Best Baby products
There are so many baby products that are available these days — many of them good and useful, and some that are not. I wanted to share the ones that have worked for Sam as they’ve made a world of difference:
Nursing Pillow: many people buy the Boppy as it’s well-marketed and available in most baby stores. I would recommend the pillow (with the lame name) called My Brest Friend (http://www.mybrestfriend.com/). It’s flat on top, has an awesome lumbar support piece that encircles you, and has a clip or velcro attachement so that you can stand up and still be wearing it (great for when you’re breastfeeding and you forgot to put the phone nearby :-). $35 @ Babies R Us
Miracle Blanket: This blanket is great if your baby is very active and manages to get out of any swaddle you’ve tried. For the first 2 weeks of Sam’s life, he had a difficult sleeping more than 1-2 hours at a time. He’d flail around and end up hitting himself or startling himself to wakefulness. The Miracle Blanket solved that. It has a long “tongue-like” flap that wraps around him as well as a pocket for his feet and flaps for his arms. It’s a bit pricey at $30 (other blankets like Swaddle Me are around $10 — and they work for a lot of babies, just not Sam unfortunately).
Sling: This literally saved Sam and me this week. Sam hasn’t been much of a napper as he’s very active and interested in everything, making it difficult for him to settle down. The sling changed this. We got the Peanut Shell at our local mommies help place here in the Bay Area but you can get it online too at http://www.goo-ga.com. My friend Daesman also swears by the New Native version (http://www.newnativebaby.com/). Sam took naps each day for 1.5-3 hours this week since I started wearing the sling and on Sunday (8/28) he, for the FIRST time, took 2 naps: 1 in the morning (3 hrs) and 1 in the afternoon (also 3 hours). I can even sleep with him (which was another drawback of him not napping).