Catya Belfer-Shevett

Some quick reviews of baby stuff I found particularly useful: carriers, night time, and other stuff.

Baby carriers

• Sling: I definitely recommend the Maya Wrap sling. I also have one with padded rails, and I found it much less adjustible and harder to manage Zach in. It's also bulkier to carry around.
• Frame Pack: We chose the Tough Traveller "Stallion" because it was the only one we could find that would adjust to fit all of the adults in our extended family, from me (5'5") to Dave (6'6") and everyone in between. They make a great carrier and are helpful wonderful people. Frame packs are great for slightly older babies, for everything from hiking / mountain climbing to doing the grocery shopping.
• The Baby Trekker is a terrific carrier - I liked this much much better than the Baby Bjorn, which we also had, because it has a waist strap. It distributes the weight between your shoulders and your hips, and the baby can ride facing in our out on your front on back (it takes some practice to get the baby on your back yourself!). The only problem we ever had with it is that the waist strap is velcro and makes noise when you take it off, which makes it hard to put down a kidlet that has gone to sleep in the carrier.

Night time

• The Co-sleeper is a three sided crib that attaches to the side of your bed. The baby can sleep in it and be in easy reach for nursing, etc, but not at risk of rolling out of bed, etc. I know people have had a lot of luck with this and speak very highly of it, though in our case Zach wanted to be closer to me and it served the same purpose a bed rail might - to keep him from rolling off the bed - as well as being a great place to put laundry :)
• Bed rails: A bed rail is a necessity if your bed is not on the ground. Also great for traveling. Great because it lets you put the baby on the outside of you, and you can snuggle up to your sweetie, rather than putting the baby between the two of you and both of you having to make sure to give the baby enough room.

Other stuff

• Hylands teething tablets were a life saver for us - this is a super gentle homeopathic remedy, so I didn't feel badly about giving it to him if I wasn't sure if his teeth were the problem or not. We got them at the local health food store, but you can also find them here.
• Nursing shirts! Some moms manage without them, but if it's cold or you don't want to show your belly, they are a necessity. If you are local to it, there is a Motherwear factory outlet in Northhampton, MA, or you can use their online catalog. I also got shirts on the Mother's Nature auction site as well as on ebay.
• A nursing pillow is a very good thing to have. There are some wonderful ones out there - I used a Boppy and liked it very much.
• Breastpumps are, in general, miserable. That said, they are very useful things, and I was very pleased with the two I had. The Pump in Style, by Medela, was great for serious pumping at work. The Avent Isis pump is a great hand pump and is perfect for times when you aren't near a power source and privacy at the same time - I bought mine after trying to deal with pumping in an airport!
• Magick Baby Powder is clay powder rather than a talc powder. There's worry with talc powder that it gets in the air and into babies' lungs, which is a bad thing- this is heavier and doesn't get into the air nearly as much. Mixed with water and made into a slip (paste), this has been the absolute best thing for diaper rash we've found. We got it at Whole Foods, or you can order it on the Magick Botanicals web page.
• My favorite products for the bath were from NaturalBodyBabies - we use their banana shampoo and their honey wash, which are both non-chemical and aloe-based. It looks like they also carry a couple of other nice products, but I haven't tried them. We then moved onto the MOP (Modern Organic Products) Pear Shampoo and Leave-in Conditioner