I had to have it!

***WARNING****baby and shopping talk to follow****

My cousin Laura is having a baby in a month or so, and posted a blog entry on some baby products she thought to be pretty useless. This got many comments, and got me to thinking about some of the things I bought that I just had to have but never actually used.


I admit that I am a baby-gear-aphile. I love anything and everything that will make my life easier. I mean, why not, right? That's just what the baby gear marketers love to hear. I will tell you that I have wasted plenty of pennies on stuff I never use though.


So, here are some things that in theory, would save any mom's life on a daily basis, but proved to be pretty useless for me.


1. The Bumbo seat. I know, I know, "they" say its worth every penny of the $40 you pay for it. But I think Ad may have sat on the thing a total of 15 minutes. He would sit in it for 1 minute and then want me to hold him.


2. The swing. I know I am in the minority on this one, but its true. He didn't take to it. I am holding on to it for baby #2 if we go that route.


3. The Combi Baby Carrier- after Ad outgrew his BABYBJORN Carrier I thought I had to have this so we could continue the baby wearing that was working so well for us, but the thing was complicated to put on and I felt like he was falling out of it when he was in it. We used it twice. This was, of course, before my sister starting making and selling baby slings. I would have used one of these for all of Ad's infant and toddler days if I would have had one of these.


4. 80 Billion crib sheets- I thought I would need to change his sheets every single day, sometimes 3-4 times and I was wrong. When he was tiny, I put a cloth pad on top of the sheet for accidents, but mainly, we only use 2 sheets because all the rest don't fit right. And while I am at it, the crib comforter I had to have to match his room, well, it still hasn't been used. I am hoping to finally use it when we switch to a toddler bed.


5. Baby bath- I used this the first month, but after that, my monster had grown 4 feet and 30 pounds so we switched to laying him down in a bath on a foam pad with just an inch of water. Works pretty much the same.

6. a pack and play- again, I know I am in the minority, but the only time we ever used ours was when we were camping. And actually, I couldn't use it then either and ended up using my mother in law's because it was smaller. My cousin in law gave me mine and I am really grateful for her generosity though. Ad just didn't like to be anywhere except right on my hip.

7. The infant carseat- I would probably buy my Graco SnugRide again if I had to do it all over again because they are the safest for infants, but Ad had practically outgrown the thing before he was even here. At 9 lbs 5 oz at birth, he was certainly snug in it. I think I switched over to a convertable carseat at 5 months. But I guess it was easier to just take him in from the car still in his carseat since the first few months he slept the whole time.


I would love to hear some of your must have's until you got them. Maybe another day I will post some things I really couldn't live without. I know you all are dying with anticipation.

PS- luckily, my sister in law was gracious enough to give me a ton of baby stuff she had, most of which I used regularly, such the shopping cart seat cover that sparked a lot of controversy on my cousin's blog. Most of the stuff I had to have but didn't really ever use I bought myself. I learned my lesson- take every hand-me-down you can possibly fit in your house because those are the things that you will inevitably use the most- the tried and true.