She also loves the bouncer. She kicks her leg and howls as she goes up and down.

In lieu of a carrier you may also want to consider a sling.

I would skip the big playpen – it’s useless. Babies need more room to explore and play (and you’ve got your bouncer or Bumbo to put him in while you’re ‘busy doing other things.’ If you’re travelling and baby needs a place to sleep, I’d opt for Baby Bjorn’s Travel Crib Light which is much more portable and compact.

All of Baby Bjorn’s carriers are overrated. After the baby is 18 or so pounds, you won’t be able tolerate the pains in your shoulders for more than 15 minutes (unless you’re ripped like MDJ). The Mama Kangaroo baby carrier on the other hand is extremely comfortable for both parent and baby and you can wear it for longer periods of time – my wife wears it for 1 hour at a time with no problem at all. In addition, it’s much easier to pack in a diaper bag as well. (and it’s a Canadian company, which makes me feel slightly better for having bought 99% of our goods for much less $ from the States!)
Jolly Jumper is awesome!!
Check Mom-2-Mom sales and Kijiji for great deals on all of your essentials.
Cheers!

My son loved the swing, but my daughter hated it. Still worth the $100 to have a few hours of peace. Just a warning – these things burn through batteries like you would not believe – so additional costs in batteries, or do what we did (this one is actually a baby/kid essential) invest in a good battery charger and rechargeable batteries.

Exersaucer – a must have

Jolly Jumper – will usually work for only 10 minutes, but for me it was the 10 minutes required to take a shower, and I hung it in the bathroom door so I could watch the baby.

We have all of these things and I would say that for us, all have been worthwhile, especially considering some were hand-me-downs, some purchased new, and some purchased used. Also don’t forget that most have decent residual value and can be sold when you are done with them.

Never heard of the “Bumbo”. I would get one based on the name alone…

I agree with Marianne O., we have two baby carriers and neither are the bjorn. There’s a whole world of carriers out there, something for everyone. I keep one in the diaper bag, and it comes in handy.

My son LOVED his play mat. He still plays with some of the detachable toys even though he’s too old for the mat.

The playpen can be useful is you travel a lot. We have used our A LOT for both kids. Other than that we typically don’t use it at home.

We also have a playmat that both boys seemed to like, but that was a gift.

Everything else is completely optional. If your kid likes it and you can get it cheap. Fine go buy it, otherwise the stuff is just taking up space.

Tim

Of all the items on the list, I only bought the playard which comes with bassinet, changing table, and mobile. We’ll probably buy a baby carrier when spring comes.

A word of caution on playard/playpen bassinet — a friend of mine had his newborn sleeping in the bassinet of the playard when a public nurse paid them a visit. The nurse immediately scolded them for letting the baby sleep in the playard, citing a higher percentage of SIDS happened in a playard than in crib (lowest) or co-sleeping.

Some of the kids liked things more/less than their siblings so as always YMMV.

Though I guess everything will hurt you nowadays.

Playpen is essential if you travel with the family.

My wife used the baby bjorn quite a bit, for a while my daughter wouldn’t nap unless being carried around in it.

Someone lent us a bumbo, we used it a fair bit but I wouldn’t buy one.

Jolly Jumper is fantastic. $30 and she loves it.

Also – we paid $65 for ours (used gift certificates) – it is a rip-off for a piece of shaped foam. Although we got some use out of it, I would recommend against buying one – you just don’t need it.

It’s highly unlikely that one family will buy everything on FT’s list – it makes more sense to just buy things as you need them. Spending money to get them to be quiet is never a waste… :)

We’ve used all types (Bjorn-style, sling, backpack) and each has its uses. If the parents’ goal is to get chores done, then a back carrier is often far superior to a front carrier as it keeps little hands and feet safely out of the way. I found it hard to do much with a baby dangling in front.

I find it disappointing that the Bjorn-style carrier has a virtual monopoly. There are so many better options out there — we got a lot of questions and compliments when we took our kids out in the alternative carriers! I took to carrying the equivalent of business cards since so many people wanted to know where we bought them.

Did you mean that the Jolly Jumper was a great source of entertainment for the child or the adult? Personally, I’ve always gotten a good laugh watching kids in this contraption.

We had one, but our baby never liked it – waste of money!

We had a swing, and it was a lifesaver for our first, but the second didn’t care for it.

Playpen, we have one. But it was mostly used for those nights that the boys couldn’t stand being in the room alone. Or when we would travel and they couldn’t sleep in the beds at the hotels yet because they would most likely fall off.

Baby Bjorm, never cared much to have one.

Bouncer – eh, they used it some. Would give me like, maybe 5-10 minutes of peace.

Play mat – waste of money. Get a towel or or blanket or something. Better yet, just keep your floor clean and you shouldn’t need anything.

Jumper – essential to me with #1, but #2 never spent much time in it.

Exersaucer – never had one.

And bumbo, had one for the second, and like I said, he didn’t really care much for it.

Swing – is great, it was one of the few things that could stop my son’s incessant crying

Playpen – is good especially if you travel a lot

Baby Bjorn – we used ours a couple of times with each kid and neither liked it.

Bouncer – we never used it.

Play mat. Both kids loved it. My daughter even more. She was 4 when we brought it out of retirement for her brother to use, and she was very excited showing him “how to play with it”

Jolly Jumper – never used it

Exersaucer – daughter loved it, son hated it. (my son was a grumpy child the first 10 months)

bumbo – my son hated it. My daughter (then 4) loved it)

All depends on how you’re kids are. My son didn’t like anything that restrained him, and generally no toy could console him. He was teething since birth and had 4 teeth by 2 months, consequently the constant grumpiness.