Ruby's Favorite Things

In addition to Ruby's favorite toys mentioned in the previous post, there are a number of baby items that we couldn't do without, and these have made it to Ruby's Favorite Things list. I'll add items to the list as she gets older for the future reference of those of you who might have kids soon. Unfortunately, you won't find that the items have been surreptitiously placed underneath your chairs.

Ruby's Favorite Things:

1) Snuggle nest

The Snuggle Nest is designed to allow baby to sleep in the bed with the parents. It has raised sides so that the parents won't roll onto baby and bumpers so that baby can't roll onto her back. Although Ruby is too young to roll, she likes the bumpers for the sense of security, and since 5 days old has not needed to be swaddled as long as she's in the Snuggle Nest. At night Ruby sleeps in her Snuggle Nest inside of a Co-Sleeper which is attached to our bed.



During the day, we take the Snuggle Nest to whichever room of the house we're in. She prefers lying in the Snuggle Nest to sitting in the swing or bouncer, so we put it on the dining room table, and she watches us while we eat.



2) Sleep Sheep (or other sound machine)



The Sleep Sheep emits 4 different soothing sounds: mother's heartbeat, rain, ocean, and whale calls (the last of which sounds more scary than soothing to me). We always have the sound set to either rain or ocean, both of which basically sound like white noise. Since Ruby is too young to play with stuffed animals, we just removed the sound box from the sheep and carry that around everywhere we go. It usually works to instantly calm her, and during the day she often naps for the duration of the 45 min. that the sound is on and wakes up as soon as it's switched off.

3) Sleepy wrap

The Sleepy wrap is by far Ruby's favorite carrier. We tried putting her in the Baby Bjorn once, but she would have none of it. I've heard that little babies prefer the wrap because they don't like their legs to be separated the way they are with most other baby carriers. The sleepy wrap definitely seems to simulate the womb, as I feel like my chest is pregnant when she's in it.

Although putting on the wrap seemed daunting at first, I now find that it's simpler than any other carrier, even easier than putting Ruby in her carseat. We always get quite a bit of attention when we take walks in the wrap. It's a particular favorite of little old ladies. Nobody seems to be able to resist this happy little kangaroo.