When we were looking for a cosleeper, the first (and basically only) option we found was the Arm’s Reach cosleeper. Arm’s Reach is essentially the only player in the cosleeper market as far as I could tell, and all of my mama friends had one and recommended them. But as it turned out, none of their models worked for our european-style Ikea bed, which has no box spring and is only thirteen inches off the ground.

We weren’t too bummed about that, because looks-wise the Arm’s Reach is a very utilitarian-looking metal/plastic/nylon structure in the same vein as a Pack ‘n Play - you’ve probably seen one already, they are everywhere:

Say what you will for functionality, this is not one of those droolworthy baby items.

And then I happened to spot an ad in the back of a Mothering magazine for a wooden cosleeper called The Baby Bunk. The photo was admittedly a little difficult to visualize from:

But it fit low boxspring-less beds, was in wood, and could be turned into a bench for kids later. It cost $295, more than the $220 for an Arm’s Reach, but figuring it was made from wood, that seemed fair to me. I gave them a call and found out I could actually rent it for $40 a month. RENT! I could return it whenever I wanted, no storing needed! For a baby item with a shelf life of three or four months, I was sold.

The woman I talked to was the owner and couldn’t have been nicer; don’t let the homemade vibe of the website worry you - I recommend calling instead of bothering with email, if you’re interested at all. She walked me through the details and had me take measurements over the phone to make sure it would work.

When it arrived, it turned out to be a beautiful, solid piece of furniture the advertisement photo didn’t do justice to (see our photos below for a better idea). It attached securely to our bed frame without a hitch and was fantastic for the four months we used it. When we were done, all we had to do was package it up in the box it arrived in and call for a UPS pickup.

You’ll need to buy the little mattress (and sheets), that isn’t included in the rental:

If you have a standard bed setup with a mattress and boxsprings, there is a different system for attaching the cosleeper that is similiar to the way the Arm’s Reach attaches. For ours, we paid $15 for the frame clips for our non-standard bed frame:

The feet are individually adjustable in case your floor isn’t level (like ours):

We put blocks in the photos to show scale; it’s definitely fairly narrow and won’t go beyond four months before the baby’s arms whack the sides (unless your baby is still swaddled at night):

I think the big bed mattress is technically supposed to rise above the edge of the cosleeper, but our mattress is so low-profile it didn’t do that - which I actually loved, because it was easier to maneuver the baby around.

So, we say go for it if you’re looking for an alternative to the Arm’s Reach. It’s not cheaper, the plusses are more about having a furniture-like cosleeper and, if you rent it, not having to decide what to do with it when you’re done.

So, to repeat myself: fits low beds without boxsprings, is in natural wood with a non-toxic finish, can be rented, or turned into a bench for kids. And no plastic in landfills when you/your mama group are really, really finished with it.

Now, if only there was a similiar scheme available for all those other things, like prams and infant car seats, that you can only use a few months!

This morning, reading a post on Ohdeedoh (I’m such an Apartment Therapy fan, seriously) about traveling with kids reminded me about our recent trip. We took our little Capucine to France in June for a month, and among the many memorable moments were, unsurprisingly, a few lessons on air travel with an infant. There are a lot of ‘what to take’ lists around, and I read at least ten sites on the subject ahead of time. But of course, there is always something to be learned. I emailed these thoughts to some other mamas originally, and they liked it so much, I’m posting it again here. (Note that these tips are most appropriate for international flights. It would be a little overkill to worry about all this for a four-hour flight. Except the one about the nose-rinsing, boy don’t skip that one.)

I’ll put in links for products I used for this list, too. It was all one small backpack, no big deal. Here ya go!

- We booked the aisle and window seats in a three-seat row, on the hope that nobody would want to be in a seat between two parents and a baby. (The Air France lady was the one who told us to do it.) That worked perfectly, we had an extra seat to pile stuff in both ways. Barring that, go for a bulkhead seat.

- We reserved a bassinet, many airlines have them on long flights. Request one when you make reservations and then call to reserve or confirm again 48 hours before the flight, because there are usually more babies than bassinets. That is a tip from a flight attendent, too.

Here’s what the Air France bassinets are like:

- Board the plane last, not first. That way you aren’t stuck there if things take way too long boarding, and the baby can kick around in free space for as long as possible. The stewardesses hooked us up with that tip. Don’t worry too much about not having anymore overhead storage space available once you get on, we saw stewardesses making babyless passengers shuffle their carryons elsewhere so people with babies had their carryons right overhead on all our flights.

