My wife and I are expecting our first child in a few weeks and her baby shower is coming up next week. We've got some basics covered already between new purchases and some items received as hand-me downs from family. We registered at Babies'R'Us and a local Baby-stuff and safety store for some things for the shower, trying to add quite a variety of things to give people options in picking out gifts, not that we expect to have them clear out the registry.

I know we're busy discussing the merits of Windows and Mac OS UI's, Palm marketing strategies and how to spam people for a party, but I thought it would be interesting to get the perspective of mostly guys (with or without kids) on this topic.

Lately I've found myself on a bit of a nostalgia bender and wanting to make sure that at some point during the future development of our child that she be exposed to some of the toys and products my wife and I loved while growing up. I hope they'll make a good mix with newer product developments and technologies. Not to mention that as far as Fisher Price little people go, I find the older stuff just has much more character. Sure, you can't give them to toddlers as the people themselves are choking hazards, but that's more common sense than anything else.

Anyway, I'm curious what you guys have either found to be indispensable products, not just toys, for your own children or have experience with either from friends' or family's children.

In-hand we've already got a stroller, infant car seat, crib, what seems like a gross of receiving blankets, 2 infant bathtubs, some activity/developmental toys, a number of other do-dads and of course a decent amount of clothing.

We've already agreed to keep the home a Dora (and Diego) free zone too. Incidentally, the stroller is a Quinny Buzz 3 and the infant seat is a Maxi-Cosi Mico. They seemed like the "dad-style" product to get, especially as an alternative to the so-popular Bugaboo stuff.

I didn't think I was in the market for a stroller, but if I get both the black and white models, do I also get the model pictured in the middle? 'Cause, if so, maybe I do need a stroller.

Ya, she'd make a great nanny for me, err, the kid... I'm not even sure what model stroller that is and I've never seen that image before.

I was thinking more along the lines of inanimate products though. That won't require as much cash outlay nor up-keep as the beauty above.

EDIT:
Ok, I see it's a 3-wheel (European) version of their "Zapp" which I've only ever seen with 4 wheels, having mostly paid attention to the North American sub-sites. And they seem to have a dedicated site featuring B&W photos of hot women.

Diaper genie. Cannot stress that one enough.

High quality baby-monitor TX/RX set. I had a crappy one for a while where the static was louder than the signal. Then I replaced it with a great one that was so clear we could hear the baby breathe. But now I don't remember which brand was which.

I think I may have posted this one before...

jk's (reasonably short) "Must-Have list of Baby Stuff":

1) The bouncy seat with the vibrating motor. It really calmed both of my kids down, and let the younger sleep while congested. Which was pretty much every other week from November to March of his first year thanks to his big sister's preschool germ factory. Pediatricians don't like to medicate infants much at all.

2) A Baby Bjorn. Wearing a baby frees up both hands.

3) A white noise generator. We have creaky floors, and they'd wake all too often otherwise. I like the one at http://www.marpac.com/soundscreen.asp - it's tunable, natural white noise, not Smarter Image electronic white noise which irritates me. But I guess I'm a snob that way.

4) Linda Ronstadt's "Dedicated to the One I Love" lullaby cd. It includes a fresh interpretation of Queen's "We Will Rock You". And any Enya music. At 9 and 6, they still sometimes go to sleep to them.

Those four we never, ever traveled without. This fifth one was for my wife:

5) A special monitor that has a pad under the crib mattress to detect motion, including breathing. It alarms if there isn't motion for 30 seconds. SWMBO worried about SIDS and is a very light sleeper under the best of circumstances. Irrational? Perhaps, but this kept her from going to look in on them every couple hours or waking up whenever she heard an odd noise. You'll learn: babies make a lot of odd noises. Whoever coined the phrase "sleeps like a baby" didn't have "quiet" in mind. "Limp" or "angelic", perhaps, but not "quiet".

6) A crib sheet that is vinyl on the bottom and fabric on top, so that, um, "stuff" doesn't get onto or into the mattress. When they got that sick (and ours did - rarely, but they did), it's really easy to change, especially at 3 am - we'd just fold it up with all the spooge inside, put on a fresh one, and go back to sleep with fingers crossed.

