Hello loves!!
I hope everybody is staying inside and healthy. I know a lot of people have been affected by this global pandemic and my heart goes out to you! Since we're all self isolated, I've got a lot of extra time on my hands and decided I would get back on the blogging horse! It's a big weakness of mine that I'm hoping to change this year :)
In this post I wanted to cover my baby must-haves that have been absolutely essential to our sanity over this past year with Ozzy (she just turned one 4 days ago 😭). I can NOT recommend these items highly enough. As first time parents, we were totally shooting in the dark! Hopefully these recommendations will help those of you going through the same thing! So here we go! My top 8!
Ok, starting with number 8! We use our Hatch Baby Sound Machine (& night light) for every single one of Ozzy's naps and nighttime sleeps. Sound machines can really help a baby sleep with helping them remember the sounds of the womb! It also helps block out other noises that could potentially wake them up. There are several different types of sounds and the app makes it easy to adjust the volume, sound choice, or brightness of the night light.
7 - Gripe Water
Gripe Water (we use the Mommy's Bliss brand) is some sort of miracle juice. For real lol. We use it every single time she has the hiccups and it works ONE HUNDRED PERCENT of the time. Guys I'm not kidding. It legit works every single time! I can only speak from our experience with Ozzy, but it was so nice to help her calm down and go to sleep when her hiccups were making her do otherwise.
This is 1 of 2 strollers that we own (we'll talk about the other one later on). Pushing Ozzy around in this thing is like pushing her on a cloud. It's so smooth and handles the bumpiest bumps. There aren't very many sidewalks where we live and so this stroller has been critical to any sort of walk we go on! Tanner and I grew up using Thule products for skiing and such in Utah and were stoked to find out that they made strollers. Easy decision for us knowing the high quality of their other products!
We finally found a CUTE high chair! haha. Most of the high chairs that we were seeing weren't very cute and stuck out like a sore thumb in our kitchen. Not only is this one cutesy but it's also comfy! has a little leather lining and Ozzy loves it :)
4 - Robot Vac
I almost had the robot vac as number 2 or 3 on the list because it has actually been one of theeee most helpful "baby products". The amount of little things that Ozzy finds on the ground and proceeds to put in her mouth has almost gone to ZERO. We run this guy every night while we sleep and the floors stay spotless. Before we made the jump to robovacs, it was easy to forget to vacuum and we had some really close calls with Ozzy finding the most random little things on the floor. This has for sure saved us from having some scary choking moments!! Highly recommend! There are more expensive robovacs out there but this one works great and the price isn't bad. We have the eufy (not currently in stock) but we have friends with the Roomba and they absolutely love it for the same reasons.
3 - Owlet Smart Sock
For all of you who wake up to EVERY SINGLE NOISE at night worried about the safety of your baby, this product is for you. I had no idea the amount of anxiety I was about to have right after we got home from the hospital with our newborn, sweet tiny Ozzy. I forgot to charge the sock before our first night home and so I wasn't able to use the owlet that night. Let's just say that I didn't get very much sleep and I ended up having sleep paralysis that night. We haven't missed a night after that. All you do is put on this little sock monitor every night and it monitors everything from heart rate to oxygen levels. I was sleeping a million times better after we started using this consistently. The peace of mind that it gave was HUGE.
My sister-in-law recommended this book before Ozzy was born. She had twins right before Ozzy was born and swore by it. We took her advice and studied it thoroughly before our baby girl was born. THIS BOOK HELPED MORE THAN ANYTHING ELSE for getting Ozzy on a good sleeping schedule. I will swear up and down by this book til the day I die. Getting her on the schedule that was taught in this book helped us have way more freedom in the long run. I know a lot of parents don't want to be stuck to a schedule or worry about not being able to do what they want, but the Baby Wise schedule made it so we knew exactly when she was crying for food or crying for sleep. It also made it so I could more easily leave Tanner with her and go enjoy the beach because he knew the schedule! Get this book. You will thank me forever.
Okay here it is.. NUMBA ONE rec! The Doona!! This has been our favorite baby product by far. It is a Car Seat that converts into a stroller with the click of one button. It has made the biggest difference when traveling. Being able to use this as both a car seat and stroller is AMAZING. We never have to transfer a sleeping baby from a stroller to a car seat (a near impossible task), we don't have to load a big bulky stroller into the trunk of our car when we go places, and when we travel its just one less thing to worry about. We get literally stopped and asked about it at least 2 or 3 times each time we go out. If there is one thing that you invest in from this list, let it be the Doona. It has made a world of difference in both our traveling and day to day lives!
