A Few of my Favorite Things

I’ve been feeling called to share a bunch of my favorite postpartum and baby products with you! Then, as I sat down to write my post yesterday, I realized that I would like to include pictures and links for you all, so I needed to make it a blog post instead! If you have any questions about anything, feel free to comment or message me! Here goes…

I’ll start at the beginning and go from there.

In the hospital, I used Claraderm from YoungLiving for a bottom spray and I loved it! In the past I made my own, but I did it each time I went to the bathroom. With claraderm, it was already made so it was super convenient. Just go to the bathroom and spray at the end! It helped with healing a lot. It is spendier, but worth it! Let me know if you have any questions about ordering this.

The hospital gave us swaddles like the one in the picture below. I think I’ve gotten them with every baby, but never cared about them. Then, during this pregnancy, I took @takingcarababies sleep course and she recommended swaddles. What she said made sense, so this time I am using them, and loving it! They also unzip from the bottom which is super nice for middle of the night diaper changes. I would totally recommend the sleep course too! The newborn sleep course is about $75 and worth it. I learned a lot and it all made sense. I plan to implement all of it, starting now!

One of the best things I bought for myself is a little cart off of Amazon for organization next to my chair in the babies room. I put diapers, plugs, wipes and a diffuser on the top shelf, extra outfits on the middle shelf and swaddle blankets on the bottom. That way if I need anything at night, it’s right there within arms reach and I’m not searching for stuff. I don’t snack at night, but it would be the perfect spot for those nursing snacks too!

I had a friend send me this nursing cover from kefee kol and I absolutely love it. It’s made for tandem nursing twins. I don’t tandem nurse when we are out and about so I don’t use it for that specifically, but I love that it has an opening for my head and goes all the way around me, but isn’t tight like other ones. I love the flowy style of it, it makes it easy for getting to baby.

I ordered these Playtex nursing camis from Amazon thinking they were just to go over a bra like my old ones, but they actually have the support of a bra in it! I wasn’t sure how I would like them when they arrived, but I actually love them so much. They are comfortable…and to be honest I don’t even wear a bra with them! Yes, even in public. They have that much support! I just put in a nursing pad right in them and I’m good to go. They are a deep V, so I would get other ones too if you have more of a see through shirt on, but these have been one of my favorite things!

If you’re a first time mom, you may not know this, but snap outfits/jammies are not ideal. Having to snap all those buttons with a squirming baby is time consuming. Zipper jammies is the way to go! But now…they’ve upped the game! I got a couple of fresh jammie outfits from Carter’s, and there is TWO zippers on them! It’s the most amazing thing ever. I can change my babies diapers without taking everything off! Just their legs come out. I always grab those outfits when they are clean because they are SO nice. I’ll have to post a video to Instagram stories.

So I’ve been looking for a diaper bag backpack for years. Evidently I’m super picky in this department. I wanted a black leather look, but not too big and also an actual diaper bag with the awesome pockets. Then, one day, this one popped up on my suggested purchases on Amazon and it was exactly what I was looking for! To be honest I don’t love backpacks for diaper bags, but I knew I’d need one with twins. I absolutely love this backpack. I can reach in the side pockets and put my phone and keys there, the top flips open easily, I can fit everything in it, it’s just amazing. Go get yourself one.

After the babies were born, we decided that a bottle warmer would be super cool. We looked online and Amazon had them for $15! I didn’t really know how it worked, or if it would even be great, but decided to try it. It’s actually so awesome. Instead of heating up water on the stove, or running the bottle under the faucet for many minutes and constantly checking the temp, you just put a certain amount of water in the bottom, depending on how many ounces you’re warming, press a button and wait. It heats the bottle by turning the water to steam for a few minutes. It’s super quick, easy and there is no guess work. It’s so much better than the other routes. It would be easy to keep in the cart next to the chair in the bedroom too!

You all know how passionate I am about using non-toxic products. I like to avoid the substances and chemicals that can be harmful to our systems, especially over time. I hadn’t switched over our baby products yet, but I knew I would for the twins. I decided to try the seedlings line from YoungLiving and I love it! The baby soap and oil smell soo good and relaxes them immediately. The two times I used it, both babies took great naps afterward. I also love Beauty Counters products and their kids body wash as well!

A few other things that I’ve been loving are our Ergo baby carriers (we have two!), our city select double stroller and its attachments, as well as the snuggleme’s. The Ergo works great when Gus is fussy to just strap him to my front and wear him. It’s so comfortable on me too. I can wear it for a lot longer then I could wear the Baby Bjorn for. I bought the City Select stroller when Mary was a baby and absolutely love it. It folds up pretty small (fits in the back of my van with all of my beach stuff), has so many different configurations as well as attachments. This time, I got the pram attachment from my SIL and we can fit four kids on the stroller! Ethan in a seat, the babies in the pram together and Mary on the hover board attachment on the back. We also got the carseat attachments, so now that the twins are a bit bigger, we just snap their car seats on and are good to go. It wouldn’t work great for jogging, but it has worked well on most surfaces I’ve pushed it on. We got two snugglemes from my shower from my in-laws and the twins love them for sleeping in (dislcaimer: they are not approved for sleeping in, it just works for us). They are so snuggly and cozy. I don’t haul them all over the house, but they are still a favorite item! The twins sleep together in their own snuggleme’s in their crib.

I also love the Aden & Anais swaddle blankets! They are perfect for summer because they aren’t thick.

4 kids, one stroller!

That’s a wrap of a few, er many, things that we love around our house with babies! Again, don’t hesitate to reach out if you have questions!

xo,

Nikki