Baby number three: I live and I learn: unnecessary products

I am a mother of three who is still learning what baby items are useful and what baby items are a total waste of your hard earned dollars. If you walk into you local Baby's 'R' Us, it is easy to be overwhelmed by the vast selection of baby products, clothes, and toys available. Magazines are paid to lead you to believe that you need at least one of everything! But is that the case? In my opinion, no.

When I had my daughter Griffin rose 5 years ago (2005), the parenting magazines that I read constantly while I was pregnant, convinced me that there was no way I could survive without a "Diaper Genie". The Diaper Genie is a special trash can just for soiled diapers. You basically pop open the lid, place the diaper inside and twist the top around to seal the diaper into a plastic pouch that is then pushed down into the soiled diaper storage area. The idea behind it is to isolate the soiled diaper so that it keeps all of the stink out of your house. It sounds like a good idea. But, what I didn't consider is that I would have to buy the special trash bags that go with it. At the time they ran about five dollars per package, and they only lasted a few days. I went through about 2 refills per week. That's $10.00 per week! That's about $40.00 per month! That's almost $500.00 per year! I don't know about you, but I could really use another $500.00 per year. It gets even better. When baby starts to wear larger diapers and eat solid food, you can purchase special scented liners for the Genie that are a tad more expensive. On top of which, I found the product kind of difficult to use. I never got any better at putting the liners in.

When I had my second daughter Keira, in 2006, I passed right by those Diaper Genies in the store. What did I use instead? I used plain old used grocery bags. Why pay for plastic to throw a diaper away in when you can use the bags that are probably piling up in your house somewhere, that they gave you at the grocery store. I even carried a couple of extra bags in my diaper bag so that when I was out and about, I could avoid tossing a stinky diaper in someone's trash can.

Now I have Justice, born 2009. What am I using for diaper disposal these days? Is it an expensive and inconvenient diaper disposal system?, or maybe those plastic bags I get from the grocery store....... Nope.... I use absolutely nothing! I roll up those dirty diapers and toss them in the trash can with all the other household refuse. Gone are the days of fancy diaper disposal systems, in my home.

Now does my house stink like one great big diaper? Not that I know of, and no one has said so. It turns out that the world didn't end when I decided to cut this unnecessary product out of my life. I can now use the money I saved to buy other, more useful products like the Evenflo electric breast pump, and the boppy Sling. Check back soon for my product reviews on those, and more additions to my list of unnecessary products.

Justice: The first week

Lets see. The first month in Justice Ignatius Barber's life...

He was born at Columbus Regional Hospital on January 22, 2009 at 7:30am. He weighed 7lbs and 11oz, and was 21" long. His parents are Dana Kay Kraft (That's me) and Christopher Ezekiel Barber. Justice was born via c-section, so we spent his first 4 days in the hospital. His grandparents (Christopher's parents) were there waiting for his arrival, and were his first visitors. Our friends Dan and Lacey were in the hospital across the street with their new born baby girl Lily who was born just 15 hours before. Justice's next visitor was his big brother Noah who is 4 years old. Noah didn't quite know what to think of his new baby brother. Unfortunately he had a cold, so he couldn't really get close, or touch the baby. Next came Uncle Eduardo. He stopped by to marvel at our new addition. Grandma and Grandpa Barber were there every day. I was surprised and pleased at how comfortable Grandpa was with Justice. He held him right away and beamed with pride. The stay in the hospital was a challenge.

The trip home was kind of comical. The nurse wheeled me out to the car in a wheel chair. I realized too late, that I was under the care of a doctor who does not believe in pain medicine, so I was barely able to move and stressed to the max. I could barely stand up, and every movement hurt, so squeezing myself into the low to the ground 2 door Acura was a real challenge. That was the least of our worries. The car seat was all out of whack. Chris had to lean into the backseat and adjust all of the straps and I just stood helplessly by and wondered how in the world we were going to get the baby in and out of the car. The first thing to go on our "list of urgent needs" was a bigger car! Thank goodness it is tax time. I don't remember what we did when we got home, but I will never forget our first night! Justice would not even give his bassinet a chance. Even with the super soft velour sheets. We spent 3/4 of the night in agony, exhausted, and running out of ideas. He just wanted to be held and be close to us. Finally I said "There is one thing we can try", and that was it. From then on Justice's bed was our bed. He goes to sleep nursing and wakes up in the morning when I do, snuggled up against me.

At first he struggled to nurse. He was born tongue tied, and jaundiced and those two things affected his ability to latch on and be satisfied. We had to take him to the doctor every morning first thing to have his foot pricked and his Jaundice checked. We actually made an appointment to have his tongue membrane clipped to help him latch on and nurse better because I was determined not to switch him to formula. We even had to have a "billi blanket" delivered to the house that he had to wear for 24 hours. It was attached to a machine that shined a special light directly onto his skin to break up the biliruben in his body and help him expel it. The first week was emotional, and challenging in every way, but we kept praying and we got through it. Justice's grandparents even came over to our house to pray with us.

When Justice was born, so was a whole new family. Things will never be the same, and things have never been better.

Tue Feb 24, 2009