Da Eads: Rave Reviews: Top Ten Registry Items

I had lunch with friends this past week who are expecting and her husband could not get enough information from us. He took notes. No really he did. Right after her told us how excited he was to get an electric toothbrush for his birthday. God I love him!

But when talking about registering I got the idea for this post. These are items you must register for. No matter what. You will need them trust me. In addition, some of my favorite memories associated with that item. So today's rave review is....

Top Ten MUST Register for Items

1. Bobby: Get two of these. Even if you are not breastfeeding. When I was on maternity leave I would spend a good two hours in bed with her watching TV, snuggling, and nursing. She would lounge on this thing like a rock star. But even greater is when she was learning to sit up right before Christmas we used this to protect her from head bumps on our hard floors. I remember at Christmas she sat with the Bobby behind her to open her presents. Sadly she won't need that this year. Oh and keep the plastic it comes in when you buy it. Good for storage in your attic.

2. Pack and Play: If you are going anywhere you will need this. You don't need a super fancy one. Just make sure it has a changing table, bassinet and storage section to it like the one below. The shade cover, vibrating function...all worthless. I still use it when we travel. I used it the first two weeks when she slept in our room. I used this for about ten months as a changing table downstairs. It is really hard to change a diaper on the floor with three dogs and a squirmy baby trying to escape. The best is when we are traveling and we put this at the end of the bed for her to sleep in. In the morning we would wake up and see her little head peeping over and grinning at us!

3. Excersaucer: Every day that I was cooking dinner after maternity leave was over I would think to myself how much I loved Brooke and Jenna for buying me this wonderful little piece of heaven. A Mommy lifesaver. Those people that tell you it is a "babysitter" are just a-holes and tell them to bite you. Those are the same Nazis that won't let their kids watch a little Sesame street to let you relax. No really favorite sweet memory of this just the fact that I am still sane.

4. Pajamas: Why does it seem like I never have enough of these? Never. But listen closely this is very important. Just say no to Buttons. Buttons are the devil when it comes to a child that is not sleeping through the night. Any middle of the night changes become debacles of misbuttoning and flying diapers and mounds of frustration. Ask any parent...only buy zipper pajamas! I am wise...listen. Except for when they are newborns buy the "gowns" that you can just pull up or down. Yes even for Boys! But those usually only come in 0-3 months. I have countless stories of Michael rebuttoning her pajamas at least three times but I won't embarrass him. They do provide a chuckle. So if your husband is irritating you put the button pajamas in the drawer on his bedtime night. Ooops they were the only ones that were clean. Extra tip...the zipper ones are hard to find after 9 months. Go to Children's Place.

5. Stroller: Okay this is a hot debate. To get the travel system of not? I am a no go on this. I am 5'3....okay 5'2 and drive a convertible. Those big ass strollers take up the whole back of a SUV and weigh over twenty pounds. Okay lets do some math. The amount of strength required to hold a ten pound baby in one arm, a 20+ stroller in one hand, trying to open it, your diaper bag on the other arm as well. Yeah just quit now.....they set you up to fail. But you give up some luxuries with the "non" travel systems. 1. The car seat doesn't 'pop' into your stroller. Two options to fix that. You can buy a stroller base that goes with your car seat for about $60 bucks to use during the infant carrier stage or you can do what we did: place the carrier in your cart. The only store I remember getting frustrated with was Kohl's. The don't have good carts for this. So when we went there or the mall we used the stroller and just pulled her out of the cart seat and put her in the stroller. 2. Storage space. Not a whole lot in my compact, 11 pound stroller. But I got these fabulous hooks for four dollars that let you hang your purse on the back on the stroller. Funny story: Trying to take Lily out of the stroller in Pottery Barn kids one day the whole stroller flipped over from the weight of my purse as we pulled Lily out. Yeah that was one of my "I am a new parent" moments in the middle of the mall. It worked fine though and we saved over a hundred bucks. Thousands if you think about the back surgery I avoided, and the new car I didn't have to buy just to tote my stroller around.

6. An extra Car seat base: For your infant carrier. Buy two. Hell buy three...one for Grandma. But for you that have been following us awhile I don't have to tell you the story of us trying to figure out how to install a car seat. Wow. See the spring of 2008.

7. Register for two additional convertible car seats. You may think you have two many big ticket items on there...but you don't. They grow out of the infant carrier quicker than you think. And thinking about what carseat to buy while you are still getting a grip on parenting sucks. Trust us we know. Tip: Babies R'Us lets you take a model and try it out in your car to make sure it fits. Just leave your license up front and go try it out. We did this for my convertible because we could find no car seat that fit in my little car. This worked out great and we got a wonderful carseat. My life has gotten so much easier now that she is forward facing. Now if I could teach her to climb in and buckle herself.

8. Baby Bjorn: Love you! Back...hates you! That is why you make Daddy carry it! Yay! This was made for men in case you were wondering. But properly adjusted it is a great way to actually get some stuff done around the house without sacrificing baby time. Just be careful when you bend over forwards to keep your hands on the baby. Not going to tell you how I know that.....

9. Crib Soother: Lily still has one in her crib. I think it is the Fisher Price Rainforest theme. She wakes up on the weekend and stares at it. It didn't take her long to figure out how to turn it on. When she was really young she would kick it. Now she reaches up and taps it and lays back down. We used this when we were "sleep training" I think it is one of the many reason my child rocks at sleeping. Yes don't hate me because my baby girl goes down without a peep and sleeps twelve hours straight AND sleep until eight on the weekends! Yeah my awesomeness even surprises me sometimes.

10. A Kick Ass Playmat: The more stuff on it the better. Think Lights, Noises, hanging articles of funness. Excessive is not a word that can be associated with a playmat. I recommend the Baby Einstein one below. And then add more stuff to it. Watching her face light up at this before she really got rolling over was so fun. I called it Baby Crack. It would put her in a trance with the flashing lights and songs. I will say she was grown out of it at about six months but who cares!! It was worth it. There is not a whole lot you can do with the bundle of joys when they are blobs. This may be as exciting as it gets.

Honorable Mentions:

Diaper Champ: Michael hates ours so I couldn't but it on our list but I don't mind it...when he empties it. Major selling point? Using kitchen bags instead of Diaper Genie cartridges and is cheaper.

Breastpump stuff. I harp on this enough so I won't torture you with anymore talk of all the stuff you need.

Diapers, Diapers, diapers. If anyone asks what you need...diapers. That is always what you answer. Repeat after me...diapers.

Swaddle blankets. Really this should be on the list. But then I would have to bump a toy and who wants that? Buy these. Learn how to use them. The ones with Velcro make life simple for Dads that couldn't quite get what the deal was in Newborn basics.

Bottles: Especially if you are going pricey with these. Think you have enough? Double what you think is enough. Unless you are HARD CORE breastfeeding. i.e never leaving the baby, quiting your job....buy lots of these. In all sizes. I like Avent but my Sister in Law swears by Born Free. Then I have another friend that loves Dr. Browns. I promote Avent because they are easy to assemble. Some of the bottles get complicated. But a pointer: Don't open them until post baby. You may love Bottle A but Baby may not. Keep the receipts for these but go ahead and pick your favorite. It only becomes and issue with a picky baby or with gas, etc.

Baby gates...especially if you have puppies! Do research, measure, etc. all in advance. We slacked on this. We paid for it in the future.

Highchair. I mean the kids gotta eat! Just get one that is easy to travel with. Or buy the great portable one in addition to your home one.