A Baby Registry Done Wrong - Part Deux

Breast Feeding
I registered and received the Evenflo Comfort Select Performance Single Electric Breast Pump. At first it wasn’t too bad, though I thought it was odd that it was more painful than the one I used in the hospital. After a few days of pumping every few hours its motor would make weird noises and it would slow down a little at times. It was also not contoured very well to my breast, so I’d have to sit a certain way to make sure it didn’t leak and I didn’t lose colostrum. On about the fourth or fifth day after she was born (and I was carting it back and forth from home to the NICU) I was getting frustrated because I felt like it wasn’t getting as much out as it could. I was under a lot of pressure to give her everything I could because she was so small (she was 3lbs, 15oz when we brought her home from the NICU) and needed to get big and strong. My aunt gave me some money and I went to BabiesRUs and got the Medela Swing Single Electric Breastpump. This is second from the bottom of the Medela line and is excellent. The cost is somewhere around $150 (which is pricey, especially compared to the Evenflo), but if you really want to be a breastfeeding mom, you must invest in a good, comfortable pump that is going to last you. Right after I began using this, I noticed more milk and I was no longer in pain while I was pumping; it made a huge difference. As I’ll talk about later, I only ended up pumping for a few weeks before the milk dried up. Since Olivia was a preemie, she had a hard time latching and when she did, she had no energy to get anything out. She was losing weight and in order to keep her healthy, we had to switch to formula.

Diaper Bags
I really wanted one of those super chic Petunia PickleBottom bags, but since they were so pricey, I had to find something at the mall. I ended up getting an Eddie Bauer Diaper Bag from JCPenney’s. It was khaki and messenger style so both my husband and I could wear it. It was big and for the first 8 months of Olivia’s life, it held almost everything we needed although it had a shortage of pockets and wasn’t “cute” by any means. My biggest issue was that once she got older we switched to our Maclaren Stroller and since it’s more compact than the Graco, her diaper bag would not fit in the bottom or around the handle bars because it was GIGANTIC. Since she was older and was requiring less to travel, I went on a search for a durable (but cute) diaper bag that would fit around the handle bars or in the bottom of the stroller. It also had to be neutral colors so my husband could wear it. I wanted either a messenger or backpack style so it would be easy to carry. I ended up getting a Skip Hop Diaper Bag from the Gap (they retail also at Target and many other stores too). Although a little pricier (average cost is around $57.99) than the Eddie Bauer bag, it is light years better. There are tons of pockets and even a pouch in the back with a travel diaper changer. There are two bottle pockets that fit not only bottles, but every sippy cup we own as well. It has clasps to hook to the bars of the stroller or it fits nicely around the top. It also fits in the bottom and is a lot easier to lug around. I remember my best friend telling me that I’ll always need a couple of different sized good diaper bags around and she was right!

Burp Cloths
I registered for so many cute little pink and polka dot frilly Gerber burp cloths that I thought were adorable. I even got cute little oblong shaped ones with duckies on them from Carters. All of these were completely useless to us! They weren’t realistic, especially for a child with GERD (she spit up A LOT). As I’ll talk about more in a later post about our favorites, the most useful burp cloth any mom could ever use is a cloth diaper. Thick, absorbent and durable! Not cute, but definitely cheaper and more useful.

Clothes

Newborn
I only registered for a few newborn clothes: sleep n plays, mittens, socks, and a couple packs of onesies. The grandma’s supplied Olivia with plenty of clothes long before she was born, so it wasn’t really necessary. We didn’t have a lot of newborn clothes on hand because we thought she’d be a big baby that was born late, but she was a small baby that was born early. Because of this, none of her clothes fit her the day she was born. My advice for registering is to register for 0-3 months and above and then go shopping after the baby is born. He or She may need Newborn size or they may fit straight into their 0-3s. Since all of the clothes have to be washed in Dreft before you put them on the baby, you may end up with a closet full of clothes you won’t use and can’t return. In our case, we ended up buying tons of Preemie Stuff and Gerber Newborn (which is smaller than most Preemie sizes).

Returning Gifts
A lot of my friends and family bought Olivia clothes for my baby shower. She got tons of cute outfits (it’s really easy to shop for a little girl). One of the issues I had was that I got a lot of summer clothes in the 3-6 month size, which was the middle of winter for us. Although I live in sunny Southern California, most winter days it’s anywhere from 40-60 degrees and it gets into the high 20s or 30s at night. A lot of the clothes I got I didn’t get gift receipts for either. Some stores like Gymboree and BabiesRUs are really good about taking things back for a store credit, so be sure to at least try! I know Target has a pretty strict policy about returns without a receipt (they let you do it once a year and they scan your Driver’s License). If all else fails and you can’t return something and you know your little one won’t use it, give it to a friend who will! I’ve swapped clothes, food, coupons and cans of formula with lots of my mommy friends. It’s great if someone can get use out of something you can’t rather than just donating it.

Receiving Blankets
We registered for some of these at Target (Circo Brand) and ended up with double the amount of what we registered for. These receiving blankets were pretty useless, especially with the quantity that we had. My daughter was a small baby and even as small as she was, we couldn’t wrap or swaddle her in any of these blankets, they were too small. We ended up using them on the floor in our family room to change her diaper on. After a month or so I gave up on them and used a larger sized blanket for her diaper changes and for her to roll around on. I recommend something a little larger than 30x30 as it falls just short when you try to wrap the baby. The blanket we used the most for this purpose was the one she came home from the hospital in. It’s perfect size to wrap an infant and probably around 40x40.

Pacifiers
Pacifiers are a lot like bottles as every baby prefers different ones. Olivia looked so awkward with a pacifier because she was so small; it was quite a sight to see! We tried a few different brands, starting with First Year’s Soothie’s, then Gerber and she finally ended up liking Nuk (which is now owned by Gerber anyway). These are shaped more naturally than other pacifiers, so she took to it really easily, whereas she spit the other ones right back at me. They also come in different stages and a big plus is that they have super cute designs. We’re very lucky that she didn’t attach to a pacifier for very long. At around 3 months she wanted nothing to do with them and hasn’t used them since. The only issue we had with these is when we left them in hot water (in the sink) or boiling water (in a pan) too long, they ended up cracking (we didn’t exactly follow the directions on the package). Also, sometimes the water gets inside of the nipple part, so after I boiled them I would turn them upside down.

More to come!