERYTHING had to go in his mouth, but he didn't actually get any teeth until he was 7 months! I'm so glad he is over putting everything in his mouth! Thanks for stopping by :)

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  11. I agree. It seems like with baby products, they are always coming out with new 'must-have' products. But somehow babies have been raised for hundreds of years now without any of this stuff :) They are great luxury items though. I can't imagine what it is going to be like in the next 10 years!

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  12. Noooooo! Bummer. Next birthday gift ;)

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