Natalie Gross 0:10
One of the highlights of pregnancy has got to be registering for baby gifts. But now that all of that stuff is off the shelves and in your house, you might be wondering, "Okay, how much of the stuff that does my baby actually need?" We're going to help you discern that and more today in this helpful conversation with experienced mamas and a baby gear expert. This is Newbies.

Natalie Gross 0:38
Welcome to Newbies, listeners. Newbies is your online on the go support group guiding new mothers through their baby's first year. I'm Natalie Gross. I have a four year old boy and a baby girl. We've got a great show today talking about baby gear. Now if you haven't already, you can visit our website at NewMommyMedia.com and hit subscribe on our weekly newsletter, which keeps you updated on all of the episodes that we release each week. Another great way to stay updated is to hit that subscribe button and your podcast app wherever you're listening right now. If you're looking for a way to get even more involved with our show, then check out our membership club called Mighty Moms. That's where we chat more about the topics discussed here on the show. And it's also an easy way to learn about our recordings so that maybe you can join us live. I'd like to introduce moms Jaimie Flack and Christiana Morton, who are joining me for this discussion today. Our featured expert Megan Larsen from GoodBuy Gear will also be joining us a little later on in the show. But first, mamas thank you so much for being here. Let's kick it off with some introduction. So tell us a little bit about you and your family and your experience with baby care. Jaimie, do you want to go first?

Jaimie Flack 2:04
So I am a mom of four. Casey, my oldest and only girl, she's eight and then Jesse's five. Oliver's three. Tucker is 11 months. Really close to one. And we live in Buffalo.

Natalie Gross 2:21
Awesome. And so you've had quite a lot of baby gear with four kids? I'm sure.

Jaimie Flack 2:26
Indeed it grows each time.

Natalie Gross 2:30
Great. Christiana, what about you?

Christiana Morton 2:33
I have an eight year old girl. And I have almost very close to being six year old boy girl twins. And we have gone through a lot of baby gear, things that I thought I needed with my first and either didn't use or didn't use as much as I thought I would. And then with twins, I thought, oh, no, I need double of everything. And some things I did need double and some things. I did not need double. And so it was kind of a learning curve definitely for singleton to boy girl twins about?

Natalie Gross 3:13
Well think back to when you were registering for baby gifts. How did you go about deciding what baby gear you want it? How much research did you do? Did you go more by appearance? What would look good in your space or the price? Tell me kind of what went into those decisions?

Jaimie Flack 3:27
Well, when we were first pregnant, we had a tiny little apartment. Casey only had kind of like a half room in between our room in the bathroom, and then have a door on it or anything even between like separating that from the living room. So we were trying to just only get what we needed. We really didn't even have a large amount of storage space like outside of the apartment. So we did some research. But I would say it was mostly like word of mouth with more experienced parents or even just like, my favorite is just to put it out on Facebook and see to showing that I'm a millennial still using Facebook but and then the price was definitely important to us to try to I don't know, that just I don't work or anything. So we just the cheapest probably is the best unless it was going to be something somebody got for us. But we shopped it around at Target. And then we checked it. I remember we went to Toys R Us for our stroller specifically because we wanted to make sure it was compact and you know, easy to use. So that was kind of a fun memory but I don't you probably can't do that anymore. I don't think with ties. But that was that those are the things we were thinking about. At that point. It wasn't so much what it looked like it was just can we fit it in our house and do we need it? Kind of thing? Yeah.

Christiana Morton 4:59
For me, I did not know what I was doing. I did not know what to register for. I thought I kind of knew what I needed. But then when I got to the store, it was so overwhelming. And I don't know, do people even go to the store anymore, they probably like shop online or do things on accounts. But when I was doing it, we went to the store, we went to Target and byebye baby. And we just kind of held the little gun to scan everything that we wanted. And at first I was being really like pragmatic about it, like, Okay, we're gonna get things that are cost effective, and things that I know we're gonna use. And then we went down one aisle, and I knew I had 85 more aisles to go to. And then we just kind of shot all the little barcodes with everything. And then I never really did any research on anything, it was kind of things that I thought that we needed, not knowing what we needed, and things that maybe would look good with the decor that we were going with, I didn't know if I was having a boy or girl. And I also knew that we wanted to have more than one baby. So we kind of went with gender neutral things, which I'm actually good at that we did, because we had a girl, and then a boy and a girl. So glad we didn't go with just girl and then end up with pink everything for my son. So that was good. Yeah, so I kind of also went off of price after a while too, because I felt bad for people who were going to be buying gifts and spending a lot of money on things. But we also didn't go with the cheapest do so we kind of went gender neutral, kind of in the middle with price also.