7) Diaper Genie. It works.

Everything else is mostly fluff. We never used any hi-zoot bottles, just the basic Gerber Nuk stuff. My first was a pacifier kid (she slept with at least three - one in each hand and one in her mouth. She'd slowly lose them overnight; it helped to have spares. The younger is a stuffed animal kid. "Puppy" was one of his first words, though we've long since called his favorite one "Stinky Puppy". With cause. (Note: get machine washable stuffed animals!)

Don't know if the list will help you (or anyone else), but I thought I'd toss it out there.

-jk

If you buy the Diaper Champ, you don't have to keep buying refills. We just use regular Costco trashbags in ours. Saves a bundle.

We love our Bugaboo Stroller. It grows with the Baby. A thousand bucks for a stroller! No Way! Craigslist is your friend. We got ours for $300 in good condition. That goes for most of this stuff.(EDIT: I see you're already good on the stroller. Nevermind then.)

If your wife is planning to breastfeed, my wife never goes anywhere without My Breast Friend. Corny name, but WAY WAY more effective than the ubiquitous Boppy pillows, because they actually stay in place. Boppy's are still useful for other stuff, so don't return it.

Also a Medela pump. Don't go for the cheap one, get the real thing.

In addition to the Baby Bjorn, get your wife a Moby Wrap. It's comforting to the baby. Ours used to fall asleep in it all the time.

I'm going to second jmwking's suggestion of the bouncy seat with vibating motor. Absolutely essential to keep your sanity so you can actually sit down to dinner together for a few minutes anyway.

Avent pacifiers. It's the only one ours will use. Have heard the same thing from other parents.

a Bumbo. These are awesome. Allows the baby to sit and eat or play when they normally don't have the muscle control yet. Just use some common sense about where you put it. You won't need this 'til about 4 months.

Gripe Water. Fixes hiccups. You'll worship me for that one. Also gas drops from the same folks.

Backpack diaper bags. Trust me, your hands will be full enough. We love our Baby Sherpa when we're hiking or traveling in Belize. My wife has a Petunia Pickle Bottom that she likes. Again, Craigslist is your friend.

This one's a bit more controversial. On Becoming Baby-wise. All I'll say is that it worked brilliantly for us. Has slept through the night since 10 weeks. Our friends are envious of how happy and alert and productive her wake times are. I know that's anecdotal, but I've got friends that use it, and many more who don't, and there's a marked difference.

I'll post more if I think of them.

These seats were popular with my friends in Germany when I lived there.

Those Stokke high chairs are beautiful in their simplicity, but they're pricy, especially considering you need multiple accessories to go along with it. They also have some inconvenient aspects, such as their inability to be collapsed for storage or transport and lack of a table/surface to catch spills. It was one of two "alternative" high chairs that I liked though. The other was an all-plastic affair by Boon.

They do make an excellent product for use in a commercial setting though, and a number of restaurants around here have similar stuff. I'm very surprised Ikea doesn't have something similar actually.

We've registered for something a little more practical and as of last night, it seems to have been purchased.

Thanks to everyone for the ideas so far, please keep them coming if you can think of any more. Of course I'd love to see some feedback from anyone else who happens to catch this thread too.

Some of the stuff mentioned we've either registered for or have already, so I'm glad to see the recommendations/confirmations with regards to brands/models.

That white noise generator sounds really cool and might be more versatile than I first thought. I'll be looking at that a bit more.

I think I might throw a Squeezebox into the nursery, seeing as I'm not using my second one right now. Then I can stream all the Enya and Ministry the baby cares to listen to.

As far as diapers go, we're probably only going to use disposables for the first few weeks and then move to a washable "cloth" diaper system such as Bum Genius or Happy Heinys.

That wrap looks pretty versatile, but truthfully, I don't know if I'd trust my wife to always wrap/tie it correctly. Don't tell her I said that. I'm not sure how it would look on me either.


We registered for the Digital First monitor which I also see has been checked off the registry. I let my brother do the research on this one, hope he didn't steer me wrong.