- We used five diapers on the plane, and brought 12 (for a 12 hour flight). She slept most of the time, both ways, so not much diaper changing, same as at home. Our flight lined up with our nighttime - that would be my preference now, because the one on the way back wasn’t during our nighttime and that was more of a hassle. Having said that, I wouldn’t want to be without plenty of diapers.

- We used the Skip-Hop travel changing kit. The plastic changing mat was great because nothing is clean in airplanes. We changed her on it the whole trip as well. I think a backpack would do just as well, but a plastic changing mat was a total must-have.

Link: We have the denim one. You can get any of the colors in our store here. There is also the even smaller Spark by Skip Hop, which you can get in our store as well. (I would skip the similiar one by JJ Cole, none of the moms who reviewed it endorsed the quality.)

- We brought Infant Advil and Infant Tylenol, plus nose rinse and a nose bulb with us. We’re adding an infant decongestant now. We needed everything. We couldn’t get any of them without prescription, so we had to go see doctors. Never again will I travel without! I would also add the Little Noses saline rinse. If you end up having to use it to get their ears to pop, it has a smooth tip that doesn’t hurt their nose, so less traumatic than all the other kinds. Which sounds minor, but when the baby screams from the rough plastic tips on all the saline solution sold in Europe, your shaking nerves will thank god you have a nice smooth plastic tip available somewhere in your luggage to keep the trauma factor down.

Link: You can get Little Noses with our without the aspirator in our store, here. The aspirator came so highly recommended, it’s how I came across this brand originally.

- We packed four days worth of clothes (including a backup outfit for each day, so eight outfits and six jammies total) and did laundry. Worked well.

- For 19 days, we packed three packs of diapers and two packs of wipes and a small size Desitin. Three packs of wipes and a regular size Desitin would have been better. We only just started the third pack of diapers. That is disposables, I don’t have cloth diaper tips. I say this because unscented stuff was impossible to find in France so I wish we had had more of our preferred stuff. It made sound dumb to take up so much space with diapers, but we did it on purpose - we always come home with more stuff than we left, so it was a way of guaranteeing we’d have free space available after the diapers disappeared. (We used water spray (like the Evian ones) for fresher diaper changes, as well.)

Links: We have Desitin Original in our store, and the Evian water spray here.

- Getting an infant to suck during the descent is far harder than it sounds. The average descent lasts 30 minutes. Our baby was too distractible to nurse actively that long, so we mixed a pacifier with nursing and rinsing the nose with saline solution to make sure she swallowed. We did that because she didn’t suck hard enough on our first descent and couldn’t hear for the first week because her ears hadn’t popped, so make sure they swallow, one way or another. Not just light flutter nursing. The doctor we saw in France is the one that gave us directions on the nose rinsing; the goal is swallowing, whatever it takes. (Hot tip on nose rinsing: lay the baby with their head on your knees, angle your thighs down, hold them across their chest with both arms pinned and drip the solution in.) If they take a bottle and normally suck on pacifier, you’re in luck. If they don’t, you have my sympathies on the tears over the nose rinsing. Anguish.

Link: You can get natural rubber pacifiers in our store here. We ended up using the admittedly weird-looking European style aspirator after the saline drops, it works very well. The only one I found in the US is in our store here, but get one in Europe if you can - they have a better look than this one.

- The Moby was awesome in the airport and we also used it a ton when she had jet lag and needed help falling asleep, and when her ears hurt so she couldn’t lay down, and when she got a cold and was better off upright. We had to take it off in security, an Ergo would have been handier then. But thank god for the Moby. A carrier of any kind, really.

Link: We have the orange Moby, like in this photo. There are twelve colors now (!!), you can get a Moby or a Carrier in our store here or here.

- On the plane, I wrapped her arms in the arm flaps of a miracle blanket, like a swaddle, and she slept better through the screaming kids after that. (Those kids! Sheesh!) We didn’t swaddle more than a few times at home even when she was brand new. I don’t know why I tossed the Miracle Blanket in our backpack, maybe imagining the wild frontier of baby travel having some unknown need for a swaddle in it, but it helped keep her sleeping deeply, so amen to that.

Link: You can get any of the Miracle Blanket colors in our store here.

- An ipod with white noise would have been great. We stayed with family and there was always noise that woke her up in the iffy early-sleep hour or two. I’ve never used white noise, but it occurred to me that this would have been the moment to try it out.

Link: I saw this link recently, listing a few sources for free white noise downloads over at Parenting.com

- I wished I had had antibacterial wipes for the airplane seats and other random armrests she chewed on.