Natalie Gross 6:41
Okay. Well, now that you are experienced moms, what would you say are three pieces of baby gear you cannot live without,

Jaimie Flack 6:49
I would say, because of that space that we were in, we had to have a white noise machine, Casey still she's a, if you turn off her white noise, she will wake up. So we still that's very, we have to have that one for us personally. And then I have used a baby carrier a time, especially once I had a second child. And maybe once in the stroller and the babies in the carrier, whether I really liked the Ergo Baby 360, that's the one we use the most. But when they're tiny, tiny, the Solly baby wraps are really nice to our baby swing is probably the third one we've used the most all our kids have liked that. And you know, you never really know when you're pregnant, what your baby is gonna like. So I always say that it's nice if you have like a church nursery, or just friends that have baby gear and can afford to wait until the baby's born to try. Try a couple things out that that would be like ideal, but generally speaking, like that swing was great. It's it went to different directions. And so I guess you've got a little more chance that they're gonna like it. And we use that for for all of our kids. We actually borrowed one first and then we bought one secondhand and have used it and it's just about ready to just, it's not going to last any longer. Thankfully, we're on our last kid, so we made it that far. And then if I could share a bonus one, it would be obviously a breast pump, because we nursed and even just a hand pump is just very helpful to have for car trips or whatever. So just just have to throw out that bonus. That was definitely an essential too.

Natalie Gross 8:34
And is that your baby there we here?

Jaimie Flack 8:37
Yes, the baby woke up from his nap earlier than I hoped.

Natalie Gross 8:41
No worries. He's the expert on baby care after all.

Jaimie Flack 8:44
That's true.

Natalie Gross 8:45
Yeah. All right. Christiana, what about you?

Christiana Morton 8:48
I would say number one would be a stroller. I definitely used a Moby Wrap in an ergo to carry all three of my kids roam many times, but a stroller definitely. Personally for my single baby. The three wheeled stroller was definitely the best because I could turn on a dime, you know to go around the sticks while we're walking or at the store. That was definitely the best for my twins, which was definitely my double stroller. I actually did not like the side by side stroller for my double. I liked the long, but when I go shopping at Target, I want to be able to get into the aisles and like go around each of the things to look at shirt and pants and baby clothes. And with the double wide stroller. I just could not do that. So I definitely liked my long stroller with lots of storage in huge you got to make sure it has storage if it's if it's anything you have to have good storage in there and a cup holder. My next one was my Boppy pillow for my daughter for nursing Seeing and for kind of resting in I guess, like for tummy time. And then for my twins, I could not obviously use it but because it was way too small. So for nursing my twins, I used a twin Z. It's a nursing pillow for twins. And it also has little backrest on it. So that was a total necessity for me. And my third would be, it's kind of twofold. But a swing for newborns was huge. I actually, that was one of the things I am so thankful that I had to have for my twins. All three of my kids love this swing napping in the swing. If I'm trying to get something done cooking dinner or whatever, they just they love just sitting in it. I put music on for them love the swing. But I only last a certain amount of time because then they get older and they want to kind of wriggle out of the swing. So then I switched them over to an exerciser. Mine actually was for, you know when they can hold their head up kind of reach the bottom, but it also I could take it apart. And they could sit or kneel while they were playing at the exerciser. And then I could also bump it up a little bit and they could stand at the exerciser. So for me swing slash exerciser. Definite necessities for me personally.

Natalie Gross 11:23
Yeah, well those are all great. Thanks so much for sharing mamas. We are going to take a quick break and then meet our baby care expert Megan Larsen. Stay tuned.