I just put the crib together today after a final cleaning of the floor of the nursery. Over the past couple of weeks I've painted the room with multiple borders, built a narrow shelf around the perimeter, installed bamboo flooring and made/installed some cute cartoon clouds out of thin mdf/hdf along the top of all the walls. Once the furniture in the room is actually put in ideal positions, it will be the first room in this house that we've "completed." Next step some final small work in the kitchen and laundry and then finally set up my new office (which I'm going to need badly when Erin is home on mat leave).

Fortunately, Jen's folks had two of them from when she and her brother were kids, so they let us have one of them for Charlie (the other chair lives at their house). Accessories are quite pricey, but check out eBay; we got various bits by that route.

Also completely recommend the Baby Bjorn.

That's exactly what I'd recommend, we've had ours for 9 years now, just keep adjusting to size...

Also recommend a bumbo:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Bumbo-Baby-Sitter-EA101-AQU/dp/B000GX31F2/sg0a8-21

Oh, and forget all those fancy strollers, you can't beat a Maclaren

In case you're thinking of washable diapers:

Cloth Nappies Primer

Cloth Nappies Practical

The best things my wife and I bought for our son were:
1) His Stokke stroller. Excellent stuff. Where we bought it, it was a complete package as well. The only thing that wasn't included was the adapter set to click on a Maxi Cosi. (and even that was only 40 euro extra, so I can't really complain about the price of the extras)
2) Which brings me to his Maxi Cosi. I don't know how you can manage to be without one. It's his first car chair, yes, but handy for so much more as well!
3) Diaper genie, or, as they call it over here: Sangenic. You need it. Seriously!
4) The Bloom Fresco Childrens' seat. (or as we call it: 'the egg' ) Over here, those chairs Robotic is referring to are also popular, but this one is so much better. For one, you can start using it from day one until the kid is +/- four years old. Also, you won't bump your toes against it, which you will do with that other chair, trust me.

Bumbo is also cool, but our son only had about 1-2 months of joy out of that one. Between his fifth and seventh month. After that he had figured out how to crawl out of it.

I am the new Number Two!
You are Number Six!
My pants seem to contain a Number One!

Jonathan Coulton disagrees.

Yeah, OK we lose out on off road traction but other than that...

(We've had 2 Techno XTs)

Speaking of racing companies doing kid stuff...

Recaro does car seats for kids, too.
http://www.recaro.com/index.php?id=525&L=2

I don't have kids, but I've heard good things about them.

I've heard more mixed reports about kids, to be honest

Peter

Damn, you totally beat me to it.

ROFLMAO

Vixy, having been a Prisoner fan, liked it too.

You're thinking of McLaren. "McLaren Racing" in fact.

Maclaren make strollers. Umbrella-style strollers to be specific. They're arguably one of the best and certainly the most well known premium umbrella stroller brand, but an umbrella stroller isn't necessarily a replacement for a stroller system or multi-function stroller. They can make a good second stroller for those families that have the need, means or desire though.

The most obvious difference compared to a combination-type product is that there's only a single riding position, sitting upright. If was traveling a lot on public transit with a 1+ year old, this would definitely be the stroller I'd want to use. Especially if you're not going to deal with uneven terrain. For a lot of urban walking however, something like the others that have been mentioned (Quinny, Bugaboo or Stokke) would be a lot more comfortable and convenient for both parent and child.

Strollers and stroller systems are probably where I focused most of my own baby-centric product research time.

That cracked me up, Bitt.

I have no opinion on this subject. All I can suggest is "Goodnight, Moon"

On a related note, I thought I'd get my kid started on Marlborough brand cigs, but you still can't get those here in Ontario, so right now it's a toss up between Rothmans and Peter Jackson.

What kind of cigarettes do your toddlers like smoking?

I wonder if that was Jonathan Coulton's inspiration for the song.

I'm guessing no, but rather that it's inspired by the stroller scene in Manhattan and possibly other large metro areas. Maclaren is the most fashionable/trendy umbrella stroller and Bugaboo makes what are likely still the most trendy system strollers.

By the way, for anyone interested, it's one of his free songs, and it's a great style-parody of The Beach Boys.

