10 Things I'm Still Using After 8 Months
8 months old and still babywearing!
It’s no secret that new moms are made to feel like they need 4,356 things for their baby in order to survive the first year. And while many of those things are, in fact, necessary – many many more are not. Useful, maybe. But necessary, no. So when it came time to prepare for Cullen’s arrival, I worked hard to make sure we were only picking up things that seemed like they would get good use. Overall, I think we made pretty good choices.
We lived in a teeny tiny townhouse at the time, so it was also important to me to seriously minimize the amount of stuff we were bringing in. Then Cullen arrived, and as the weeks and months went on, I started finally using all the things I had been organizing and washing with anticipation. The frustrating thing about baby stuff is the painfully short lifespan. There are some things – like our baby swing – that felt absolutely critical to survival, but realistically only lasted about four months.
But then there are other things that we started using on day one, and I can happily say we’re still getting our money’s worth now here at almost nine months. Here are then things I’m still using after eight (almost nine!) months…
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Boppy pillow
I hear from a lot of moms who are surprised I'm still using this. But yet, eight months out and I still use my Boppy whenever I breastfeed Cullen at home. He seems to like the soft squishiness, and I like having less strain on my back and arms. I even take it with me when I travel!
Click here for the Boppy. -
Infant car seat
We'll probably have to switch to the next size up in another month or two, but I'm thrilled to have made it to eight months using Cullen's infant seat. It has been easy to just pop into restaurants with it or swing into the dry cleaner without having to unbuckle him. I'll be sad when we can't do that anymore!
Click here for the Chicco Keyfit carseat. -
Cloth diapers
Eight months in and going strong. Dare I say I love cloth diapering? We're into a lot of solid food now, and so the diapers have definitely...changed. I'll leave it at that. But even with the additional mess, I'm still really happy to be cloth diapering. It has saved us so much money and waste!
Click here for Bumgenius diapers. -
Ergo carrier
Somewhere around the five month mark I thought me and the Ergo were through. Cullen was tired of riding backwards and only wanted to be forward facing. I retired the Ergo and resigned myself to the stroller. Then I discovered the side carry technique, and our love affair was reborn. I am a huge babywearing fan, and I'm so happy to be able to continue to carry Cullen into his ninth month!
Click here for the Ergo carrier. -
Glider chair
This was hands down our best nursery splurge. I still do almost all of Cullen's feedings in this chair, and rock him to sleep before bedtime. I don't even want to think about the total number of hours I've logged in this seat. We might need replacement cushions before baby number two!
Click here for a similar Dutalier glider. -
Lamby blanket
In an effort to provide consistent soothing things to Cullen during naps and sleep, I started letting him hold this lamb blanket from pretty early on. Now he loves to sleep face down on it - go figure. Naps are longer because of it - I'll catch him waking up and then rubbing it on his face to help get back to sleep. Whatever it takes!
Click here for the Angel Dear blanket. -
Pacifier
I know some moms like to retire the pacifier early, but I'm not worried about giving it up any time soon. Cullen only gets the pacifier in his crib, stroller, or car seat - never just when he's hanging out in the house or playing. It's good to have ways to quickly calm him down when we're out in public.
Click here for Tommee Tippee pacifiers. -
Swaddle blankets
Everyone told me that swaddle blankets were an absolute must-have. And while I agree with them, we pretty much never actually used them for swaddling. They came loose too quickly - we used the velco swaddle sacks instead. But I use these blankets every day for everything else. In the car seat, stroller, one in his crib at night, at the beach - you name it. The bamboo variety are crazy soft - I wish they had one in my size!
Click here for Aden + Anais swaddle blankets. -
Infant bathtub
This is one of those things I wasn't sure if we needed or not, and I'm so glad we ended up getting it. Cullen loves to splash in his whale, and I like having a safe, contained space for him to bathe. Just this week I took the infant seat bar out so that he can sit directly in the tub. I imagine we'll still use this for many months to come!
Click here for the Precious Planet Whale of A Tub. -
White noise
When Cullen was a newborn, white noise was critical for survival. We both had white noise apps on our phones that we used to help bring Cullen out of inexplicable crying fits. These days, we don't use the apps anymore, but we still do use white noise at night. With two loud barking dogs in the house, it's nice to have soothing background noise in his room to block out evening noise in the house.
Click here for the Cloud B Sleep Sheep.
Can you add to this list?
Read more from Emily on her personal blog Daily Garnish, where she creates healthy vegetarian recipes, recaps her latest running adventures, and chronicles life as a new mom to her son and two crazy dogs. You can follow along on Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest too!
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You might miss the convenience of the infant car seat, but once he outgrows it, you may find you have less joint pain! Elbow for me, the weight was killing me. We used the baby tub (same whale tub, love it!) until almost a year, but he was obviously way too big for it. He flipped out when we tried to put him in the normal tub so we ended up getting an inflatable tub, and now he’s doing great. I also still use the Ergo, front carry even, and he’s 14 months!
With a 26 month old and a 10 month old I’ve still been using GermGuardian’s nursery sanitizer daily. It’s a chemical and water free sterilization system that kills germs and viruses. I use it for everything – pacifiers, bottle nipples, tooth brushes, toys – even my remote control and car keys! Best $80 I’ve spent!
I use every single one of the items you have listed…and baby is almost 9 months
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Yup! We still use almost all of those as well. Our daughter never used a paci, and we stopped using the infant bathtub when she could sit up and move around, and I used the infant carseat until she was 9 months and then gave it to my sister. Now, a little over 11 months and we still use all the other items on your list. Including the boppy even though I’m not nursing her anymore! She loves to just play on it and drink her morning bottle laying down on it next to me!
Any recos on the # of cloth diapers you should buy for each stage of development?