Natalie Gross 11:39
Today on Newbies, we are continuing our conversation about baby gear. Our expert is Megan Larsen. She is a mom of two and the Vice President of Business Development at GoodBuy Gear -- that's good B-U-Y gear, the leading online baby and kid gear consignment brand She also serves as good buy gears in house gear expert thanks to over 15 years of experience in the baby and Kid retail space. So before joining GoodBuy gear, Megan held key management and director positions at Stokde, Baby Jogger, Britax and Dorel. Those are brands I'm sure many of you guys have heard of. So Megan, thanks so much for being here.

Megan Larsen 12:13
Thanks for having me. I'm excited.

Natalie Gross 12:16
Yeah, well your company recently came out with a top baby gear products for 2023, including the top five for first time parents. So I would love it if you could share what those are.

Megan Larsen 12:26
Absolutely. So this was a collective, you know, list that we made internally. I'm not the only quote unquote expert, but collectively looking at, you know what parents need and want the most, what we see parents coming to us for and then interviewing parents who actually sell and buy with us. And at the top of the list, you know, is strollers and I say that with a plural not to scare anybody. But there is really no such thing as a perfect stroller. So you might find a stroller that has different needs for different spaces and places, whether you live in urban area or suburban area, or you're into jogging, etc. There's a plethora of options, and then eventually realize that you can get away with a compact stroller once they're a little bit older. You also need a car seat. An infant car seat is a necessity, especially if you you know are burning in a hospital and you want to take the baby home, they escort you outside and make sure it's installed correctly, which is always a little bit nerve racking. I think Carson installation in general is and I know you've done a podcast about that. So helping parents kind of navigate that is super important. There's a lot of anxiety around that. And I will say that many manufacturers actually offer help and video assistance with installation so that you can have a little bit of peace of mind. If you don't have the time to go to a car seat check or to fire department or local police station to get that checked. There are many manufacturers that will help you through that. And then bottles are a necessity. And you know it's funny hearing Jamie and Christiana mention, it depends on what your baby likes because that's totally true. You may buy a certain brand that you know your sister or your friends use and then your baby does not like it or your baby has colic or your baby has acid reflux. So bottles and maybe different types of bottles until you find the right one is a necessity. A bassinet am is certainly something that you'll need. When the baby comes home, you'll need a space for them to sleep in. And as Jamie had said, you know they didn't have a separate room or they had a separate space but without a door so there wasn't a lot of space and what we're seeing a lot of people doing is really going with the minimalist kind of necessities and which is very reassuring to see And bassinets are a great option so that you can figure out where baby's going to sleep where you're comfortable with them sleeping, whether it's with you in your room or a separate room. You never know kind of how you're going to feel once the baby's home. And then we had carriers as the last option on the list. And this, this is something that so many parents, most parents, I know, most parents, we speak to love them swear by them. i There's so many different brands out there and different ways to carry a child. And especially if you have more than one, this comes in handy. I will say for me personally that my children did not like carriers. So as an edit, they're like my clutch item would absolutely have been my swing. Which just hearing the other parents here talking about it is a great reminder of what it was like and what came in most handy. And I will add one more thing if that's okay. Yeah, strollers and car seats. So they can actually could potentially even be combined into one where you're purchasing a travel system. And that's where you get an infant carseat that will snap on to a stroller. And you can choose your stroller of choice. And most stroller brands, if they don't already make a car seat or it doesn't already come in one box together with a stroller. Most of them have adapters that are pretty low in price. And you could pretty much adapt a multitude of brands to the stroller that you that you really like if a you know a cup holder and storage and things like that are really important to you. And a travel system that you see that comes in one box doesn't have all the features you want. You have the opportunity to look for a stroller, buy the adapter, and then get the car seat of your choice to make a travel system.

Natalie Gross 16:57
Yeah, those are great tips. And I love how you said different babies are gonna like different things like what works for one baby might not even in like a family. I've been surprised how much my daughter has just like, not loved the things I kept around from her mother.

Megan Larsen 17:11
It's totally true. And you hear people say that even before you have a child and then I know my my, you know, my inner monologue was like, okay, that's ridiculous. Babies, you know, don't choose what they like they 100% do. Yeah.

Natalie Gross 17:28
They are tiny humans.

Megan Larsen 17:30
They have an opinion.

Natalie Gross 17:31
Yep. Well why does baby gear range in price so much? What should parents be aware of when they're looking for this? Because, you know, sometimes we think more expensive means it must be better, right? But then you can get something similar for half the price. So how should parents kind of navigate this?

