Those Crazy Baby Items!

I am now relearning how to deal with a baby for the third time in my life. With each new baby comes new baby items. Always. With your first baby you become totally overwhelmed, not knowing which items are essential and which are fluff, and what few things are in between the two other categories. I've learned quickly that 99.999999% of new items are fluff. By baby 3 I paired down my essentials to just a few things: diapers, wipes,blankets, (receiving blankets cut up into thirds make the BEST burp clothes!!!)onesies, car seat and stroller (still rarely used so its an in between item in my opinion) sling/wrap, bouncy seat, and play mat. Everything else is optional. I'll add in pacifiers but that is dependant completely on each individual child.

So even though I had gotten rid of ALL my stuff because I wasn't expecting baby #3 I didn't really need too much. A lot of friends were amazingly kind and thoughtful, and offered me their hand me downs for the essentials. One friend however gave me something that took until this week to figure out how dang cool it is.

A few weeks before Soren was born my friend Kelly gave me a Bumbo. WTH is a bumbo? I had no idea either, but it seems to be a specialized seat for infants to sit in. I thanked her and put it in my dining room until i figured Soren would be old enough to use. I assumed it would be for when he was sitting up on his own (usually 4-5 months) but boy was I wrong. After viewing a thread on how cool other moms find the Bumbo, and knowing a lot of these moms have babies Sorens age I finally asked when do you start using it??? Come to find out the answer was...now.

As soon as the baby can support his head up you can sit them in. The seat supports them in all the right places so that they can sit up and be a part of the action. This is seriously important for Soren as he can never be left out of anything! So dubiously I hauled out the Bumbo, eyed it with confusion, and gently propped Soren in. Keeping my hand behind his head in case he forgot how to hold it up steadily and hunkered down to look in his eyes. And within a moment of figuring out his situation I got the biggest ear to ear grin and coo from him.

Now the older boys fight with each other to see who can stand in front of Soren when he's in his Bumbo and who can make him laugh the longest. It's become a game to all three. And my face cant take any more grinning. Its starting to hurt.


So while there are things out there not necessary, sometimes on of those crazy new items are just worth grabbing!