And speaking of Jonathan Coulton songs related to new parenthood, You Ruined Everything is just about perfect.

Seconded. We have two copies. A lap book with cardboard pages, and a smaller paper version that travels with us.

For cloth diapers, also check out Fuzzi Bunz. Also make sure you get a Diaper sprayer. My advice would be to buy several different brand cloth diapers and try them before investing in a whole set. Different ones fit differently, and one brand may be more effective on your kid. Don't necessarily buy them based on a feature list. Doesn't matter how many bells and whistles they have, if they don't hold in poop, your life will suck. But don't bother messing with them for the first month or so. Also, Craigslist is a great place to get these (at least around here). Many people buy them and have great intentions of using them and never do, or only use them a couple times before they grow out of them. Seriously though. When you're buying something to poop in, does it have to be new?

You're right, the Moby Wrap takes a few minutes to learn to tie the first time. I read directions and pointed while she tied. Now she can do it faster than I can buckle on the Baby Bjorn (and the baby likes it a lot better). There are several ways to wear it, but we only found one really useful. It's definitely worth a try. You should be able to find one on Craigslist and sell it if you don't like it. Yeah, I'd agree that it's not for you to wear. It'd look pretty gay. Which is fine, if that's the vibe you're going for.

Ah.
For some strange reason I've got racing-on-the-brain.
Tony's mention of Jonathan Coulton had me wondering why a Formula One driver was writing songs about kiddie strollers.

Don't mind me, my brain is a strange place.

I knew you were thinking of David Coulthard as soon as I read that far in. You never know, there may very well be some Alain Prost or Nigel Mansel baby wipes out there somewhere.

I like the previous model

Congrats

We have a Quinny Buzz 3-wheeler too, it's very good. One little problem is that inflating the back tyres is a little tricky unless you have an old-school bike pump as the valve is so close to the hub it's hard to get the modern style floor pumps attached... just fyi!

We also ended up with a Zapp (4 wheel) for travel which folds impossibly small and also comes with a travel bag - great for aircraft holds. The maxi-cosi seat fits in the zapp too.

The baby monitor we got was this one: Philips SCD589 - has a temperature monitor/alert plus all sorts of fun to be had with remotely controlling lullabys. That and it uses standard AAA NiMHs so when they eventually bite the dust (full cycles for several hundred days will do it) they're easy to replace.

We ended up with this baby chair: Svan chair - not cheap, but very practical (adjusts up to practically a full size chair), very secure, dishwashable table top and easily washable cushions too.

That's about all the recommendations for gadgets... after that you're on your own

Hugo

+1 for the Diaper Champ. NO twisting. No refills, just standard kitchen garbage bags. Plus, you get a very satisfying "thunk" when the piston thingy shoves the diaper down into the bag.

We went with the Graco MetroLite stroller and Graco Snug Ride infant seat. The MetroLite is light weight, folds up, and the SnugRide easily snaps in without any additional attachments. The stroller also has a basket underneath and two cup holders up top. Cup holders are absolutely critical.

As baby gets older and outgrows the infant car seat, go Britax for the toddler years.

You'll also want one of those mirror thingies for the car, the ones that let you and the baby see each other through the rear-view mirror.

I'll post back if I think of anything else.

It may be obvious that I would post this, but if you can get Recaro seats for your car they do make the difference - a bit of decent head restraint for hard corners... :-)

For some reason we ended up with 9 buggies/strollers but they are all good for different things. We have a great Graco which is good for holidaying as it folds and unfolds with one hand (so easy for taking through airports) and doesn't sink into sand very much. We have a 3-wheel off-roader which was great for taking the little ones hiking, and a McLaren 'umbrella' style one which was very simple and light once they got a bit bigger.

The Britax system we got for our first baby was very reassuring, but ultimately a huge waste of money, heavy and clunky.

Joining late to this thread, a couple thoughts:

- Kid car seats seem to come in two equivalence classes: docking station models for infants, and larger, reversible seats that are good from 0 through 40 pounds (18 kg). We went with the larger seat, from day one, and got a lighter stroller than any of the ones designed to be docking stations. In practice this setup occasionally required removing a sleeping baby from the car (on pins and needles, as it were), but the benefit of having less weight to haul around was a godsend.

