Mommies of Babies

[ajf9597]

Show me (or tell me) what kind of toys you have for your babies. Emily is 2 months old today and I can't seem to find anything that will keep her happy long enough to get anything done. It seems like after a couple minutes she is fussing. So show me what you got so maybe I can get some ideas!

[nikkiARNGwife]

At 2 months..nothing really...I think the age from about 2-4 mos is hard b/c they are really too little to be "entertained" but they get restless easily...or at least that's how both of mine have been. At 2 months with Ella we kind of rotated...a little while in her bouncy chair, a little while in her crib watching her mobile, a little while in her swing, a LOT of time sitting in my lap lol... Now at 5 mos she's just beginning to actually grab and be interested in toys...but still, they mostly just go straight to her mouth lol.

[kresta]

We have one of those playmats that have toys hanging down. Sadie wasn't playing with the toys at 2 months (that's too young to really play with anything), but she would lay there and look at it. Also, the swing we're borrowing from our friends has a toy thing that spins over her head when she swings, and music that plays.

Honestly, though, now that this is my third, it's really okay with me if she fusses a little as long as I know she's clean, fed, burped, etc. Of course I won't let her lay there screaming, but if she's just fussing a little, I try not to let that bother me. There's way too much to do to hold her every second, and she can learn better to soothe herself. :)

[KristinCB]

No toys really entertained lucas that young but the sling - that was our lifesaver!! I used the moby wrap and we have a babyhawk (mei tai), If you haven't tried that maybe this could be an idea.. keeps both hands free so you can get some stuff done :)

[nikkiARNGwife]

I agree with Kresta about the fussing thing...as long as I know she's had all she needs, it's okay at this point for me if she's in her saucer and is just fussing a little. I can't hold her every second. Ella at least now is sitting by herself which she really likes...it's the best age b/c I can just plop her on the floor and spread toys around her and she's content just grabbing at them for a while.

[Sarah8914]

I forgot our babies were born the same day!!

Yeah, Sadie seems a little young to really play with toys, but she loves our little bouncer and it has toys hanging from it, she always manages to knock them off so I guess she's sort of playing with them. That's about it. We have a little baby gym I need to get out. She's actually really strong with her head so probably in the next month, I'll try the exersaucer. Sadie is quite fond of grabbing soft things (clothes and such) so she really loves her burp cloths! it's cute. good luck finding something that works!

[Teresa]

Ella turned two months on Mother's Day and we're going through the same. :) She LOVES her lamb swing with the rotating mobile, she'll be amused by the hanging toys on her playmat for 10 minutes at the most (the lights were a big hit), she hangs onto her dolly a bit and grabs clothing/burp cloths/etc. She takes some interest in a rattle, but when I put it in her hand, it's more that she just can't let go of that little grip than that she wants to play with it. I do have some socks/hand rattles (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000I2Q0C2) that she plays with in her boppy lounger (loves to kick her feet constantly!).

So speaking of 2 month olds...how are your little ones sleeping?! Ella has a few good nights of 3-4 hour stretches, then one roaringly bad night until 3 a.m. and zonks for 5-6 hours. LOL Tell me this is normal. :)

[nikkiARNGwife]

Oh...yes the little socks with rattles in them...when Ella discovered her feet she'd spend a while shaking one foot and then the other lol..

Teresa do you swaddle her? Both my babies slept through the night by 8 weeks with a miracle blanket...totally worth it.

[Sarah8914]

My babies take forever to sleep through the night--like a year.

I don't want to jinx myself, but since sunday night, Sadie has been going down at about 8:15 and sleeping until 2:45, nurses for about 10 minutes and sleeps until 6:30 or 7, I'm very happy with it!

[amandabarugh]

I was going to suggest a sling of some sort as well. Both my kids still love my slings at 3 years and 15 months.:)

And Teresa, yes, that sleep pattern sounds fairly normal. :) Remember anything over 5 hours is considered sleeping through the night. ETA that my 15 month old still gets up to nurse when I get into bed, which is 3-4 hours after he goes to bed.

[rachaelsscraps]

My son was a 9 week early preemie, so he was still sleeping pretty much all the time at 2 months old, but at 4 months (when he was the "same age" as a term 2month old) he really loved his little soft rattle that velcroed around his wrist. He loved that dang thing soooo much!!!!

He also loved toys that were black & white stripes, I think many "experts" recommend b&w for infants because the contrast keeps their attention better than colorful toys and they can see them better. If I remember correctly.

He also loved peek-a-boo with daddy! I could never do it right! lol! But his daddy was a peek-a-boo pro!!! :)

[Teresa]

Teresa do you swaddle her? Both my babies slept through the night by 8 weeks with a miracle blanket...totally worth it.

