Mini-Chaos made it to three months old. It is hard to believe how quickly time passed; it is hard to believe how long it has taken. When one of my friend's munchkins turned three months, he did an extensive review of all the baby products he liked and didn't like and I found it amazingly helpful. Instead of a writing a Siracusian-length tombe, I figured I would just describe a few things I really appreciated.
BabyConnect for iPhone. Having an app that tracks all of your baby needs is awesome. How long has he been sleeping? How much sleep does he get a day? How much time does he nurse? How many diapers does he go through? When did he last eat? This app syncs across devices and that is priceless. Mrs.Chaos can throw him at me on the way out the door and when he cries I can check "when did he last eat or sleep?" It lets us communicate a lot of information to each other without needing to remember or bug the other person. In theory we could get my parents to install the app as well. Priceless.
Velcro swaddling sack + a standard swaddling blanket. Early on we struggled getting Mini-Chaos successfully swaddled. We would go in to find one of his arms or both of his arms bunched up near his face and him crying. Some babies like to get their arms out - ours is upset by it. We didn't have a lot of success getting our swaddling blankets tight enough. We didn't have a lot of success putting on the sack that velcros shut. Their power combine? YES! So we put him inside the first sack with the velcros nice and tight. That keeps him snug enough that we can wrap the second swaddling blanket around and that keeps him very content and very happy.
BRICA Baby In-sight Magical Firefly Auto Mirror. While your little guy is sitting facing backwards it's nice to have an auto mirror. The BRICA has a pretty great velcro system that has made it work on both of our cars - and we even hooked it on Mrs.Chaos' Camry in the center - there is no headrest, but we attached it to the car seat anchor. If you're going to have a mirror back there, why not have one that also flashes lights and plays music.
Motorola MBP36 Video Baby Monitor. I ended up getting this because it is the rock solid best-in-class video monitor. I read so many reviews of other monitors because I really wanted something where I could watch the video when I wasn't home (on iPhone or Internet) - but whatever we got also had to work when we travelled somewhere, even if there was no WiFi network (like over Bluetooth). I eventually came to the conclusion that what I wanted doesn't exist. There were a lot of things that were really really close - but nothing quite did it. So rather than spend a lot of money on something that was going to disappoint, we just spent a lot of money on something we knew would get the job done.
BRICA Seat Guardian. Kids destroy cars. Put something on your seat to keep the car seat from destroying it. When they get older hang something on the back of your chair to keep their grubby little feet from destroying it. Let me say it again: kids destroy cars with a mission.
Sassy Diaper Bags. Kids poop all the time - and sometimes there's no trash bin around so you have to store that poopy diaper. You could use a generic plastic baggy, or you could use something blue that smells like baby powder. I like it.