- We never bothered with a baby monitor. Our daughter was quite loud enough, all by herself.

- We never bothered with a dedicated "diaper bag". Instead, we bought a Timbuk3 shoulder bag, which can hold tons of baby crap, and has a rubber lining to hold in, umm, leaky bits. That bag has now been repurposed into a general carry-around, which never would have happened had we gotten some cute kiddy bag.

- Pacifiers are quite personal. Our kid did well with the soothie pacifiers that our hospital gave out. The same firm makes "wubbanub" pacies attached to beany-baby style stuffed animals. Our kid was quite attached to this, and by virtue of being graspable, she was (later) able to pick it up and place it back in when it fell out.

- We had the Diaper Champ. Worked great for #1's. For #2's, the stink still got through (at least to my wife's sensitive nose), so we'd dump those in the trash can outside.

- Never forget, that a new baby is an excuse to buy yourself lots of camera and video gear. Repeat after me: "it's for the baby." Among other things, I'll offer a plug for the Sony hard-drive-based camcorders, which connect via USB to Sony-branded DVD burners, letting you crank out DVDs for the grandparental units without having to import things into your computer and so forth. I made a few DVDs with iMovie, but the effort vs. reward isn't really there. Grandparents really don't care for polish on the videos. They just want something now, now, now.

- While sorting out our wedding, I often joked about the wedding-industrial complex, and their ability to try to sell us things that we didn't need. The baby-industrial complex is far, far worse. It's staggering how many utterly useless things they want to sell you. My favorite is probably the wipe warmer. (You don't need one.) Similarly, they have all these saucer-like contraptions that you can drop your kid in, with all sorts of shiny buttons and things for them to drool on. You pay more and more money for more shiny things, with some sort of implicit guilt if you don't get the top of the line gizmo.

- Along those lines, print 4x6 pictures via Internet upload at your neighborhood pharmacy or Costco or whatever. Much easier and cheaper than monkeying around with color inkjet printers.

- Whatever you do, try to avoid battery-powered toys. Half of the stuffed animals now make noise if you squeeze them in the right way. There are few things worse than stumbling around at night, stepping on some damn stuffed animal, and having it start singing a song.

The Baby Bjorn carrier was well used by my daughter and I, less so by my wife. But any carrier that you are comfortable wearing is fine, it is the getting out and about without a stroller which is where it comes in handy - you don't have to watch your shopping cart like a hawk as the baby is strapped to you. It made getting from Boston airport economy parking to the gate for a flight to Ireland with a 6 month old a breeze. Plus it is darn cute.

We also have their bibs, a bit bulky for taking places, I just strap it on to the diaper bag to my wife's annoyance, but great at catching a meal full of spills.

A small diaper bag, just enough to hold a few diaper, wipes, clean set of clothes, snack and a sippy cup, rather then the typically full size diaper bags which haul a lot more and can be identified as been suck from 50 yards / 45.72 meters. This is so you can be mobile with child.

Poop bags - there is probably a more technically term, but they are small blue bags that can block the stink of a babies diaper. You are not going to need these until they start on solids, but given their blocking strength they are clearly a by product of some military program. They come in boxes of 50 for ~$5, at BRU they are in a generic yellow/brown box. Because you can't just toss a poopy diaper in a public bathroom trash can.

Second car seat - sure with LATCH / ISOFLEX it is possible to move seats around a lot easier, but that requires thought, buy the second seat / seat base and get going.
Books, touch and feel books, flap books, board books, they are all good.

Breast pump - this enabled us give my wife feeding breaks and hence allowing her to get a solid 4 to 6 hours sleep. Plus I got quality time with our daughter.

I am sure there were other things, but these are they ones that stick in my mind.

