My wife and I are expecting our first child in a few weeks and her baby shower is coming up next week. We've got some basics covered already between new purchases and some items received as hand-me downs from family. We registered at Babies'R'Us and a local Baby-stuff and safety store for some things for the shower, trying to add quite a variety of things to give people options in picking out gifts, not that we expect to have them clear out the registry.

I know we're busy discussing the merits of Windows and Mac OS UI's, Palm marketing strategies and how to spam people for a party, but I thought it would be interesting to get the perspective of mostly guys (with or without kids) on this topic.

Lately I've found myself on a bit of a nostalgia bender and wanting to make sure that at some point during the future development of our child that she be exposed to some of the toys and products my wife and I loved while growing up. I hope they'll make a good mix with newer product developments and technologies. Not to mention that as far as Fisher Price little people go, I find the older stuff just has much more character. Sure, you can't give them to toddlers as the people themselves are choking hazards, but that's more common sense than anything else.

Anyway, I'm curious what you guys have either found to be indispensable products, not just toys, for your own children or have experience with either from friends' or family's children.

In-hand we've already got a stroller, infant car seat, crib, what seems like a gross of receiving blankets, 2 infant bathtubs, some activity/developmental toys, a number of other do-dads and of course a decent amount of clothing.

We've already agreed to keep the home a Dora (and Diego) free zone too. Incidentally, the stroller is a Quinny Buzz 3 and the infant seat is a Maxi-Cosi Mico. They seemed like the "dad-style" product to get, especially as an alternative to the so-popular Bugaboo stuff.

I didn't think I was in the market for a stroller, but if I get both the black and white models, do I also get the model pictured in the middle? 'Cause, if so, maybe I do need a stroller.

Ya, she'd make a great nanny for me, err, the kid... I'm not even sure what model stroller that is and I've never seen that image before.

I was thinking more along the lines of inanimate products though. That won't require as much cash outlay nor up-keep as the beauty above.

EDIT:
Ok, I see it's a 3-wheel (European) version of their "Zapp" which I've only ever seen with 4 wheels, having mostly paid attention to the North American sub-sites. And they seem to have a dedicated site featuring B&W photos of hot women.

Diaper genie. Cannot stress that one enough.

High quality baby-monitor TX/RX set. I had a crappy one for a while where the static was louder than the signal. Then I replaced it with a great one that was so clear we could hear the baby breathe. But now I don't remember which brand was which.

I think I may have posted this one before...

jk's (reasonably short) "Must-Have list of Baby Stuff":

1) The bouncy seat with the vibrating motor. It really calmed both of my kids down, and let the younger sleep while congested. Which was pretty much every other week from November to March of his first year thanks to his big sister's preschool germ factory. Pediatricians don't like to medicate infants much at all.

2) A Baby Bjorn. Wearing a baby frees up both hands.

3) A white noise generator. We have creaky floors, and they'd wake all too often otherwise. I like the one at http://www.marpac.com/soundscreen.asp - it's tunable, natural white noise, not Smarter Image electronic white noise which irritates me. But I guess I'm a snob that way.

4) Linda Ronstadt's "Dedicated to the One I Love" lullaby cd. It includes a fresh interpretation of Queen's "We Will Rock You". And any Enya music. At 9 and 6, they still sometimes go to sleep to them.

Those four we never, ever traveled without. This fifth one was for my wife:

5) A special monitor that has a pad under the crib mattress to detect motion, including breathing. It alarms if there isn't motion for 30 seconds. SWMBO worried about SIDS and is a very light sleeper under the best of circumstances. Irrational? Perhaps, but this kept her from going to look in on them every couple hours or waking up whenever she heard an odd noise. You'll learn: babies make a lot of odd noises. Whoever coined the phrase "sleeps like a baby" didn't have "quiet" in mind. "Limp" or "angelic", perhaps, but not "quiet".

6) A crib sheet that is vinyl on the bottom and fabric on top, so that, um, "stuff" doesn't get onto or into the mattress. When they got that sick (and ours did - rarely, but they did), it's really easy to change, especially at 3 am - we'd just fold it up with all the spooge inside, put on a fresh one, and go back to sleep with fingers crossed.

7) Diaper Genie. It works.

Everything else is mostly fluff. We never used any hi-zoot bottles, just the basic Gerber Nuk stuff. My first was a pacifier kid (she slept with at least three - one in each hand and one in her mouth. She'd slowly lose them overnight; it helped to have spares. The younger is a stuffed animal kid. "Puppy" was one of his first words, though we've long since called his favorite one "Stinky Puppy". With cause. (Note: get machine washable stuffed animals!)

