Birthdays and Babies

by 116 Comments

Hi Friends!

Today is my 29th birthday! If you need me, i’ll be busy pretending that this past weekend’s weather (70 and sunny) was meant for my bday…since Mother Nature has decided it should only be 38 degrees today. WHAT?!

I’ll also be eating my last little birthday ice cream cupcake and treating myself to a nap!

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When I was younger, the only “birthday cake” I ever requested was actually more like an ice cream pie. It was an oreo crust filled with strawberry ice cream and topped with m&ms. I found this pic from one of my earlier bdays to show you one my mom made:

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It’s been forever since I had my favorite cake….so this year I decided to treat myself. I made little individual ice cream cupcakes because they’re easier to deal with…the big pie can be hard to cut and this way they’re already pre-portioned. All you have to do is mix together some crushed oreos and a little melted butter and press into the bottoms of the muffin tins, top with strawberry ice cream and then add a few m&ms and store in the freezer. I think I made 8 of them so I’ve been enjoying them for dessert for the past week and a half! Delish.

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In unrelated news, it’s time to ask for some advice from you guys. Now that you know baby bean is on the way….we need all the help we can get and we’d love your opinions. Here are some questions to get you started:

  • What are the baby must-haves, products, etc? (For baby AND for parents!)
  • What are some things you thought you’d need but ended up not being that important?
  • Have you written a post or read a good article on baby must-haves? Leave me a link!
  • Tips for getting pets ready for babies?
  • Any great websites to score deals on baby stuff?

Let’s hear it!

Enjoy!
–Lindsay–

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Comments

  7. Get yourself a copy of Baby Bargains!! The book has great reviews of every kind of baby item at every price point. Don’t spend a fortune on bedding…you can’t use half of it due to SIDS risk (bumper, comforter). Get the best stroller(s) you can…both for walking and exercise. We LOVE our UppaBaby Vista. When you are ready to buy furniture, look at the pricy stores and then order online from Bambi Baby. The prices are way better (esp if you wait for a sale which they are always having!) and it will ship to you super fast…way faster than the wait times furniture stores will quote!!

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  8. It’s totally shocked me that Martha Stewart’s CD was a lifesaver with my colicky baby. I must’ve played that lullaby CD a million times as a paced with her —begging her to stop crying 🙂

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  13. Happy Birthday!!!!
    While I will never ever sacrifice my favorite all time dessert (super rich, dense chocolate cake with chocolate icing), your favorite sounds absolutely fabulous!
    I don’t know what it is about kid desserts, but I would take a big ole bowl of dirt and worms over Baked Alaska any day 🙂

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  14. Don’t know how crunchy you are, but these worked for us. Consider co-sleeping, both are kids have never slept in a crib. Ive never had to get out if bed in the middle of the night! Consider cloth diapers, we cloth part time (during day during the week). It paid for itself in a few months and now is free for second kid. I estimate I save $1-2 per day for part time! A vacuum you can hold in one hand. (the white noise can help them calm down, I would vacuum right before naps and baby would be asleep before I was done) . And try to find a baby wearing club or Facebook group. They can help you find a wrap/carrier. It is the hands down best way to get around. I didn’t have professional help with my first, so there was a learning curve. My second goes everywhere in ktan or ergo! So much easier than baby carrier or stroller (I still have a jogging stroller though)

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  15. Happy birthday! Here are a few things off the top of my head that were baby essentials and we definitely needed:
    -good swaddle blankets (we loved the Kiddaponumus (sp?) brand
    -sound machine
    -an infant bouncy seat
    I’m sure there’s more but those are the first things I think of as must-haves. Good luck!

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  19. Happy happy birthday Lindsey!! Hope you have a most fabulous day and enjoy some time with your hubby and you! I don’t have any children but so many of my friends and family do and the one thing I seem to have picked up on: you can never have enough bibs, bottles and nappies!

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  27. Happy Birthday!
    Baby tips:
    For you dog bring a blanket home after the baby has been born that the baby has been swaddled in so that he can get familiar with the scent.
    I wish I would have just gotten feeding seats and not a big high chair (high chairs take up a lot of space)

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  28. After the girls were born but before we came home from the hospital, hubs brought a hat that they’d worn home for the dogs to sniff. When baby came home, she smelled familiar and the dogs were like, “Oh, she belongs here!”
    Happy birthday!

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  30. Have a wonderful birthday, Lindsay!!
    For must haves, we loved our swaddle blankets for nighttime, a good stroller (love our BOB) and baby carriers. We used both the Moby wrap and the Ergo, but it’s such a great way to handle a fussy baby around the house or to take walks, carry them while grocery shopping, etc. Bigger items are trickier- some babies hate the swing! We borrowed one from a friend and L only used it for a few months, so if you have options to try things or borrow things from someone else, that’s a great way to do it with items you’re unsure of. When in doubt, don’t register for it- there are all kinds of products out there that babies don’t really need!

