Hellobee

If I’d known I was going to have three children, I would have made different decisions about what was worth splurging on. There were things that seemed a bit expensive or too much of a luxury, but in hindsight would have made a lot of sense if I had known they would be used for three kids! (Of course, we also purchased several things that weren’t worth it and I wish we didn’t purchase because the time they were used was so limited.)

City Mini GT – I have purchased way too many strollers and Mr. Dolphin always gives me a hard time about it! The first stroller we had was given to us by some close friends who said their baby never used the stroller (they had a different one that worked better). It was a Graco and huge, bulky and not super convenient to use. But hey, it was free! It fell apart within the first few years. We’d purchased a cheap umbrella/hybrid stroller that I also hated because it was impossible to fold up and didn’t handle well. Since then, we’ve also owned the Quinny Zapp (at a huge discount in the open box/clearance area of Buy Buy Baby) which held up reasonably well and I liked for a variety of reasons, plus the MacLaren Mark II that we absolutely love for travel because of how lightweight it is (though it has no recline) and the GB Pockit+ which is my favorite travel stroller because of how compact it is. We use the MacLaren for Lion and the GB Pockit+for Panda when we travel. We also have a used City Mini Double stroller, though it doesn’t get much use anymore given the ages of our kids.

This pregnancy, I purchased the City Mini GT because the Quinny Zapp really is on its last legs and no longer works with the seat (only an infant carrier). To be honest, I really wish I’d just bitten the bullet and purchased it the first time around so I could have used it for all three kids. At the time, it seemed so expensive, but between the Zapp and the first umbrella/hybrid we purchased, it wouldn’t have been that much more. A friend actually recommended it while I was pregnant with Lion and I’ve liked it ever since, so it’s a shame it will get less use than if I’d purchased it to start with.

One of the things I love about the City Mini GT is the all terrain tires and how easy it is to maneuver. It handles really well and folds up relatively compactly, though of course you shouldn’t compare it to an umbrella stroller like the MacLaren Mark II or the GB Pockit+. For a full sized stroller though, the fold is pretty good and won’t take up my entire trunk. Given the high weight limit, both Lion and Panda can also ride in the City Mini GT if necessary, so this stroller will last us a long time. Another stroller that I liked was the Mountain Buggy Swift for similar reasons, though the City Mini GT is smaller.

Bassinet for the City Mini – I so coveted a bassinet for strollers ever since my first pregnancy. I love that the baby isn’t sleeping in the carseat and those bassinets look so cozy. I appreciate that after taking the baby for a walk, it’s easy to transition to the house without having to remove the baby from the carseat which, if your kids are like my oldest, inevitably wakes them up. Again, if I had purchased this during my first pregnancy, I feel like I would have gotten my money’s worth since I could use it for multiple pregnancies. Alas, the cost is pretty high and not worth it for us at this point given that it can only be used for a few months.

Co-sleeper – I never thought that we would co-sleep with any of our children, but at times it was just easier when I was exhausted from nursing throughout the night. We probably did it least with Lion, even though he woke up much more than Panda did, just because we were worried about all the warnings telling us not to bring an infant into bed. A co-sleeper would have allayed a lot of those fears and I do wish we had purchased one previously. TBD whether we will co-sleep at all with Baby #3 and, if we do, whether we purchase a co-sleeper at this point. There are a wide range of price points, though, so it’s conceivable we would just purchase an inexpensive one.

Better bassinet – We have a bassinet that I think we got for maybe $40 or $50 when we had Lion. While it does the job, particularly for something that is only used for a few months, looking at some of the amazing bassinets like the Halo definitely makes me wish I had purchased something a little nicer the first time around. I love ones that swivel and change heights, little functionalities that I didn’t think about when I first became pregnant. I won’t be getting one, since ours is perfectly functional, but had I known then what I know now…

Newborn photos – I didn’t start taking an interest in photography until Panda was nearly a year old and I very much regret not having great pictures of Lion and Panda in their first year. I mostly took pictures on a bad point and shoot or super blurry photos on an ancient cell phone. While I have become much more adept at photography, using a DSLR as my primary camera (I even upgraded to a full frame about a year ago) and plan on taking many photos myself, I’m hoping to schedule a newborn photo shoot — even if it’s just the photographer who comes to the hospital — because those newborn days are so fleeting and this will likely (almost certainly) be our last baby. It would also be nice to actually be in the photos since I’m usually the one behind the camera.

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In addition to the things we would have purchased with the benefit of hindsight, we did a lot of things differently the second time around with Panda than we did with Lion. This time, we definitely plan to stick with what we did the second time, including supplementing with formula immediately, not warming up bottles and (hopefully) being less reliant on pacifiers. We’ll see if they work, though, since I’m not sure how much of the changes were simply because of Lion and Panda’s vastly different personalities!