- I wished we had brought our own car seat. The three we used in France were hard plastic with no padding, just a quilted cover, and she was fed up after fifteen minutes. Of a one hour drive. How unlike her! It took us forever to realize they were uncomfortable, it wasn’t obvious at all. We could totally hear her say ‘ahhh’ when we got back home and put her in ours.

- A beanie that tied on. We would have lost every hat she owned if we hadn’t switched to the tie-on one. Was handy for the plane, where it was freezing once we were airborne.

- On the plane, a onesie under a footie sleeper would be perfect. It was super hot before takeoff and freezing in the air, like always. We have a photo of her with the chest of a footie wide open, like a real Guido, and her cheeks neon pink as we sweated out waiting for takeoff (when it then became freezing, like always). A zippered footie is way better than a snap one, doing up snaps in those airplane bathrooms took way too long.

- We gave her baths in the bathtub where we were staying, we just got in with her. No need for an inflatable baby bathtub that way. Some hotels don’t have bathtubs and a sink could be too teeny, so ask ahead if you’re doing hotels, I would say.

- We put baby massage oil on her face on the plane to keep it from drying out, about four times.

Link: Our midwife hooked us up with this awesome oil. I’ve got a post half-written about it, I’m so into it I need to finish it up, but if you can’t wait that long you can buy it here. The website and brand name is a little random, but the oil is amazing.

- Bring tape on the plane, like packing tape, to tape a blanket over the TV monitor or any other light you can’t turn off while they are sleeping. It sounds random but all four of our planes had screens we couldn’t turn off, located directly above the bassinet, making sleeping hard for her. I would wrap a little tape around a water bottle, personally, to make sure sleep happens.

- After all was said and done, we agreed that to make the jet lag effects on a baby worth it, a three-week long trip was a minimum for fun to happen and four weeks was ideal.

Good luck and bon voyage, for sure! If you’ve got specific questions, you can contact me, I’m happy to share.

In our quest for grabbable toys, we tried out this mouse pair from toy super power Haba:

Pros: Cute fuzzy faces. Cotton. Tail is easily grabbable and makes the mouse fling around in an entertaining way. Rattle (in the pink one) is great.

Cons: The blue one has one of those wobble-squeakers that makes noise when the mouse is moved, except it doesn’t make noise easily or predictably enough to grab a baby’s attention effectively. The round butt part of the mice is firm, like a fabric-covered ping pong ball - I think squishy would have been better. It’s so round, it’s a little too big to grab easily.
Overall: This pair (they come together) are fun and simple, and the way they swing around seems like a plus. And small - perfect for the diaper bag, which is what we do with ours.

These little guys are now in our store!

Boys don’t have many fun clothes here in the US - I can’t count the moms who’ve told me they didn’t care if they had a boy or girl, but shopping for a girl would be way more fun. And it is true. Dinosaurs/baseball/cowboy…yawn. So let’s even the score a little:

Fabulous, beautifully detailed linen boy’s shirt ($65 at Bronwen Handcrafted):

Adorable, comfortable-looking short pants to go with the shirt ($34 at Jack Sprat):

I love these both like crazy!

By the way, beautiful things on Etsy vanish very fast, especially for babies and young children. You really have to buy it when you see it - I’ve missed out on so many good finds! (I can’t even work on a post for this blog about a find for more than a few hours, or the find is already gone.)

Today I followed a few links and ended up at a UK children’s site called Urchin. And I got all excited, there were so many products I hadn’t seen before. Everything really well-chosen and not pricey (if you live in the UK, anyway).

There were so many things I wanted to blog about, but this one was my ‘most favorite’:

A toadstool pouffe! I love toadstools, and this would be so fun to play with. Even for big people. The manufacturer isn’t listed, it vaguely reminds me of Anne-Claire Petit but probably is someone else.

(For £69.99 at Urchin.)

This teeny little butterfly by Sevi is a rattle with crinkly wings and an elastic band for slipping it over a baby’s wrist. It’s intended to move with the baby as they wave their arms around, so they discover their own hands:

Pros: It makes a great noise, with the crinkle wings and the rattle, and is soft and a nice size. The quality is good, no loose threads in the decorative stitching, and the smiley face is interesting (for Little Capucine, anyway).

Cons: The stretchy band isn’t very stretchy; we had to tug it onto Little Capucine’s wrist and it definitely won’t go onto her ankle, like the product description suggests.

Overall, this is a nice little hand-finder, so we added it to our store (for $6.99). It should fit most baby’s wrists just fine, the stretchy band is very soft!

