The Best of the Rest: Babies 1st Year Must Haves

I was so surprised at the comments, emails, and facebook messages on my earlier post this week around the must have items for babies 1st year.

And of course the list is longer, so I share with you now the other must-have items on my list:

1) The Nose Frida
Yes, Marie, this one just hit the cutting room floor in the top 10. I had to fit in friends and family. After all it was you, my friend, that introduced me to the Nose Frida.

Nose Frida--sounds scary. Nate would say it is. I say it is a miracle worker. Do not under any circumstance think that your little nose sucker from the hospital will function the way you need it to. Instead, buy this thing. Get over the fact that you are literally sucking up your child's boogers, and do it. Your baby will be happier. She will sleep better. You will be happier. Easy enough. Target.com carries it. Buy it here.

2) Trumpette Socks
Don't bother with any brand. They all fall off. And you will spend hours of your life re-putting on socks. Until you buy these and end the insanity. Their tights are pretty nice too.

3) Pampered Chef Steamer
Remember my little Immersion Blender tip? Well once your babe graduates to finger food, you are going to be steaming a lot of vegetables. And this puppy is worth every dime. And guess what...it's not that many dimes. 85 to be exact (that's $8.50 for those mathematically challenged people out there).

This thing gets action every day, three times a day in our household. I've even got pretty good at knowing exactly how long it takes to do food in this thing. Asparagus? 4 minutes, 23 seconds. Boom.

4) Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child

More like "Happy Mamma"...but in all seriousness. I didn't want to be a Mom that went by any books. But then I had Matilda, and this child didn't sleep. And so I bought all the books. And I immediately took all teh books back except for this one. I know this wouldn't be for everyone, and it wouldn't be for every child. But it worked for us, and I would not have survived the first year with out it.

5) MAM Pacifiers
If you are going to be a parent that allows pacifier, or in our case, a parent to a child that literally came out sucking on its wrist-- you want to get the best pacifier. It tooks us a good 3 months to discover this one, but once we did all I did was hear other Moms talk about it. Apparently it is literally designed to stay in better. And. it. totally. did. Buy them. by the dozen.


Stay tuned for my list of 'top things everyone tells you you need, but you don't..."