A Few of my Favourite Things

When you're a new or soon-to-be new parent, there's so much you're tempted to buy. There are so many books out there filled with so many product suggestions (although I found Robin Barker's "Baby Love" to be quite practical), it can be a little overwhelming. When I had Heike, I bought so many things that we just never used. Then there were the things we rushed out to get due to desperation, and I promptly fell in love with and proposed marriage to. The lifesavers. And I'm going to share them with you, because I'm nice like that.

Available at Mothercare for $39.95

1) The Love Me Baby Wrap - If you have nice friends with babies, you may have heard people extolling the wonders of this little wrap before. If like me your friends are relatively clueless about babies, then I'm going to give you some excellent free advice - buy a Love Me Baby Wrap. Buy three. Then buy three in larger sizes. Go home, put this on your baby, and enjoy some sleeping baby time. Now I know it won't work quite like this and I know all babies are different, but this little ripper SAVED MY LIFE to the extent that when Heike got bigger and was too old to be wrapped, I was actually terrified about laying the LM Wrap to rest. It kept ME up at night just thinking about it. She was fine, by the way, although she still sleeps with her arms up in the position you see on your left. Unique.

Freaky looking, but just $28.84 at Big W

2) The Fisher Price Seahorse - Um, I'm speechless. Purely because words cannot express how deeply fond I am of the Fisher Price Seahorse. Friends of mine actually brought this to the hospital when Heike was born, and I didn't really give it a second thought...until 3 hours later when she wouldn't sleep and I would have tried anything short of nothing to get her to sleep. I mean at this point I was squeezing tiny drops of milk out of my boobs so it was really desperate times. Anyway, you may have also read that Heike never really slept during the day, and without this seahorse I wouldn't have even been able to get her into the bassinet without a meltdown. Interestingly the product description online says "After five minutes the music fades, lights dim, and baby can drift off to dreamland". Good luck with that! Lots of shushing and patting was also required but the seahorse was truly fantastic. The day it ran out of batteries, I literally had tears in my eyes. Negatives? I couldn't work out how to change the batteries. But then again I have lost my car keys on top of my car...Oh oh, funny aside to this story, at my first mother's group meeting I raved on and on about my "Fisher & Paykel Seahorse". Ummmmmm yes Zoe that is a brand of WASHING MACHINE. Sadly I was trying so hard to be likable, but immediately unveiled my slightly dopey side.

$49.95 from Mothercare

3) An old school bouncer - Whenever I walk into one of those mega baby stores, I am blown away by the number and variety of bouncers you can buy. Plastic, wooden, rocking, rotating contraptions, and really they're all a waste of money. Because my old fashioned Bouncinette, handed down through a few generations, was totally kickass. It's so light that you can plonk baby in it and carry him or her around the house, chatting and being involved in household activities. I may have even baked a cake while Heike sat babbling at me in her bouncer. Lots of bubs can even be rocked off to sleep in these beauties, but not mine (not without a seahorse and a Love Me wrap anyway!). Still, it got us through those early days. Having said that, the floor is also an excellent option for babies. It's free and lots of babies who spend time on the floor end up being early movers and shakers. Which my daughter is most definitely NOT but more on that in the future.

What must-have items saved your life when your kids were little?

Z xx