We swaddled her for the first few weeks and it worked fairly well, but she'll have NONE of it now. :) She seems to get really warm and uncomfortable, so I can't blame her!

Sarah- that's awesome she sleeps so well! I've had a few nights where she sleeps for long spurts. I don't mind the 3-4 hour stretches because she goes right back to sleep after nursing, it's the "late start" at 3 a.m. we're trying to avoid. :)

Amanda- Thanks for the reassurance too. 5 hours definitely isn't my "sleep through the night", but I'll take it!

[Sarah8914]

Teresa, late nights are the WORST! My first baby was horrible about that. We tried way to long to get her to sleep night after night and it was much too late for me! It gets better! :)

[ajf9597]

Thanks ladies, we have the bouncy seat, a gym, swing and use her mobile, she just doesn't seem to be happy with it for very long and I was hoping that was normal. When DS was a baby, he was very content, so by this age he would just lay and look at his toys, mobile, swing etc for quite awhile. I'm hoping she gets there. She does fuss for a little bit and then it's an all out scream LOL! She really likes her mobile, but the swing that we are using from my sister she doesn't really care for, so I'm debating on getting this one:
http://i10.photobucket.com/albums/a122/ajf9597/N9146_d_1.jpg
I was hoping to find a cheap used one on Ebay, but haven't had any luck.

Sleeping, we have been very lucky (unlike with DS) since 6 weeks we started swaddling her and she's been sleeping all night. Although she doesn't go to bed until 10 or midnight, so I almost wish we could get her to go to bed earlier, wake up once to eat and then go back to bed, but I'll take what I can get ;)

[nikkiARNGwife]

Is the swing you're using one of the older kind that swings back and forth? That's what I had with DS and he HATED it..like would scream if I put him in it....I got the Graco Sweet Peace swing with Ella and she loves it...it's swings from side to side and is more of a glider like swing...probably similar to the one you posted. She would actually nap in it for a while when she was around 2-3 mos b/c it vibrates and glides :)

[Darcy Baldwin]

A maya wrap :)

That's what we did with ours...and we could do things around the house, have them with us, have tons of face time doing it, without having to stop and sit and play all the time.

[emmasmommy]

We had this swing with both girls and they both LOVED it. In fact, Emma slept in hers for the first 2 months.
http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41SXyKvVpuL._SS350_.jpg

Another toy that Madelyn LOVED, from about 2 months till even now was
http://i.walmartimages.com/i/p/00/03/79/77/08/0003797708107_500X500.jpg
she only has the weird looking thing in the lower right corner...but she still plays with it.

[Darcy Baldwin]

We still have our Sassy toys, Laura - they're part of the just in case stash LOL

[mummytothree]

Thanks ladies, we have the bouncy seat, a gym, swing and use her mobile, she just doesn't seem to be happy with it for very long and I was hoping that was normal. When DS was a baby, he was very content, so by this age he would just lay and look at his toys, mobile, swing etc for quite awhile. I'm hoping she gets there. She does fuss for a little bit and then it's an all out scream LOL! She really likes her mobile, but the swing that we are using from my sister she doesn't really care for, so I'm debating on getting this one:
http://i10.photobucket.com/albums/a122/ajf9597/N9146_d_1.jpg
I was hoping to find a cheap used one on Ebay, but haven't had any luck.

Sleeping, we have been very lucky (unlike with DS) since 6 weeks we started swaddling her and she's been sleeping all night. Although she doesn't go to bed until 10 or midnight, so I almost wish we could get her to go to bed earlier, wake up once to eat and then go back to bed, but I'll take what I can get ;)

we have the older version of that swing and it was a god send!! Worth every cent of $100+ bucks I paid for it!!!

https://www.sweetshoppecommunity.com/gallery/data/548/eam_slogan_21_6-4-08_copy.jpg

[Teresa]

Since we're sharing swings...

Here's the one we have (my sister has it too and Abby still loves it at 8 months old). This saved me at 3 a.m. last night. :)

http://i.walmartimages.com/i/p/00/02/70/84/71/0002708471888_500X500.jpg (http://www.walmart.com/catalog/product.do?product_id=10543153)

[ajf9597]

Is the swing you're using one of the older kind that swings back and forth? That's what I had with DS and he HATED it..like would scream if I put him in it....I got the Graco Sweet Peace swing with Ella and she loves it...it's swings from side to side and is more of a glider like swing...probably similar to the one you posted. She would actually nap in it for a while when she was around 2-3 mos b/c it vibrates and glides :)

Yep, it's the older kind. She will sit in it, but there is nothing to keep her interest, it has some toys attached to the tray, but because she isn't old enough to play with them, I think she gets bored.

