Alexis’ registry suggestions
If you have read blogs from Jessica as well as me, you will surely have realized that Jessica has her act together… and I have good intentions. As one example of this, Jessica set up her registry within months of entering the pool (visit Jessica’s registry). While we were in the pool waiting for our to-be-son’s arrival, I finally started nesting in earnest after about two-and-a-half years. Only after we received “the call” did Jessica tell me this was one of the reasons she knew our time was coming. In those last few months, I assigned myself weekly to do items. Making a babylist registry was an item I had assigned myself for the week of my son’s birth. Turns out, I was otherwise occupied that week, and when people asked me what I wanted as a baby gift, I wish I had prioritized this task sooner, since I love shopping from other people’s registries. Making an online registry is a nice option if you don’t want to stare at a set-up nursery, but also want to be able to quickly set one up once your baby arrives.
Some ideas that have served our family well:
This crib still looks new, with the notable exception of the stickers that our daughter insists our newborn son loves. We have it in simply white. It also disassembles and can be stored in a closet out of view when not in use.
Although we own a stroller, we use the ergo about 1000 times more. Our son far prefers (at least for now) facing inward, where our daughter refused until she was big enough to look outward and see the world.
I’m so impressed with parents who manage to use cloth diapers, but we’ve never done it. Still, I try to be conscious of the environmental impact of diapering, and try to minimize adding toxins to the mix. This diaper pail has worked really well for us. We have it in light grey.
Our daughter loves picking out books to read from this bookshelf in our son’s nursery, and in our house it’s never too early to learn about democracy. Books can often be a fun collection to start when you are waiting, as they can be stored out of view.
Jessica another friend got us this awesome baby gym when our son was born (once I finally put together our registry - see above). He loves it!
I am not typically a collector of bags - I own two purses (one if I need to carry my laptop, one if I don’t), they are both several years old, and I have no desire to have more (I know this is very weird for some…. my own mother included). So, when Ruby was a infant, I found a simple backpack and used it as a diaper bag. Without giving it much thought, I bought this diaper bag for our son, and it is truly remarkable. Everything has a place, a made-bottle stays cold, it has a changing pad built-in, there is an easy accessible place for wipes, it clips to the stroller (on the rare occasion I use it), and I can easily wear it at the same time as the ergo.
We first discovered South African beaded animals during an amazing trip in 2011 to visit friends who were living in Pretoria at the time. When our daughter was born, we based her nursery on that trip, and got her a beaded zebra, elephant and lion. We’ve continued the tradition with our son, and since his room is based on a tree canopy, we got him a bird that sits on a ledge in his room (the etsy seller is out of the one we got, but I’m totally eyeing this lemur to add to our collection).
We all have our strengths and weaknesses as parents, and swaddling is one the things I’m comically bad at - our son literally could break out of my swaddles within a few weeks. Both of our kids have used these sleep sacks - I like that they are versatile and allow for their hands to be included in the swaddle or not, depending on what works best for them at different times in their development.