One of my first favourite memories of my sort-of goddaughter was getting her such an "activity set" for her first Christmas. She would crawl over it and hit the various things (drum things, squeaky things, rattly things) that made noise when you hit them. The set came with a little plastic drum-stick, which I kept trying to put into her hand; she wasn't interested at first, but eventually crawled onto the activity set still carrying it, which hit it against the drum thing and made a much better noise than she'd yet made with her fists. She stopped dead, looked thoughtfully for a moment at the stick in her hand, and proceeded to gleefully bash the hell out of the drum. You could almost see her thinking, "Oh, hey! Tool use!" -- it was a very "2001" moment.

Peter

Yeah, my six-month old explores those saucer things endlessly. And the bouncer...she spends hours a day in that thing. That said, we ended up with piles of crap that baby-industrial complex said we needed (and my wife believed) and we have never used. Kinda pisses me off to think about it. Hmph, even 90% of the crap that I recommended above we could do without if we needed to.

We also have one of those stationary sit-in activity centres, one of the many things we received from Erin's cousin. I'm glad we've been able to avoid purchasing a lot of these limited-time use items, and if we're lucky enough to have a second child we'll hopefully pass along whatever we can that's still in decent shape. A lot of plastic goes into that stuff and I hate to think about how many might be thrown out.

We're also lucky to have a lot of second-hand baby places around here which carry all kinds of these toys/products as well as a large selection of clothing. I think we'll be ok on the clothing front for a little while as we're getting a large delivery of cousin's clothing tomorrow.

I'll post up some links to anything exceptionally cool Erin receives this weekend at her shower.

For ease of use and comfort, nothing has beaten our REI Infant Down Suit in the wintertime. It works pretty well in most colder temps due to the fact that you can unzip and fold down the front to cool or zip it up to the chin, and you can throw the kid in there without a lot of layers because the down is pretty warm. Hands/feet fold in or out so you don't have to put shoes/gloves on. Unavailable right now but I'm sure that REI will have a new model out in a few months for the winter season. #1 pick for me.

Ditto on the Timbuk2 bag. A nice messenger bag is suitable enough to carry all your junk, waterproof in case of interior or exterior spills and much less dorky and re-usable than a diaper bag.

One of the foldable diaper changing mats with a small amount of room for storage is great. You can lay it out on any flat surface or dirty changing table to give a nice area to change. Something like the ones below:

http://www.amazon.com/Built-NY-Cushy-Cha...280&sr=1-25
http://www.amazon.com/Kalencom-Quick-Change-Kit-Doodlebugs/dp/B001P5HLWO/ref=pd_cp_ba_0
http://www.amazon.com/Kiddopotamus-Chang...280&sr=1-47

I still have no opinion on baby stuff, but if you're looking at messenger bags, I'd suggest looking at Tom Bihn. For one thing, unlike Timbuk2, none of their bags are made in China.

I got one of their Checkpoint Flyer bags, and it's great. It works as advertised at airport checkpoints. And it even got a positive comment from a TSA employee. It's probably not the right model for a diaper bag replacement, but I'm sure one of their other models would be.

Whichever you get, just make sure it is waterproof. I can't tell you how many times we've spilled something inside the bag (lid comes off sippie cup, etc.) and what saves the car/room/restaurant is the bag being waterproof. One big compartment is also better than a bunch of extra pockets on the outside, organize the stuff inside with a few smaller pouches.

If you buy a custom messenger bag from Timbuk2 (I ordered mine custom about 12 years ago) they still make it in San Francisco.

One gift that surprised me (mainly because I hadn't given it any thought) was the Bum Genius DIaper Sprayer. It's just a rebranded general-use sprayer that ties into your toilet's water supply line, but seems generally useful. Took me about 2 minutes to install.

It's funny reading the comments at sites like Amazon. Thing thing will absolutely not leak if installed correctly (unlike one comment). If someone's getting water spraying al over the place chances are they shouldn't turn the tap on all the way. Most people don't have common sense, and when it comes to comments, generally it's people who like to listen to themselves talk that write the best negative ones.

The Diaper Champ doesn't seem to be available in Canada, but after evaluating how the various similar products operate (manuals), I think it's definitely the right one to get. I'll have to pick it up in/around Buffalo in a week or two.

I already used the prospect of a child as one of the reasons for acquiring my Nikon D300 in late 2007. Now it's the reason for light stands, some backdrops and a couple of extra flash heads.

