Gear Freak Fathers to be - What "unneccessary" items have you bought?

Trotter

Trotter Junior is due to arrive in December. My missis is always putting up with me getting very excited by gadgets, electronics, and other such amazing things that I dont really need but are hugely important!!

The topic of buggies came up recently, and also a little gadget that seemingly has a screen where you can watch the child while you're in the living room after you've put him/her to bed.

I never knew for example that buggies were so high tech and that some have brakes! This is music to my ears because I have a feeling theres a whole world of baby gadgets that I can buy that I dont need but I'll love all the same.

Has anyone got any baby gadget success stories!?!

caprilicious

Not a father, hope you don't mind me on your thread
I am however a lover of any gadgets that make life easier :cool:I worked in childcare several years ago and I am utterly amazed at all the new gadgets that you can get for baby now!

Not sure how useful you would class this & probably not exciting really, but you can get a gadget that measures out exactly the right amount of formula for bottles;


(http://www.mybabymed.com/Electronic-Formula-Dispenser/Bottle-Buddy/?gclid=CMyH_-7CxqICFRMslAodeXzEGA)

I'm ashamed to say I was very tempted to get one of those:o

Also I think these lads are great, head scanning thermometers.
I haven't got one myself as I'd already bought a thermometer when I seen this, but I think they're a great idea, especially if you have a baby with an ear infection + high temperature, last thing babs will want you doing then is poking an in ear thermometer at them;



http://www.mybabymed.com/Thermometers/No-Touch-Thermometer-Thermoflash/

I got one of these foetal monitors (Not here though, on Ebay - Argos do similar one's too) and if you're into your gadgets you'll love this;


http://www.mybabymed.com/Pregnancy-Monitoring/Angelsounds-Foetal-Heart-Monitor/

Not only can you listen to baby moving about in mum's tum, but you can link it to your laptop & record sounds of baby in there and if you're really into it can save them to your ipod/mp3 player to listen to later

Actually I have a confession to how completely sad my baby gadget obsession is - I changed car recently & the gadget in the car that I found the best was the in built bottler cooler in the car :cool::o
I know its probably not actually designed as that its just somewhere to put your drinks to keep em cool & works off the air con but when the guy told me it was for bottles I was sold :o:D

*PS - I have no link/association with the website selling this stuff, just to lazy to google the items elsewhere

Trotter

Welcome to the club I only mentioned fathers really because I notice the lads I know take a lot of flack for their 'gadget' lust. I'm delighted to see anyone support the cause

We've got the baby heartbeat monitor and I've managed to record it to my iPhone so I can show everyone because clearly they're all as excited as me :P

I've seen some seriously high tech newborn baby carriers. I want to be able to carry around the little bundle for the first few weeks so Im on the lookout for something snazzy in that department too

caprilicious

Ok my nerdy side is really going to be unleashed so

Did you know on the Iphone you can get an app to time the contractions when the time comes?
And I seen someone else here mention a 'white noise' app for getting baby to relax/sleep

I'm not so well up on the baby carrying, but from what I've seen the current trend seems to be for Mei Tai's, seen some lovely one's on adverts.ie;

http://www.adverts.ie/163572/car-seats-and-travel/baby-carriers-mei-tai-ring-sling-reduced/

One of the things I found extremely fascinating was the 3D scans you can get of baby.
I was just looking at the one I had of babs at 22 weeks compared to her now, its amazing how clear it was and what a resemblance it is to her (compared to the fuzzy one's they do in the hospital which just looked like snow to me )
If you google 3D scans there's loads of locations around Ireland doing them.
They're pricey, but definitely a lovely keepsake to have

positron

We recently bought that same Angel Sounds foetal heart monitor (eBay), and it does work - we could easily hear the little heart pumping away at 12-13 weeks.

I am not too keen on using it a lot though - There are no known ill effects of using that as such, but there is no way to know for sure - according to their own leaflet. So I am now looking for a decent stethoscope. I read somewhere that you can monitor bump heart rate using stethoscopes from 24 weeks on.

ThePiedPiper

Trotter, have you heard of a TENS machine? My wife was able to go about 18 hours of contractions before going to hospital using only the TENS machine for pain relief.

It's a great gadget, it doesn't fall into your unnecessary category but seing as you're into gadgets, I thought I'd suggest a very useful one.

crazy cat lady

I bought my husband a Y-Cam for christmas which is a camera he can use to see his little baba from anywhere in the world via a web connection. The camera is connected to the wireless here.

One of the coolest pressies i ever got his if I do say so myself

Moonbeam

Trotter wrote: »

Trotter Junior is due to arrive in December. My missis is always putting up with me getting very excited by gadgets, electronics, and other such amazing things that I dont really need but are hugely important!!

