I spent a TON of time researching baby gear in my second trimester.  I looked at blogs, read articles and perused friends, friends of friends and acquaintances registries looking for items they all had in common.  Although I consulted with the husband on my picks, he pretty much deferred to me since I was doing the research.  In all honesty neither of us have ever used this kind of gear before so it kind of felts like a guessing game when picking items to register for.  In the end I am pretty pleased with what we chose.  But honestly, who would have thought such a tiny little person would “need” SOOO much stuff?!

For the purposes of this post, let’s just take the baby basics/big ticket items off the table, okay?  So diaper, wipes, stroller and car seat are “given” must have items for newborns.  Given my research, to date, below is what I think we will need for Jellybean …

Baby Registry Must Haves | Life's Tidbits

1 – Boppy Pillow –  It is rare to find a baby registry that doesn’t have a boppy pillow on it.  Most of my friends who have breastfed swear by it and say the pillow makes it so much easier to support the baby.  I was fortunate enough to get a hand-me-over boppy from a friend.  I purchased a  new and crazy soft cover from Pottery Barn.

2 – Sophie Giraffe –  This teether seems to be all the rage as of late.  All the babies being strolled down the street have one sitting next to them.  I swear it shows up on every Google search for “must have” baby items.  While we can’t call the giraffe Sophie, because that is our dog’s name, we are now the proud owners of a “Sophie” giraffe teether.

3 – Thermometer – As a first time mom I’m confident I will be concerned Jellybean is sick.  I expect this thermometer will help keep my mind at ease in the coming months.

4 – Swaddle Pod – I like that they have a zipper … place the baby in the pod and zip-her-up … no messing around with trying to do the traditional swaddle for bedtime.

5 – Soothie Pacifier – Have come highly recommended on blogs and from friends alike.  We received a couple from some friends who just had a baby girl back in October.  They said these pacifiers were a must!

6 – aden + anais Swaddle/Receiving Blankets – It feels like this item is a given.

7 – Bouncing Chair – The bouncy chair seems to be interchangeable with a swing.  My friend is kind enough to lend us her son’s swing so I registered for the bouncy chair.  I figure we can put Jellybean in both and let her decide which she likes best.

8 – Nosefrida Baby Nasal Aspirator – New and veteran mommies alike rave about this product.  I guess it is better than the “ball” nasal aspirators.  At my friend’s shower a couple weeks ago a mom said she always gives the snotsucker as part of her shower gift.  I figured it is certainly worth a try therefore we purchased one.

My plan is to update my must have list once Jellybean arrive and I actually start using these products.  It should be interesting to see what I thought we needed versus what we actually need.

What baby gear/item do you wish you had registered for and/or purchased prior to bringing the little bundle of joy home from the hospital?  What am I missing?

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The husband’s favorite home improvement we made early on was wall mounting the TV in the living room.  For the past year we have discussed doing the same in our master bedroom.  If it was a simple wall mount we probably would have knocked it off the to do list a while back, however to make the TV more visible from bed we needed to do a corner wall mount.  And of course, the corner we wanted to put the TV in isn’t close to the cable outlet.

Being the super handy person he is, the husband decided we could run the cable wire ourselves (read himself) instead of hiring an electrician to install a cable outlet in the spot we want to have the TV.  The husband’s DIY electrical solution cost only about $45.  We purchased the following:

Plus we purchased the wall mount for an additional $60.  When looking at the picture the head of the bed is next to the window so one must turn their head to the left in order to see the TV.

Dresser Before:

tvondresser

Sophi totally photo bombed the picture with her ball! :)

Dresser After:

tv_dresser_after

This corner is to the left of our his/her closets before:

tvmountcorner_before

Corner After:

tvmount_after

Although the wires along the door frames don’t bother me they are apparently driving my husband crazy.  What’s driving me crazy is the wires hanging down to the cable box.  We need to install a shelf under the TV for the DVD player and cable box.  Once we do that this issue will be solved:

tvmountafter-2

And thennnnn the husband can execute his project to hide the cable wire underneath the trim.  Though, this will have to wait until after the nursery renovations are complete.

We are loving the new positioning of the television.  It makes watching TV in bed so much easier!  Not only do I like the position of the TV now, but I think the dresser looks better without the TV on it.  What do you think of our wall mount?

Happy Home Improvements!

