Seeking Advice on Strollers, Infant Seats, Cribs, Etc. for a Newborn/infant...

Do yourself the biggest favor and RUN out and get Baby Bargains by Denise Fields. It helped me cut straight through all the madness and figure out what was really important and what was just a distraction! Organized really easily and very, very, user-friendly!

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Congrats! I am a first time mom also due at the beginning of March. I agree that all of the items neede for a newborn is overwhelming. My sister recommended the Baby Bargains book to help. It is like a consumer reports but better. It has really helped us to pick out the items we needed in the price range we could afford and making sure we bought safe products.hope that helps, good luck!

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I am due in January and I read the entire Baby Bargains book. It helped a ton. You don't have to read the whole thing, it's a big book. You can skim through and read the sections on the baby items you need. I borrowed it from the library.

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I had a lot of luck using the book Baby Bargains by Denise and Alan Fields. It has everything you could think of that you would need for babies...car seats, strollers, diaper bags, bottles, etc. It gives a brief description of each item/brand a price range, and then gives them a grade...A,B,C, etc. on what they feel is the best product based on their research. I found it very useful in buying the things we needed for the girls when they wer born. It also has secrets on saving 20-50% on baby items as well.

Love our Ergo baby carrier.
You can try on the various kinds now/later at Be By Baby on Lincoln and Roscoe...they're very helpful there and worth a drive into the city (baby carriers are great for so many errands, late colicky nights, you name it).
we use a Graco Metrolite stroller and it was a combo with the infant seat (good deal). You can play around with them at Babies R Us -- look at things like cup holder, easy to fold down one-handed yet safe, etc. The one thing I don't like about it is the seat harness now that she's in the big girl seat of the stroller. But it works and maneuvers great.

Congrats! The one thing I just purchased which I LOVE is the Macclaren umbrella stroller. Some of them can be used in very early infants, I didn't but absolutely love it now. I still had the Graco carseat stroller combo and loved that. It was convenient but now that the little guy is one I love the umbrella stroller.

I never used a high chair and purchased only a infant seat for the table. My personal preference but if space is an issue something to consider.

I am not sure if you purchased furniture but I would recommend Little Deb N Heir in Naperville. They also have a nice waterproof mattress that works well.

Also Ikea has these cool bibs that covers the arms for when they start eating on their own.

That is my favorite things. Congrats again!

I agree with the previous poster -- get Baby Bargains!

Do you have the book Baby Bargains? It is the best source out there for everything baby. They review all the gear and the different brands and provide ratings and opinions. I think the author is Denise Fields. I've seen the book at Barnes & Noble and of course Amazon would have it. You can also look at their website www.babybargains.com - I think they have forums you can post questions to. Congratulations!

You may be able to take out the Baby Bargains book from your local library instead of buying it. Save your $$ for diapers! :)

Since we are a tall couple, it was very helpful to go to the stores and try out all the strollers to see what would work best for us without breaking our backs or costing a fortune.

We ended up going with the Chicco line for pretty much everything. We liked the neutrality of the solid colors as well as the quality. They do have an infant car seat which goes up to 30# and 30", but in hindsight, we should have just saved a few $$ and went with the standard. Our guy guy outgrew it before he even reached the weight limit. He is still not 30# at 18 months - I could not imagine carrying a 30# child in an infant carrier seat!

I agree with some previous posters - cut that Babies R Us regsitry in half and definitley borrow what you can. We were able to borrow a swing, which worked out well because our baby hated it. I would have been so mad if we would have purchased one for 'nothing.'

We were also able to find a brand new, still in the box crib on craigslist. Don't be afraid of craigslist and/or e-bay. You can find some good deals on things that are new or just barely used.

When registering, don't forget about things you will eventually need a few months down the road - like childproofing stuff, spoons and bowls for feeding, etc...

Oh, and I am just making an assumption that you will be regsiterting for gifts. If you are not, then I do apologize. However, if you are, then I would recommend not registering with Target. Their return policy really stinks, even for registered items. If you are looking for a Babies R Us alternative, you may want to try Buy Buy Baby. They are owned by Bed, Bath & Beyond (great return policy). Besides being online, there are also two in the area--Downers Grove and Woodfield. Their staff is always so nice and helpful and their stores are very clean.

Last but not least, congratulations and enjoy the last few months of your pregnancy!

For the infant seat I went with the Graco Safe Seat as it goes up to 30lbs. My son was 15 month old before he outgrew it. I also only got the stroller frame that went with it instead of the whole big travel system. It was much lighter and easy to transport not to mention cheaper.

Cribs- I never bought a new one- They are so expensive and honestly you can get a used one in excellent condition for much less. Check out onceuponachild.com for locations of their stores.

Congratulations and have fun baby shopping :)

I will agree with many previous posters that you should get the Baby Bargains book. I got mine at Borders.

