The three baby items I couldn’t live without as a solo mum

Rachel: 00:00:02

Hello, welcome to this episode. I've had a couple of people email me and ask me about putting together some kind of list of must have items, which I will definitely do.

I'm sort of chipping away at it, but I'm trying to get together a bit of a comprehensive list, so I will do that. But one of the things when I was putting that list together that I was thinking about as a solo mom is the must have of containment items.

There are a few that have saved my bacon.

Because when you do not have somebody to hand your child off to, which means that you can't just go to the toilet or just have a shower when your kid is around, or even just step into the kitchen sometimes and get yourself a cup of tea. So having some kind of item that will contain your child is essential.

And the three ones that I have found very valuable is in order of importance, the high chair. Now, once this becomes usable, because at a certain point they're not big enough to put in a high chair, you can just use that thing for so long.

And that item is the best thing that I own purely because my kid is a good eater. So I know I've got 30 to 45 minutes when she sits down and eats to get something done and that she cannot and will not go anywhere.

So I put her outside the shower when I'm giving her dinner so that I can have a shower while she's awake so I'm not wasting time when she's asleep.

The last precious hour of my day before I try and go to bed and get a decent night's sleep before she wakes up at dawn's crack in the morning, I try and get that shower time done when she is awake so that I'm not wasting time when she's having lunch or breakfast.

I'll often be preparing my breakfast or preparing my breakfast for the next day, or trying to prepare lunch or trying to get things sorted for the day, or when I'm getting ready to send her to school to go to work, work, I will put her in the high chair to eat her breakfast. And then that's when I go and I dry my hair and I put my makeup on and I get dressed and everything.

Because if I'm trying to dry my hair, put my makeup, do all that stuff while she's rogue and running around the house, forget about it. That is going to be a three hour process. But if she's sitting in there, I can whiz around the joint and get myself ready in 15 minutes.

You heard, in A previous episode, how that is all I am willing to dedicate to my appearance, even when I have to go somewhere really special so I can get things done. And she is stuck in that chair. Now, I know it is a plastic highchair from ikea. It is nothing special. It did not cost me a huge amount of money.

It is not amazing. It does not have any sentimental value.

But every single day I look at that piece of furniture and I thank God for its existence because it has saved me more times than I can count just from having to have her in one arm and. And a mascara wand in the other. It's truly great. Now, before the high chair becomes a possibility, the bouncer is your highchair.

That's where you're putting your kid. Again, the number of showers that I've had with her bouncing, those are the days really when they can't do much moving.

But you're not going to put a baby unless you've got a nice soft surface or something down on the bathroom floor. So the bouncer, once they can get into that, then you're going to get them in that and you can sit there. And there have been a couple of times.

Because I live in an apartment, we don't have an elevator here, so we have stairs. And I've got to get the pram down the stairs. Stairs. Now, I can actually hold onto the pram with one hand and her with the other hand.

And sometimes I'm like, this is perilous and this is a very heavy item that I'm probably going to get pulled down the stairs and she'll be pulled out after me, But I can't be running down the stairs with the pram and shutting her in the house by herself now because she's having none of it A. And I don't want her running around the house while I'm not here. But when she was in bouncer days, I just put her in the bouncer.

And at that point, they know very little. You know, they're at that age where they're sort of looking around, but they can't tell whether you come or go.

And sometimes I long for those days, you know, when they don't know whether you're here or not. I mean, they can sense you and they understand that you're here, but they don't know that you've left. But, like, a toddler knows that you've left.

Like, that's a special type of crying. But that bouncer, absolutely important to have. And at a certain point, they're Too little for that bouncer.

So that's a real moment when you can put them in that. But to be honest, prior to that, you can just put them down on a mat and they're not really going anywhere because they can't really roll around.

The third thing was the playpen. Now, I had some people that just went through without a playpen. I don't know how you did that.

I have no idea how people get through without a playpen. I ordered the playpen a touch too late. I ordered the playpen when I started to see a touch of crawling.

And then there was a week and a half delivery delay. And that week and a half was the longest of my life. I was so glad for that thing to turn up. I will say you don't use it for very long.

It's not something that you can use for ages like a high chair is. But I loved that damn thing because I could put her in there and she could play and I could go to the toilet and I could go to the kitchen.

And at that point, she was kind of happy to sort of be in there. And it was just so much easier when she is too young to be reasoned with. So she's just getting into everything. And she's also like, oh, I'm crawling.

And I'll just crawl over to this electrical wire and I'll just crawl over to here and put this in my mouth. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. Now, even though she's like, you know, not very old, but I can say, no, you can't do that. No, you can't do that.

And even with the cords and stuff, I've said no enough times that now she pushes it underneath the bookshelf for me. Oh, to get it out of the way. Oh, God, those moments are just joyous. When she's like, no touching under the bench. And I'm like, yes, that's right.

We do pack it away. That's what we do. But in those early days, you've gotten, you know, they're getting into everything and they're putting everything in the mouth.

When you put them in the playpen, ain't nothing in them they can put in their mouth so that I can go into another room and get a jumper for myself and put the jumper on so I'm not freezing to death out here. So those are the three items that I would have. I would have the bouncer ready to go.

Once they sort of get to the point where they're at crawling age, I would have the playpen on order.

I would not wait until you start to see crawling because there'll be a period of time there where you will wish it is in the garage waiting to be employed. And then naturally, once they get to the point where they can sit up, the high chair is going to be your absolute best friend.

Especially if you have a kid who likes to eat. That is something. I've done an episode on this previously. If you haven't checked it out, check it out. Eating was a big thing for me.

I feel like we've got a really good kind of routine down with food. She's got a great relationship with food. We enjoy the time that we spend eating. So that for me has become a real window of get some things done.

Because I know she's happy because she's like, oh, look at all these exciting things down in front of me. And I'm like, you concentrate on that while I concentrate on getting things done. So those would be my three items.

I will definitely put together a list of items that I have found useful because I cannot tell you the amount of stuff that I bought that I did not use.

I am an over preparer and so I read all the blogs and the books and everything and the number of items that I spent money on that I never, ever, ever used. I mean, if you're buying a nappy bag, don't worry about it. A normal bag will do.

And I think, I don't think I've ever walked out with anything other than the nappy changemat wrapped around some nappies and some wipes and that's it. Just a lot of crap that I didn't need and now I got to try and sell it online and nobody wants to give you any money for your stuff.

And also I don't want people turning up to my house. If you have a question, please submit it by the link in this episode in the description and if you enjoy the show, please share it with people.

Let people know to come along, check it out and I will see you next.