Favorite Baby Brands

I get asked this question a lot from friends, family and followers on YT/Formspring.
As I sit here folding laundry I realize I should just type this up while it is on my brain.

Clothing:

Carters: is cute and the outfits with the animals on the butt are sweet, BUT they do run a bit small. They were great when Henry was a newborn, the NB size was pretty accurate and fit him for about a month, but once he got to about 1mo old he was wearing 3mo size clothes from Carters.

Koala Baby: LOVE them! This brand is sold mostly at BabysRus, it might even be BRU brand, I am not sure, but the fabric is soft and comfortable. Comfort is a huge thing with Henry, he fusses if you put itchy acrylic fabric on him or polo fabric like Polo Ralph Lauren. I have two outfits from Koala Baby and they are his favorite.

Janie and Jack: Expensive but the quality is the best I've seen from all other brands. If you hold in your hand a Carters onesie and a Janie and Jack onesie you can feel and SEE the difference. Ive had a onesie from them since Henry was 2mo old and he is almost 5mo and it still fits him great and has held up. If I had no budget I would shop there for all of Henrys clothing needs.

HINT: Biggest lesson I have learned since having a baby, DON'T skimp on the important things- you get what you pay for. If you buy cheap clothes, you get cheap clothes, if you buy a cheap diaper bag, it WILL fall apart.

Gerber: Im not such a big fan of their clothing line, or really anything from them. It feels cheap, very thin fabric, it stretches when you dont really want it to and they run really small.

TOYS

Fisher-Price: They ended up being the only brand we use and we didnt even realize it. We have a swing, play mat and jumperoo from them. Our high chair is from them, our bath tub as well. They just ended up always have the best products and we didnt realize it until they were all in the same room together.

We like to go to BRU with Henry and test out the products. There have been times where we would go get something and he didnt adjust well to it or like it so we ended up wasting money and time. Also there are toys that he doesnt like because the colors are not bright enough for him to make out yet. His favorite color is red but he also still favors black and white patterns. He reacts to Kevin the most because he has thick black rimmed glasses and really loves them. When my mom was here she couldn't get any kind of reaction from him, no laughs, no giggles. But the second she put on her readers, he thought she was the coolest thing since sliced bread.

First Years: We use their bottle products such as their bottle warmer, and bottle drying rack. I like the simplistic style and no fuss of their brand.

Medela: Go big or Go Home. They are the most expensive but worth every penny. My breast pump was $300 but they do go on sale once every season for about 20% off. I use my breast pump about 6-7 times a day for around 20 minutes. And with out it I wouldn't be able to feed my child. So I have used it roughly 1050+ times since Henrys birth and it still has the most powerful suction EVER. The quality is out standing and the pump comes in a great tote bag. Didnt think I would need the bag but omg its right next to the diaper bag in the essential department. So all in all the pump paid for itself after only a few weeks worth of use. And regardless if you are breastfeeding solely you will need a pump, for when you are away from your baby or if they didnt eat all that you had produced etc etc. And no, its not so simple to just manually pump it off- who has time for that!?

Munckin: LOVE LOVE LOVE this brand. They are good on the 'feeding' front. They have good sack mesh feeders, they have great feeding spoons, they have great closet organizers- which was Henry's 'closet' for the first 3mo of his life. They have great diaper organizer-which I LIVE BY! They have an 'OK' bottle basket for the dishwasher, i dont LOVE it because my Medela bottles dont fit too nicely in it. But everything else I have bought from them is super dee duper sweet.

Boppy: Get one, and you will have a wonderful life :D

Bumbo: Our child has the worlds fattest thighs, so he doesn't enjoy sitting in it too much because he gets stuck or it squishes down on his thighs and he gets un-happy

Evenflo: They are ok, I only have one product of theirs, a travel system. I love my stroller, it is bulky but light weight and has lots of compartments and cup holders and a big basket and big shaders. I would die w/o my travel system but I also wouldn't mind a jogging stroller, those things are niiiiice :)

Can't think of much else, if i do i will update!

LC