The topic of buggies came up recently, and also a little gadget that seemingly has a screen where you can watch the child while you're in the living room after you've put him/her to bed.

I never knew for example that buggies were so high tech and that some have brakes! This is music to my ears because I have a feeling theres a whole world of baby gadgets that I can buy that I dont need but I'll love all the same.

Has anyone got any baby gadget success stories!?!

Geesh, would you not just use a netbook and a webcam and stream it?;)
You also need to install alpha baby or bam bam on your laptop depending what os you run.

You can get a little gps for the buggy too! My one works with the phone via blue tooth.

The baba sling is a fantastic baby carrier.
http://www.babaslings.com/

January

I want one of those formula dispensers... but with 6 months to go untill she starts on cows milk I doubt it would be worth it

On the TENS machine they are absolutely FANTASTIC! I bought mine from the lovely crazycatlady and I have to say I loved it. I got about 18 hours out of it too before the battery wasted and I would have kept using it only I forgot to pack an extra one! It was a Lloyds Pharmacy one and I would recommend it to anyone.

wmpdd3

Funnest thing I saw coming into the shop was the baby wipe heater, a battery powered thing you put the pack of baby wipes into.

Sold out in 1 month, never got them back, still get asked for them!

Trotter

I just feel like I'm in the bosom of my technoligical people here. Love it

So many cool ideas. I really like the look of that Y Cam!! Tell me more!
Does it just open in a web page on the laptop browser? Is it secure so stranger types cant see the link?.. And does it work in the dark?

So many questions

As for the TENS machines? I havent really done my research on that. Sure thats not my problem!!

caprilicious

wmpdd3 wrote: »

Funnest thing I saw coming into the shop was the baby wipe heater, a battery powered thing you put the pack of baby wipes into.

Sold out in 1 month, never got them back, still get asked for them!

No Way!! I've seen them advertised on baby stuff websites, but they're normally ridiculed on similar pregnancy websites - I often wondered what type of people bought them!
Quite a lot of people by the sounds of it!!:eek:

+1 on the Tens machine, I know they're not a fun gadget for you, but your missus might appreciate it

positron

Reading up on the 'no touch' thermometers, I came across this one, which sounds like a good idea.

A pacifier thermometer here



And the cheaper DealExtreme version of the same here

crazy cat lady

Trotter wrote: »

I just feel like I'm in the bosom of my technoligical people here. Love it

So many cool ideas. I really like the look of that Y Cam!! Tell me more!
Does it just open in a web page on the laptop browser? Is it secure so stranger types cant see the link?.. And does it work in the dark?

So many questions

As for the TENS machines? I havent really done my research on that. Sure thats not my problem!!

I don't know exactly how it works... thats not my area of expertise! Its a secure site tho with a username and password and yes it works in the dark. I'll get my husband to post more!

Chet T16

Trotter wrote: »

So many cool ideas. I really like the look of that Y Cam!! Tell me more!
Does it just open in a web page on the laptop browser? Is it secure so stranger types cant see the link?.. And does it work in the dark?

With the y-cam you can log into the camera either directly by IP if you have a static address or you can use somewhere like dyndns.com to access it if it isn't. You can set it to upload an image to a server by ftp every couple of seconds/minutes or you can have it email you. It even allows you to stream it directly to your phone.

Some of them have automatic IR lighting and it works very well in the dark. Ours is the y-cam knight and its the one i'd recommend.

It can be connected by wifi or cat5 cable depending on what you want.

User access is completely customisable so you can let anyone see it or just individuals with seperate permissions.

The only thing i can fault is that the webstreaming interface isn't firefox compatible, it will still show the feed but not with the control panel that allows zooming (digital zoom ony) and recording of videos.

Have a look at this for sample cameras. If you use firefox open them in IE as well to see what i mean. (Or use IE tab for firefox!)

Mr. Crazy Cat Lady

Trotter

Fantastic.. thanks a lot!

January

positron wrote: »

Reading up on the 'no touch' thermometers, I came across this one, which sounds like a good idea.

A pacifier thermometer here



And the cheaper DealExtreme version of the same here

I have one of these (or a version of one of these) it takes three minutes to read a temp... and with a non soother taking baby it is very frustrating! My first daughter, the soother addict loves it though.

Pinkdust

Think this thing is MAGIC !!! Dont have one but they are meant to be fantastic, and a major time saver....cools water in the bottle in 80 seconds, which i can imagine is very handy when you have a screaming impatient baby!!

http://www.bellababy.ie/product_info.php?products_id=1254&osCsid=usaqvgktjgfje