Love It & Leave It

 Hello! I'm Ashley from The Johnstons . I have been married to my best friend, my high school sweet heart, for 3 1/2 years & everyday is better than the day before :)

 We have had so many fun adventures  over the 8 years we have known each other & now we're embarking on our greatest adventure yet...we're PARENTS! Our sweet little Giuliana was born December 19th 2011& we already cant imagine life without her.

When Brooke {thanks Brooke!} asked me to write up a guest post  on items i think new parents should LOVE or LEAVE, i was so excited!

When we were picking out baby items, we had NO IDEA what we would need. I thrived off of my other mommy friends advice.

So here we go, my Items to LOVE & LEAVE:

We Love, love, love all of the aiden & anais products

I seriously think i have an addiction

We used the Cozy sleeping bag for when she was really little & sleeping in our bed.

We felt she was safer having the sleeping bag on rather than being under our blanket.

& she was still nice & warm!

 

Its no secret that EVERYONE loves the aiden & anais swaddle blankets.
& for good reason, they are AH-MAZING!
they are so soft & big!
She is 6 months old & i can still swaddle her up
We use them for everything, swaddling, stroller cover, nursing cover..etc

we also use the dream blanket in her crib.

Its nice & warm & still breathable, so i don't have to worry about it covering her face.

*I do have to add, the aiden & anais products that are for sale @ target & buybuy baby are NOT THE SAME as the ones you get directly from aiden & anais.

I know it sounds crazy, but its true! The products you get directly from them are MUCH NICER!
I guess they make 2 different lines of products

An item to LEAVE:

the wubbanub pacifier

 I know,  I'm probably the only person that hated it.

Its a great item to buy, if your baby likes the soothie pacifier,

but the only pacifier we can get our sweetie to take is the MAM latex pacifier

I ended up making my own "wubbanub" so that Giuliana still had the ability to locate her pacifier in her crib when it fell out at night {& have a cuddly friend!} I sewed a MAM adapter to the ear of her Lovey {Which i made with an aden & anais "issie" blanket & a lovey bunny} and snapped in a  MAM pacifier.  It works so well! She loves it! She sleeps with her little lovey every night. The other thing that is nice about this versus the Wubbanub, is i can detach the pacifier to sanitize it daily, & throw the lovey in the wash. 

Brooke, good luck on your search for the best baby items! & thanks again for thinking of me :) Hope this was helpful!