Hellobee

My biggest regret is not discovering how much gear I could buy used until after Charlie turned one. Things like swings, jumperoos, bouncers, etc. are found in abundance on local listservs and mom groups and can easily be sold again once they’re outgrown.

As far as any specific purchases, I wish we had invested in a nicer stroller. Some generous family members offered to buy us a high end stroller, but I opted for the City Mini instead. It’s a perfectly great stroller for most, but strollers function as cars in New York, and our bumpy streets were no match for the City Mini — the front wheel popped off after 18 months of use. Thinking that it was a fluke we purchased a used City Mini double, but the front wheel popped off shortly on that one as well.

At the time the last stroller that I wanted was a Bugaboo, but they are very sturdy and have a very high resale value. My friend is using a 12-year-old hand-me-down Bugaboo that’s still going strong! If I could go back in time I definitely would have considered more higher end strollers with larger tires for both our single stroller and our double stroller, especially if I knew just how much we were going to use it. For the double stroller I might have opted for the Valco Baby Zee Double instead of the Combi Double.

I think our biggest gear regret is our jumper. We got the Baby Einstein one, and while it’s perfectly fine, Jackson barely used it at all and it felt a bit like a waste of $100! I think that ties into our other regret, though, which is that I wish we would have looked into buying more gear through resale shops. Something like a jumper or a play mat doesn’t have to be bought new, and those things last for such a short period of time before your baby outgrows them, it’s just not necessary to spend the extra money to buy it new!

I would venture to say that I agree with Mrs. Bee that I wish we had gotten some bigger ticket items used. But as a first time mom, I had no idea where or how to procure quality used items beyond craigslist (which I found and still kind of find to be a bit creepy – C was born around the time of the craigslist killer…). Now I see items on my local Facebook mom swap page being sold in excellent used condition, and I cringe thinking of what we spent for so many items new. I also wish I had heard about the Rock n Play sooner. We got one when C was 4 or 5 months or so, and I wish we had purchased it sooner.

While I kept the packaging for everything and did a ton of returning the first few months, I wish I had joined my local mom’s group listserv while pregnant so I could have bought some of the bigger things used and asked for feedback on others. Our pack n play is huge and took up so much space in the car that it was a burden to take traveling. If I had spent $20 on it used, I’d feel a lot better about its minimal use.

I also wish I had a high end stroller that could add a second seat. We have an umbrella that works as a travel system and a single and double BOB revolution, but I get a little stroller envy when I see the Uppa Baby Vista, B-Ready, etc. I’d love to keep something in the back of my car that could hold both kids when we’re out and about.

I wish we had registered for or purchased a Britax infant car seat and a B Ready stroller before we had Liam. It would have been nice to have something now that we could use as a double or a single if needed. The infant ca rseat that we had for Liam, by The First Years, is so heavy and not compatible with any other brands. We are borrowing a Graco infant carseat with snap n go to use for baby 2, and will get a double stroller as soon as we find a good deal on craigslist. I’m looking for a City Mini Double right now, but am also considering a Combi Twin. I’ve tried selling our First Years cars eat and stroller without luck.

Like Mrs Tic Tac Toe, I also regret not going with the Britax system and getting the B-Ready with my first child. I always knew we would have more so having the B-Ready would have been cheaper in the end since it can convert to a double stroller with just the additional purchase of a jump seat. If we had registered for this system instead of the Graco one, which I got because it was what was popular, we could have saved so much later on when we had to buy a double stroller. Overall I’m happy with most of the gear I registered for and bought, but this is the one I really wish I had thought through more.

The only big gear I regret buying is the BabyBjorn Travel Crib Light. I thought we would need it for traveling, but didn’t know at the time that most hotels offer cribs, and those worked out so well for us that we never had to use our travel crib. Why lug around an extra piece of (huge) gear if we didn’t have to? We used it once in a while as a glorified playpen, but even that was rare. We really jumped the gun too soon with that purchase. Good thing it has excellent resale value, so we were able to recoup a decent chunk of money back.

I’m a little surprised, but I don’t actually regret any baby gear! We’ve bought a lot of things used and they’ve all worked out well for us. Yeah, baby #2 doesn’t love the swing like big sister did but I definitely don’t regret buying it. If we want to replace something we try and see if there’s something else we can let go (for example, we sold our Ergo on eBay and put that money towards a new Ergo 360 that front faces). All of our other gear (car seat, high chair, strollers, carriers) are going strong.

I wish we had purchased a light weight umbrella stroller. All we had with the Trikester was our heavy duty all terrain Bob – it has a fixed front wheel, and is large-scale, so for the longest time we avoided taking it places like the mall and farmer’s market. Initially I used the Ergo for outings, and then Mr. Tricycle would just carry the Trikester on his shoulders, but he’s such a squirmer that that got tricky, especially as he got bigger. We borrowed our neighbor’s Chicco stroller a couple times, and really liked it – should have just bought one ourselves. Now that we’ve got two we’ve moved to a Bob Dualie – it’s another huge stroller, but it does have a rotating front wheel, so we’ll see if we use it for outings. Might have to just buy a double umbrella.

My one regret is the stroller/newborn carrier combo. We got the Chicco Cortina system, and it was not at all worth it. The stroller was too heavy and bulky for our apartment, and the carrier was used as a “carrier” for maybe two months, before I didn’t want to lug it around anymore, even with a tiny preemie baby, and we just left it in the car. In hindsight, I would have gotten a convertible car seat right away (we have the Britax Marathon now) and just put baby in and out from the start, and a smaller/lighter stroller.

