So the news is out, baby 2 will be joining our family in June 2019 and believe me when I say I’ve been thinking about key items I want for baby 2 since I found out we were pregnant. I’d also just like to add that baby 2 has been dubbed ‘baby shark’ by his big brother, Tristan! How cute is that? Lol.
There aren’t many things on my list but having been through this once I feel, for me personally, they will enrich this experience for me and I’m all about improving when possible! Here goes my wish list.
1. Ubuntu Baba stage 1 carrier. I have stage 2 from Tristan and we both LOVED it. It literally has sleepy dust and it made things so much easier. Tristan was happiest when he was with me (ok literally on me) and the Ubuntu Baba kept him close to me but also gave me the freedom to get on with things. I loved it and will be buying my stage 1 soon! Oooh, so many wonderful colours to choose from…
2. Dr Brown’s bottle warmer. I saw this on their Instagram feed and was like YES! I need one of them! This isn’t something I will need from the start because I would like to exclusively breastfeed (like I did with Tristan) for at least 3 months and then introduce bottles and I absolutely LOVE the Dr Brown’s brand bottles. I had a bottle warmer with Tristan but it used to malfunction ALL the time and the milk would sometimes be boiled when Shaun went to do a feed so I’d need to wake up to feed because that milk was ruined. Not ideal so I’m sure that the Dr Brown’s bottle warmer would do the job perfectly!
3. Moooka breast pump. With Tristan I used a single electric breast pump. I found it quite time consuming, it also sounded like I was in a dairy shed being milked along with my herd. Lol. But I was also very fortunate that I had lots of milk but that meant I needed to express a full bottle from each boob each time and when you’re doing one boob at a time, 3 sometimes 4 times a day it becomes way too time consuming so this time round I’ve been searching for alternatives. I did find, however that a manual pump worked quicker & seemed to be more efficient in extracting the milk so when I stumbled upon this great local brand, Moooka I got rather excited. Some of the things I love about it are it’s 100% locally produced, it’s got super cute packaging (I’m a sucker for pretty packaging) and it’s really affordable so buying 2 won’t break the bank! I’m waiting for version 2.0 to be available at Kids Emporium so I can go check it out but this will definitely be on my list of things to buy once my milk supply has been established.
4. Razberry Kids carry cot & stand. I saw their carry cot & stand on their Instagram feed months and months ago and just completely fell in love with it. Tristan slept next to me in a moses basket for a very short time before I was like, it’s time for your own room my boy (not my wisest decision but I was suffering from PND so my decisions were out of wack) and in hindsight I wish I’d let him sleep next to me for longer. So I’d really love to be able to have Baby Shark next to me for at least 3 months and this carry cot is super lightweight so it would also be easy to take with us if we pop out for dinner at friends, or go away or whatever! Yes I know babies don’t sleep in them for months and months but they really are practical and useful for those first few months. AND I’ve just seen the cot & stand is on sale… but it’s not the right time for me to buy right now so I will just have to wait until I’m ready and see then.
5. Lulla doll. This is a complete luxury item but it’s something I really feel will be beneficial to Baby Shark. Something that I’ve learnt is newborns love white noise – they’ve spent 9 months / 40 weeks listening to your heart, lungs, voice, etc from inside your womb and when it’s silent at night time they often feel scared because it’s foreign to them. So the Lulla Doll imitates the sounds of breathing and a heartbeat and the research has shown great benefits to those who use one.
Lastly I just wanted to share which prenatal vitamins I’m taking this time round. The hubster is all about research and he found Naturelo Premium Supplements in the USA. After plenty of reading he decided to put the whole family onto their range and it’s been amazing. So I’m obviously on the prenatal, Tristan is on the whole food vitamin gummies and Shaun’s on the whole food multivitamin for men (plus a few more). We’ve seen a marked improvement since taking them. They aren’t cheap and you pay to import them but when it comes to supplements there are, in our opinion, the best. I never have expensive urine anymore (sure you find that when you take store bought, mass produced stuff you just make expensive pee as your body can’t absorb them) and will move to the postnatal option once Baby Shark has arrived!
And that’s it! I have almost nothing left over from Tristan as I re-homed it so it could be reused so I will be having to buy pretty much everything but at the same time I’m not going to go crazy like baby 1, I’ll buy as I need. I definitely feel wiser this time round! 🙂
Much love!