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I’ve been trying to get started on the decor for the baby’s room and despite pinning a lot of cute nursery’s on Pinterest I really haven’t made much progress.  In the past when decorating I have picked the big pieces and then the small details/accents seem to fall into place and the room comes together nicely.  The problem with the nursery is the hubby and I just can’t seem to decide on any single piece of furniture so far.

About the only decisions we’ve made is to paint the walls gray (shocker I know!) and for the crib to be white.  You can probably see why we haven’t pulled the trigger on anything yet. :)   It wasn’t long after I started researching cribs that “sticker shock” set in.  While it would be nice to pretend there is no budget when it comes to our little one … I know there is.  To get us started I compiled a short list of cribs that fell on the splurge list and then found similar crib designs that would save us some moolah.

Nursery Crib Inspiration - Splurging vs Saving | Lifes's Tidbits

{1} Isabelle Iron Crib from Pottery Barn |  {2} DaVinci Jenny Lind from Amazon
{3} Emelia Sleigh Crib from RH Baby  |  {4} Stork Craft Vittoria from Amazon
{5} ducduc Oslo Crib from Land of Nod  |  {6}Babyletto Madison from Target
{7} Juliette Crib from Pottery Barn Kids  |  {8} Million Dollar Baby Ashbury from Overstock
While we still have plenty of time to decorate the nursery I am getting nervous we will never make a decision … or maybe it’s more I’m worried we will start going in one direction and then realize we should have gone another.

I can’t decide if we should splurge for the “perfect” crib or save on one we like.  I mean the baby is only in this thing for a couple years, right?  It’s not like a tween bedroom set that might last them through high school if chosen correctly.  Help please!!  Did you save or splurge on the crib?  Any recommendations on where to find the perfect crib?

Happy Decorating!

 

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Although I love the glass shower in the master bathroom we noticed very quickly after moving in that it leaks … A LOT.  You couldn’t tell while you were showering, but when you picked up the bathmat there was water underneath.  It was a little annoying, but honestly it was more than that … it was frustrating.  We tried pointing the shower head towards the wall however that didn’t really help.  Plus who wants to shower so they are shielding the water from the door with their body!?!?!

When going through my condo pictures I realized I don’t have one that includes the very bottom of the shower, but you get the idea.  I didn’t realize until I started editing this picture you can see me (and my camera) in the reflection of the glass.

The husband has become quite handy at fixing things around the house, and this little problem we had was no different.  He did some research and determined all we needed was a 1/2 rounded threshold bar.  We (read he) could easily install this fix without having to hire anyone!

This fix required us to purchase a few things.  Here’s what we purchased:

For under $25 we got everything we need and using Amazon Prime it arrived in two days.  It took about an hour to measure, cut, level and seal the bar in the shower door threshold.

The new threshold is doing its job perfect!  No more water leaking out all over the bathroom floor or soaking the bathroom mat!!

Happy Home Improvement!

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Before the husband and I first moved in together we decided we wanted three black and white photos for our bedroom.  We narrowed our personal photos down to a picture from the cherry blossom festival, a trip to mexico and one we took while in New York on the Brooklyn bridge.  My friend helped me use PhotoShop to make modify the color pictures to black and white.  I uploaded them to Shutterfly, clicked purchased and we were in business!

These are the pictures we chose …

The husband and I went to a couple of framing stores to get quotes on getting the pictures matted and framed.  We were looking at ~$200+ per picture for custom framing … WAY too much!  The three pictures then spent the next 2 years in a photo album.  From time to time we would revisit the idea of having the pictures framed, but never made any actual progress.  Last week we found a new location for our pictures … the hallway!  I found this post on Young House Love and was inspired.  Although I am not ready to take on the whole wall I do love pictures and have some other items that would work for a wall collage.

In any event we decide these three black and white photos were a good place to start with hallway decorations.  Since Amazon Prime is like my favorite thing I decided to see if there were any nice 8×10 matted frames on Amazon before going to Michael’s or a custom framing store.  I quickly found these picture frames and $17-18 per frame was totally justifiable and the wallet was way more comfortable with it as well!!!

After preparing for Hurricane Sandy Sunday (filling the cars with gas, getting food/water, laundry, dishes, charging every electronic we have and all that good stuff) we took some time out to hang our photos in the hallway.  It took a few tries (three to be exact) but eventually we got the two lower pictures level with each other.

It’s nice to see the hallway starting to come together.  Whether or not we decide to pursue the whole collage look for the hallway is still TBD, but at least there is something on the wall for now :)

Next up is to purchase a runner for the hallway!!

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