My son is now nearly two months old and yes, I do manage to nurse him. He takes ages to get full up, so I sit a LOT… I try to walk about nursing him sometimes, but it isn’t always a good time or a good idea… So, I have to sit comfortable when he is at it or I get really sore!

When I was pregnant with my first, I purchased a nursing chair. It was sold by many baby shops in the UK as a nursing chair, but was also available widely in other stores.

This was the Dutailier Express Jamie Recline Glider & Stool. It cost at the time around £500. This recliner had a nice gliding motion and reclined. The recliner could be locked into several reclined positions and promised to be very comfy. I found the design of the chair was quite old fashioned. The other things I did not like was: the footstool could not lock into position — it rocked with the recliner, so it could get dangerous when babies start crawling and tries to pull themselves up on it. When I sat for long periods of time on it, my behind got really sore and numb in the end… So when my daughter was big enough to crawl, I got rid of the chair. The gliding and reclining was good, but just not that amazing to make me keep it.

So, when I got to thinking about nursing this time around, I had a look at the Stressless from Ekornes. Now, this one does not compare with the Dutailier at all. Well, not when it comes to price (anything from 800 to 3,000euros) styling or comfort. We wanted a recliner for our living room and the Stressless happened to come in the same colour leather as our sofa. It also comes in different sizes and usually has a footstool as well. The Stressless comes in various designs and sizes. There will be one to suit anyone. We planned to use the recliner in our living room for as long as we needed it there and then move it up into the nursery, where I could even have a nap in it.

Well, we have just come to the conclusion that the recliner will not move into the nursery. It is everything we had wanted, so it is just too special to be hidden…

Ikea has launched a rocking armchair in their POÄNG series, so I looked at it. It is pretty modern and comes in various colours. Although it comes at a really good price of around 100 to 300 euros (including a footstool), It was just not to my liking.

The FATBOY beanbag is sold in many stores here in our home city, and mydaughter happened to love playing on them. So I went and tried it out. The FATBOY sits really comfy and looked like it would work. If we wanted to move it to a different room, it weighs only 9kg end you can easily find a comfy seated position on it. We could have a play on it and my daughter can pull it around. So this seemed like a fun item. It only costs 179euros if you buy from the website and delivery was included in the price. I ordered at lunchtime and the next morning it was delivered! I tried it out and found that this was the most comfy for nursing. I created a “bucket” seat for myself, lifting my knees to support my arms, so taking the strain off my arms when holding my baby when nursing. I found I could easily push it into shape to support my head very comfortably so I could relax my neck too. Yes, it could be tricky to get up out of it, but if you shape it so you don’t sit too close to the floor, it isn’t too bad. We love it.

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I’ve got back problems, and it was always a pain, literally, to hold my son over the sink to brush his teeth and wash his face and hands.  In the beginning, I used a wash cloth to clean him off and just picked him up to let him spit out the toothpaste, but the older (and heavier) he got, the more he wanted to do these things all on his own, like the grown ups.

I looked at step stools for kids, which are usually one step, about half a foot high, with a rubberized top.  These were much too short to help.  We tried the base of his Tummy Tub, but it was still too short and I still had to lift him up.  Finally, at Janda’s house, I noticed she’d come upon a great solution.  The Ikea Bekväm step stool.

The Ikea Bekväm step stool is meant for adults, but it works great for toddlers.  It’s stable and the little ones can easily climb up on their own.  The wood is more attractive, in my opinion, than the plastic kid’s step stools.  When you’re kid outgrows it, you can still use it as a step stool around the house.  And did I mention it’s inexpensive, it goes for $19.99 in the US, and €12.99 in Germany.  We’ve never had a problem with the wooden surface being slippery, but if you wanted to be extra careful, you could add some non-skid stickers on top.

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While looking for cute, high-quality, melamine dishes to use as toddler tableware, I ran across a company in Denmark not only making fabulous cups, plates, bowls and more, but that also has a conscience, Rice. Their products are designed in Denmark, then manufactured in third world countries by employees who are treated fairly and are not discriminated against for any reason.  For this, Rice has earned the SA8000 certification from Social Accountability International.

