I thought I would share a few of the products that I have found very helpful in the first three months of motherhood. There are three basic categories — Hoppediz, diapers and boobs. I’m sure many more will pop up. What have been the most useful products for all you new moms and dads out there?
Hoppediz Products — I’ve already described the carrier that I love by Hoppediz. I recently came by a catalog for their products, and I found a few other great products from them.
Wickelmax is a compact changing pad with pockets that hold everything you need to change the baby. It has Velcro straps to hold it together, and I have been just strapping it together over my purse strap. There may be more prints available than the one in the image — I chose that one because it was so much fun.
The Fleece Cover is a nice added layer of warmth if you are carrying in the winter in Germany, for example. A friend made an insert to my jacket so now it closes over the two of us, but as the baby is growing, her feet are starting to stick out under my jacket, and this fleece cover keeps her feet warm as well. I am still getting used to using the cover, but one added bonus is that is has a little dicky to keep my neck warm in the gap between the baby and me.
Diapers, Diapers — So much time and effort goes into taking care of baby poo! I am hapy with a cloth diaper system and the disposables we use as well.
- Fuzzibunz are an American made pocket diaper. They function much like disposable diapers, which is one of the reasons I went with them. The shell has a soft microfiber outside and a kind of rubber coated inside. There is a microfleece material between the shell and the baby, which is really soft. You stuff the pocket with absorbent inserts.
We couldn’t use the small size that we ordered straight at birth. She was about 6 lbs 12 ounces (3060g) and there was gaps at the legs (after having pooed all over daddy a few times, we switched to disposables). However, about a month after her birth, we could use them. Since there are snaps to hold the diaper together, they are adjustable, and we still have quite a way to go before she will need an upgrade.
It took me some time to realize that they work best with an ‘add-in’ on top of the regular insert. The add-in is a smaller absorber that I put directly under her to absorb the majority of the urine. The diaper is a lot dryer as a result. With just the one insert, the entire diaper would get wet. With the add-in I make fewer diaper changes because they stay dryer longer. I noticed that once we started using the Fuzzibunz, the baby had much less redness around the anus. They claim that the diapers prevent diaper rash, and I believe it. We haven’t had an diaper rash issues in the first three months (knock on wood). We use a paper (100% biodegradable) natural fiber sheets in the diapers as well. This basically acts like a sieve for solid material, and it makes cleaning a bit easier.The draw back for international moms is that they are made in the US so shipping is a bit more expensive. There are European brand pocket diapers as well — Popolini, Bumgenius, for example.
Moltex diapers — These are the disposables I chose to use until the cloth ones fit. We also use them at night (mostly because my husband does the night diapering, and he thinks they are easier than the cloth). They are as environmentally friendly as disposable diapers get, in my opinion, but I am no expert. The packaging is even compostable, which I thought was pretty cool. A friend had given us some pampers that had been unused by her recent addition, so that is the only comparison I have. The Moltex fit much better than the pampers did in our case, and we had less leaks as well. If we use only the disposables for a period of time, I do notice some redness around the anus, but aside from that, we didn’t have any problems.
Boobs — another very important topic of motherhood.
- Medela Freestyle Hands-free pump — A friend recommended this to me, and I am so happy I took her advice! it is a bit expensive (I paid around $350), but the price may be going down as it is rather new on the market. It has all of the strength of the regular Medela pump, but it is much more compact. I comes in a nice black bag that looks like a big purse. The pump itself fits easily in your hand, and it comes with a belt that you can latch it onto if you want to move around while pumping. The hands-free component involves some rubber straps that fit onto most breast feeding bras, so you can walk around looking very much like a caw as you pump. It was invaluable in the first few weeks after the birth as we were trying to get the breast feeding to work. it also did a great job of building up my milk supply. I can usually pump one or both sides in about 10 to 15 minutes. I don’t know how that compares with other pumps, but it is faster than I expected. I am not working at the moment, but this pump seems like it would be great for a working mother who is continuing breast feeding. The same friend who recommended it to me ended up buying it because she needed something compact and portable for a conference.
- Lansinoh Disposable Nursing pads — I planned on using cloth nursing pads, but as my milk came in, I would soak them within an hour. I ended up finding these breast pads by accident, and they are better than other brands I tried. They can handle the amount of milk that I leaked. A things start to equalize, I am beginning to use the cloth ones instead, but these are still useful at night.
- Boob Organic Maternity and Nursing clothes — this was a recent discovery on my part. It is a Swedish brand that is produced in Europe (by workers who are treated well, and using environmentally friendly practices). I have been searching for turtle neck breast feeding tops, and theirs was the only one that I found. They have nice designs, and the material is very good quality. I also like some of the clever names for products such as the ‘boob warmer” (a fleece hoody). They are pricier than some products I’ve seen, but I am willing to pay a bit more for the kind of product that they are making.
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What are these trackbacks? Does anyone know?
They’re post linking to this post. I deleted the trackback that was on here, it was spam.
I love my Medela Freestyle. LOVE IT. As far as carriers go, there are many great ones– but I don’t want to part with my Ergo.