Five Baby Proofing Essentials

Image 2 Comments

babyproofing

As parents, we can tell you that there is no greater joy than seeing your baby reach his or her first milestones. First solid food, first words, first steps…they all pale in comparison to that exhilarating moment when your child opens their first cupboard or drawer. Not! Depending on what you store in your cupboards and drawers that moment can be absolutely terrifying. We recently upgraded our baby-proofing gear because our son is now climbing to reach those off-limit spaces so we wanted to write a post covering the basics of getting the home ready for that mischievous explorer in your life. For those of you who have someone going around opening drawers; pulling out utensils, clothes, and God knows what, or even attempting to climb TV stands or dinning tables then this post is just for you. Here are five basic contraptions that you’ll need to baby proof your home, along with a glimpse of what they look like in our house and a shopping list of the specific products we went with.

1. Safety locks for keeping those adorable fingers out of drawers, cabinets, appliances, and trouble!

2. Flat TV straps to prevent your television from tipping forward and causing a serious injury (God forbid).

3. Edge and corner covers to cushion the blow when your child’s head collides with the furniture (because there’s a high chance it will…more than once).

4. Baby safety gate(s) to keep your little ones contained and away from the danger of stairs.

img_1091

5. Outlet Protectors…because the last thing you want to be worrying about are fingers and objects getting jammed in sockets.

img_1128

Baby Proof Shopping List
1. Safety locks: Sure Basics & Babies R US
2. TV Straps: QuakeHOLD
3. Edge and Corner Covers: Roving Cove
4. Baby Gate: Summer Infant
5. Outlet Protectors: Safety 1st

This is by no means a comprehensive list but we have installed all of these products and have found life with our hobbit to be much more manageable. They’re not the most stylish looking contraptions but they are easy to install and definitely get the job done. Of course, nothing works better than your own two eyes so being alert and using common sense is the best way to eliminate any baby hazards in your home.

What are your must-have baby-proofing gadgets? Let us know in the comments below. And as always…

If you liked this post please follow us and share!

Instagram

Bed-share, don’t care

Image Leave a comment
IMG_3871 (1)

Our useless, empty crib.

Bed-sharing. It’s one of those things that elicits strong reactions of admonition from family members, co-workers, and total strangers alike. “You let him sleep in your bed?! You need to fix that!” I can’t tell you the number of times I have heard this and while it’s natural to feel doubt about parenting choices, I am here to unapologetically say that we have absolutely no regrets with our choice to bed-share. I am no scientist or doctor and while I am aware of the research on both sides of the debate regarding the benefits and risks of bed-sharing, the anthropologist in me continues to question the status-quo cultural presumptions (particularly American) that treat bed-sharing as an unfortunate lapse in judgement at best and potential child abuse at worst. Says who babies need their own rooms and beds to grow into independent, self-sufficient adults? And what kind of “independence” are we talking about? If that means being able to play on their own and let you leave the house without batting an eyelash then my son is as independent as they get.

I, however, did not write this as an argument for or against bed-sharing because I really believe only a parent can know what’s best for their  family and lifestyle. I am writing this brief reflection to add my voice to a conversation on bed-sharing that has been particularly negative, a conversation that is built on fear and shame (as if new parents don’t have enough stress to deal with). I’ll never forget, as a new mom, feeling guilt whenever I had to reveal to people that our son slept with us. I would internally grimace in anticipation of the response, almost acknowledging that it was a problem we were putting off fixing. That is until I found comfort in friends (mostly anthropologists-surprise, surprise) who understood and had either bed-shared or knew someone who did. But I could never shake the thought of why I felt that sense of embarrassment and why it mattered to so many people where my baby slept. So here’s to all the guilt-ridden mommas and daddas out there that need a little reminder of something they know to be true deep down inside: bed-sharing is absolutely magical. And just in case you forgot, here are three reasons why you know you would do it all over again.

bed-share

1) Welcome to parenthood where the work is plenty and the sleep is little. If you have ever had to wake up to feed an infant, you know that it happens several times a night. Interrupted sleep is the norm. So you can either make things harder on yourself by getting out of your warm, comfy bed and walk down a dark hallway to attend to your little one OR you can have your baby right next to you able to help him or herself and doze right back off so that you can too.

