A list of what we considered were the essential baby products for months 6-12. The perfect reference to start your baby registry or Christmas list!
I hope you’re ready for Part II of my roundup – what we consider to be the essential baby products for months 6-12!
I’m sure I accidentally left out something, but this list is comprised of the things I considered “must-haves” during those second six months of our little babe’s life, and now is the perfect time to make your purchases with so many great sales going on at the end of the week.
So, without further ado…
Items are listed clockwise from top left.
Raia is still getting comfortable using the walker part of this VTech Sit-to-Stand Learning Walker, but she loves the little activity panel. We feel safe with her on this one since our house is all one level with absolutely no stairs, but do use caution if you live somewhere that is multilevel!
These bibs are seriously the only bibs you’ll need once your little one moves on to solids. I love that they cover so much of them, can be wiped dry but are also machine-washable. Plus, can we talk about how cute all the designs are?
This swim seat was the hit of the summer. We don’t have a pool and didn’t want to run up our water bill with a kiddie pool, so I found this simple seat that takes hardly any water but is still a blast for the babes, even if they’re not completely sitting upright on their own yet. I highly recommend it!
Hands down the best decision we ever made in purchasing baby products was this $25 Ikea Antilop highchair. It’s not too big and clunky and so easy to clean. Nothing fancier needed.
Long story short, these Ezpz Mini Mats are the only plates you’ll need for your little once they start eating solid food. They’re dishwasher and microwave safe and – extra bonus – quite difficult for the littles to toss on the ground!
We were lucky to borrow a couple of friends’ bouncers to try with Raia, and she loved this one! It was a great step up from the bouncer chair and rock-and-play once she got too big for those, and is great for starting to build up those leg muscles.
Once Raia started rolling over, we transitioned her to these armless sleep sacks which we still use to this day. They’re not too restricting but still make them feel like they’ve got a little extra comfort.
I know there is a lot of controversy on the safety of walkers like this Joovy one, but again, we live in a one-story home with absolutely zero stairs and lots of open space, so we felt safe getting this for Raia to run around in. She loves it! I liked the Joovy one in particular because it was much simpler and had a lot less stuff going on than many of the other walkers out there. We couldn’t be happier with this choice.
In the same vein as not wanting a walker with too much “stuff” going on, I also didn’t want a play mat that was loud and obnoxious looking. I had been eyeing the Little Nomad mats but, honestly, they were a bit out of our price range. I was so excited to find this Emma + Ollie one for practically half the price and we love it! I’ve actually been thinking about investing in another one soon as Raia’s toys continue to take over our living room.
This Play & Kick Car Seat Toy was a lifesaver for long car rides with the babe once she stopped sleeping most of the way. She loved kicking it to make music and playing with the little toys hanging down. I’m so sad that she’s outgrown it a bit now because it was endless entertainment!
This VTech activity cube is just the type of toy I love – one that will entertain the babe for many, many months! It has a lot of fun stuff for the younger babes, but will also continue to challenge them as they get older. Very multi-purpose if you ask me.
And that’s all I have for you today! Be sure to check in tomorrow because I’ll be sharing what we considered to be the essential baby books to get us through the first year.
Also, be sure to let me know if there are other products that you consider “baby essentials” in the comments below!
Jim
Nice post. This comment from a father of three: Reading baby/parenting books can certainly help ease some of the anxiety of “what to expect” before the baby arrives, and one can never be too prepared. That said, I believe that the vast selection of these books, and the hype to read them, creates almost as much anxiety as the fear of the unknowns themselves. When our first was on the way, we picked up a number of these books, and then I entered a state of near panic trying to read and digest them all. A few thoughts/recommendations to share: (1) You don’t have to know everything before the baby arrives. It’s not like the books suddenly disappear when baby is born. Think of baby books and other resources as reference material. Learn enough to get a feel for what’s to come, but don’t stress about knowing everything. (2) The latest estimates put the worlds’s population at something like 7.7 BILLION people. I might suggest (without any data to back it up) that *most* of the births happened without their mothers having reading any birthing/parenting books. Point is: we humans have evolved to produce and nurture babies. We’re wired for it. You might have anxieties before baby arrives, but once that little bundle of love is in your arms, you’ll know what to do. (3) There’s something to be said for *not* knowing what’s to come and for *not* overly planning things out. I have met a number of parents who composed detailed birthing plans which didn’t end up going as planned — who lament and complain about their birth experience. I’m of the belief that detailed birth plans set high expectations, and high expectations are all too often not met. Rather than focus on the details of creating and executing an intricate birth plan, think of it more as organic, loose guidelines, and when the course changes along the way — as it almost inevitably will — embrace the change and look positively toward the next part of the journey. Best wishes and good luck to any of you future parents who happen to stumble on this and read this far. You’re in for an amazing experience.
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Jim – Thanks so much for all of this advice to future parents! I completely agree that all books, in any “self-help” form if we should call them that, have little nuggets of wisdom in them for everyone and we need to pick and choose those nuggets that will work in our personal lives. I must definitely say there was no ONE book that I followed completely to a T, rather I chose what I thought were good bits of advice from each one and lumped them all together to form my own preferred style of parenting. I appreciate you taking the time to write!