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  31. Oh petal, I’ve been terrible at keeping up with my blog reading and I missed your announcement. This is such wonderful, magical, incredible news! I am absolutely delighted for you and I know you will be the greatest parents! Huge congratulations xxx

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  34. DEFINITELY get the Baby Bargains book! And a bouncy seat is amazing especially one that vibrates 🙂 Some sort of baby carrier is also great especially when you go to the grocery store. Don’t know much about the new ones, my first is now 11 and we used Baby Bjorn. Also, we never used a wipe warmer, bottle warmer, even a diaper genie type thing. Got them but didn’t use them. And you really do just need a sheet for the crib, nothing else. We had a cool stroller with our 3rd that allowed you to snap the car seat into the base, can’t remember the name. That was good when they were really little and also so you didn’t have to transfer a sleeping baby to a stroller 🙂 Congrats!!!

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  39. Happy Birthday!! I hope your day is super special! I’m preggo with #1 and Palmer’s Belly Butter (in a little jar) has been AMAZING! It smells great, goes a LONG ways and even erased some existing stretch marks I had. Score! Live it up in the rouched maternity shirts (workout too). They are adorable and so comfortable. I bought a belly band right away so I could keep wearing my normal pants but I ended up only wearing it a few times. It was annoying to me. I’ve got a few posts on my blog about pregnancy workouts, and I’ve loved using Knocked Up Fitness workouts too!

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  47. Happy Birthday!

    Congrats on your baby bean:) On word of advice from someone that has taken care of MANY children including my own. DONT READ TOO MANY BOOKS! All children are different, all children will develop different, and all parents will raise their children different. Just because one book says he/she should crawl at a certain age does not mean they will all crawl at that age.
    Relax, enjoy and savor the moments and don’t stress about what should happen, enjoy what does happen.

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  50. Every parent and kid is different, so what I needed may be different than what you need. Things that tend to get put on the do not buy list that we had: bottle warmer and wipes warmer. I was unable to breastfeed and B has extremely sensitive skin, so we used both.

    A few things that I don’t think are necessary, buying an exclusive changing table. You can use a low dresser, just make sure there is a way to secure the changing pad to the table. If your house is 2 floors I would also suggest that you buy an extra changing pad for the downstairs (if the babies room is on the second level) because in those early months there will be a lot of changing diapers. Lastly, get a diaper pail that doesn’t require special garbage bags. We originally got the Safety 1st diaper pail, but the smell still permeated the room. We then got the Ubbi which is pricy, but the smell never gets into the room and we’ve had that for almost 2.5 years.

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  51. We had the Chico Key Fit as well and used an Uppa Baby Vista stroller. It is pricy but the basket was big enough that I could use that for grocery shopping instead of putting the car seat in the cart. (It also has a bassinet attachment that we LOVED).

    Swaddle use Aden & Anais blankets, and get the book Happiest Baby on the Block.

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  52. Happy Birthday! I love those individual ice cream cupcakes, much easier than a full size one. & who doesn’t love crushed oreos? 🙂

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  53. happy birthday!!!!!!!!! i’m totally coming back to check out the comments of this post! i heard for pets and this is what we did with zoey is send home a swaddle blanket from the hospital with the baby’s scent on it so the dogs can start to get used to it.

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  54. Happy birthday! We wouldn’t have survived without the Rock n Play (Lucy slept in it in her room at night until she was 3 months old) and Halo sleep sack swaddles. A bouncy seat was great too to put her in and move her around the house if I was folding laundry, cleaning, making dinner, etc. Excited to follow your pregnancy journey!

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  55. I didn’t read through all your comments so apologies if I double dip.

    Happy Birthday, first and foremost!!!

    I’ll spare a lot of commentary and just touch the pets situation. What worked for us with both girls is the last few weeks before we brought baby(s) home, we slept with the blanket we intended to wrap them in the most. That way the baby has your scent (and theirs) already on it and they don’t seem “foreign”.

    Also, the hat they put in baby in the hospital we put in a ziplock bag and my husband took it home and let each cat smell and touch it to be familiar with it. Once we were home we let them individually and in a quiet place meet the baby and did a lot of reassuring and praising. We never had issues and our cats went into protective mode with each daughter.

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  58. Happy Birthday. April birthdays are the best (mine is the 28th)!

    Of course there is the obvious stuff you need but a few things that we didn’t get right away and wished we had were: mattress pad covers (at least 2 of them), sleep/swaddle sacks, baby mittens so they don’t scratch themselves, and for yourself: if you plan on nursing I highly recommend investing in good nursing bras.

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  60. Happy Happy Birthday!! I LOVE this idea for a bday cake/treat. My fav cake growing up with Baskin Robbins grasshopper pie. OMG YUM!

