- Rockabye Baby! Lullaby Renditions of Jay Z: For when my white girl gangster side needs to come out, but in a baby friendly way. Sometimes, I can’t stand the typical baby lullabies on repeat or the white noise machine, but hearing some of my favorite rap songs in a gentle lullaby format is soothing both in its uniqueness and familiarity.
- Halo Sleep Sack: Also known as “the baby straight jacket,” it instantly calms my little flailing boy. He’s obsessed with his arms and having his hand near his face, but thankfully you can still swaddle him in an arms-up position. Despite my numerous attempts at doing the perfect swaddle, I still end up doing it too loosely every time and he wiggles his way out within seconds. The Halo Sleep Sack uses a zipper and Velcro – it’s foolproof.
- Gripe water: I looked at the ingredients, and laughed because I realized ginger is the main ingredient. For those unfamiliar with the condition, ginger is known among hyperemesis sufferers to have the opposite effect on nausea. For a woman suffering typical morning sickness, ginger can be very soothing. For a woman suffering from hyperemesis gravidarum, ginger can aggravate the nausea and vomiting, and it’s a joke among my online support groups that ignorant people who try to push typical morning sickness remedies on them are “gingering” them. So, I found it pretty ironic that after nine months of horrible sickness, I’m now gingering my own baby.
- Glow-in-the-dark pacifiers: Because searching for those annoying things, half asleep in the middle of the night, while a newborn baby shrieks in the background, is rage-inducing. I’m not sure of this, but I’ve hypothesized that pacifiers sprout legs and run away when you’re not looking, because somehow all of Roman’s pacifiers disappear when I actually need them. His glow-in-the-dark ones, however, are impossible to miss.
- Sleep gowns: Something about unsnapping and snapping a billion snaps on cute little pajamas in the middle of the night makes me want to punch someone. Sleep gowns are a lifesaver because they are onesies that are open at the bottom, making for easy, fast diaper changes on a baby that freaks out anytime he’s slightly cold.
I’ll post again at the end of Month 2 for the next list of top five! What would be your top five for newborns?
