When you are preparing for baby, you research, and ask around to try and find the best products that as a new parent you will need. But once baby is born, you may come to realize that you didn’t need, or weren’t able to use some of the amazing products out there.
These products were ones that I swore would be beneficial for us, but after all was said and done they just didn’t have as much of a place with us. Now we did attempt to try out each one of these, but we either ran into issues, or Cameron didn’t enjoy it, or we may have used it but not for the intended purpose or length of time that warranted it being purchased.
First- A bassinet. For me, I wasn’t sure how we would go about sleeping in the early days after bringing Cameron home. Wasn’t sure if Co-sleeping would work, if we would put her right in her crib, put her in a pack-n-play, or one of the other many options that were out there. So we went with a bassinet, easily moveable, small enough to be near our bed and in our room, but her own little space. She maybe used it the first two nights she was home, but I freaked out thinking with all the extra room she had in there that she would potentially harm herself. Most nights, she would wake for the first feeding, and I wouldn’t be able to get her back to sleep unless she was sleeping on me. So the bassinet for us didn’t work well for sleeping purposes, but it turned out to be a pretty decent mobile changing table. Our house is two stories so it was a lot to take her up and down the stairs to change her in her nursery. So we ended up just using the bassinet as her changing table downstairs until she grew to big for it. Worked out for that, but would I buy it again for sleeping, NO.
Second- A baby carrier. I tried two different baby carriers, a wrap type and an Ergobaby branded carrier. This has absolutely nothing to do with the brands of the carriers or the carriers in general, we ended up not using them besides the first time we tried, because Cameron and I could not sync ourselves while using them. I don’t know if it’s me being as short as I am and the carriers feeling so big on me, or if she was also so small it was hard for her to sit in them properly. But we ended up sticking to just strollers, car seats, or just not going out until she got a bit older. Yes that is not a way to spend life because you basically get stuck at home, but we did what we felt worked for us.
Third- Baby bathtub. Now this is one we did use, just not as long as we figured we would. The bathtub was great when she was a newborn, but the moment she started trying to sit up herself, she wanted nothing to do with it. She much preferred to sit in the actual bathtub and splash around. Not that it doesn’t work for everyone, but I would think either finding a cheaper version or just another option all together would work so much better.
Fourth- Glider/rocking chair. Before I gave birth I used to sit and dream and think about rocking my child to sleep, or while feeding her. Well the reality of that is we really never used the glider chair in her room. Because we had so much trouble with feedings in the beginning, I found myself always ending up downstairs to do the feedings at night. Now every once in a blue moon I would attempt to feed her or soothe her while rocking, and it did seem nice, but most of the time we would end up right back where we started, down on the couch in the family room. Yes, it brought the room together, but could we have lived without it, probably.
Fifth- Accessories. I wanted my child to always have a bow on her head, or socks and shoes on her feet. Well my child decided that she NEVER wanted them on her. As quickly as I could get them on her she was ripping them off. We did keep trying, and slowly we are making our way into the time of getting them to stick. So I maybe wouldn’t have bought so many of this kind of stuff, because it was good to have.
Were there any products you thought you would get more use out of that you didn’t?