    As for baby stuff, off the top of my head, the thing that I couldn’t live without: swaddles (particularly the ones with velcro so I didn’t have to deal with swaddling the baby in the middle of the night), a carrier (i.e. Ergo – didn’t love baby bjorn. baby outgrew it too quickly), breastpump (medela), burp cloths (cheap ones – they end up gross anyways), diaper bag (skip hop), aden and anais muslin blankets, activity mat…

    We didn’t use a swing or rocker or playpen (except for traveling). We did have a bouncy chair to be able to sit the baby while we were doing some stuff around the house or cooking. We didn’t really use the car seat stroller either because we’re in NYC and hardly in the car. Don’t buy too many newborn size clothes because the baby will likely outgrow them quickly. We also just put a changing pad on top of a dresser vs. having a specific changing table.

    That’s all I can think of right now but please feel free to ask anytime!

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  66. Happy birthday! The cupcakes look yummy!

    My sister had her first baby last year. She bought a Momaroo and said it was one of the best purchases she made. She said it was pricey but totally worth it.

    While my sister and niece were still in the hospital, my brother in law brought one of the baby’s hats home for the dog, so she could get familiar with the baby’s scent.

    I also suggest having a friend or family member come by and focus on the pets when you bring the baby home. My sister’s dog was the baby and got all the attention until they brought my niece home. The dog would often act out trying to get their attention.

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  74. Happy birthday!

    Baby products we love(d):
    BabyJogger City Mini stroller. Cheaper than an ‘actual’ running stroller, but I run with it most days, and was able to run with it with the carseat attachment when he was littler. Easier to maneuver than a 4-wheel stroller.
    Milkies Milk Saver
    Aden and Anais swaddle blankets
    Ergo baby carrier — we also used the Bjorn all the time when he was littler, but now that he’s bigger, the Ergo and a camping backpack (used on craigslist) we use all the time.
    Activity gym, later Exersaucer (which later is useful as a playtable for the pre-walkers)
    Ikea long-sleeved bibs and stacking cups
    Video monitor
    Co-sleeper (we made ours to fit against our bed and loved it)
    Wet-dry bag for cloth diapers, if you’re doing that
    Medela Harmony manual pump in addition to an electric one
    Sound oasis sound machine– only one that worked for us– low, loud sound and can stay on continuously, which many can’t
    Miracle Blanket for swaddling at night
    O-ball
    Fisher-Price booster seat– transportable and takes up less space than a high chair

    Things we didn’t need:
    Bumbo seat
    Diaper pail
    Diaper bag– so often just end up using a backpack or large purse instead

    Baby product deals/money-saving tips:
    Just Between Friends sales, if they have them in your area. Craigslist and garage sales are good too.
    If you want to do cloth diapers, sign up for the cottonbabies.com mailing list and watch for sales.
    Udder Covers nursing cover– you can get one for free + shipping with a coupon from Motherhood Maternity
    Borrow! If you have friends who are between kids, there’s so much that is used for such a short time that it doesn’t get worn out and you don’t need it for long before needing to store it anyway.

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  76. Happy Birthday, Lindsay! Hope it was a wonderful day 🙂

    I have a million and one recommendations for “what a baby needs/doesn’t need” (doesn’t every mother?) but a few off the top of my head for the first 6 months:

    Need: a great tummy time mat, nursing pillow (if you choose to go that route), bassinet (we used in our room for several months before transitioning to crib), onesies that snap at the crotch and footed sleepers that ZIP (so much easier than buttoning crazy pjs after a middle of the night change), a simple high chair without tons of padding (too hard to keep clean), tons of burp cloths and bibs, bumbo chair with table (before transitioning into high chair), board books (not paperbacks), non toxic play mat like a Dwingler…..I could go on. Ohh, and the Fisher Price Little Lamb cradle swing literally saved my life and sanity!!!

    And I also invested in a new portrait lens for our camera, which was the best thing ever. We ended up with tons of wonderful photos over the first year.

    Didn’t Need: diaper genie, tons of toys, too much dressy clothing 🙂

    Have fun!!!!

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  77. Lindsay!! I had no freakin clue we were right around the same age ( I turned 29 this past December). How cool!:) HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! What a great year for you it’s going to be!! HOORAY!

    You deserve the utmost happiness that life has to offer! THANKS FOR BEING SUCH A JOY:) By the way- your cake and cupcake look FANTASTIC:)

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  78. Happy birthday! I hope it was a wonderful one! I’m looking forward to spending some time reading the comments so I can pick up some pointers for my own little bundle. 🙂

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  92. Happy Birthday!!

    My birthday was last week and I’m still telling myself it’s okay to celebrate! 😉

    Also, I used to love the Grasshopper Pie from Baskin Robbins. Oreo cookie crust, mint chocolate ice cream and fudge drizzle. SO good!

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