The twins will be a year old at the end of this month. Hard to believe! But true. Party plans are in progress. In the meantime, however, I thought I'd take the opportunity to reflect on a perennial topic of interest: baby gear. What worked? What didn't? What couldn't I live without? What did I never even touch? It's all here.

ObDisclaimer: This is a subjective discussion of what I, personally, found useful (or not, as the case may be). This is not an objective endorsement list. Really!

The big stuff, a.k.a. furniture I use:

• A changing table. Not everybody needs one of these; in fact, my own mother recommended against them. But I am old and tall and bending over to change a baby is hard on my back now. I found one - used - that had a multitude of drawers and shelves, and now it's the main storage unit in the nursery, holding all the babies' clothes, towels, sheets, and other good stuff. It’s been indispensible.

• A crib. So far, I've only needed one. Crossed fingers…

• High chairs. I wanted one that could fold up, and whose tray was removable if I ever decided to push them up to the big table. So far I haven’t used either of these features, but it’s nice to have the option.

• A double-sized playpen. Oh, wait, they’re called ‘playards’ now, aren’t they? :P To add to the hilarity, the brand name of mine is Joovy. As in “juvie,” juvenile detention. If I’m supposed to have shame about this object, I don’t. It was extremely handy for keeping the twins confined before they were ready to crawl and before I had childproofed the living room. Now it’s great for naps, or when we’re eating in the living room.

• A diaper pail. Yes, I unrepentantly use disposable diapers. I am on my second diaper pail; the first one’s pop-up lid broke a few weeks ago. Diaper pails tend to be horribly overbuilt and feature-heavy; all I really want is one that has some form of odor control and will take regular garbage bags rather than some overpriced proprietary form.

• I also used a Moses basket for the first two or three months. Eventually, they were too big to fit, but in the meantime, it came in handy for a secondary sleep place/landing spot for babies, before we graduated to the playpen.


Stuff I knew I'd need (or want), and I was right:

• The Sleep Sheep – a sheep-shaped plushie with a built-in white noise generator that emits a selection of ‘soothing’ sounds. I think white noise was a big boon in helping babies fall asleep in the crib at night. A cheaper option (if this hadn’t been a shower gift) would have been lullaby CDs, or even just a small fan, both of which we also used. Btw, G. hated the ‘heartbeat’ selection on this thing, so we usually chose something like ocean waves.

• Car seats. How I agonized. Convertible, or infant? I finally, reluctantly went for infant ‘bucket’ seats, the kind that can snap in and out of a base, on the advice of a great many people. I was initially reluctant because I didn’t want to have to buy another whole set of car seats just a year later. But the ‘bucket’ design was so handy for those first few months when they weren’t yet very mobile, that I now know I made the right choice. Also, it was nice to be able to buy a second set of bases for the second car, instead of either buying a whole second set of car seats, or switching them in and out of the car (which is what we’re going to try to do now that the kids have outgrown their old seats).

• An umbrella (i.e. folding) double stroller. Fits in the car! I was dead-set on having as small and portable a stroller as I could get away with, and I made the right decision. Again, this is partly a taste thing, but I hate strollers that seem to double as tanks. They’re bulky and heavy and hard to maneuver.
•
BPA-free teething toys that can be chilled. We have four, which seems the perfect number.

• Socks and warm hats. Onesies. Baby leggings.

• Diaper bags. One for each parent. I knew I wanted a messenger-style bag with a mini carrying handle, and that was about it for my requirements (other than cleanable, please). I found that I do not like lots of little pockets out in plain sight, but that’s a personal taste thing.

Stuff I needed, but in larger quantities than I anticipated:

• Burp cloths (aka cloth diapers). Some of you may remember that April in particular was a fountain all the way up until the transition to solid food. We kept a stack of burp cloths with us in every room to wipe up the inevitable messes.

• Pajamas and ‘sleep sacks,’ a.k.a. wearable blankets. For some reason, we didn’t get many of these as hand-me-downs. Wearable blankets are extra-cool because they can act as either an extra layer in cold weather, or a light layer (over skin) in hot weather. And babies can’t kick them off or get entangled in them (or throw them out of the crib)

• Hand cream. Wow, all that hand-washing in the early months did a job on my sensitive skin! I went through this stuff like water.

• Outerwear. Most jackets are too heavy for California weather, but it’s still nice to have an extra outer layer in the winter. Baby hoodies and/or cardigans are perfect, but I had to hunt them down. And since babies throw up on their coats, it’s good to have a spare set.

• Sun hats. Once their hair starts coming in, sunscreen is yucky, but their scalp is still too exposed to go bare.


Stuff I needed, but in smaller quantities than I anticipated:

• Wash cloths. I don’t know how I ended up with so many! They’re smaller and softer than adult washcloths, which is nice, although one could certainly use the latter in a pinch.

• Cloth bibs. Best for catching drool and spit-up, and therefore quite handy, but somehow I didn’t end up using them as often as I thought I might.

