10 Baby Number 3 Items (That I Didn’t Use For Baby #1 or #2)

One thing that has surprised the heck out of me is the olympic pace at which the baby product market moves. There are things on the market that either totally evaded me five years ago or weren’t available that are common items now. It’s kind of unbelievable how quickly the baby product market changes. What was popular 2-5 years ago is now basically ancient. It’s crazy. But anyway, I shared my post 10 Baby #2 Items (That We Didn’t Have For Baby #2) a few years ago, and you guys seemed to like it. So, before our baby girl turns one, I thought I’d share again! 

1. Doona Carseat Stroller 

It’s the most worthwhile baby product I’ve ever bought in my whole life. We’re still using the Doona at 11 months and honestly I think we could get another few months out of it, however, my sitter is pregnant so I told her she could have it once KJ is out of school. At our school, you have to walk the preschoolers into their classrooms. This means that I take three kids out of the car for drop-off three times a week. The Doona made that one bajillion times more manageable. I honestly would have paid triple the price for that convenience this year, but luckily, I bought it on black Friday before the baby was born, so I got a little discount. It’s not cheap, but car seats generally aren’t anyway.  

Another bonus about the Doona is the European installation method, which works like a charm for traveling.  It’s a baseless install utilizing the seatbelt.  This means you don’t have to lug the base with you when traveling or buy a second base for a second car the baby will only ride in occasionally.  When we went out of town, Mr. Hungry’s parents could easily transport the baby.  When we traveled to Colorado, we didn’t need to bring the base.  And when I took her with me to FNCE, she went right in the Uber in Denver with no problem. It was really awesome!  Mr. Hungry actually prefers this method, and to him, all infant seats should be installed this way vs. a base system.  But, for me, that’s impractical because I take the baby in and out of the car a bajillion times a day.   It does take longer to put them in and out with the baseless install, but for some situations it’s preferred, like traveling or short term use.  

There are some things I wish this car seat had, like a Greenguard certification and fabric free of flame retardants. I was more comfortable with it not being a “nontoxic” brand because the car seat came indoors with us during every use. This means it never sat in the heat, which is the number one way most chemicals get released from any product. I’ve also seen mixed reviews about its safety ratings in crash tests. But when I looked it up, it had the same ratings as the Graco Extend to fit the seat the boys rode in as infants. Mid-tier ratings, basically. I think Doona will only get better as time goes on. I saw they came out with the Doona Plus already, which has features like a soft open and other upgrades to the model I have. I’m sure one of the car seat manufacturers like Nuna, which is committed to nontoxic products, will come out with a competing product soon enough as well.

But, for this year, it was worth its weight in gold. Some people complain about the storage space, but that literally never bothered me once. There wasn’t one time I used this stroller where I was like oh man, I miss that underneath storage compartment.   

Here is the baby girl, who is two months old, in Doona:  

Here she is, 11 months old! I’ve been able to keep the headpiece in, but Doona says you can take it out if your baby outgrows it. It’s snug at 11 months, but it doesn’t seem to bother her.  

2.  Brezza Sterilizer 

I learned that I barely make enough milk for my babies, and establishing my milk supply is hard, requiring me to pump after every feed in the first six weeks of life. It’s a lot of work to feed and pump around the clock. I was using the sterilizer bags until I purchased this sterilizer. It literally took a quarter of the time to sterilize my pump parts and bottles for the baby. It was a lifesaver. Did it warp my Elvie parts? It’s possible, but it also was the same parts for two babies so that they could have just been old, and I should have replaced them.  

3. HATCH Baby Scale 

I don’t know why I resisted buying this HATCH Baby Scale for so long, only to buy it for baby #3. I struggled with milk supply. I need to weigh my babies more frequently than what is recommended to keep an eye on it. Going to the doctor for a weight check costs $40. This scale (when I bought it was $100), I easily avoided five additional doctor visits with this scale, so I made money. 

