Comments on: What Baby Items Do I Need to Keep?

By: Mrs Money

Mrs Money — Fri, 20 Jul 2012 16:59:19 +0000

Corrie- I wasn’t a big fan of the Bumbo either. She didn’t use it nearly as much as I thought she would. Glad we bought it used!

By: Mrs Money

Mrs Money — Fri, 20 Jul 2012 16:58:29 +0000

Jenny- Oh no I’m going to be careful about where I store the stuff. Sometimes I figure why store the stuff for years if I can get it cheap later?

By: Mrs Money

Mrs Money — Fri, 20 Jul 2012 16:57:26 +0000

bogart- I hope we are blessed with one more. We’re planning on keeping her infant seat and we haven’t used the stroller yet but will probably keep it. She is just now getting into the exersaucer and loves it!

By: Mrs Money

Mrs Money — Fri, 20 Jul 2012 16:55:35 +0000

Karen- Yeah she liked it for awhile but the other day escaped out of it! My mom got it off Craigslist so I’m going to re sell it to a friend.

We use the PnP as a changing station and that’s nice but I’ll have to take that part out to use it as a playpen soon

I totally agree with you on the clothes.

I guess I was so stressed that babies cost a lot but they really don’t!

By: Mrs Money

Mrs Money — Fri, 20 Jul 2012 16:52:12 +0000

Lynsey- She escaped out of it the other day!! I had her in it on the floor and next thing I know she was ON the floor! She is an escape artist

By: Mrs Money

Mrs Money — Fri, 20 Jul 2012 16:50:43 +0000

Kacie- Yeah, I can put them in our basement or attic for storage. That will definitely help! It is going to be hard to not keep all the cute baby clothes

By: Corrie

Corrie — Tue, 17 Jul 2012 18:21:11 +0000

We never had a swing, bouncer or similar items. You are right, babies don’t need a lot of things. We make good use of the stroller, carseat and the Pack n Play (as a travel crib), though. And I love having a changing table.
I am irritated about how popular the Bumpo seat is. Around here, doctors advise not to put babies in a sitting position when they are not able to sit on their own yet.

By: Jenny

Jenny — Mon, 16 Jul 2012 18:58:52 +0000

The first time around we sold our baby swing, and then realized we needed to buy another one for baby #2. My mom chipped in, as she hadn’t gotten the baby a big gift yet, and we got a really expensive, adorable gender-neutral one that we loved. We decided to hold on to it for #3, and put it in the attic. #3 came, we got the swing down, and the thing wouldn’t work. Apparently the electronic component got fried in the heat of the attic. I cried :-( But now we know to be careful about storing stuff, or just go ahead and sell it while it still works. Storage space is pretty scarce around here, so we don’t keep very much!

By: bogart

bogart — Thu, 12 Jul 2012 04:25:53 +0000

I ended up not needing to keep anything for later use, because we were only blessed with one. I need to dig out my cloth diapers and sell them! That said, two things I don’t see on your list that we used extensively were carseat(s) and a stroller. I was a baby-sling type carrier (and owned a bunch of them), my DH was not — so the stroller was great for him to use when taking DS out on walks or walking him to our daycare (about 3 miles round-trip), but it was also wonderful for me when DS was little b/c the carseat fit into it. I loved having DS in a sling, but I loved even more not having to wake him up when he fell asleep (in the carseat or stroller) in order to move somewhere.

We did also get very good use out of a battery-powered mobile (same shower benefit you describe with the swing), and later passed it on to a friend. And yes, *tons* of mileage out of a pack-and-play, and also a toy table and an exersaucer when DS was a little older.

By: Karen

Karen — Wed, 11 Jul 2012 22:26:58 +0000

Judah used the Bumbo for approximately one week. I think I waited too long to put him in it maybe? He was only four months when we got it, but he got bored with it quickly, and he preferred to be on the floor. He was already rolling all over the room at that point, so I think he didn’t like being contained in it.

Also, it’s definitely not a good idea to put a baby in a Bumbo on top of a table. Babies have been seriously injured that way, and the Bumbo manufacturer specifically warns against it. But I’m sure you know that, Mrs. Money.

I did see a picture on a blog or something once, and someone was using the Bumbo in the tub as a baby bath for a baby who couldn’t quite sit up on his own. I thought that was a pretty neat use of it! But yeah, overall, I wasn’t impressed with the thing. I kept it, though, because it doesn’t take up much room and I paid full price for the dang thing, so I’m hoping I might get more use out of it with a different kid.

You will DEFINITELY need that Pack n Play when Penny is mobile! I didn’t use mine at all until J started crawling all over the place, and I used it even more when he started cruising. I couldn’t contain him in a swing or bouncer at that point, and the PnP was the ONLY place I could put him if I needed to leave the room for a second. Also, it can be really handy as a travel crib if you ever decide to move Penny into a crib at any point.

J has totally trashed his crib (it was super cheap), but we’ll keep the mattress.

And yeah, I only kept the clothes that were in super great shape and that I LOVED. There are so many factors, though. If you’re lucky enough to have two babies in the same season (like Kacie) you might be able to use those clothes again, but if you have a winter baby and then a summer baby, the sizes will be off for most of it, so it might not get much use the second time. Because of that, I gave away pretty much everything that I didn’t absolutely love.

You’re right that babies really don’t need a lot, though! And so much stuff can be purchased secondhand, even if you do regret getting rid of something when #2 comes along, you’ll be able to find it relatively cheap.