Top 5 Baby Products:

Life with a newborn can be challenging at times but with a few essential products you can at least ease the stress a little. These are in no particular order.

1. Fisher-Price Cradle n Swing, My Little Lamb

Although I said these weren't in order this is by far my favorite baby product. James will literally spend hours in his swing each day, which is a huge life saver. I honestly don't know how I would be able to do anything if it wasn't for this swing. I realize they now have the snugabunny and if I were to buy one I'd probably get that swing, since this was given as a hand-me-down it works just fine! The only difference between the two is the snugabunny gives you the option of plugging it it, which would be nice. I love how this swing has an adjustable headrest, great from newborn to six months. 

2. BumGenius Cloth Diapers

This was the first cloth diaper I ever purchased, and it was new. I purchased this after seeing it on The Eco Friendly Family. I purchased this one just to see what cloth was all about, and I fell in love. When building my diaper stash, however, I got a little bit of everything just to see what worked best with James. From the get go I should have just gotten all BumGenius. They work the best on James and by far are the easiest to use. You don't have to take the insert out before putting them in the wash which is a huge advantage over FuzziBunz. Although still not as thin as a disposable BumGenius are the slimmest I've found out of all the cloth I've tried on James. I now have 13 BumGenius and use these far more than any other brand. 

3. Mam Pacifiers

While pregnant I was planning on holding off on using pacifiers as long as I could. I knew I really would rather him learn to self soothe so I was planning on waiting until he was at least six weeks old. Well just like many of my plans changed after I actually had James so did this one. Fast forward to James at two weeks old trying to pacify at the breast and you will see why I was desperate. We tried many pacifiers, including but not limited to: Avent, Soothies, Nuk and GumDrop. After leaving the hospital the pacifier they actually sent us home with was the mam. Well because I was desperate and willing to try anything mam it was, and he LOVED it! Since then I haven't looked back, we currently have about ten mam pacifiers floating around and today, 8 weeks later, he still LOVES it!

4. SwaddleMe's

Since being born James was a pro at breaking out of swaddles. I believe it was night one after birth that he figured out how to break the traditional blanket swaddle. What can I say, I gave birth to an escape artist. We would wrap him in the tightest, most secure swaddle we could and ten minutes along in the bassinet ruined it. We also knew James had colic from around week one. He just would never get comfortable enough to fall into a deep sleep, this all changed when I broke out the swaddleme's I received as a baby shower gift. I love how they have the velcro on them so there is physically no way for him to break this tight swaddle, the blanket simply doesn't move. I also love how they have tabs for laundry to prevent everything getting caught and tangled up in the wash. These now belong to our nightly routine and I believe they will for a while. The one thing I do want to give a shot however is the Aden and Anais muslin wraps, I just can't bring myself to spend around $40 on a blanket. For now the SwaddleMe's are doing just fine!

5. Similac Simply Smart Bottle

As I earlier stated James was pretty colicky since birth. We struggled to do everything we could to ease his discomfort. I noticed that a lot of the bottles we were trying would let a lot of air in with the formula. I stumbled across these bottles because I had a coupon and fell in love. The bottle features a smart close system which is to prevent leaks. It actually has a blue triangle indicator you have to match up to ensure you have the tightest possible close. It also has an easy mix option for the formula which is to prevent bubbles. There is also an air vent to let the air escape from there instead of into the babies mouth. Since switching to these bottles we have had far less gas and spit up issues and James will even sleep for 5-6 hours at a time.