kjirsty's Profile

my kid doesn't watch TV anyway, but my general impression is that a TV in child's room is not recommended. as seen here: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/8471072/
and here:
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/07/05/health/05beha.html

oy. strawberry shortcake looks a bit too kinderwhore for me.

I feel like Keely is asking for a list, not one. so here's my list, from what I remember ("baby" now almost two):

- diaper bag or regular bag big enough to haul baby stuff (like to go to the ped's: extra diaper (baby has to get naked to be weighed), change of clothes (accidents happen - a lot), blanket, burp cloth, pad and paper for your notes.)
- winter warm stuff - for a feb baby you need things like a jj cole bundle me for the stroller/car seat, hat, fleece snowsuit.
- no "real" clothes in the 0-3 mos size; just footed cotton sleepers and onesies.
- bath/toiletry stuff: hooded towels and baby washcloths, nail clipper, aspirator, mild baby soap.
- some kind of changing surface - just a portable mat, whatever. we changed DD on our bed on a portlable mat.
- humidifier - little babies can be v congested. and you'll want one for when they get colds, etc., later on.
- nursing stuff: nursing bra, lanolin, pads, and the phone # of a lactation consultant (ask your ped). maybe a pump and bottles - ask lactation consultant for rec. nursing doesn't work for everyone, so maybe wait to buy the pump.
- burp cloths
- carrier: bjorn, sling

and agree with other recs on boppy, swing, swaddling blanket.

you'll buy lots more stuff of course, but no one wants to go shopping the first few weeks, so these are good starters.

congrats!

I third phoneill's criticism! why are toys so super-gendered these days? and clothes, too! I miss the 70s. some clothes were ugly, but they weren't so pink.

we like living small. we are happy living small. but we are at a point where we are really struggling with squeezing all of our activities into our small space.

we are currently a family of three (two adults, one toddler), soon to expand to a family of four. our living room is the most over-taxed room in our one-bedroom apartment. it is a living room, dining room, office, playroom, and guest room all in one. and we may need to squeeze an infant nursery into one corner when our new arrival comes home - we haven't really worked out a strategy yet! we also have frequent out-of-town guests who we very much want to stay with us, so the guest room function is an important one. we love our apartment and our neighborhood and really would like to stay put. we could really use lauri's help to live smarter in our limited space!

these pictures are of our living room looking its very proudest - cleaned and decorated for our daughter's birthday. it would be more realistic to show it in its usual more chaotic state, but we did not want to shame our poor living room too terribly.

http://flickr.com/photos/7259434@N02/

hey, if we all still lived in villages with our mothers, sisters, and female cousins nearby to share all their parenting wisdom (and their hand-me-down stuff, most importantly), and if 90% of our female peers got married and had kids at the same time we did, then these services wouldn't be needed.

sadly, since we live in the real world, I think they're great. I have zero friends with kids, my mom lives across the country, and I worked 50-60 hrs/wk up until 3 days before my daughter was born. yes, I muddled through, but it would have saved my a$$ to have someone talk me through the products and the challenges of new parenting. I didn't hire a baby nurse or a post-partum doula because I thought that was for rich people (and people who had an extra room for the baby nurse to sleep in - no space in our 1 BR!) - but in retrospect it would have been a good idea to hire SOMEONE who knew more than me and my clueless husband.

and doppelganger...I hear you on hating the judgers, but what's up with you judging women who go back to work? At least, that's what your "And I had no plan to return to work full-time when my mat leave was up, so don't worry -- I haven't put my kid on the back burner. He's the centre of my entire life, as he deserves to be." comment sounded pretty judge-y to me. Working mothers can be good parents too.

I think the one area where any sort of disguise/deception is totally OK is when you have an underweight child. I have two friends who have underweight children and their mealtimes are extremely stressful. I would hope that as their children get older they will stabilize a bit more and they can then implement more "appropriate" rules for food - i.e., this is our dinner and it's what we're all eating. but for a pre/not very verbal toddler who has basically fallen off the height/weight charts - hey, whatever works.

such great (and really thorough!!) suggestions! I just wanted to echo what others said about adding a seat of some sort - the classic gliders are pretty hideous, but if you buy a cheaper one (think they're ~$150 from kmart, for instance) then it can serve its purpose and then be set free on craigslist when you're done with that stage.

And also you need some sort of soft light - a desk lamp on the dresser, or a nightlight, or one of those "star" hanging lamps that were so popular a few years ago. something so you can see but it's still dim and mellow in the middle of the night. or at a minimum, a dimmer switch for the overhead light in the room.

such a great project!

we also have tons of stuff in our apt that we don't need every single day (travel/umbrella stroller, carseat). depending on your situation, maybe you could box some of that up and store it with friends/relatives or in mini-storage? I have read that even no-child households are often told by aggressive realtors that they have too much stuff around, and that professional stagers do this all the time.

I'm not wild about stuffing things in closets, because a serious prospective buyer is definitely going to open those, and if they're a disaster it's not great.

this is horrid. I would even take an escher poster over this. ugh.