Combi Playard
The huge amount of baby equipment that people want you to buy is almost overwhelming. There are things that are nice to have and there are things that you really need. In an attempt to cover some of the basics we figure that we at least need a car seat to get the kid home, and a place for them to sleep when they get home. I am torn between making my own crib, or just getting one from Ikea, but in the interim we got a playard so our bases would be covered. We chose the Combi Sport Desert Sun. It offers all the basic playard goodies including changing table, bassinet, light/vibration, and awful music. The colors on it are quite nice, neutral with a touch of modern. The lines are relatively clean without too much frilly stuff, and the construction is solid. It came in the mail yesterday, and we practiced setting it all up and taking it all down. It looked simple enough, but I admit after 5 minutes of flailing I did have to break out the instructions.
Available from Amazon for $89.
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9 Responses to “Combi Playard”
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We took the same approach. We don’t have a room in our home to devote to the baby (due date: 4/30), so we’re going with the playard from Chicco that matches the traveler (stroller/car seat/car base) we got and the high chair we’re eyeing.
We picked out a small changing table at Babies R Us and do have a portacrib on our registry as well. It’s wooden, has one side that does lower for easy access, but also folds up. It’s positioned as an option to keep at the grandparents’ house, but should do fine for the first 6 months or so.
IKEA’s stuff for toddlers and kids holds promise, but we were really disappointed in the baby furniture. We did pick up the pine wardrobe that matches our TOVIK dressers for the baby’s clothes.
Good thinking! One other necessity that is nice to have in advance is a bathtub. Although you will be giving sponge baths for the first couple of weeks, I have heard a lot of good things about the eurobath. Looks pretty basic. I hear they have them at Babies r us, but I found it online at giggle.
Good call Sage. The eurobath looks like a good one. Thanks.
THings you don’t need or won’t use for more then a few weeks
swing, Boosters work well instead of a high chair.
I live in a small apartment and now have a one year old. He has never had a highchair. We have used a booster seat. My dream seat was the Handysitt. Which I could not get shipped to canada for a reasonable price.
We had a windup swing lent to us, which we used for aprox. 3 weeks. We had a jolly jumper we used twice. We used one of those mesh bath cradles in the sink and then tub. Bath tubs are big and there wasn’t anywhere to store it.
Things we used like crazy.
Baby Bjorn bouncy seat Our baby lived in it and loved to be the center of attention in the middle of the room. it took the smallest movement to get it bouncing.
I found an second hand exersaucer with no toys attached to it. I found it to be great. My son would love to throw the toys off and I would stack them back up. I find the saucers out now are sensory overload for me could you imagine what it would be like for a baby.
Don’t forget a good stroller, a baby spends almost as much time in it as in a bed.
I hope this helps you.
Maryrose
Hello, haven’t posted before but just bought a 1960’s ranch in need of remodel and have really enjoyed perusing your site.
My son will be 2 in June and we made a huge effort to avoid too much baby stuff as it was all so ugly and much of it not very useful. My unsolicited recommendation is that if your wife is going to be breastfeeding, you will want the baby as close to you as possible at night (even parents most devoted to the idea of their baby sleeping separately from them usually have the baby in their room, if not in their bed, for the first 6 weeks – 3 months). The Arms Reach mini co-sleeper does this really well, the neutral version is relatively uobtrusive to the eye, and the whole thing is easily portable (we traveled with it often in the first 6 months of my son’s life). We found it really useful to have the Arms Reach by our bed and then another sleeping option out in our great room (playard/bassinet/etc). Though we may have been unusual in how often our son slept in whatever room we were in as opposed to his normal nighttime sleeping location. But then I am mostly deaf, can’t hear baby monitors and need to be able to see my son to know if he is fussing or crying.
My second recoommedation for “stuff” is what I wished we had done – when the time comes for your little one to start solids – begin with the baby in the infant seat, once he/she is REALLY good at sitting up well (6-9months or so) then get the Stokke Tripp Trapp Chair http://www.babybungalow.com/stchtrtrchwf.html – Regular high chairs are appallingly ugly, hard to clean, and a true nuisance when dealing with the emerging independece of a toddler. This chair is about twice the price of a highchair at babies ‘r us, but so much better in terms of design and flexibility. My son loves it because he can get it to the chair himself. He used to fuss in his regular high chair because at 21 months and 28 pounds it was already difficult to get him in and out of the damn thing. I truly believe he will use the Stokke for a long time to come, can’t say that about regular high chairs. I regret spending money on the regular high chair and wish we would have just started with the Stokke.
Sorry to write a book. Thanks for a great site and woderful resource.
Kerry
Tucson, Arizona
We chose the Combi also! It took four adults for us to figure out how to set it up and break it down the first time, but after a little practice, it’s a breeze.
It is the least visually offensive playyard on the market, IMO.
As for bathing… We got the Eurobath and decided it is too freaking big. It will be great to have later, but for right now, I recommend getting something that you can fit on the bathroom counter.
emergingme, what did you end up with for a bath then?
So the eurobath is not so great hugh? I actually like the bathtub I got as a gift for my daughter when she was born. It folds up flat and stores nicely, fits in the tub and the sink ( at least my big farmers sink), or a counter, and it has evolved with her through those first couple of months and now at 9 months. It is not perfect though, but I don’t mind it meets my needs. For example, you still will have to hold the babies head even though it has a blow up reclining head rest, and now that she is pretty long, she can’t totally stretch out in it. Plus, it requires you to really snap it in place in set up, which requires a bit of pounding. But the good thing is that once you figure it out, it is easy to set up, cushioned, makes her feel safe, it was only $30, and I don’t have to buy multiple tubs which I think is a major waste. I guess I can put up with a few inconveniences, just so I don’t have to store big bulky pieces of plastic that will no doubt be outdated in a year or so. Creede, if you are interested it is made by Summers(?) and available at babies r us.
Having a 3 month old in my house, it is completely understandable how much each persons advice is different from the others, just like our babies. Your baby will be different from all of ours, and whatever critical piece of equipment we tell you not to buy will end up being the lifesaver you are looking for. Maryrose essentially says a swing is a waste of money, whereas our swing has been the only way we’ve been able to get 15 minutes to eat our dinner!
Best advice I can pass along: buy or borrow as much used baby stuff as you can. Craigslist is your friend.
I would encourage you to get some type of bassonet or device that will allow you to keep your baby right next to your bed during the first weeks/months, because you will be up many times a night tending to the baby and as a first time parent you will feel better having your baby right there. I think that play yards are hard to put in/take out an infant because they are so deep. You might find that easier than I do, but just passing my opinion along. I made a changing table by picking up some used dressers from craigslist and putting the changing pad on top. It has worked extremely well.
As for tubs, I had a first years infant/toddler tub and switched to a primo eurobath afterwards. I always put the baby tub inside of our normal bathtub, so putting it on the counter isn’t a concern for me. Now that my daughter likes to kick when she’s in the bath, the last thing I want to do is get soapy water all over the counter & floor. The eurobath helps cradle the baby better then most of the other tubs on the market, so that was a big plus for me. I don’t have to have an arm on my baby at all times, just most of the time.
The first weeks are where the overpriced modern designer baby goods are not a good option. Save your money for the purchases you will make later on, when the items will be kept longer and you wil enjoy them more. Our house is very modern all around, and we had plenty of non-modern baby stuff that worked great and is already out of service because baby outgrew it. Am I glad I saved those hundreds of dollars too, because we can put that towards a better high chair, cool toddler furniture, and so on.