Don't know if the list will help you (or anyone else), but I thought I'd toss it out there.

-jk

If you buy the Diaper Champ, you don't have to keep buying refills. We just use regular Costco trashbags in ours. Saves a bundle.

We love our Bugaboo Stroller. It grows with the Baby. A thousand bucks for a stroller! No Way! Craigslist is your friend. We got ours for $300 in good condition. That goes for most of this stuff.(EDIT: I see you're already good on the stroller. Nevermind then.)

If your wife is planning to breastfeed, my wife never goes anywhere without My Breast Friend. Corny name, but WAY WAY more effective than the ubiquitous Boppy pillows, because they actually stay in place. Boppy's are still useful for other stuff, so don't return it.

Also a Medela pump. Don't go for the cheap one, get the real thing.

In addition to the Baby Bjorn, get your wife a Moby Wrap. It's comforting to the baby. Ours used to fall asleep in it all the time.

I'm going to second jmwking's suggestion of the bouncy seat with vibating motor. Absolutely essential to keep your sanity so you can actually sit down to dinner together for a few minutes anyway.

Avent pacifiers. It's the only one ours will use. Have heard the same thing from other parents.

a Bumbo. These are awesome. Allows the baby to sit and eat or play when they normally don't have the muscle control yet. Just use some common sense about where you put it. You won't need this 'til about 4 months.

Gripe Water. Fixes hiccups. You'll worship me for that one. Also gas drops from the same folks.

Backpack diaper bags. Trust me, your hands will be full enough. We love our Baby Sherpa when we're hiking or traveling in Belize. My wife has a Petunia Pickle Bottom that she likes. Again, Craigslist is your friend.

This one's a bit more controversial. On Becoming Baby-wise. All I'll say is that it worked brilliantly for us. Has slept through the night since 10 weeks. Our friends are envious of how happy and alert and productive her wake times are. I know that's anecdotal, but I've got friends that use it, and many more who don't, and there's a marked difference.

I'll post more if I think of them.

These seats were popular with my friends in Germany when I lived there.

Those Stokke high chairs are beautiful in their simplicity, but they're pricy, especially considering you need multiple accessories to go along with it. They also have some inconvenient aspects, such as their inability to be collapsed for storage or transport and lack of a table/surface to catch spills. It was one of two "alternative" high chairs that I liked though. The other was an all-plastic affair by Boon.

They do make an excellent product for use in a commercial setting though, and a number of restaurants around here have similar stuff. I'm very surprised Ikea doesn't have something similar actually.

We've registered for something a little more practical and as of last night, it seems to have been purchased.

Thanks to everyone for the ideas so far, please keep them coming if you can think of any more. Of course I'd love to see some feedback from anyone else who happens to catch this thread too.

Some of the stuff mentioned we've either registered for or have already, so I'm glad to see the recommendations/confirmations with regards to brands/models.

That white noise generator sounds really cool and might be more versatile than I first thought. I'll be looking at that a bit more.

I think I might throw a Squeezebox into the nursery, seeing as I'm not using my second one right now. Then I can stream all the Enya and Ministry the baby cares to listen to.

As far as diapers go, we're probably only going to use disposables for the first few weeks and then move to a washable "cloth" diaper system such as Bum Genius or Happy Heinys.

That wrap looks pretty versatile, but truthfully, I don't know if I'd trust my wife to always wrap/tie it correctly. Don't tell her I said that. I'm not sure how it would look on me either.


We registered for the Digital First monitor which I also see has been checked off the registry. I let my brother do the research on this one, hope he didn't steer me wrong.

I just put the crib together today after a final cleaning of the floor of the nursery. Over the past couple of weeks I've painted the room with multiple borders, built a narrow shelf around the perimeter, installed bamboo flooring and made/installed some cute cartoon clouds out of thin mdf/hdf along the top of all the walls. Once the furniture in the room is actually put in ideal positions, it will be the first room in this house that we've "completed." Next step some final small work in the kitchen and laundry and then finally set up my new office (which I'm going to need badly when Erin is home on mat leave).

Fortunately, Jen's folks had two of them from when she and her brother were kids, so they let us have one of them for Charlie (the other chair lives at their house). Accessories are quite pricey, but check out eBay; we got various bits by that route.

Also completely recommend the Baby Bjorn.

That's exactly what I'd recommend, we've had ours for 9 years now, just keep adjusting to size...