• Blankets. In a less temperate climate, I might have used more of these. But since the crib safety guidelines recommend no blankets at all in the crib when they’re young, and since it never gets all that cold in California, I find myself with a lot of baby blankets that I just don’t use much. Oh well.


Stuff I resisted buying but turned out to be a tremendous boon:

• A swing. But they take up so much space! And they can only take one baby at a time! It turns out that’s OK; one sleeping baby is one less to have to carry around. Whew. We actually ended up using a big swing and a small foldable swing at the same time.
* Pacifiers. The babies weaned themselves off of these at about six months. Now they like them again, but just for play and teething.

Stuff I thought I’d need, but didn’t:

• Undershirts. Honestly, I thought they’d be wearing undershirts and diapers for the first few weeks, at least until the umbilical cord healed. I hunted and searched for kimono-style undershirts that could be put on without pulling anything over a baby’s head. Then I never used them. Oh well.

Stuff other people told me I'd need, but I didn't:

• A snap-n-go stroller. This is a stroller that you can snap the bucket of a car seat into. Which works until they graduate car seats…this might be convenient for singleton parents, I guess, but it just seemed pointless to me.

• A bottle warmer. Babies will drink it (breastmilk or formula) cold. Trust me.

Surprise! I never thought these would be so handy!

• Boogie Wipes, which are really just saline-infused disposable wipes. But, dang, they do the job.

• Humidifier. When the babies caught colds, this was a lifesaver for bedtime hours.

• Baby lotion and hydrocortisone cream. Especially for April’s sensitive skin.


Special section - baby carriers:

I’ve owned at least one of each of the following: pouch, sling, mei tai, Bella baby carrier. The pouches were great when the babies were tiny and immobile, but now they don’t get much use. G. didn’t like the sling, so I gave it away. I like the Bella but it’s too small for Steven. I also really like the mei tai and this is what I would recommend to new parents who ask. (It has nothing to do with the skull and crossbones pattern on the front, either. Promise.) However, I also confess that I don’t use it very often any more. It’s handy when we’re taking one baby out, but now that they’re older and less needy, we often take two and just keep them in the stroller. As they get even older and less content to just sit back and get pushed, the carriers may come back into prominence. We’ll see.

Special section – bathing with baby:

At first, most of the time we just took the babies into the shower with us. That worked well. As they got a little bigger, we used a standard bulky plastic baby bath tub, with also worked fine. Now that they can sit up, we stick them both straight in the tub together, and that seems to be great fun.

We have a variety of squirty and poury bath toys for them to play with. They’re cheap and easy to find and lots of fun for everyone, adults included.

I have a mild bath products fetish, and so I have purchased a variety of shampoo-and-body-wash items for the babies that they cycle through. They’re good on April’s sensitive skin.

We bought a few of those hooded bath towels because they are cute (you should see Simone as Cookie Monster), but again, regular bath towels would have worked just fine if needed.

Special section – feeding the babies:

The first big investment was bottles. Because of April’s tendency to throw up her meals, we looked for bottles that claimed to minimize that sort of thing. And also BPA free, please. I ended up with a bunch of Dr. Browns and Born Frees.

I bought one cheap set of sippy cups, and have since had a bunch passed on down to me. I also bought a couple inexpensive sets of plastic and silicone-tipped metal spoons.

Plastic bibs with a pocket at the bottom are ubiquitous and indispensible. I must have a dozen.

I made my own baby food, for the most part. It isn’t hard. To puree foods, I used an attachment that came with my immersion blender. To store them, I used a couple sets of Baby Cubes.

I really should have a ‘splat mat’ underneath the high chairs, but I don’t. The floor’s slate. It’s dirty anyway. I just sweep three times a day and mop frequently. (I did buy a new broom...)

Oh yeah, I also used a Medela breast pump for the first six months.

Special section - childproofing:

Our biggest childproofing investment was for a big flexible play gate. We’re using this to block off the fireplace and television area in the living room right now. We also use it to create a penned-in area outside, and we’ve been known to take it to friends’ houses to help with temporary childproofing there, too.
Other than that, we’re making do with outlet covers and cord covers for the drapes, plus some cord control tubing here and there. We’ll install some bookcase anchors and drawer latches soon, I swear.

Special section – toys:

Things that rattle, clack, or make some sort of noise make the best ‘grasping toys.’ We have a bunch, plus a set of maracas that a friend passed on after the girls fell in love with a set at music class. Nowadays, these toys get banged hard on the floor, the table, and any other available hard surface. Sigh. Soft rattling toys are therefore also nice to have around.

We have two small blankets that make the very best hats and peekaboo drapes, although burp cloths also do well in this regard.

We haven’t needed to buy a single plush toy; we got plenty as gifts.

You know how some babies become attached to a specific toy? This happened with Simone, only it’s a book. (Baby Faces.) Figures. Board books are another thing we apparently can’t have enough of.

Anything else? Other than sunscreen, baby nail clippers, and Baby Orajel – all very handy - I can’t think of anything. Whew!