{Lantern Child Wood Toy by Armadillo Dreams}

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I’ve been meaning to write this post for awhile, wanting to share what we have actually used with Bracken and what we haven’t. There is a lot of “baby stuff” out there. These are our personal preferences.

We live simply and strive to keep our home clutter free and limit our possessions to fewer, special handmade things. 

Here’s our favorites:

I have this listed first because I cannot imagine life without our Ergobaby Carrier! 

My grandma gifted it to us and it’s absolutely been the baby item we’ve used most. In the beginning we used it with the infant insert that fits inside and now we’re still using it every single day (Bracken will turn two in October.) I’ve forgotten it when we left the house a few times and told someone I felt like I forgot a body part!
There are many wraps and carriers out there and when I was pregnant with Bracken, Jeff and I would look at different carriers and wraps people wore around market. Then we’d ask how people liked them. Every single person who had an Ergo carrier went on and on about how wonderful it was (and now I know what they mean!) You can wear it on the front, on the back, or on the side. It does a good job of evenly distributing the weight throughout the body. There is no barrier between the carrier and your body, which I really liked because it made it easy to breastfeed Bracken while he was in there. I wear it on the front and back. Jeff mostly wears it on the back. 

A few times I’ve gotten comments from onlookers saying wouldn’t I rather have a carrier where the baby can be facing outwards? Honestly, not at all. For one, facing inwards means Bracken can nurse. Also, if he is overwhelmed or people are getting too much “in his face/space” and he feels uncomfortable, he can nuzzle his head in close to mama. For us, I feel a forward facing carrier would be over-stimulating. Having a carrier where baby faces inward fits the contours of baby and mama bodies and the way they fit together.
(Again, just personal preferences here.)

We started using a potty when Bracken was pretty young. (I don’t remember exactly when.) We were inspired after reading this book. (I wrote more about Natural Infant Hygiene in this post.) We got an inexpensive potty by Baby Bjorn. I have seen some awesome wooden potties with stainless steel bowls. We’re glad we bought Bracken his own potty, it has gotten a lot of use and he’ll be able to continue using it for quite some time.

Not much to say about car seats, only wanted to include it in our list of favorite baby stuff.

We’ve hardly bought any clothes for Bracken. The only ones we’ve bought have been from thrift stores (mostly lots of cotton pants to use in place of diapers.) Most of his wardrobe has been hand me downs and gifts, which we’ve been so grateful for. And he has a few special clothes from trades with friends at market.

We’ve avoided synthetic fibers and stuck with natural fibers because it feels best to us.
 (Some lovely local handmade kid’s clothes are Whispering Willows and Watermelon Kidz.)

When people asked what we wanted when I was pregnant with Bracken, our first response was always “cloth diapers” followed by “clothes.” We thought we’d have plenty of cloth diapers, but it’s amazing how quickly a giant pile of clean ones can make it to the laundry pile. When Bracken is outside in our yard, he’s typically naked (at least partially) and can take a wiz wherever he likes. He doesn’t wear diapers out there. In our home he doesn’t wear diapers either. He’s either half naked (and if there is an occasional pee on the floor, it gets wiped up with a cloth diaper) or he is in cotton pants and if they get wet, we just change him. When we carry him in the Ergo around our place, we just place a cloth diaper underneath him, but he usually waits till we get him out and bring him to the potty. He takes all his poops in the potty. When we go on trips to town or to market, we use biodegradable disposables by Seventh Generation. We also use them at night time. We decided that because every time Bracken got wet in a cloth diaper he was immediately uncomfortable and after too long of being sleep deprived ( I was desperate for more sleep) and changing him all the time, we decided to use the disposables. He sleeps longer and happier and I sleep longer and happier. I know people who have solely used cloth diapers on their babies and I admire them. One package of biodegradable diapers lasts us a really long time because we hardly use any, so I don’t feel that bad about it. 

We were gifted a diaper sprayer like this one, which attaches to the side of the toilet and it has been used and appreciated a lot! What we’ve mostly used it for is cleaning out Bracken’s potty, but it’s wonderful for rinsing off cloth diapers also. They make potty-time so much easier and I highly recommend them.

We’ve wanted to keep toys to a minimum since we like to keep our home free of too much “stuff.” We love special handmade toys created with natural materials- like wood, wool etc. We avoid plastic as much as possible (in all areas of our life, but we still have lots of room for improvement.) We like toys that are heirlooms and can be passed down from child to child. My grandma gave Bracken some toys that were my mom’s and uncle’s when they were little. One is a wind up radio that plays ‘Sing a song of sixpence’ and we play it when Bracken is on the potty. (Entertaining things at hand for potty time are great.) She also gave him a gardening set that he uses all the time because he loves digging in the dirt and playing with water. Bracken wasn’t that interested in toys for a long time, he preferred sticks, rocks etc that he found outside, but now he is showing an interest in some and getting into stacking blocks, which is exciting. His favorite thing has always been containers, he loves fitting things together. He enjoys books too. And he really likes instruments.
We have some wooden toys from Armadillo Dreams that we absolutely love (and practically everything in their shop is on my wishlist) and a beautiful black walnut rattle from Earnest Efforts that Bracken’s done plenty of teething on and shaking of. 

So, those are some of our favorites.

And what did we not use?

We didn’t use a crib. We had mine from when I was a baby, but we all share a family bed and a crib wasn’t a good fit for us. My mom got a stroller for free and gave it to us, but that was another item we didn’t use. We preferred the Ergo instead.
Oh yes, we have found baby gates to be very helpful around the house and he went through a short period of time where he enjoyed the johnny jump up (for a few minutes at a time.) (Edited to add: I’ve seen research that johhny jump ups are harmful for babies and I would no longer recommend them. You can find more information in the book ‘You Are Your Child’s First Teacher’ by Rahima Baldwin Dancy, among other places.) We have some other special things that are very much favorites of ours, like a quilt my grandma made for Bracken, a toy creature my mom made for him and other handmade gifts. Bracken prefers being barefoot, but when we leave our place we have some favorite handmade moccasins our market friend made for him. For any “owies”, we’ve used lots of our Blissful Baby Balm. We have a (BPA-free) sippy cup and that comes in handy a lot. Am I forgetting anything? I’m sure I am, but those are the things off the top of my head.