Love sleep sacks. When little babies are too small to safely snuggle up in a blanket, sleep sacks are wonderful. There are no cold baby legs during the middle of the night, even if you are getting up every ten minutes to check on them. (Makes me yawn, just thinking about it. lol )
I know, I know. They make sleep sacks without arms on purpose. Can't have baby getting too warm, can we? Um.. how about during the middle of winter? Cold baby arms and hands. Since our twins were rather small during the winter, we used socks as mitts, and then pulled Baby Legs over their arms. They stayed nice and snuggly, and if we found that they were getting too warm, it was very easy to peel their "sleeves" off. We also used Baby Legs over their PJ's, while the boys were playing on the floor, because it helped keep them from getting chilly, and it also helped to keep their feet inside the PJ feet. That let us put them in clothes that were a wee bit too big, but was all we had at the time.
Now that the boys are more mobile, we still love the Baby Legs. Now, they are helping us get through the weird temperature changes, as fall flirts with us every morning. They also do a great job of protecting little baby knees, as Littles are crawling and falling down, and even for keeping legs from getting scratched while playing in the grass.
One of my boys sucks his thumb, and that can't get lost. However, my other son has a binky addiction. We have lost binkies everywhere, and now that he is older, he doesn't just drop them. It's like a new, fun game. He waits for just the right crazy moment, and then THROWS his binkie across the aisle at the grocery store. These straps have saved me some sanity, and I sure to miss them when I forget to grab one before we go out.
These are my favorite diaper covers. While snaps are convenient, I don't know that I love the way that those covers fit, when compared to the single-size covers with the Aplix. I have boys who are shaped very differently from one another, and the Aplix tabs are the best for a great fit. However, the covers with the snaps are a little softer, and snaps are much harder for my sneaky son to undo on his own. The "duo" covers are nice for when the Littles have been between sizes, or when they were taking more milk during the day. With heavy-wetters, I had to put extra absorbency in the diapers, so it was nice to be able to "let out" the cover a bit to allow for extra fluff. Now that my boys are in the "Large" size, we've made the switch to the single-size cover again, because they are slightly larger than the duo covers.
These are the best Prefolds that I could find, and they are great. I still have our 'small' size diapers, because they make super burp cloths, changing pads, impromptu blankets, ... oh, and diapers. :) I like using fitted diapers, because they don't frighten off my husband. However, when I needed to supplement our diaper supply without spending much money, a dozen "Large" GM prefolds saved the day. They are so soft and absorbent, and they don't take forever to dry.
I was a little "iffy" about Snappis at first, but that was because I was all thumbs. When the boys were younger, trying to get a prefold on them felt like I was trying to wrap them in a diaper... with my feet. Now that I'm more comfortable with cloth diapers, both prefolds and flats (I really can fold now!), Snappis are GREAT. I have no problem with pins, but my husband doesn't like them. He pokes himself taking them off, let alone trying to pin one on. So, Snappis have saved the day, and his fingers.
These are my favorite diapers. Can I say that again? These are my FAVORITE diapers. These fitted diapers are made from the GM prefolds, which I love all on their own. You can visit the link to see more of the detail about them, if you like. I enjoy the fact that they are all cotton, every bit of them is absorbent, there is the sewn in doubler, the snaps are great and I haven't had any break, and my husband seems to like them. When it came time to buy the boys some new diapers, a while back, my husband asked that I specifically buy more of these, in the next size up. That's saying something. I like that they catch poo well. I like that they stay up, nice and snug. That makes it very easy to put away the plastic pants and use something even more comfortable and breathable.
I want to say a friendly "hello!!!" to my favorite woolie shop, "Three Happy Trees", on etsy. Wool covers are so nice. If you haven't tried woolie bottoms, you should give it a try! Wool pants are very soft against the baby's tummy and legs. They cover the diaper, to keep things dry, but they are also absorbent themselves. I'm sure that our woolie bottoms have bought me an extra few minutes to get a fresh diaper on a boy, instead of having leaks all over. (Remember, we have those heavy wetters.) The woolies are great over a fitted diaper, or a Snappi'ed or pinned diaper. I know that some people are intimidated by the care that wool needs, but it really isn't bad. I toss mine in the washing machine, on my "hand wash" cycle, and then hang them on my line to dry. To be completely honest, I don't lanolize my woolies as often as I think you are *supposed* to, but I haven't had any leak problems at all.
Having multiples, we realized something very quickly. We were either going to have to carry two of everything with us, or we were going to have to do things a little differently. Instead of buying a second play yard, we invested in the Super Yard, and bought the extra two panels in the extension kit. This as been one of the single-most useful items we've bought. When the boys started rolling more and crawling, we used the yard as a play area, so I could do things like... use the bathroom. That's one of the joys of being alone with two wee babes, who enjoy scooting, crawling, and running in opposite directions. Once the boys grew a bit and started crawling around, we attached the play yard to the large opening between our living room and kitchen, to keep the boys in their "safe" areas. What we like about the yard is that instead of just being a gate, we can carry it outside and give the Littles a place to play, a place to coral their toys, or even a place where they can hang out without being trampled on by the bigger kids. It has been a real lifesaver when traveling, and especially when we visit someone's house that is not 'baby safe'.
My standard blender just wouldn't cut it. Doc wanted us to give the boys more solid food, in addition to their breastmilk, but my blender wouldn't make a fine puree. So, I invested in a rather cheap baby food processor, and it was just fine until I accidentally melted it in my dishwasher. Oops. I just do these silly sort of things. I was sad to see it go, but at least I didn't kill it until my boys were big enough for chunkier food. Anyway, these "upside down" processors are great for getting a fine puree.
After killing the baby food processor, I just moved to putting the boys' meals through a standard food mill. I found it better to go for the larger mill, that has the two dull "blades". There are smaller ones that have just one "blade" side, but it takes far too long to process the food, and it doesn't do a real good job. After the food mill, we were able to move right into finger foods.
At around 8 months, my boys decided that they hated taking a bottle. So, we had to switch to primarily using sippy cups, but the Playtex Lil Gripper cup with the straw is the only cup that they like. We tried all different styles of sippies, and this one was the easiest for them to use. They didn't have to have the upper body strength to hold the cup UP.
I am sure that I will think of other things that we've used quite a bit, or loved a lot. For not though, this is the list. :)
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