Also, when a friend of mine was pregnant she was in school and they had a speaker at one of her classes whose title I can't remember (this was 6 years ago), but she is somehow involved in baby product marketing and sales, but not for an individual company. Anyway, my friend cornered the woman to get information on good brands. What I most remember her passing on to me is that Cosco does not test any of their products adequately and they rely on recalls if something doesn't work properly. I also remember that in my Baby Bargains book, most of the Cosco items did not get good reviews. So I stay away from Cosco brand items (which includes Eddie Bauer brand stuff).

We have the Graco infant seat and we bought a stroller frame that it can click into for $20. We loved that setup for the first year (we are on baby number 2 with it now). The travel systems are really heavy and there was no way I could have handled all of that on my own since I have to go up and down stairs to get in and out of our house. Then we moved on to a Combi stroller that we got at Babies R Us, which we also were really happy with. My husband is 6' 2'' and that stroller was a reasonable price and tall enough for him to use. Definitely test strollers out at the store, especially if you or your husband is tall. The Combi is also really like and easy to fold up and reasonably priced.

Also, I highly recommend a Bumbo. This helps the baby sit before he/she is ready to sit up on their own. I also used it to feed my kids when they first started solids.

I recommend that you not buy a baby swing right away. We registered for one and got it as a gift. However, neither of my kids liked it. My daughter maybe used it 3 times and my son used it maybe 5 times. However, we have loaned it to 2 friends of ours that have had babies. The first friend had twins and both of her kids loved it. The second just had their baby so I am not sure if they have used it yet or not. I would recommend borrowing a swing at first to see if your baby likes it.

I can't make any suggestions on cribs. My husband made my kids crib. I will however say that with my daughter we used a basinet and then moved her to a crib. We had a lot of problems with her sleeping and she didn't do so well with the move (she was 3 months when we switched). With my son I just put the crib matress up to the highest setting and used the crib from the beginning. My husband moved the crib into our room and then at 4 months we moved the crib into the nursery. This worked really well for us.

One last thing. Try to find sleepers with zippers. The ones with 20 snaps are a pain in the middle of the night. Gerber used to make them with zippers and they sold them at Target. I think the Gerber ones at Target now have snaps when I looked for my son. So I have had to buy more expensive ones to get the zippers, but it is totally worth it, it is just so much easier when changing a diaper at night.

Hopefully some of this helps.

Good Luck,
D.

Hi J.,
We used our take along swing tons. It is small enough to stick in the car when needed and comfy enough to use as your main swing.

I would also suggest getting a Baby Bjorn.

I also second getting a snap n' go for the infant car seat instead of a full travel system.

Good luck with the baby.

We did a stroller that had the car seat attached. Since we live in a condo we wish we had done the jogging stroller combo because it goes over the snow better than the regular one because we always put the car seat in the stroller to go anywhere.
Loved my Bonjour carrier
Love my video monitors
Crib
a location to change diapers, We used the bassinet on our pack n play.
Dressers
Bouncer seat
Swing
we have a full size highchair, but one that sits on a chair comes in handy for travel.
Good luck and congratulations!

I read baby bargains, so i can give you the cliff notes...

graco snugride infant seat
britax marathon convertible seat
uppa baby stroller
fisher price monitor
sorelle or bonavita brands for furniture
fisher price jumperoo
some sort of swing
umbrella stroller (all maclarens were just recalled, we went with uppa umbrella too)

we got the chicco cortina travel system and have been very happy with it. I see a ton of them on the street, so I think many others are, too!

My advice would be to not spend a ton of money on this stuff as it is only used for a short time. If you can borrow a stroller from a friend or relative who is in between or done having kids , all the better. As long as the items are safe, that is the ideal thing. Also , practice with the car seat(putting it in the car, etc) before baby comes, because those things are tricky. As for a crib, used is fine too, as long as safety isn't an issue I always liked the ones that you can turn into a toddler bed and then a double bed later. You could potentially spend a small fortune on these items, when it's not necessary. Good luck and enjoy your baby. The other advice I have is please breastfeeding if at all possible.

I liked my Graco snugride and bought the Graco stroller too. So, convenient to have them fit together. :)

Not that you need a third vote, but the first two posts are right on the money - Baby Bargains, all the way!

That being said, they're not going to just recommend the cheap junk. The authors do a fantastic job of considering quality, safety, and reliability before rendering their decision. The best part, though, is that they'll help you wade through the junk you don't need (take that Babies R Us registry recommendation and cut it in half *laugh*), and really help you narrow down your choices.

Good luck!

Hi J.,

I highly recommend you check out the book Baby Bargains. It has been a huge help to us in all of our baby-product-purchasing decisions. As for infant seats, we've been pretty happy with our Graco SnugRide -- it gets high safety ratings, and is affordable. As far as strollers go, it really depends on what your main purpose is (walks in the neighborhood? trips to the mall?). Baby Bargains has a good section where they recommend strollers based on what kind of area you live in (and what you're likely to use your stroller for). And we have a very expensive hand-crafted crib (made by Pacific Rim Woodworking) since we're into sustainably crafted furniture. It's a great crib, but I'm sure there are other good ones out there if you don't mind getting something that's factory made outside the USA.

Best wishes for a healthy pregnancy, labor, and birth,
R.