There is almost nothing cuter than a baby in a pilot cap. We ended up with one that came in a gift set, and the first time we tried it on Little Capucine, we could hear grandmother’s hearts melting everywhere. Guaranteed Cutest. Thing. Ever.

After we got the first one, I got addicted and started hunting up some more on Etsy. There are some really precious ones there this week.

Hand-knitted silk in several sizes (described as ‘waldorf style’, which I don’t understand - anybody else know?). $34.50 for the big-kid size at Shelley Caskey’s Etsy shop:

Knitted and felted with a lovely little red bird - I had my suspicions about the fit, but in there is a photo of a real baby wearing one so I can say it looks pretty good. $22 at ThinkingMama’s Etsy shop:

And for cold/windy/foggy places, a sweet and simple wool one. $15 at Jillbertx5’s Etsy shop:

We have this one - it’s simple white organic cotton with serged-edge ruffles, it fits really well and is a nice not-too-hot spring weight we use all the time (well, mostly because it’s so cute). It’s by Sckoon Organics, we have it in our store for $13:

With a tiny house, we know if we have more than one baby, they’ll be sharing space for sure. I always have an eye out for examples of appealing shared rooms and stash them in case I need them some day.

A two-child room with interesting colors and baroque beds. I like the indoor/outdoor rug idea (and the $5000 Serge Mouille light!):

A three-child room with cute laundry baskets and lots of ticking:

Now I see these photos side-by-side, I notice they both have upholstered headboards, which I definitely wouldn’t do in reality for the sake of dust. I would leave out footboards for sure, having learned my lesson in our room: in a tiny room, thou shalt have nowhere to sit if you have a footboard.

Otherwise, I like the simplicity of these rooms and the way toys are presumably assigned to a play space elsewhere, so the room is just for resting.

I recently discovered the Lucky Wang children’s clothing brand - owned by the same mom who runs Nonchalant Mom - and I especially love their little jackets. These two are on sale, and I want both. I’m trying to resist, but wouldn’t the red one look great just hanging on a wall? Little Capucine doesn’t really wear jackets much yet so I’m trying to resist temptation, but if you get either one - send photos!

The fleece-lined cotton Shanghai Rose jacket, on sale for $36:

The denim Bao-Bao jacket, on sale for $30:

I think these sweet doves are a nice twist on hanging a guardian angel overhead, and a little extra serenity in a child’s room is always a good thing in my book ($20 at Bitters Co.).

We bought this white dress by the Dutch children’s clothing company Imps & Elfs on an impulse, not knowing anything about the brand and sizing or quality. We found it on sale, but even so I bought it a size too large so it will fit for a long, long time, because it still wasn’t cheap! We didn’t have anything girley for Little Capucine when she arrived, not knowing if it was a boy or girl, so I lost my head a little when I saw it at Nonchalant Mom:

Now that we have it, she’s wearing it all the time (over pants and a onesie, it’s very summer-weight on it’s own). This is our review; we’re giving it a thumbs-up. The quality is excellent, and the details are lovely.

Fit: Seems true to size (we got 3-6 months). It is not extra-wide, so at the point where it gathers there is only a little extra around the ribcage. Sleeves are longish, even though we got a size larger it still seems like it is made for long-armed babies. (We rolled up the cuffs.) The neck isn’t choking-tight, but if I’m honest I do think it would be a bit snug by six months. Note on fit: Little Capucine is average, if going by percentile sizes is any guideline. She’s at the 50th.

Fabric: Sheer white 100% cotton lawn - think ‘handkerchief’. Wrinkles a little in the cutest way. Washed and dried in warm water without shrinking noticeably. Not organic, as far as I can tell.

Quality: Great. No loose threads, buttons securely anchored, seams inside are all covered. Buttons are thin mother-of-pearl with the holes intentionally off center. Gathers are even, and there are darts on the back! Nice quality stitching and thread.

Cons: I’m not thrilled with the buttons up the back (what is with that on European clothes?) and I think some patch pockets would have been perfect - the photo on the website looked like there might be some.

Overall, it is a very sweet little dress perfectly suited to how simple and sweet young babies are. All she is missing are the wings!

Available for $34 (on sale) at Nonchalant Mom.

This photo, from last season’s Zara Home kid collection (not available in the US), is one of the inspiration images I go back to a lot. (Click on it to see the full-size version.) It helps me remember my goal of creating a serene space for Little Capucine. My guiding words are ’serene’ and ‘happy’ - the happy part is easy, with all the color out there for kids. The ’serene’ part is the challenging one, so pictures like this are a big help! I like the colors in this room mostly - white, flax-grey, and wood. I try to stick with those myself, but color is so tempting!

