Top 7 baby items.......

So I know alot of people that are having babies right now, and I just wanted to name my top 7 items that I canNOT live without. If you're not having a baby anytime soon, you might want to think about some of these items as baby shower gifts! (Obviously these are my personal opinions, so you can ignore everything if you want) The other great thing is that if you are in any way sewing savvy, you can make alot of these items super cheap!







#7 Breastfeeding Pillow (Boppy or JoAnns)





(This is my pillow, I use it everyday.)



I am breastfeeding Magnolia this time around, compared to Max when I only made it to 6 weeks. I use this pillow 10+ times a day. Makes breastfeeding so much easier! I don't know what I would do without it. The Boppy brand, is pretty pricey at around 30 bucks plus cover.They sell them at Jo Anns for much cheaper, and with a coupon can get one for around 10 dollars! It also comes with a pattern to make a very simple cover for it. I received one with Max and I love it! (Thanks J&A) When I had Magnolia I just made a new cover to make it more girly. Even if you decide to not breastfeed, it is still perfect for bottle feeding little ones.









#6 Nursing Cover (uddercovers.com or handmade)

(This is the cover that I have, so cute!)

Again, I LOVE my nursing cover. It covers everything, and it makes breastfeeding while you are not at home so much easier! (and decent) I use mine at least 4 times a week, for when someone comes over, or at church, or out and about. I love udder covers because they are cheap and so cute, they have lots of fun prints. You can use the code onefree at checkout and all you have to pay is shipping (9.95) If you have all of the items at home to make one then your cost would be free you can find a tutorial here. But buy the time that you buy all of the stuff it would probably be cheaper to buy one.

#5 Especially for Baby Under the Sea Turtle Sponge (Babies R Us)

This is Derrick's top favorite. It costs only 5.99 at Babies R Us, and is so much better then a baby bathtub. It takes up much less space in your bathroom (good if you have tiny bathrooms and we do), and is so soft on babies skin. We just put a small amount of water in the tub put Magnolia in it, bathe her, after bathing her we ring the water out, and we're done.

#4 Munchkin Dishwasher Basket (Walmart, Target, wherever) If you plan on ever having bottles this is the way to go. You just put all of the little pieces of the bottle in the basket and your not searching all over the dishwasher for everything. We didn't have one of these with Max and it sucked trying to find the nipples of bottles that fall to the bottom of the dishwasher. They are cheap too around 5 dollars.





#3 Moby Wrap (mobywrap.com or handmade)





(Baby Max in the Moby. Excuse my lack of makeup and funky hairdo)

WE love to moby wrap! Magnolia loves to be carried around in one of these, and she instantly falls asleep in it. You can buy one for around 30 dollars or make one for much, much less! My first one was given to me by my good friend Crystal. You can make one as easily as buying 5 yds of a knit cotton jersey and you cut it in half long ways. THATS IT! You can find all of the cool ways to tie it at mobywrap.com

#2 Aden and Anais Swaddling Wraps (Target or online)

I know swaddling babies is important. These make it so much easier! I HATE flannel receiving blankets. They are useless. They only work for the baby for the first couple of weeks, and they don't stretch which means they are coming unswaddled all of the time. The cure? These swaddling wraps. They are pricey around $30 for 4 blankets, but I would much rather have 4 blankets that I love and use all of the time, then a stack of 20 flannel receiving blankets that just sit there. These are huge thin Muslin blankets that are large enough to swaddle the biggest of babies. For fun we even swaddled Max in one and it still fit! They are ultra soft and come in really cute patterns. I only have 4 of them and that is plenty for us because we only swaddle Magnolia at night. Seriously return all of the flannel recieving blankets that you get, and buy a pack of these, you wont regret it!







#1 Cloth Diapers! (theluvyourbaby.com or cottonbabies.com)



I love this print! I just got Magnolia a couple of these. A ton of different colors to choose from.





How the system works...







Ok, so if I can talk one person into switching to cloth diapers I would be happy. Derrick doesn't like to call them cloth diapers because he thinks it conjures up a picture of these horrible white bulky things that you have to use safety pins on. He likes to call them reusable diapers, because thats what they really are. Now I consider myself a high maintainence person, someone that does not like to scrub poop off of anything... (but really who likes to do that?) So when I first thought of CD's I thought there is no way that I am going to put that much work into diapering my child, but then I started looking into them more, and noticed how easy, cute, and cheap they were, and let me tell you, we have been using CD's for over 3 weeks now and I have not scrubbed a single diaper. I think if anyone that is trying to save some serious money while having a kid, this is the way to go. Derrick and I did the math and we spent around $1100 on diapers alone for Max. That is not including wipes. So far I have spent only $160 dollars on my cloth diapers (for 24 diapers and over 60 inserts) and they will fit Magnolia up until the time that she potty trains! (and if you plan on having more children and use them, you continue to save!) I really, really wish we would have done these with Max.





Now lets talk about the diapers themselves, there are a TON of different kinds of diapering systems. I use the one size diapers with inserts to save money. When its time to change the diaper if she went #2 and it got on the cover then I put the insert and the cover in a plastic bag until wash time. If she just peed, then I just switch out the inserts and put the same cover back on. Later on when her poops get more solid then you just plop it into the toilet, and then wash them. Washing them isn't difficult, you just do a rinse in cold water to get the stains out and then wash them in hot to sanitize. Thats it! and no stains! Magnolia had horrible diaper rash with disposables, but now its all gone, and we would have horrible blow-outs and I haven't had one yet with Maggie. Seriously these diapers hold ALOT of stuff.





I have 6 BumGenius diapers that cost around 16 dollars for the cover and 2 inserts, BUT recently I found a new diaper called the Kawaii diaper (theluvyourbaby.com) and they are only around 7 dollars for the cover and 2 inserts, so I bought a ton of them, and I don't see a difference in the diapers. Let me know if you have any questions, I would love to answer them for you. I just love these diapers, even if you arent excited about the idea like I am, buy a couple for emergencies or for your 72 hr kits, or think about the environment, it takes of 550 years for 1 diaper to break down in a landfill. Yikes!





P.S. if you are into sewing you can even sew them, which would save you even more.