I know what you’re thinking – “baby blankets??!” If you’re not interested, STOP HERE.
I was thinking about writing a post asking how it might be possible to work in a once-a-week off-topic product review or similar, but this isn’t related to that. Here, I was about to send an email to a tradesman friend, with a tip that a couple of things he might be been looking to buy for his kid are on sale.
A lot of ToolGuyd readers are in “married and having their first kid” ages, so I think that while there might be some pushback, some of you might find my commentary useful.
Buying something for your infant, if you haven’t been the one to do that, might score you some points and let you get away with your next “me” purchase. “Honey, look what I bought!”, and then you can sneak away with your other new delivery, full of new tools or what-not.
There’s also the fact that I put a lot of time in with some of these products back when I was trying to figure out which baby products were well-regarded and which are just hyped up by “mommy bloggers,” who would now simply be called “influencers.”
That was a big problem when I was shopping for baby gear for my kids – being able to find reliable recommendations online.
Anyway, Amazon has a deal, today only, on select Halo and Aden + Anais products, including baby blankets, sleep sacks, bibs, and similar.
Some of the prices are as-marked, at least one of the items had a “click to apply a 20% coupon at checkout” type of discount.
Deal ends at 3am ET 3/12/20 unless supplies sell out sooner.
You can stop here, or continue for a stream-of-thought discussion about the products I’d personally pay closer attention to.
Halo Sleep Sacks
We tried a couple of Halo sleepsacks for my son, and he hated them as a newborn. But that’s also because we tried the swaddle blanket-replacement kind, with velcro wrap-around straps and such. What worked was a Carter’s-brand combo that I only found in one size and one style, with a long-sleeve shirt or onesie/bodysuit in white, and a simple sleep sack with arm holes and a zipper.
Since newborns and infants can’t have blankets, you go with sleep sacks. Or you can swaddle them with a big-enough blankets (some we’ve tried were way too small), but they don’t always like that. Or you can go with pajamas, but have you ever tried changing a baby in the middle of the night when they’re wearing full-length pajamas? Plus, some pajamas are one-piece with crazy button configurations that you’ll never get right at 2am.
So yeah, sleep sacks. There are a couple of Halo basic-styled sleep sacks on sale, and if my kids were small again I’d definitely try those. I think that Halo products are well made, but not every type of clothing is appropriate for every child, and my son just didn’t get along with their swaddle-style sleep sacks, which are also on sale.
“Oh, but the baby will be cold with no sleeves!” So give them a long-sleeve onesie bodysuit for bed.
We set the temperature so it was comfortable for us to sleep without a blanket. We were told babies needed to be a little warmer, so we figured if we were comfortable, they’d be comfortable with similar clothes plus a basic sleep sack. Seemed to work well.
Aden + Anais Blankets
What I really wanted to promote are Aden + Anais blankets. There are two lines – Aden + Anais, and Aden by Aden + Anais, with the latter being a more value-oriented line that you can find at some stores such as Target.
In general, the Aden + Anais products we’ve tried were a little thicker/softer/finer than the “Aden by…” products. In my opinion, with everything on sale anyway, the savings is not worth the downgrade, except maybe with crib sheets, but if I recall correctly we only had 1 “Aden by…” sheet for my son, compared to maybe 4 or 5 of the regular line of sheets. The investment was minimal considering how many years and washings the sheets went through before being retired. My daughter’s sheets will be retired after ~4 years.
I bought a couple of Aden + Anais products for my kids, and one or two “Aden by” products. I believed I could tell a difference between the quality, with the pricier main-brand line being better of course, but I liked both. In some of the cases, the savings are worth it for a very little difference in material feel or pattern choices.
I tried one product, and then expanded from there. I was hesitant because this seemed to be a brand that parents bought to show off to their friends during group trips to the mall, but I found the quality to be worth they hype, even if some of the hype seemed (and still seems) to be more about trendiness than quality.
I liked Aden + Anais baby blankets because they were so much larger than a lot of the blankets I saw, which made them much more suitable for use with the car seats, strollers, at playtime, and then when they were old enough, bedtime.
At this time I should tell you that I took care of my son for ~24 months before he started daycare, and my daughter 18 months. My wife had a generous maternity leave, and then there was me. If you subtract her leave, that’s 3 years of time when I was with my small kids day to day, running and creating content for ToolGuyd in mornings, evenings, weekends, and during nap times.
If something costs more, it should deliver more. More comfort, bigger size, better quality, greater usability, etc.
With the Aden + Anais blankets (I also bought some of their crib sheets), I spent more, but on better-feeling material and a larger blanket size. I didn’t need stroller blankets or special car seat blankets, although in the deep winter we did have an insulated cover that spanned the 2 winter seasons we needed it to.
The Aden + Anais blankets are on sale at 4 for $32 (they’re normally $50), and the “Aden by” blankets are on sale at 4 for $22.37 (they’re normally $35).
The blankets are made from cotton muslin and are somewhat light. We didn’t use these exclusively, I also really liked Carter’s smaller and thicker-fabric blankets, although they were hard to find when my daughter was born. When she was born, all I could find were smaller fuzzy-like-fabric blankets that I didn’t like much. (Translation, the only ones I could find were garbage.)
We donated some of the blankets, and continue to hold on to the others, which my kids use as capes and playtime “picnic” blankets.
Aden + Anais Dream Blankets
I also really liked the Aden + Anais dream blankets, which were larger and heavier. My daughter has 2 of these blankets that she’s been rotating for the past 2-1/2 years, and will continue to use them until she transitions to a twin bed in a couple of months. I bought my son one of those blankets in 2016, and he used it for 2 years until shortly after transitioning to a twin bad.
It might be a good “tummy time” blanket, but it’s really more of toddler blanket. There’s no harm in buying one early if you can find a pattern you like and the price is right. But they’re pricey, and there’s no harm in waiting to see if you can find a better deal or alternate product.
These brands cost more up front, but were among the better purchased I made when my kids were small.
Only select styles/patterns/sizes are on sale, but saving money is more important than how something looks before it’s spit up on, right?
If you have newborns or infants, or are expecting and preparing, take a look at the sale.
Deal ends at 3am ET 3/12/20 unless supplies sell out sooner.
Note: This post will self-destruct by tomorrow morning, hopefully before the newsletter gets pushed out. I don’t plan to make a habit out of it. In this case, these are brands I really liked when my kids were small, and if I caught this deal then I would have jumped on it.
I did the brunt of the baby gear shopping when my wife recovered from her c-sections (major abdominal surgery if you didn’t know). Newborns and infants need a TON of different things, toddlers too, and the amount of advice out there is hard to sort through, with there being a lot of background money-motivated hogwash.
Now, if you excuse me, I’m feeling better and have some tools to start testing.
If you made it this far and want more baby gear-related strong opinions, I do have a place to put them – babyguyd.com, but if there’s no interest I’ll keep quiet about as I have for the past 5-1/2 years.
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