Monday, August 11, 2008

Question of the Week - You've GOT To Get This

Let me warn you all... I'm completely into the Olympics. I'm held in it's thrall. I'm spending my days wishing I could watch more and read more about it. Especially gynmastics. I do love gymnastics. I also love swimming and enjoy diving and beach vollyball. You know what else I love? All those sappy commercials that make me tear up (Go World is right!) and inspirational stories that make me wish that everyone could win gold medals.

The reason I call this a warning is for three reasons:
1. Next week's Question of the Week will be about the Olympics, so you all better be watching at least something if you want to give an answer.
2. I will likely be referencing the Olympics in blog posts from now until closing ceremonies (and maybe after).
3. When I should be reading everyone else's blogs and even writing my own posts, there is a good chance that instead I'm reading Olympic news stories and/or watching the Olympics. Sorry if I'm not around as much as I'd like to be. Just when I'd finally caught up on my Reader and was discovering new blogs, too, and trying to really participate in Blog the Recession. If only blogging was an Olympic sport...

But I do have a non-Olympic related Question of the Week for this week. I had a whole story about a coworker's babyshower and a good friend's upcoming due date, but I'm busy reading about Olympic gymnastics. So let's just get to the Question of the Week already:

What baby/child item did you originally think was unnecessary but is now vital to you?

Mine is the video monitor. When Londo first mentioned wanting a video monitor, I told him I thought it was unnecessary. I totally blew it off and instead bought the audio monitor that I had already researched and picked out. It turns out that since we live in such a busy area with neighboring houses full of babies and toddlers and all the monitors to go with them, our audio monitor got constant interference. So we needed a new monitor.

I decided to just give in to my husband's pestering compromise with my husband and try out the video monitor he'd been researching. If it worked well and we thought it was worth the cost, we'd keep it. If not, we'd return it.

Not only have we kept it, I truly think it was one of the best baby/child purchases we made, especially for our particular child. I may have mentioned that my lovely daughter has not been the best sleeper over the last 17 months of her life. Well, with the video monitor, we are able to see if her fussing is just her getting comfy and going back to sleep or her standing up and waiting for us to come get her. Since she's not one who can get herself back to sleep (darn her lack of self-soothing capapbilities!) and we aren't going to do CIO, the video monitor keeps us from guessing about when we really need to go in. It's been fantastic for us!

How about you? Do you have a purchase that you rolled your eyes at but later came to regard with reverence? Which underdog baby/child item moved ahead to win the gold in your house?

9 comments:

Becoming Mommy said...

There were actually 2:
The Boppy.
I thought it was silly: a $35 pillow, when we have so many pillows in our house already. I figured we could get by with either nothing or just an ordinary firm pillow. Yeah, not so much. We actually own TWO now.
The Glider
I didn't see why we needed a special chair. I was thinking we could just use the POANG we had and gently bounce. But it's hard to sleep and use armrests on a POANG......

Jan said...

Really, the video monitor's mine, too. We got one as a gift and I totally wanted to return it. My husband wouldn't let me (it was a gift from his dad) and oh, but am I in LOVE with it. My Munchkin is 4 now and we still use it -- plus we've gotten a second one for the Little Dude (two cameras, one screen, you flip a switch to go between the two pictures). I love being able to see what's going on in there, plus I turn the sound off and just use the picture, so I don't even need to be awakened for the less-noisy events. :)

The other thing I can't believe I didn't get with my first kid that I adored with my second is a back-pack. I've used it to carry him around, sure, but also for those times when I need my hands, but he wants to be held (like, say, Christmas gift-wrapping time) or when I need him confined (like, say, when I take his big sister to the library). Love, love, love.

I'm Not Skippy said...

Huh, I don't have any that go that way. I have a few things that we thought would be the best thing ever and only turned out to be "eh." That's a QotW I could get into.

Rudyinparis said...

Hmmm. What an interesting question... let's see... Of course the breat pump got loads of use, but I expected that... and then there are the things I thought would be useful but weren't, or toys I thought would be a hit, but weren't... The boppy (I originally wrote booby there) was important, like becoming mommy says. I think I'm brain dead today. Will mull this over a bit more.

caramama said...

Ha! I meant to do this question as a two parter, and the second part was what one did you think you would love and didn't find useful after all. Obviously I'm distracted. I blame the Olympics. I'll just save that question for another time...

sheSaidC2 said...

Backpack with metal frame. We already had a wrap and a ergo and I didn't get why I would want something else. But it was given to us and my mom made me pull it out for a trip with her. He would fall asleep in it. So if I went on a walk, he fell asleep and I could take it OFF and he would still sleep!

The same is now true with our stroller. We picked one up for about 3 bucks used and he was delighted by it. Got excited the first time he was in it. I just figured we would keep wearing him, but he really likes to ride in it, and if he falls asleep we can bring him inside.

La folle maman said...

The bouncer. Although Monkey has completely outgrown it now, originally we didn't buy one. Then after about 2 weeks of sleepless nights and nothing really to put him in other than his bassinet or the playpen, DH brought home a bouncer from one of his many Target trips. Such a life saver in so many ways.

Another item I read was completely unneccessary was a changing table. While we didn't get a changing table (Monkey's room is too small), the collapsible table attached to the wall I previously used for sewing soon had a changing pad on it. Changing him on the bed meant a lot of sheet washing and changing him on the floor all of the time was just back breaking.

I'm Not Skippy said...

Well in that case. The thing I thought we would love and use all the time was our Bumbo. I really thought it would be the best thing ever, turns out we barely ever used it and when we did it was only for a few minutes. I fell in love with the "Read, Set, Bumbo" videos on YouTube.

I will say our monitor (thought not video) is nice. We got the BebeSounds motion sensor pad monitor. The motion sensor pad goes off if there's no motion for 20 seconds. . . good piece of mind. A secondary feature that is it is sound activated so if he's not making noise it turns the parent unit off. So not so much as a slight hiss unless he makes a noise. Now that he's sitting up in his bed video might be nice.

Wineplz said...

our bouncy seat that has "happy feet" that plays music & lights when the baby kicks, and our exersaucer.

The bouncer I registered-for but didn't really understand how much I'd need it, especially to just squeeze in a shower.

The exersaucer was given to us, unregistered, and I was all "lets return it for cash for diapers and formula" until we put Gavin in one at school and saw how excited he was. A nice way to keep a mobile baby contained and occupied. I can't count the number of times either kid would stay in it for over an hour before being removed with much protest on their end.

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