A wardrobe and a room this size sure would be nice to have, too - it’s hard to get this bare feeling in a little room. I noticed they are using the same wardrobe and chair as props this season, so I guess the stylists at Zara loved them too!

I’ve found some wonderful handmade baby clothes on Etsy, in simple naïve shapes that aren’t common with big brands. Often, the prices on Etsy are much less than I expect for the quality, with the plus of feeling like I’m supporting another mom’s work. Today I’m into the cotton/linen pants at Little Seedlings shop on Etsy ($24 a pair), especially the go-with-everything beige:

PS: If you’re wondering about linen, it washes great, wears like iron, and gets super soft pretty quick - no careful handling required. I’m always looking for baby clothes with linen in them!

We wanted a simple and soothing (as opposed to stimulating) mobile with a real music box, made in natural materials, for Little Capucine’s crib. It turns out wooden crib mobiles are pretty rare, we were only able to find a couple intended for crib use (as opposed to ceiling mobiles). From the ones we found, we ultimately bought one by Kaloo, a French stuffed-animal company that is widely available in the US. This is our review of the Liliblue mobile we bought; we’re giving it a thumbs-up.

The mobile in use in our baby room:

The mobile support and hanging bars are in natural non-toxic finished wood and the animals are cotton velour. They turn slowly from a hand-wound music box (inside a velour cover) that lasts about five minutes per wind and plays a lullaby version of “Bridge Over Troubled Waters”:

The animals hang from pink nylon cord with their faces angled down toward the baby; I like the positive vibes their sweet expressions give:

The mobile comes with a bonus velour clutching toy sized for young babies. The Liliblue model is a fuzzy pink worm that has been really popular:

Pros: Good quality construction. Nice materials. Pleasant sound. The animals are safe and stuffed, nothing potentially breakable or hard if the baby knocks them with a hand. It’s a nice mobile that is very ‘baby’ without being painful to be around.

Cons: While none of the styles are likely to match a nursery theme other than standard pink, blue, or primary, they aren’t really going to clash either. We wish the ‘Naturel‘ themed organic line by Kaloo had a mobile, like their other themed lines; it would be our first choice. The mobile doesn’t have much of a handmade feel to it. And the length of this mobile - 18 inches - makes it impractical for attaching to a changing table, the animals can drag over the baby (we tried it).

All six of the available styles are in our store. Amazon seems to be up-and-down with having them in stock, so if the model you want is missing it will probably be back in a few days. Thanks for helping us keep our blog going by buying from our storefront!

These hooks are too precious, and since I can’t decide if the tips of the wings are a safety hazard or not; you decide!

The small size comes in pink or silver, but the big white ones are what caught my eye - maybe because of that refinished door, like the one Papa Capucine is slaving over (about £8.25 at Rockette St. George in the UK, US shipping is £6.50):

Found via babygadget.

Welcome to our blog! Little Capucine is our daughter, and this blog is dedicated to the products and inspiration we put together for life with her.

When we first started assembling the basics, we were dismayed to realize that most purchases required a lot of research on consumer sites and parent boards before we could single in on the product to buy, and then we had to find a place selling the actual product we’d chosen. All our shopping was online because our little beach town doesn’t have stores that sell baby products (honestly). It was a lot of very dull internet hours - but the upside is that we could share what we winnowed out of the wide world of baby products in a blog!

The searching was lengthy mostly because our preference is for natural products, and as few of them as possible. We’re (slowly) fixing up our tiny storage-less bungalow, and along the way we’ve had to learn the ecology of living with less, especially when we’re shuttling belongings from one ‘construction zone’ to the next as projects are completed! Our pending baby increased our sensitivity to chemicals in clothes, food and furniture a lot, so ‘healthy’ became a top criteria. (Formaldehyde in baby mattresses? What? How can that be good?)

About the store: You’ll notice a link to our store in the header. Some of the products we find are on Amazon, so like a lot of bloggers, we put together an Amazon storefront with the good stuff we found there. We get a few cents when you purchase products there, and you don’t have to wade through all the random stuff on the full Amazon site. We don’t blog about anything we’re not genuinely into, and we’ll always point out when a link is to our store. This is not a pay-for-posting blog! If you enjoy this blog, buying from the store helps us pay for running it, and you get a big thanks from us for the support!

Hope you enjoy our finds and get inspired to find the best for your own little ones!

- Mama and Papa Capucine