Megan Larsen 17:49
It's interesting to know, like the ins and outs of the of, you know, the manufacturing side of the business. And I think that there's you know, a misconception that maybe the super expensive items are overpriced, or they're being or you're overcharged, because they're so mainstream or sort of, you know, that coveted item that you want. But I will say there are components that go into each item, that set the price, really, they the manufacturers are not making up the price, there's literally cost of goods that you have to cover, in order to then you know, sell either direct, if if a company is selling direct to a consumer, you're going to get a better price from that company, because they're not dealing with a middleman like a retailer where they have to then have a markup for the retailer and the retailer has a markup from there. So there's direct to consumer brands where you're going to get a better price. And then there's also you have your low end, lower end travel systems. And I wouldn't call anything necessarily cheap, I would say less expensive. And in a lot of cases, maybe it doesn't have the look and feel that you want or there might be, you know, more plastic components like the child tray or the parent console is made out of plastic. Maybe you don't like that and you want a higher end feel, or you want EBA foam filled tires, those are more expensive, but they will navigate over a multitude of terrains with a lot of ease including potholes, uneven sidewalks. And then when you look at all the different options out there, it's great to be able to like push and feel, as I think Jamie had said maybe she was at babies or us and was able to kind of push things around and get a feel for them. Which is usually important to people and if you don't have the luxury of visiting a store to get that feel and see what you like about the function analogy, then you can kind of go and talk to friends and see what's out there. And you know, ask somebody if you can push their stroller around. But the pricing is vast, based on the features and the materials that are going into the product to make it. And then how the how the brands and manufacturers are distributing the product, whether they're going to retail, or they're going direct to you as the consumer.

Natalie Gross 20:26
Okay, yeah, that's interesting behind the scenes insight there.

Megan Larsen 20:29
I know it gets kind of technical. And it's kind of boring, but that that's really what it comes down to.

Natalie Gross 20:34
Yeah, it's helpful to know. Well, what are some popular products or types of baby gear that you see out there that actually aren't safe? And along those lines, like how can parents learn to discern what's safe and what's not for themselves? Is there a good resource to stay on top of safety recalls?

Megan Larsen 20:49
Absolutely, I mean, go to space for good buy gear, and for even myself, just to keep on top of knowledge, is the CPSC, which is cpsc.gov. Very easy to find. And they will have basically every recall listed from the cover all the all baby items, and then they cover all basically consumer brand items within the US. And it'll tell you, it's usually US and Canada, the impact, and then, when you see a recall, there's don't panic, because a lot of us do. There's usually more details around the recall. And oftentimes there will be a fix to that recall. So especially around car seats, you know, this is something you don't want to see that your car seat has been recalled. If you read, if you actually read about the recall and figure out what the next steps are, then you might find that there's a simple fix that the the manufacturer has, in order for you to fix it. And if you're not comfortable with that, usually most manufacturers will replace your seat or come up with an alternative option for you. So I would say recalls are a little bit scary when you see them, but you read into them, look into them and figure out you know, what they're actually about and why. I will say that sleep products in general, and loungers have had a great deal of attention lately. And you know, between the ASTM between the CPSC there are, you know, different standards that have come out even within the past year. So they constantly get updated or not constantly, but I feel like the sleep of the cribs, bassinets and loungers specifically have come to light as not being the safest item. So I would say be aware of that, you know, those loungers that you have that your baby might fall asleep and take a nap in. You don't want to leave them there. Baby might get very comfortable and you don't want to move them. But just knowing the stories you want to you want to be cognizant of it and you want to move them to a safe air quote safe space, like a bassinet that lies flat. Any toys or anything loose that has dangling objects, definitely keep away from the baby. I mean, there's a reason why so many products, even plastic bags in the US are labeled as you know, dangerous and do not give this to a child. But there's things that don't always have those tags on them. So you want to make sure that baby doesn't have access to the to those dangling loose pieces. A lot of things go in their mouths. And the last thing I'd say is batteries. I mean, those small tiny batteries are usually secured with screws. You want to make sure that if your baby has any electronic items, that those are tightly secured or just simply avoid the electronics.