Also recommend a bumbo:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Bumbo-Baby-Sitter-EA101-AQU/dp/B000GX31F2/sg0a8-21

Oh, and forget all those fancy strollers, you can't beat a Maclaren

In case you're thinking of washable diapers:

Cloth Nappies Primer

Cloth Nappies Practical

The best things my wife and I bought for our son were:
1) His Stokke stroller. Excellent stuff. Where we bought it, it was a complete package as well. The only thing that wasn't included was the adapter set to click on a Maxi Cosi. (and even that was only 40 euro extra, so I can't really complain about the price of the extras)
2) Which brings me to his Maxi Cosi. I don't know how you can manage to be without one. It's his first car chair, yes, but handy for so much more as well!
3) Diaper genie, or, as they call it over here: Sangenic. You need it. Seriously!
4) The Bloom Fresco Childrens' seat. (or as we call it: 'the egg' ) Over here, those chairs Robotic is referring to are also popular, but this one is so much better. For one, you can start using it from day one until the kid is +/- four years old. Also, you won't bump your toes against it, which you will do with that other chair, trust me.

Bumbo is also cool, but our son only had about 1-2 months of joy out of that one. Between his fifth and seventh month. After that he had figured out how to crawl out of it.

I am the new Number Two!
You are Number Six!
My pants seem to contain a Number One!

Jonathan Coulton disagrees.

Yeah, OK we lose out on off road traction but other than that...

(We've had 2 Techno XTs)

Speaking of racing companies doing kid stuff...

Recaro does car seats for kids, too.
http://www.recaro.com/index.php?id=525&L=2

I don't have kids, but I've heard good things about them.

I've heard more mixed reports about kids, to be honest

Peter

Damn, you totally beat me to it.

ROFLMAO

Vixy, having been a Prisoner fan, liked it too.

You're thinking of McLaren. "McLaren Racing" in fact.

Maclaren make strollers. Umbrella-style strollers to be specific. They're arguably one of the best and certainly the most well known premium umbrella stroller brand, but an umbrella stroller isn't necessarily a replacement for a stroller system or multi-function stroller. They can make a good second stroller for those families that have the need, means or desire though.

The most obvious difference compared to a combination-type product is that there's only a single riding position, sitting upright. If was traveling a lot on public transit with a 1+ year old, this would definitely be the stroller I'd want to use. Especially if you're not going to deal with uneven terrain. For a lot of urban walking however, something like the others that have been mentioned (Quinny, Bugaboo or Stokke) would be a lot more comfortable and convenient for both parent and child.

Strollers and stroller systems are probably where I focused most of my own baby-centric product research time.

That cracked me up, Bitt.

I have no opinion on this subject. All I can suggest is "Goodnight, Moon"

On a related note, I thought I'd get my kid started on Marlborough brand cigs, but you still can't get those here in Ontario, so right now it's a toss up between Rothmans and Peter Jackson.

What kind of cigarettes do your toddlers like smoking?

I wonder if that was Jonathan Coulton's inspiration for the song.

I'm guessing no, but rather that it's inspired by the stroller scene in Manhattan and possibly other large metro areas. Maclaren is the most fashionable/trendy umbrella stroller and Bugaboo makes what are likely still the most trendy system strollers.

By the way, for anyone interested, it's one of his free songs, and it's a great style-parody of The Beach Boys.

And speaking of Jonathan Coulton songs related to new parenthood, You Ruined Everything is just about perfect.

Seconded. We have two copies. A lap book with cardboard pages, and a smaller paper version that travels with us.

For cloth diapers, also check out Fuzzi Bunz. Also make sure you get a Diaper sprayer. My advice would be to buy several different brand cloth diapers and try them before investing in a whole set. Different ones fit differently, and one brand may be more effective on your kid. Don't necessarily buy them based on a feature list. Doesn't matter how many bells and whistles they have, if they don't hold in poop, your life will suck. But don't bother messing with them for the first month or so. Also, Craigslist is a great place to get these (at least around here). Many people buy them and have great intentions of using them and never do, or only use them a couple times before they grow out of them. Seriously though. When you're buying something to poop in, does it have to be new?

You're right, the Moby Wrap takes a few minutes to learn to tie the first time. I read directions and pointed while she tied. Now she can do it faster than I can buckle on the Baby Bjorn (and the baby likes it a lot better). There are several ways to wear it, but we only found one really useful. It's definitely worth a try. You should be able to find one on Craigslist and sell it if you don't like it. Yeah, I'd agree that it's not for you to wear. It'd look pretty gay. Which is fine, if that's the vibe you're going for.

Ah.
For some strange reason I've got racing-on-the-brain.
Tony's mention of Jonathan Coulton had me wondering why a Formula One driver was writing songs about kiddie strollers.

Don't mind me, my brain is a strange place.