When work comes home…In a good way

A few weeks ago my husband and I were looking at strollers online. We knew what type we wanted, but didn’t know which of the hundreds of models would be the best to tote up and down subway stairs. He said to me, “we need a stroller buying guide.”

At an editorial meeting the next week, I said something about the need for a baby gear shopping guide. My editors agreed and promptly assigned it to me. It is now up on our site and has buying guides, product reviews and funky baby gift sites.

While I worked on the guide, I found a National Highway Transportation Safety Administration video about car seats. The government is rating car seats on how easy they are to install and use. The short video raised all sorts of points that I hadn’t even thought of for car seat shopping. For example, does the car seat have instructions on both sides of the base? If you’re installing the car seat on one side of the car, but the instructions face the other, it could make the process much more difficult.

Yesterday we were at Babies ‘R’ Us trying to sort out some stroller and car seat issues. That video helped me figure out what to look for, and see some major differences between our top two choices.

Researching the guide also reminded me of a site a friend sent me a few years ago, called Rock A Bye Baby! This site turns rock and alternative songs into lullabies for babies. They have nearly two dozen albums from artists such as Led Zeppelin, Nirvana, U2, Tool and AC/DC. The albums are also available on iTunes, and I think we’ll download a couple.

In other little one news, he has a new nickname. He’s been extremely active the last week or so, but when Tim puts his hand on my stomach, the baby stops whatever he's doing. Within seconds of Tim removing his hand, the baby is at it again. For now, we're calling him Michigan J. Baby.

Registration Fun

Today we registered for baby stuff, which wasn’t nearly as bad as I expected. No one at Babies ‘R Us was injured while I was there, and Tim and were still speaking when we left. The pregnancy books warned that salespeople may use all sorts of tactics to push unnecessary items on us, so I thought it would be like buying a car. In actuality, the salespeople were far too swamped to bother us.

It was still somewhat overwhelming, though we were armed with Baby Bargains, a list of equipment my Moms group recommended, and advice from family and friends. We faced walls and walls of seemingly identical items. That confusion aside, we’re actually very lucky. As the last in the family to have kids, there is a ton of hand-me-down items that my brothers- and sisters-in-law are generous enough to share with us, which meant we had to register for less.

Today’s biggest sticking point, believe it or not, was the diaper bag. The bags I selected were too girly, while those he picked out didn’t look like diaper bags. I don’t know why I want something that looks like a diaper bag, but here we are. We left that for another day.

We also encountered plenty of items that no one needs, such as special plastic bags to dispose of diapers (they look like plastic grocery store bags). They even come with dispensers that look suspiciously like those found on dogs’ leashes. Do we use those when we’re out for a walk?

My absolute favorite was the Weeblock, a little athletic cup that is used when changing little boys’ diapers. When a baby boy piddle in the middle of a diaper change, the results can be disastrous for the person changing them, especially if he or she is running late or wearing dry-clean only clothing. For the person who wants to protect themselves, there is a whole line of Weeblocks, all with pithy sayings on them.

I think, for everyone's safety, we’ll just cover the baby with an extra diaper during changes.