Week 27 - The Good, the Bad, and the UGLY!!

(2/17/08 - 2/23/08)

Week 27 - The Good, the Bad, and the UGLY!!

First let me say that I am now the proud Mommy of a 6 month old!!! YEA!! Secondly let me say that the world has a horrible conspiracy against me and once again the MY GYM free trial class was canceled. Jake and I got all dressed and drove 20 minutes into town and when we walked into the My Gym place the lights were out and the young lady inside looked at me with confusion. I told her that we were here for our free trial class (which by the way I filled out paperwork for and signed up for) and she said that 4 of the other young children in the class mothers had called in sick so they had canceled the class. They didn't switch me from last weeks class so I wasn't on the list to call!!! GREAT!

So I am going to throw this out into the wild blue yonder that is the INTERNET....Has ANYONE ever gone to My Gym?? When I finally get the chance to go will Jake and I like it?? We are trying once again this coming Wednesday so I will write about it then.

NOW.....drum roll please.... on to why I titled this posting "The Good, the Bad, and the UGLY!!"

Last year when I was pregnant and starting to think about what I would need when I was a mother I of course read books, researched, asked other mothers, and then......went out and registered for whatever the heck I THOUGHT I needed. Hey, I was a well read expecting mother, I knew what I needed for my little one....right??

Well I of course in my whole SIX MONTHS as a mother have been slowly finding out that maybe I should have listened to all of those other mothers and saved some money on things that just aren't needed!! (I can hear all of the mothers out there laughing at me).

Here is my list of things that I have found are the Good = use them daily, and Jake loves them, Bad = are a good product in and of itself, but just doesn't fit into my lifestyle or Jake doesn't like them, and the UGLY = Items that I just should have known better not to get!

Good:
Lap Pads - For those of you who don't know what these are, my Grandmother got me these and when I opened them the first thing that popped into my head was....did she give me the receipt? Well let me tell you, I have a lap pad in my diaper bag so that little Jacob's tooshy doesn't have to lay on public changing tables, and there is always one on his changing pad at home. So when he decided to pee pee on the pad it doesn't soak the changing pad cover and I can quickly put a new lap pad down for the next changing. I am so glad my grandmother didn't include a receipt!

cloth diapers - These are the most AWESOME burp clothes in the world. Again when I got this gift at my shower, I hate to admit it, but I turned up my nose. Well lets just say that they are now used for everything from Jake's "bankie", to peek-a-boo, and of course burp clothes. The actual "burp clothes" that I was given are used as dust rags.

Baby Bjorn - This has saved Paul and I on more than one occasion. There isn't much to say but that Jake loves being in it, and we love walking him around.

Play mat - This mat has been great, when Jake was tiny he would lay under it and just stare at the toys hanging from the arches, and now that he is older, he plays with the toys, looks at himself in the mirror and will even grab all of the crinkly soft fuzzy things on the mat itself.

Bumbo Seat - This seat is great, but I have to recommend that you purchase the tray that goes with it. Jake didn't like the seat until I got the tray and now he will sit in it for over 1/2 hour just playing with toys that you put on the tray and banging on the tray with rattles and stuff. He really loves it.

Bad:
Crib - Jacob's crib is BEAUTIFUL it is a cherry wood sleigh bed that is a 4 in 1 crib. So it is a crib, day bed, toddler bed, etc.....all in one. I of course was thinking about how I wanted this beautiful crib for my son and how everything needed to match his room "theme". Of course there is nothing wrong with this bed, but now that I have a baby actually sleeping in it I have learned that while beautiful, sleigh beds aren't exactly "toy friendly" and to get any sort of toy attached to the crib you need to use string or a bunch of those links to wrap around the large "sleigh" part of the railing.

High Chair - Again, Jake's high chair is a beautiful high chair and I am in no way unhappy with it. But when I chose it I was choosing it as a "decorator" and not a mommy. The chair is for children who can sit unsupported, it doesn't recline, or have wheels. So as the mother of a 6 month old that can't quite sit unsupported yet but is eating solid foods I am struggling. What you can't tell from the picture above is that Jake has receiving blankets stuffed onto either side of him to keep him from falling to the side and there are chair pads under the legs to help me slide it along the hardwood floor when I put it away. I am sure in the next few months when he can sit better the chair will be a nice tool, but right now I wish I had a plastic one that reclined, and had wheels.

Bouncy chair - This item was almost too small for him from the day I brought it home. I originally picked this out with my mother with the idea that I was going to be taking a newborn outside, and that it would be nice to zip it up to keep anything away from the baby. Well, I didn't go near the outside with Jake for the first weeks and by the time I did it was just a pain in the butt to haul this chair outside. So I just used it inside for Jake to sit in. Well....I am the mother of a 96th percentile baby. To give you an idea of what I am talking about at 6 months old he is 29 inches long and 19 1/2 pounds. So even when I would put him in it at 2-3 months old he was too long and the zippy part would bump his legs and make him have to bend his legs to fit in it!

Car Seat - The only problem I have with this item is its weight/length limit. Again I chose it for the colors and the reviews but since again I have a child that is so large for his age Paul and I are going to have to get a new car seat at 6 months old as the weight limit is only 22 pounds. We have barely broken this one in and we have to get another one. So my advice to anyone is get one that goes up to 30 pounds. I sure wish I did.

UGLY!!:
Video Monitor- Well in theory these sounds great...right??? Well yeah as long as you don't have cordless phones or wireless internet in your house. Needless to say this was taken back almost immediately and I am now a perfectly happy mother with nothing more than a 50$ sound monitor!

Hope my reviews have helped. I have many more items that I could review and will maybe do a "The Good, the Bad, and the UGLY!! Part 2" at a later time.