Now, you’re probably wondering, why melamine dishes?  Recently, Oliver has taken to throwing his dishes on the floor.  Since replacing our Ikea dishes everytime one is broken is not something we want to do often, I started talking to friends.  Everyone has the plastic Ikea children’s dishes, and pretty much everyone complained about how they got scratched up and worn looking over time.  I did a little research and found that melamine dishes are unbreakable, scratch-resistant, dishwasher-safe, and as far as unbreakable dishware goes, are probably slightly safer chemical-leaching-wise. They just aren’t microwave-safe, but I generally try not to microwave anything in plastic containers anyways.

In addition to the melamine tableware though, Rice has a lot of other really cute products:

Square Natural Raffia Basket

Square Pink Miss T Pillow Cover
Soft Toy Horses

In addition to stuffed animals, adult and children’s tableware, baskets, floor coverings, pillows, aprons, and kitchenware, Rice also gives back:

Rice and The Danish Refugee Council are working together raising money to African refugee families.

This year it is a so called ONE to ONE project — meaning that when you buy 4 special designed Rice melamine cups you give a refugee family in Africa exactly a large 20L. jerry can and a wash kit.

You can search for retailers in your country on Rice’s website.  I wasn’t able to find any shop in the US that carries Rice products, but I did find a site in Germany, Takatomo.de, that is in English and German, and offers worldwide shipping.

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Mutsy EasyGrow

Somewhere between the ages of twenty months and two years, my son decided that shoving smushed-up green peas and sticky banana goo into the vinyl crevices of our high chair was his favorite form of personal expression. We used the Chicco Polly, which served us well for more than a year, but as soon as I began finding unidentifiable remnants of dinners past on a too-regular basis, I realized I was either going to have to become more diligent about using my fingernails to remove the gunge in the cracks of the chair after every meal or perhaps we should look for a different solution.

I was attracted to the Mutsy EasyGrow because of its apparent versatility and modern look. I also considered the Stokke Tripp Trapp and the Boon Flair. Mutsy is a European stroller manufacturer that has recently branched out to the high chair market. The Easy Grow is designed to grow with babies from infancy through school-age, with removable insterts and straps and an adjustable seat and foot bar.

My child was 22 months old when we pulled our Easy Grow up to the table. Assembly was fairly simple, especially if you’re used to following IKEA-type picture instructions. The chair comes with a foam-like insert and shoulder/waist straps for younger children and an interchangeable eating tray and safety bar. We experimented with all the different pieces since my son was just at the top edge of the size recommendations for the infant insert.

The Good:
The EasyGrow is just as cool and sleek as its photos suggest. It comes in an array of different colors, and while ours is one of the most neutral choices (grey), it still feels like an interesting addition to our kitchen. The lightweight but sturdy chair easily pulls up to our dining table without using a great deal of space in our compact eating area. That’s a big improvement from the high chair which seemed like it was always in the way. And, though there are definitely a few places where smushed-up peas can get caught, the plastic and metal pieces are easy to wipe off, especially compared to the many creases, nooks and crannies of the high chair. My son is comfortable in the EasyGrow; its seat and footrest are adjustable so even his long torso and short legs fit just fine, and I can see that we’ll be able to move the components so he’ll be able to use the chair for a long time to come (the marketing materials say up to 12 years old).

The Bad:
When I first strapped him in using the infant insert, straps and dining tray, I realized how awkward the setup was. The straps don’t work in an intuitive fashion and, in perhaps the most frustrating feature, inserting the dining tray or safety bar between the child’s legs and under the infant insert is a real pain. It’s also awkward to reverse the process and get the kid out of the chair. After we realized he was big enough to do without the foam insert and straps, things got less complicated, but the process of sliding the safety bar up the chair to get him in and out, not to mention fiddling with the mechanism that keeps bar in place while he’s eating, is still annoying. And while this is marketed as an all-ages high chair, I’m not sure I would have felt comfortable with the back support and safety features it provides for a wobbly infant.