I really wish we “test drove” strollers before we got our Chicco Cortina Travel System. We were living in Italy at the time, so I only went by reviews I read and recommendations from friends and family, but I really didn’t like the stroller. It was clunky, gigantic in our car’s trunk, didn’t have much storage space, and wasn’t the best for us since we walked around Europe a lot. With that said, I do like the car seat that came with it (Chicco Keyfit) and we’ll be using it for baby number 2. I love that if she’s sleeping, I don’t have to wake her up and take her out of the car seat; I can just take the car seat into the house and let her continue snoozing.

I love our B-Agile, but am really wishing that we had gone with the B-Ready instead. Now that we’re looking at getting a double stroller, I’d much rather just have to get the second seat!

I regret not getting a glider. We thought that with Lil’ CB coming home at 15 months, a glider would have been unnecessary, but we ended up doing a lot of reading, cuddling, and comforting in the chair we had in his room (the good ol’ Ikea Poang chair), and a glider would have been way more comfortable! My parents offered to buy us one and I wish I hadn’t turned them down!

I don’t like our toy box. It’s just a big pit of despair that the kids ignore, and it’s become the home for toys that no one wants to play with. I’ve switched to big-ish clear plastic bins with toys organized by type (animals, cars/planes, etc) and it’s much easier. The kids know where stuff goes and can help with cleanup, and can see all the things they have.

I also wish I had bought some things sooner, like a video monitor. We relied on a sound monitor for about 7 months before making the switch, and it was amazing.

I regret buying the Graco Quattro Travel System. We didn’t research it thoroughly enough and hastily chose one based on the available selection at our Babies R Us, not even considering driving farther away to try strollers elsewhere. We ended up stuck with a stroller that was hard to maneuver, didn’t fit in my husbands trunk and is pretty bulky.

I’m not sure which stroller we’d have wanted since we didn’t do the research, but I can say we didn’t particularly care for this one!

I posted about some of my stroller regrets in another swarm post, so I think the only other gear purchase I regret is our pack and play. We purchased a new Graco pack and play with a changing station, which was useful in the early days, but besides that I feel like it just ended up taking a lot of room and became storage for random toys and blankets. Since I ended up co-sleeping and babywearing I feel like I rarely put our girls in it just to play or nap. Also it’s so bulky to actually fold up and transport. For travel I wish we had just purchased the Baby Bjorn Travel Crib instead.

I think my main gear regret is starting out with the convertible seat. With Ellie it seemed like I would get stuck carrying her AND the car seat, rather than carrying her in the carseat. And while I don’t think that I would have carried Lorelei in it much, there are two reasons it would have been nice to have that detachable infant seat: 1) Never wake a sleeping baby. She has always been pretty chill and adaptable, but those sleeping baby seat-to-carrier transfers are no joke. It would have been nice to be able to just let her sleep sometimes. 2) Winter ins and outs. We have a minivan now, and so I could get her in a carrier while still in the warmth and comfort of the car. But with our 4-door sedan, I had to figure out ways to get her safely and warmly out of her seat and into wherever we were going that didn’t compromise her safety in the carseat. I know I totally over-thought this aspect, and she would have survived with something a lot simpler than what we came up with, but it seems like a hangover from being raised in the South where a frozen surface outdoors in the winter was a novelty rather than an everyday occurrence. My family still needs smelling salts whenever they call and ask what the day’s low was where we live, and so I think some of their worry spills over onto me. Being able to pop a cover over the carseat and dash in somewhere and then transfer to a carrier would have been handy. I think if we had another child I would probably just get an infant seat.

We were actually quite minimalist when it came to gear, but that’s certainly not to say that we still didn’t manage to spend a soul-shattering amount of money on preparing for baby. We don’t have a stroller, we had a Rock’N’Play and that was about it. No swing, no bouncer, no crib, no Pack’N’Play. We had a co-sleeper but Mr. T was referring to it as “The World’s Largest and Ugliest Nightstand” by her second week of life. I used it to store books, nipple cream, a mug with water, small animals… I digress. We had a hard time getting everything level with the surface of our bed, and it was hard to get her in and out and still have her close enough that she would sleep rather than inching around aimlessly like a newborn hamster. I would have skipped that, too. Especially since we managed to sell it for a grand total of $30. Which is not what we paid for it (used) by a long shot.

The 4moms Mamaroo.  Roman never liked it. We thought it was working better for Iris, but, eh, I wish we had a regular swing!

I wish I would have gotten a car seat and mattress without flame retardants. Orbit baby touts that they are free from “toxic brominated and chlorinated chemicals, like PBBs and PBDEs” (although they still do contain some newer flame retardants that they consider “safe”). Naturepedic cotton mattresses are an option, as are these natural mats made of cotton, lambswool and coir, which is harvested from an organic coconut plantation. I learned about flame retardants after she was born (and everything was purchased) and I went back and forth a good, long time about replacing the crib mattresess, because the baby spends most of their daily hours in a crib. In the end, the mattress I had was also “Oeko-Tex certified” so I kept it.

I also wish I would have gotten a wooden crib that was untreated and without a stain. My daughter has no doubt ingested some of the stain – I wish I would have thought about a teething bumper earlier!

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What were some of your big gear regrets?