I’ve had other cheaper scales, but they weren’t as accurate or convenient for tracking purposes. The only downside was that I thought I’d be able to use it as a changing table well into toddlerhood, but that’s not the case. It’s pretty small, and the baby has already outgrown it, which is fine because I don’t really need to track her weight anymore. This scale is worth it for its accuracy, but you won’t be able to use it as a changing table for that long. Now, the Keekaroo that I’ve had for all three kids was well worth the money for a changing table.  

4. Pipette Baby Products

Here is an example of a baby product line that didn’t exist, or I didn’t know when the other two were born. One line that is entirely EWG verified. Before Pipette, it seemed like one company would have an EWG-verified cream but not a bath wash, etc.   So, different products from different companies and trying to keep that straight as a sleep-deprived Mama was not great. These products work great and are clean/nontoxic. Win. Win. I keep buying them for baby girl because they all work really well for their intended purpose.  

Pipette Baby Starter Kit

5. Hello Baby Monitor

We have this Hello Baby Monitor at my in-laws, and it makes me wish I had never owned an Infant Optics. That monitor is so expensive, and I’ve basically spent over $1000 in the last four years either adding cameras, replacing cameras, replacing the battery, or replacing the actual screen. The Hello Baby Monitor is cheap, durable, and clear quality. If I was starting over today, I would buy this and be done with it.  For now, we use it at my in-laws.  

6. Skip Hop Play Center

I was given this Skip Hop play center by a friend. It’s one of my favorite play centers I’ve ever used with a baby. It’s got a jumpy board but doesn’t move as a walker. It’s just a really great little entertainment center to keep a baby girl busy while I cook or when we’re outside, she sits outside in it. We used it mostly between 6-10 months, now she wants to use her VTech walker to go everywhere and doesn’t want to be contained. So, it was a short time frame, but we loved it.  

7. Haaka Sippy Cup

Oh man, have I spent a lot of money over the years trying sippy cups for kids under two. I’m not a fan of plastic, especially for kids under five, but stainless steel hurts when they hurl it at your head or drop it on your foot. Not to mention potential damage to themselves or your home. Silicone sippy cups are *hopefully* better than plastic chemical-wise, but the quality of them kind of stinks. This Haaka sippy cup has been pretty good. It has minimal leaking and is easy for the baby to use, so that’s a win. The only downside is my boys find it fun to squeeze it and shoot water into the air.  

8. Baby Led Weaning Spoons 

I finally invested in some baby led weaning spoons and only wished I had done it sooner. Initially, the baby girl was kind of picky; feeding herself helped her eat a little better. She’s over it now, and we often give her these spoons to practice with.  

9. Baby Merlin Magic Suit

I tried the Merlin Suit product with both of my older kids, but they could slip out of it because they were too skinny. I was DETERMINED to use it this time. She was long and skinny, too, so I ended up using safety pins and folding over the pants part, pinning it in place with four safety pins on each leg. Once I did that, she couldn’t slip her legs or anything else out of it. One of the reasons I was so determined was because she went from sleeping 6-8 hours at a time to 45 minutes when we ditched the swaddle (due to her rolling over.)  I knew she would go back to a good sleeper if I could keep her on her back and calm the Moro reflex (and technically safer.)  Pinning the Merlin suit did the job. I was comfortable with it, but I know this is obviously an altered way to do things, and I’m by no means recommending it to anyone else. I’m sure the company would recommend against altering their product. It definitely did the trick, though, because I got another whole month of decent sleep before the four-month sleep regression rolled in for real. But she stayed in the Merlin until around 7/8 months before she rolled over in it. I definitely think she had a better sleep regression overall because of it compared to the boys.  

This picture shows how I pinned it, but you can’t see the pins because they are underneath the fold.  

10. Narrow Bottles – Dr. Brown’s

The fun thing about baby girl has been that she has been super fussy about the bottle. She did not like the Comotomos the boys used. I saw on Instagram that breastfed babies may latch better to a narrow bottle with a narrow mouth, as that’s actually more similar to the way they would latch to the breast. A few of my friends really encouraged me to switch bottles, so I finally gave in. We’ve used Dr. Brown’s glass bottles for months, and Baby Girl did much, much better with them. The bottle still isn’t her favorite thing; she will outright refuse it during the day, but at night, she’ll take from these bottles well. I’m definitely glad I made the switch.