Overall:
The Mutsy EasyGrow is a nice step up from a traditional high chair and an attractive addition to a modern kitchen. It’s a good choice for toddlers and older children who like to have their own chairs at the big people’s table. The price ($188-$195 on Amazon) is competitive with similarly-marketed chairs like the Boon Flair ($189) and the Stokke Tripp Trapp ($249). While its smoothness-of-use could use some improvements, its easy-to-clean surfaces, solid construction, and adjustable height mean it will be useful for several years.

Mutsy products are available through online and brick-and-mortar retailers all over the world — check your section of their website for specifics. In addition, Goore’s online store is offering an exclusive discount for Mamas Worldwide readers — receive 10% off the purchase of any Mutsy products by entering code MWMU10 at checkout.

Stay tuned for another Mutsy product review and giveaway later this week.

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We are devoted users of our travel crib. My son slept in it from his first night at home, in the bassinet insert at the foot of our bed. (Well, ostensibly he slept, but I remember nothing about that because if he was asleep, so was I.) We hauled it from country to country, on the train and the airplane and in a luggage rack on top of our car.

When I shopped for travel crib sheets, I was disappointed with the flimsy and scratchy standard options at the baby megastore I visited on a trip to the USA. I read a bit about the sheets, how they frequently popped off the rough canvas mattress and how, with multiple and frequent trips through the laundry, their elastic soon failed to bounce back.

Fortunately, I came across Mr. Bobbles Blankets in my Baby Bargains book. Along with pillows, blankets, and burp cloths, Mr. Bobbles makes some fantastic travel crib (or, as they call it, Playard) sheets. They’re constructed like a big pillowcase with a foldover pocket on one end, so you just slip the mattress inside and slide one end into the pocket. The fabric is thick, 100% cotton flannel, in sweet prints that wash beautifully. They’ll never pop off the mattress or lose their grip, since there’s no elastic involved. Since we bought ours, they’ve added stretchy backing material as a new design feature to make the sheets fit even more snugly.

Our Mr. Bobbles sheets have traveled with us from Asia to Arizona, and seen their way through washing machines on three continents. They are almost as good as new, with no stains or evidence of the various emissions that babies’ bodies inevitably deposit on their bedclothes. In fact, they just get softer as we wash them, so they’re even better than when I bought them. And, now that my son is older, he loves to identify the different cars and trucks on one fabric design, or talk about the froggies on the other.

Mr. Bobbles Playard Sheets cost $19.95 each, with $1 discount per sheet if you buy more than one in the same fabric design. They fit most American travel cribs/playards (standard size 27″ x 39″). See the Mr. Bobbles website for details.

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Last year while in DC over the Christmas holidays, we received a lot of comments on how warm and snuggly Oliver looked in his stroller bag.  The stroller bag is a pretty common thing in Germany and the rest of Europe, so I thought I’d introduce you to the company that produces the baby stroller bag, and now kid stroller bag, that we went with, Odenwälder Babynest.  Odenwälder Babynest is a German company that makes high-quality, hand-made sleep products.

Mucki L Thermo-Revolution Footsack

Alex Blanket

Car seat inserts

Down Toddler and Kid Comforters

Odenwälder Babynest is available in Germany from Amazon.de, and the company website lists handlers in many other European countries.

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When I first moved to Germany, we bought a nice, plush, rich-purple-fabric-swathed sofa. This was pre-baby and pre-dog. It is now a slightly less nice, plush, purple sofa covered in drool, spit up, juice, and cookie crumbs. I wish it was as easy for us as it was for a couple of friends of ours who recently recovered their entire Ikea living room seating using Bemz slip covers. From their website:

Bemz is a Stockholm, Sweden-based company that sells removable, washable slipcovers for sofas, armchairs and cushions. We sell them direct to consumers via the internet. Currently, these products are available to fit the most popular models of IKEA sofas and chairs.

As of this writing, Bemz ships to Europe and the US.

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File this under Things I Would Buy if Money wasn’t a Consideration. These changing tables are the work of Swedish designer Bo Ekström and are not for the budget-conscious. According to DaddyTypes.com, the fold-up changing table is 280 Euro. Oh, but they are so beautiful. No idea where this is available for purchase, I suppose I could contact the website, but that could just end up being too much temptation for me to resist. Okay, back to reality and my 20 Euro Ikea changing table.

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