Sarah is now a little more than a month old and it is time for me to do a little analysis of the pros and cons of gift giving. As a stay at home dad let me point out that I am all about practicality and functionality over what is cute. Without further ado here is my short list
- A good bath towel is preferable to a receiving blanket. Unless the person giving the receiving blanket has made them, which isn’t hard with a sewing machine and $2.00/yard material, a bath towel is infinitely cheaper, more durable, warmer, and has long lasting practicality. I’ll make my case for this in a separate post, but here is the quick price comparison from Wal-Mart package of 4 20″x30″ thin yet cutesy receiving blankets, $12.00. Terry cloth bath towels in the 24″x48″ size range can regularly be had for $2.00 to $3.00 each on sale.
- Stay at home parents should consider cloth diapers. I’ll make my case for using them in another post too, but the financial end of it is easy. Wal-mart’s price for a dozen name brand pre-fold cloth diapers is $11.49 and a package of six rubber pants is $3.00. The generic newborn diapers at walmart are $12.00 for 56 and considerably more for the name brand ones. The average baby is going to go through eight to twelve disposables a day depending on the baby, but for coparative purposes we’ll lowgball it at eight. That equals $12.00 give or take a week in diapers. Call it $50.00 a month for the first three months and theprice goes up from there sharply. I recommend four packages of cloth diapers, two packages of diaper pins, and two packages of rubber pants, call it $60.00 after taxes.
- Don’t skimp on buying baby wipes, go directly for the large refill box of generics. Wal-mart has their generic brand in packages of six (6) – eighty count packages for less than $8.00. At nearly $4.00 each for an 80 count package in a semi hard plastic box, the price difference here is easy to figure out. Though some people are going to gasp at this notion, most baby wipes can be washed, dried and reused at least once. I discovered this by accident, but once I did I realized they are still much stronger than paper towels and good enough for some tough jobs like cleaning the surface of my flattop stove, inside the microwave, coffee spills, and any other job where liquid is involved. My guess is they would be great for car detailing work too.
- Bottles are a pain to clean and sterilize unless you can keep on top of it. Buy lots of small ones, a good bottle brush with a nipple cleaner, a 1 gallon batter bowl, and an electric kettle. Since I have to hand wash my dishes to get them clean, I prefer to do a large lot of bottles at once, and do them separately from all the other dishes, or at least first. If you have hard water this is about the only way to ensure they actually get clean and don’t end up with that scumy film the dishwasher leaves on plastics. Once you get them clean sterilize them in boiling water. bottles, nipples, rings, and even their pacifiers. I find the best and safest way to get boiling water fast is a cordless electric kettle. It takes three or four minutes to get six or seven cups boiling which about fills the one gaqllon batter bowl I use to sterilize bottles in. With a spout and handle you can easily pour the water water out later rather than fishing through a container of really hot water if you need something immediately.
- Don’t buy expensive baby detergent until you have used your normal stuff. Telling parents they need special baby detergents for all of babies things is nothing more than an act of commercial terrorism playout out against parental paranoia. Simply put advertisers know the mommy brigade will buy anything if you can convince them not doing so is not only the worst possible thing they canh do for their child, but makes you a bad parent if you don’t buy their product. Some babies will have real skin issues and specialty soaps should be considered for them. These conditions are very rare. If clothes washed in your normal detergent irritate your babies skin simply add between a quarter and a half cup of borax powder to the wash cycle. This usually solves the problem, which was caused by the detergent not fully rinsing away.
- Sleep and coffee are your friends. Catch a nap whenever you can. Television isn’t that important and frankly in this day and age can be watched after the fact very easily. If the baby is asleep at eight o’clock make the most of it rather than staying up to catch Bones, House, or your latest favorite reality show. You can download those shows later if you didn’t DVR them. Drink as much coffee as it takes to be wide awake and properly alert. Light roasted coffee, such as those designated breakfast blends, have the most caffiene for they cup. A French Press coffee pot is an excellent gift for any parent to be.
- Don’t buy an expensive baby sling. I can only do so many things at once and many of them require both of my hands. If your baby is the type that demands to be held regularly this can hamper the other things you want or need to do. I blog for a living and sometimes making a deadline for a paid post has to be done no matter what Sarah wants from me. I am not a person who can type one handed, so at first I improvised a baby sling out of a king size bed sheet which worked well enough to hold her in place next to me while I did other things. This was hell on my neck, so I had to redesign it. I will make a full post on this later, but you can easily make one the right size out of three to four yards of cheap material. I paid $1.00/yard for mine as opposed to $25.00 for a fancy sling.
As I said before there are some things that just can’t be put off when you have a baby in your care and in a few minutes I expect Sarah is going to wake up and I will have to take care of them. I have more tips and articles forthcoming. Stay tuned.
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