Natalie Gross 23:52
Yeah, that's great advice. What baby gear can parents wait to buy until their baby's a little bit older? Like maybe they have a small space like we've already talked about? Can't have all the baby gear there at once and maybe what some stuff that you can get rid of after use it in those early days.

Megan Larsen 24:06
Yeah, I would say ironically, I wouldn't have said this before I had my first child but you can wait to buy a crib truthfully. That was something that I thought I had to have and you know, your nesting instinct might scream at you and be totally against this. If you want to set up a nursery prior to baby coming but having a crib and an entire nursery setup I just looking back. It's something I didn't do for my second child, which I kind of feel a little bit guilty about but not it was more out of practicality. Like I'm not going to go out and buy a brand new crib set it up get it perfect knowing knowing that they're not going to sleep in it right away knowing I had a bassinet and that, you know I would be sleeping next to this baby in a bassinet that pulled up to the bed I should say because also sleeping with the baby is not safe, I should say as far as like the shorter lifespan items Essentially, there's things that you will only use between that zero to six month period, you can get rid of them unless of course, you're considering a second child and you want to keep keep hanging on to them. But the bassinet and the swings are pretty much like when baby starts to roll over, unless they've met the criteria of the max weight capacity before then, which usually is about 30 pounds. So that's kind of hard to achieve with a little one. But always, if you lose a manual or something, always Google it, to see what the what the capacity is. But as soon as baby kind of starts to try to attempt to rollover the bassinet, so the swings will only last you till about four months, when babies start to do that. The infant loungers, they the baby will probably want to become more mobile and will start rolling around. And that's when those infant loungers might become obsolete. You might still use them for breastfeeding and other other ways, which I found to be really awesome and comfortable. Play mats and Geminis Those are items where you know your babies spend so much time on these mats. And it's very interesting how much time they spend there or how little time they spend there and they get exhausted very quickly. It becomes like the center of of your life like Groundhog Day for the first three months. And they might outgrow that Gemini some, some do grow with your child and can turn into other things or even a mat that you could potentially take outside as something that's water resistant. But a lot of them are really just for that those first stages. And then, you know, the bathtub, that also doesn't last forever those baby bathtubs, I would say also clothes and diaper sizes like the clothes that come from, you know, newborn, I bought so many newborn onesies and couldn't really like maybe I use them for a week. And then you realize, okay, they're in zero to three months, and then they go up in size so quickly, not necessarily according to age, and diaper sizes. If you buy diapers in various sizes, and you buy it by bulk, they kind of graduate to the next day precise very quickly. So don't buy too much or be prepared to donate, which is always a great option. And then, you know some infant seats have a lower maximum weight capacity, which is a little bit misleading because most of them even if they're a lower weight capacity will last until your baby's ready for their convertible car seat which varies by height and weight and that's usually around nine to 12 months.

Natalie Gross 27:45
Okay, well thank you so much man for sharing this important information. We're gonna take another quick break and then bring back Jaimie and Christiana to the conversation.

Natalie Gross 28:01
Welcome back, Jaimie and Christiana. Does anyone have any baby gear hacks to share from your experience? Gor example, someone told me when I was pregnant with my first kid that you could just use a pack and play instead of a bassinet in our room. So that's what we ended up doing. Curious if you have any tips like that for new moms.

Jaimie Flack 28:19
I think I kind of already said this but trying things before you buy them if you're able to just so you don't end up with a whole bunch of things you can't use your baby doesn't like but I think also this is like a little thing but I have seen the diaper pads for the I don't even know what you call that but the the cover for the diaper changing table pads that are like fully cloth and that is a terrible idea. Like there are wipeable ones so making sure that you have a white bubble and and then also even like the travel ones, I know that is maybe kind of not really a hack but they are great to have a lot of diaper bags come with them. But I find that like we have two stories in our house and our changing table is upstairs. So I feel like even having a spare one of those downstairs for changing diapers downstairs is also very helpful. I guess the hack is there are just some things that are good to have multiples of if you have an upstairs in the downstairs that are actually worth it to have multiples of things like a place to store diapers upstairs and downstairs and wipes and some kind of diaper changing pad or something that the baby can sit in. upstairs and downstairs. I think I loved what Christianna said about swing and then transition to exerciser. I use exerciser a lot and when I'm in the shower, and I need to keep him somewhere. We put him in the exerciser in the bathroom when he gets a steam shower at the same time. And then maybe it's we do use the packing Like for the baby's crib. So I agree with that bag. But you know, I can stick him in there upstairs. So I think just thinking about like, what things do you want to have access to quickly and easily and not have to always run upstairs or downstairs for them. And having multiples of those essential things has been helpful. Yeah,

