Organized New Mom Tip #34: If you have a dog, buy them a dog tag silencer

If you have a dog, I PROMISE you will experience this situation:

You FINALLY get the baby to sleep. You gingerly place him in the crib. You creep ever so quietly out the door. You silently close the nursery door. Then the dog, who is right outside the door because she follows you around like you’re a rock star ever since you brought your bundle of joy home from the hospital, decides this would be the perfect time to shake and scratch profusely, causing the tags on her collar to jingle like it’s the frickin’ North Pole at Santa’s workshop. After shushing the dog, you wring your hands and wait. You listen. Then you hear that dreaded cry on the other side of the door that says, “Congrats, Mom. You just earned yourself a repeat of the last 60 minutes.”

Some would say that this is not a problem. Some would say to just take off the collar and bypass the noise altogether.  These people do not have a border collie who on a whim decides to jump the fence to go exploring*. These people also must be perfect and always remember to put the dog collar back on the dog before letting the dog out. I am not one of these people, and was getting tired of picking up my loveable canine at the shelter (thank God she has a chip).

Get a dog tag silencer**, new Mommies. Get one now. You will thank me.   

*We have since fixed the fence so she can’t get out. Happy endings, yay!

**Our dog tag silencer is so very appropriately named “Peace Tags”, from a company called Paws and Tails. Here’s their website:  http://www.paws-and-tails.com/peacetags-tagsilencer.aspx  (This is so not a paid endorsement).

Our wonderful dog, Arwen, whom we love (much more now that we she wears a dog tag silencer)

 

Organized New Mom Tip #33: Don’t Overbuy Oversized Baby Items

Registering for your baby shower can be overwhelming when you consider all of the gizmos and gadgets on the baby market today. I’ll let you in on a little secret: you don’t need it all. This isn’t a blog entry listing the most important baby essentials. Heck, just go on Pinterest or Amazon and you can get that info within seconds. I’m just here to remind you to not blindly purchase every big baby item that looks cool.

For example, do you really need a pack n’ play…and a crib…and a co-sleeper? Do you really need a bouncer…and a baby swing…and a floor mat? The answer is probably not, and you’ll be grateful for the space you save by not having oversized baby stuff cluttering every inch of your house.

So how do you know what you’ll really need? Here’s what I did:

•  Ask other moms-They’re the best resource!

• Read product reviews-So many times a baby gadget looks so freakin’ awesome, but when you   read the reviews you really learn whether or not parents actually found it useful.

• Wait until Baby is born-Sometimes you need to find out your little one’s personality before learning what he or she will use. When it comes to big baby stuff, all you really need is a car seat and a place for Baby to sleep before the big birth day arrives. 

My son Will's favorite big baby toy by far was his floor activity gym

Organized New Mom Tip #32: Baby second-hand = Mommy’s best friend

I am blessed with tons of family and great friends who supplied me with everything I need to take care of a newborn baby. After enjoying the initial baby shower plethora of gifts, I slowly began to realize something: people don’t keep sending you replacement outfits for the ones your baby outgrows! Nuts. I also quickly discovered it was not so economical for us (like most families) to buy everything new. Double nuts.

Of course I knew my guy would grow, but I was just too wrapped up in the here-and-now to think about what came next.  I remember my first trip to the baby second-hand store in my neighborhood, and my jaw dropped. Near perfect outfits and toys at a margin of retail were suddenly at my fingertips. I started paying attention to garage sales and online listings like Craigslist for baby merchandise and found the same thing. That’s the thing about babies: they grow fast and go through toys quickly. Yay for me!

Some tips:

• Find out where ALL the baby second-hand stores are in your neighborhood. I guarantee you there’s more than one, and they tend to lurk in strange places like old strip malls or residential homes.
• Build a relationship with the owner of your favorite store. You’ll soon realize you need a place to give back all of the outgrown baby items you bought! J
• Go EARLY to garage sales that advertise big item baby things like activity gyms and strollers. Those buggers get picked over at the crack of dawn.
• Join some sort of “mommy” online community group in your neighborhood. Not only is it nice to have the company, these classifieds are rich in hard-to-find baby second-hand items.
• This is probably a no-brainer, but don’t buy everything you need for Baby second-hand. I’d stick to new car seats and new breast pumps. (Eww.)

Of course, where's the fun in NEVER buying something new?

Pumpkin Baby Beanie
http://www.justdelivered.net/Pumpkin-Baby-Beanie_p_808.html