[rach3975]

2 months can be hard, like everyone said. But if she doesn't like the swing you have, try another one before you buy. My 1st and 3rd loved the swing. My 2nd had reflux, and all that movement was uncomfortable for him. He hated swings.

I use slings, and around that age I started using the gym. They're too young to reach for the toys on it, but mine still like watching the toys above them. By 3-4 months, when some ability to grab/reach for toys develops, the best toys are ones with lots of easily-grabbed things hanging off them. Here are some of our favorites.

Ziggle
http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e320/craftystitches/ziggle.jpg (http://www.amazon.com/Manhattan-Toy-200600-Ziggles/dp/B00008XY4C/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=baby-products&qid=1242332965&sr=8-1)

Whoozit/Tizoo (pink one)
http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e320/craftystitches/Whoozit.jpg (http://www.amazon.com/Manhattan-Toy-201210-Whoozit/dp/B0000DJAYT/ref=pd_sbs_t_4)

[kim21673]

She still really young to hold attention and really focus on toys.

We had an activity mat and used that for tummy time and floor play....one boy loved it and the other hated it! It was a Baby Einstein one with a star on the top...if they moved or batted at something the star would play music.

We had a bumbo sit and my boys started using it at 8 weeks with the doctor's ok...they loved being able to sit up and watch what was going on. They were both very early sitters...5.5 months sitting on their own.

We had another floor mat...it was a Fisher Price on that had 3 animals hanging from it...they twirled and danced...my mom picked it up at a garage sale and the boys LOVED it!!

Little toys that scrunch, rattle and make music!!!

The FP Aquarium swing for a lifesaver for when I had to get things done. My boys LOVED it! They did care for the travel one though. They also liked the FP Aquarium bouncy seat. When she is a little older, I recommend a jumperoo and an activity center..my boys loved their BE activity center too.

OMG! We have so many toys!! All those baby things are in a room by themselves in the basement. We are finally moving out of the toddler toys and into the boy toys!!

[Lukasmummy]

Maybe I am a bad mummy but I remember Lukas used to love sitting in the bouncer or laying on the floor watching the baby einsteins dvd. A little bit older and his favourite thing in the whole world was the door bouncer he used to use it as a swing. He was premature though so I am not entirely sure of the normal age recommendations for the door bouncer. Leo used to be fascinated by nan's bubble light i'm not sure if it was the noise the lights or the dancing fish that held his interest though. To be honest though the majority of the time I was just holding them and doing stuff with them in my arms that's the advantage to micro babies :p you can just carry them around all the time. Hugs Crystal xx

[bellbird425]

i think thats when i started using a (cheap $2 shop) shaving mirror (the sort with it's own stand and a magnifying mirror on one side, and a normal mirror on the back) with byron and he would be quite taken with the 'other baby face' for a while, esp. at tummy time; that and wrist strap rattles - he also would sit in his bouncer/rocker thing and watch his sister do her normal 'look at me' dances and was most entertained by that :p

sometimes i wish we had had a swing, esp. when alyssa was a baby but anyway, even at 4.5mths now he sleeps 3-4hrs between nursing and we even started solids a few weeks ago (he now has rice cereal at lunch and pumpin and rice cereal at dinner) and didn't make any difference to his sleep pattern :thumbdown:

[bellbird425]

oh yep, and alyssa LOVED our fishtank when she was a newborn (but we dont have one now)

[stayawake]

I don't know if anyone's mentioned this toy, but BOTH my kids LOVED the Skwish ball at about 2 months onward. ( basically as soon as they could grab it and it made a cute soft clickety clack sound). It's really easy to grab, the sound it makes is not annoying, but enough for them to feel like they did something, it squishes really nicely in their hand, it's big and it comes in different colors.

SKWISH by Manhattan Toys
http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/516NMVWT00L._SS500_.jpg (http://www.amazon.com/Manhattan-Toy-200980-Skwish-Classic/dp/B000GI0S4E/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=toys-and-games&qid=1242387626&sr=8-1)

My son also LOVED some of the Sassy Baby toys... here are some of my favourites. :)

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41%2BMUiUx9EL._SL500_AA280_.jpg
http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41RTW5vEc%2BL._SL500_AA280_.jpg

And this set seems to be everywhere - I can't say much about most of it, but the set of rings here was both my children's MOST used toy! They loved watching it dangle from their stroller or carrier, and trying to grab at it, especially if I attached other various toys to the end, it was great for attaching toys to strollers, highchairs, etc. and eventually they loved to put them together and snap them apart.
http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51lnHf%2Ba-pL._SL500_AA280_.jpg