Ah, but if you had read post #324154 more carefully, you would have given it thought, because I recommended it in said post!

I think I have a mild case of what my wife calls "baby brain" I remember clear as day now having read your message with that recommendation. I think that seeing the device in person, and not having looked closely at it online, mesmerized me.

I can see having to remove that item when the kid gets to a mischievous phase... Though hopefully they'll learn that you don't need to water the tile or carpet like you do the grass outside.

Quick question regarding the Gripe water... Had you tried any other brands before the one you linked? Locally I can only (most easily) get a particular store brand and I'm wondering if they're al pretty much the same.

They're not all the same, though I can't tell you which are the more effective. Some of the recipes in Canada still contain alcohol.

This is definitely true, as I remember "ethanol" as one of the ingredients in the Life brand bottle I saw at my brother's place. I was going to make a Sunoco joke at the time but then got focused on something else.

A back-pack type of carrier. We have one with a metal frame that I love. The strap type ones often have too many straps and are a pain to use (in my experience). I put my five month old in mine the other day and did the lawn and various other yard duties while he fell asleep on my back.

I used it all the time with our first son as well. He was geocaching with me at a very young age in that. I also took the two of them for a short, slow ride around the yard on my motorcycle the other day. The five month old on my back and the three year old on the back seat holding onto the frame of the rack.

A Bumbo.
Vibrating Bouncy Chair.
Video Monitor (ours was bought a geeks.com three and a half years ago)
A dehumidifier makes for a great white noise generator.
A play mat with stuff overhead to play with (sort of like a dome tent without the roof).
If you can find a place to buy patience... buy some!

Another bit of advice is to put the child in their own room early in the game. Our first was 5 weeks old and in his own room and our second was 4 weeks old. The first started sleeping through the night at 3 months and the second at 2 months and a bit. That also means you may sleep through the night and that can help a lot with patience for the rough days that the wee ones will have.

The last bit of advice is to enjoy it all! It goes so fast. Our three year old was a baby to us... and then the new little guy came along and we realized just how grown up our three year old was. Wow! Times files!!!

I wonder if she'll find this post one day when searching Google...

Born Monday August 17th, 2009, 4:15pm at 7lbs 4oz.

Olivia Margaret Hawkins Fernandes

Congratulations!

Congratulations!

Congrats!

It occurs to me that that one of those is the most "indispensable baby/toddler product".

Congrats!

Congrats!!!!

Congrats Bruno on the new arrival to the family.

Probably not baby/toddler products mostly, but you might find some good deals at the new Woot! site when she's a little older.

Ah
What a cutie.
Good luck to mommy, daddy and baby.

Good luck !

Congrats. Welcome to insanity.

Thanks all, the comments are much appreciated.

Mom and baby are still at the hospital awaiting a second Bilirubin test. The first one, 24 hours after our daughter was born indicated she was borderline with jaundice. So they want to check again today to see if she'll need any light therapy. If not everyone should be home tonight. If so, they'll have to stay at least another day with another test likely tomorrow after going under the tanning lamps.

Other than that everyone's fine and the little one seems to be eating (and pooping) like a champ.

The only part that's going to drive me insane is dealing with the mother-in-law. What a right pain in the ass.

And the lack of sleep. Trust me on this. Congratulations.

Mom and daughter were discharged yesterday, a few minutes after I wrote my last post. In fact, I got a phone call telling me to get my ass over to the hospital (2 minute drive away) just after submitting it.

Just getting settled in at home and trying to work out the routines. Mainly feeding and sleeping, for Olivia and of course ourselves. We're also getting our two dogs used to this new person and the altered schedules and patterns.

Now I have to deal with the small back up of support emails from early this week and really get some clean-up done around the house. Fun times. Not to mention make a run down to my mailbox in the US in a week to pick up a bunch more crap I've ordered. I actually ended up going with a Tripp Trapp highchair due to a sweet price I found online.

One of the things I'm really looking forward to during my eventually long cleanup, is the small studio I'm putting together for photos. Picking up a second strobe on that mailbox run as well as some backgrounds - already have some light stands and umbrellas.