2) Babies make the best wake up calls. Dings and beeps on your phone or alarm clock are just dreadful reminders that it’s time to be an adult again. Babies, on the other hand, are the perfect reminders of all things beautiful in life: wondrous curiosity, a hunger for exploration, carefree joy. There is nothing more wonderful than waking up to the sound of silly babbles in your ear, soft little fingers playing with your face, and slobbery drool dripping down your cheeks. Nothing.

3) Baby cuddles. Enough said. My son is a keep-your-hands-off-me explorer by day and a snuggly, cuddle-bug by night. I can’t get enough of the smell of his hair and the way he kicks me at night to make sure I’m still there. I know this might sound super morbid but the average life expectancy of an American adult is 76 or 81 depending on your sex so if you do the math you’ll realize they’re only cute and small enough to snuggle in bed with for less than 5% of their life. Now if that doesn’t make your heart melt and want to hold them tighter, I don’t know what will.

If you liked this post please follow us and share!

Instagram

Reflections on a year of cloth-diapering

Image 7 Comments

Our little hobbit turned one yesterday (where did the time go?!) and we have been reflecting all week on the year that has passed. It certainly wasn’t easy. There were so many things we had to learn and many more sleepless nights but we loved every minute of our first year as parents. One of our proud parent highlights of the year was our very positive experience with cloth-diapering. After one year of successful cloth-diapering we highly recommend it to anyone and everyone considering it. However, that doesn’t mean we didn’t learn a thing or two along the way so here we present to you 5 things we wish we knew or did from the beginning to make our cloth-diaper journey a bit smoother and less stressful.

CD3

 1. Print a schedule and keep track of laundry days

When you have a million other things to juggle it’s quite easy to forget the last time you did the diaper laundry. Trust us, it’s not so fun when you realize you’re out of diapers as you are preparing baby for bedtime. Keeping a schedule helps you keep the load of remembering off your shoulders and clean diapers on hand when you need them most.

2. A little bit of bleach goes a long way

Over time cloth diapers eventually start to smell even if you wash them consistently. Whether it’s ammonia or bacteria build-up, the smell can be extremely unpleasant and linger after several washes. Don’t worry, it’s not  necessarily something you are doing wrong. You just need to switch things up and find something that gets the smell out. We started adding a small amount of bleach to our cycles just once or twice a month and it was like hitting the reset button. The diapers not only smelled great but looked bright and clean too! Be careful not to overdo it with the bleach though. After all, it is a harmful chemical and should only be used sparingly.

3. Diaper liners will be your friend when baby starts solids

Remember when we wrote a post about how diaper liners sucked because they ruined our plumbing? While we still don’t recommend them for flushing, they definitely come in handy when your little one starts pooping solids. After several weeks of rinsing smeared poo off the inside of diapers, we decided to bring back the liners and we haven’t looked back since. Just toss the liner with the poo in the pail and you are good to go. No extra whiffing or rinsing required.

4. Some diaper rash creams leave stains

This one just bothers us because we had kept our diapers in such great condition for so long. If you’re like us and you care about keeping your diapers looking clean then know that certain diaper rash creams (non-water soluble like Desitin) don’t wash away. At least we haven’t yet discovered a way to get rid of them. We are definitely going to be using these diapers again for a baby #2 but if you are planning on selling them once you are done (we know many do) then this is something you might want to watch out for.

5. It’s okay to cheat once in a while

If you’re going on vacation or out longer than a few hours and you don’t have access to a diaper pail or laundry machine just go with disposables. That is unless you’re taking an extra luggage to haul back some reeking souvenirs. My brother got married recently and rather than lugging around a bag for dirty diapers to makeup, pictures, and the reception, we opted to use disposable diapers that day for the convenience. I’ll admit I did feel guilty but I eventually got over it. Look, you will have circumstances where it will be near impossible to cloth diaper and that’s completely okay. Don’t be too hard on yourself, cloth-diapering was never meant to make your life difficult.

CD2

If you already cloth diaper these will just have made you nod your head in agreement (we hope) but if you are just starting out then we really hope you find these tips helpful. And if you have any questions or comments we would love to hear from you 🙂 Until next time.

If you liked this post please follow us and share!

Instagram