8 Lessons Learned in 8-Months

Baby June is now 8-months!

She has been a little wonder baby. She is turning out to be very smiley and observant. She is just learning to wave and will wave at literally anyone passing by, even animals, even people quite far away who would never see it (lol, so cute).

Keeping our home simple and clutter-free has been another journey.

…let's just say it ebbs and flows.

8 LESSONS learned, thus far

1. We only need 3 bottles

A reader actually told me she only used 3 bottles (thank you!), which gave me the confidence to try it out right away. We have not looked back. It’s kinda like our dog leash. We have 1 dog leash, it hangs on a hook near the door. We always know where it is because we have to. I find when I have fewer of an essential item, I keep better track of it.

2. skip the bottle sanitizer + bottle warmer

We don’t have either. What we have instead: an electric kettle with temp. gauge, and a small, separate drying rack we use for bottles 

Note - We rented a bottle sanitizer from LOOP for the first 5 months of breast feeding / pumping, and that was helpful with all the pumping parts, but honestly these are huge and ugly and highly-specific. Borrow or rent if you can!

3. on that note, Rent / Borrow ANYTHING POSSIBLE

For short-term items we rented from LOOP, a baby gear rental service for the Bay Area (highly recommend!). Items like a baby Bjorn Bouncer, a Boba baby wrap, and Hatch changing table with built-in scale (good for the early days of worrying about baby’s weight).

4. Footed P.J.'s or bust

For the first 6 months, the only clothes she needed were footed-PJs and a baby hat. Literally! Pants ride up the calf and make her little legs cold, and socks fall off unless they are on-top of footed PJs. (You could also do footed pants, plus a onesie that snaps at the crotch, but I found PJs to be the best)

• Cold out? Add a thicker hat, booties/socks, and/or a sweater on top of the footed-PJs

• Super hot? She can just be in a diaper (or naked!) in the shade.

• Want to look cute? If I desired a "cute outfit" for a party / family event, I would add a matching bow or other accessory.

5. Cloth diapering is not that hard

Esp. if you have easy access to a washer/dryer. We use cloth during the day and single-use at night (so she can sleep through the night without waking up wet in the middle of the night). Yea, the poops are gross, but honestly it's still gross with a single-use diaper, so highly recommend cloth!

Cloth diapers are more prone to diaper rash, so you have to change often, and we use a hair dryer on the changing table to ensure June gets dry between changes. Also time without a diaper on is really great for them, too!

6. Hand-me-downs have hidden benefits

We are so grateful for our community for their thoughtfulness and generosity. For our bassinet, rather than spend forever researching which one to use, we just used the one Will’s cousin handed-down to us. Let some things be easy, and let the decision be made for you. Same with our bottle “system”. We use NUK bottle because that’s what a friend handed down to us. AND you don't  have to accept everything. I found a local donation center (Postpartum Support Center), and a friend with a baby a few months behind me, so I just take all hand-me-downs and pass on the ones I won’t use.

7. Get the “travel” version

Firstly, I must admit - I was reluctant to get a stroller at all, and now we have two (face palm, head scratch, all the things). When I was initially having my stroller stand-off, Will decided he was going to get his own stroller despite what I wanted (why I married him), so he got a Thule jogger from Craigslist, which admittedly works great for the bumpy country roads around our neighborhood, and I love that it is second-hand. When I finally came to believe a stroller was actually a good idea, I wanted one that was more portable, lighter weight and easier to throw in the car, take up stairs and compact to use in the city. After some research we purchased the MINU travel stroller from UppaBaby (pictured w/ yoga mat for scale). If you live in a city with a walk-up apartment, or lots of stairs look into all things travel! They are lighter, more compact and still have all the functionality. We also exclusively use a travel sound machine, which has been seamless.

8. Trust your gut … And Don’t be too hard on yourself

Baby stuff is tricky because as a first-time parent you don’t know what you will need, and there is a lot of marketing out there to make you believe you need a LOT. I suggest to err on the side of less. Check in with your gut. If you are unsure, abstain. Exhibit A - I reluctantly took a motorized baby swing by Munchkin and it stayed mostly unused in our loft until I re-homed it to a better suited family. And even though I try to not buy anything from Amazon ever, the reality is sometimes I need to, and that’s ok.