Christiana Morton 30:24
I would say for me, two hacks would be the first would be to buy used when you can, there are so many people who buy things think that they're going to use them and never use them. Or like a swing, my twins were able to use the swing a lot longer because they were a premium on micro preemie. But usually they only use things for a very short amount of time. And so when you buy them used, they're practically brand new still. And like half or quarter of the price, and so many times you can find find things from people that you might know for free. I know somebody said about, you know, using Facebook might be like an old thing. But I know there's tons of things on Facebook, at least where I'm at Facebook marketplace, mommy groups on there. I'm not sure of anything new, like, you know, does Instagram have that? I don't think so. But you know, find some things somewhere that you can buy used even like, what do they call them, like a mommy swap place that you go to, like a school might do mom to mom sales, that kind of thing. So that's what my first hack. The second one I would say would be to if you can buy pieces that grow with your baby. B car seats are one of them where you can have it be backward facing until they're two or older. And then you can switch it around to then also be the frontward facing. And then not like an expert on car seats. But I know that there's a lot my daughter's in one right now that she could be forward facing in it. And then once she got tall enough, then we could take the back off and just use the bottom. So buying pieces that grow with your baby or can change with your baby are huge. Also with space. You know, if you have a smaller home, one that can be an exerciser one day and the next day, it can be a standing table that they can play at. And then also price. You're spending less money when you're buying only one thing that can work into two or three things.

Natalie Gross 32:45
Yeah, and I'll just refer since we've talked about car seats a lot this episode, I'll just refer listeners back to our recent episode called the essentials of car seat safety, you guys can go listen to that. Does anyone have any baby gear products that you purchased or receive that you actually didn't end up using? I know you've kind of started talking about this Kristiana as you give advice to new moms, what would you say is actually non essential.

Jaimie Flack 33:07
I was gonna say those like cotton receiving blankets, I think I got, I don't know, I have piles of them. And they're so tiny, and they just don't, you can't use them for very long. But, um, we bought we did use a ton and still do our like the bigger stretchy ones. Like I think copper Pearl is the brand that we got. We love that for swaddling. But then we still use those sometimes in the car, whatever. They they can make good nursing covers, if you feel like you need it for just a minute or whatever. Another thing we did not use really hardly at all, honestly, is like the like Megan already said this. But like the baby tub, every place we've lived has had a tub. And when they're tiny, we sometimes will use the sink. I think many people do that. But then I think for my daughter, we use the actual plastic tub like once or twice, like probably our first bath right next to the other bath. And it just doesn't make a lot of sense. To do that, because we already had a bath we have used like the insert maybe a little bit longer. But even that pretty quickly, the baby's just laying in the tub with just a tiny bit of water. So I think that is one thing that you can kind of go without. I don't know, pass pacifiers my kids have never really liked them. So we have tons of them and different kinds. But again, that's another one of those things where you kind of have to learn your baby and figure out if they're gonna take it or not. Yeah, same with like, are they going to use bottles or not? And will you even need a bottle drying rack I think we have one of those. And again spacesaving wise it takes up a lot of space on the counter. So that's another thing that doesn't really get used in our head. Um, yeah, I don't know, those are a few of the things that come to my mind.

