One of our favorite purchases has definitely been the Svan Bouncer, an ingeniously designed seat straight out of Sweden. Svan is perhaps best-known for it’s sleek high chair. We hope to write about the high chair in the next few months.

The bouncer comes in two parts that come together in a quasi-cantilever. Separate, the seat can go almost flat. Our favorite feature is the one-handed recline adjustment. Simply flip the clip to drop the seat back, or pull the strap to lift up. Watch the video to see this adjustment and the Svan’s namesake bounce.

The Svan Bouncer comes in several styly colors and can be found for about $120 at finer baby stores, such as Magic Beans.

The only weakness for us have been with the fabric. After just a few months and moderate usage we’ve seen some of the fine stitching come loose. But it’s hardly noticeable.

Consumer Reports says the supermarket brands are nearly as good now as the name-brands. But it’s 3 in the morning and “nearly” as good just isn’t worth having a wet bed now is it.

A reader wrote in to ask about newborn brands. We went through a slew of them and came back to the Pampers Swaddler, sizes newborn N, 1, 1-2 and 2. The 1-2s were a mistaken purchase but a great success for the 10-12 lb. range.

We like the swaddler for the unique closure – the sticky fasteners come together in the middle, just under the belly button. The helpful diagram below, from the Pampers website, shows what the company cals,  ”overlapping” fasteners.

We found them to be very secure and a good fit without squeezing too hard on the little one. We’ve tried them against Huggies and Pampers’ own Baby Dry brand and found them to be the best fit for our little one.

As for shopping for these bad boys – get a lot in the beginning. At 8-10 changes a day you’ll go through a big supply. Target and Amazon’s prices are pretty similar, and you can often find coupons or discounts at Target. But the Amazon convenience is huge. Free shipping and no hassle during what will be a very busy time. Amazon tends toward the bulk size as well, which is nice. Store up online and then buy smaller packages locally when you think a size change is coming – but by the time that growth spurt happens it will be too late. Fun times.

We got a discount by using Amazon’s new subscription program, which was a nice bonus.