Favorite Baby Items

Well, this may be funny given the post a few below this about "No one is missing" but we are expecting our second child, and it has me thinking about all my favorite baby things we used with our first and the one item I never bought when we had her that I wish I had.

So that first item is an Ergo -- I balked at the price, but now that I see how many YEARS of use my friends get out of them (per child!), I wish I had gotten one.  I'm definitely getting one now, especially since we'll be on the go even more than I was when I had my first, since we'll be going all over town doing the things the four year old loves to do.

The carrier I did have and loved and will definitely use again is the Moby wrap -- it just didn't last as long as the weight limit indicates, as it would get too stretched out to really work for any length of time.  But for several months, it was the only carrier I used, and I loved it. My daughter would fall asleep in it almost immediately every time I put her in it to go for a walk.
I've had people tell me that they find it intimidating, since it's a very long piece of fabric that you have to tie around yourself each time you use it.  But, honestly, after you put it on twice, it'll just be second nature and takes very little time to put on.
I got lots of compliments on it when my daughter was young about how nice it looked and how comfortable it looked for both of us, and that is all true:)

An item that we gave away and now will be getting a new one from a friend is a play gym -- we used ours quite a bit with our daughter, and I think with a second child, it'll definitely be nice to have an interesting place for the baby to play during those times I need to have one-on-one time with my older child.
There are so many options out there for play gyms, but two of my favorites are this Skip Hop one and the Tiny Love one we had for our daughter.

My absolute favorite piece of "gear" we had for our first (and we did hang onto this one just in case, and I'm so glad!) is the Fisher Price Zen swing.
I loved the look of it, as it wasn't bright and primary colors, but instead looked great in our apartment, and we really wanted the papasan style swing for her.
The swing can swing either direction (side-to-side or front-to-back) which is great since some babies are picky about which way they go.
Also, something I didn't realize before we got it which ended up being our favorite thing:  The seat is easily detachable from the swing base, and therefore becomes an independent seat.  My daughter sat in that seat in our bathroom every single day for the first three months of her life, while I took a shower, and peeked out at her every so often to begin establishing object permanence;)  The easy portability of that seat is amazing, as it has handles on the side, letting you move even a sleeping baby in it from room to room.
Also, the cover is easily detachable and machine washable -- a must!