Christiana Morton 35:04
For me, we had registered for highchair, a really nice deluxe high chair that could be rolled across the floor and have the head like a tray that you could remove, but then they have another tray underneath. And you could turn it into a chair later on, and all these things. And we sit down as a family every single night to sit down and eat and talk together. And so I knew we were going to use this highchair like I just I knew it. And we I it I never even opened it up out of the box. But here's the other thing to it, we have a very small kitchen. And I did not think about this when I was registering because I didn't know, somebody had given us two, which was a blessing later on when we had twins, but they gave us two different chairs. They were a plastic, orange and white and green chair with like a little tray that you would snap on. And I thought what in the world am I going to use this for, I don't need to bring this to you know, somebody's house or to a restaurant or campaign like this is just not going to work for us. I'm gonna use my big, nice highchair. And when it came down to it, we did not have room for the highchair in our kitchen. But to be able to hook this little plastic chair on to one of our chairs that we already had. And it slid underneath the table just like all the other chairs did. It worked perfectly. And then we also, because we had gotten to Ironically, when my twins came, we just use that for both of the twins also. So it was something that I was not planning to never use. But because we had something else that happened to work better for us. We ended up using that instead.

Natalie Gross 36:48
Yeah, that's kind of one of those hacks to that I'd never heard of. So that's great to know. Megan, do you have anything you want to add?

Megan Larsen 36:56
Yeah, I think that both already touched on it. And it's interesting, because having having backups of things is super important. If you haven't upstairs and downstairs, even within your home, or if you're planning on leaving your house, having your diaper bag kind of already packed and ready to go will make it a lot smoother. It's never really smooth. Let's face it,

Natalie Gross 37:19
Not at my house.

Jaimie Flack 37:20
Nope, it's not.

Megan Larsen 37:23
I had a boss, a male boss who was older about to be a grandfather, and we had a younger person who is expecting and he said, I'll tell you something, you know, just so you know, your days have been smoother over. She was like I just want to look smooth carrying, you know, the baby around. So I thought that was pretty perfect. Because we all kind of feel that way when we have our especially when we have our first move. But I think also like oh, are buying buying us I love that because I'm working I could buy gear now. And working from like being on the manufacturing side. And working with retailers. I know how much I know how much you know, kind of excess inventory there is and you know, options for buying new and anything really on good buy gear that people might find that's listed as open box or barely used is pretty much new. And you can get those items at a discount, which is awesome. So if you bought something, and it's not working for your for your baby, like you know the super high end bassinet that costs, you know, over $1,000, and your baby doesn't like it, you have an option to resell it and then buy something that your baby might like and feel less guilty about it. So I love that. And I love having those options. And I will say like my sister had twins as her first. And I watched her very intensely and it was constantly over there. And she had done the dream feed with her babies. Which is basically you know, like a car topping off the tank you just where you go to bed, you feed the baby, and hopefully stretch them out longer through the night. And then diaper rashes were a big issue with my first child. And it got so bad. We had to buy super expensive cream, and it was $500 Even with insurance. And then a neighbor finally told me her youngest was like eight years old, so I never thought to ask her. But Colchicine powder had worked wonders, and we were still using it in our house now for my daughter. So it's just those little things. Don't be afraid to ask friends or family what they've done or what they've used it and I'm always like so proud of people who ask for opinions and ask like what did you do in this situation? And I can't get this figured out. Nobody knows and nobody can nobody has the right answer for everything. But ask friends ask family or ask the stranger at the playground. Because we've all been through it and we've all we've all tried to figure it out. So use each other.

Jaimie Flack 39:59
Yeah

Natalie Gross 40:00
Well that is a really good place to wrap our conversation today. Thank you so much to all of you Megan, Jaimie, Christiana for joining me. Listeners you can find out more about good buy gear at goodbuygear.com. Again, that's buy spelled b-u-y. Also check out new mommymedia.com where we have all of our podcast episodes, plus videos and more.

Natalie Gross 40:31
That wraps up our show for today. We appreciate you listening to Newbies. Don't forget to check out our sister shows Preggie Pals for expecting parents, Parents Savers for moms and dads with toddlers, the Boob Group for moms who get breast milk to their babies, and Twin Talks for parents of multiples. Thanks for listening to Newbies, your go-to source for new moms and new babies.

Disclaimer 40:55
This has been a New Mommy Media production. Information and material contained in this episode are presented for educational purposes only. Statements and opinions expressed in this episode are not necessarily those of new mommy media and should not be considered facts. While such information and materials are believed to be accurate. It is not intended to replace or substitute for professional medical advice or care and should not be used for diagnosing or treating healthcare problem or disease or prescribing any medication. If you have questions or concerns regarding your physical or mental health, or the health of your baby, please seek assistance from a qualified health care provider.