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As a new father, I continue to stumble across tips and tricks about a month or two late. Here is a brief summary of some of those tips and tricks for other new and aspiring fathers:

The Five “S” from Dr. Karp: We ended up stumbling across some of these by chance, but missed a few of the powerful techniques. They only work for newborns, but they appear (and I can attest are) super effective. You can buy the book and DVD or catch the freebies on YouTube.

Magic baby hold: We came across this one late in the game. Simply hold your baby on their left side.

Skip night changings: Ever hear “never wake a sleeping baby”? There is a lot of truth to that because you may never get them back to sleep. At night we doubled up the diaper (reusable). It was saturated by AM but worked. He did not seem uncomfortable. The exception might be when the baby poops – if you know it, you might change it to prevent diaper rash.

Cosleep with your baby: It sounds “unamerican” but its the way most civilizations do it. In reality, it will save mom and dad a ton of sleep – no one needs to get up, out of bed, to tend to baby (well, unless you bottle feed). For breastfeeders, mom simply rolls over. The catch is you need to be conscious not to roll over on the baby or cover baby with a sheet or blanket.

Reusable diapers are less about the environment and more about saving money: For all the debate about diapers, it seems the green impacts are about equal. That aside, you’ll save thousands over the course of your baby’s diaper changing if you go reusable. There are no old-school pins anymore, so clipping with “snappies” is fast and easy. And make sure you buy good diapers, not the cheap Gerber ones at most stores. You need to wash small loads pretty frequently (every other day for us), but that depends on how many diapers you have stored and how big your pail is. If you don’t have a clothes washer, go the disposable route. The biggest drawback to reusable is traveling (we plan to use disposables when there is no washer near) and the stench from the laundry room when washing. But that can be remedied with an open window.

Related articles

• Earth Friendly Babies – Doodle-Bums (biosil.wordpress.com)
• Cloth or disposables? Half-century debate still on (seattletimes.nwsource.com)
• Five overpriced kids products and their bargain alternatives (mint.com)
• The best advice I never got for life after baby ()

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With some aluminum foil, card stock and scissor, you can make a simple Wifi extender to boost your signal 9 to 12 dBi. Can’t say I can measure the exact gain, but I certainly see a slightly improved signal with my installation.

Simply print the template on some card stock and cut it out. attach foil to the reflector and attach the two pieces. Slide the contraption over your Wifi antenna and point in your direction. That is it!

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You’ll find numerous styles, colors and materials, but they all share the same common concept: prevent your clothes from clumping together in the dryer. All of them share one feature in common – little “fingers” that “stick” to textiles and helps pull them apart. Clearly this is much better than a shoe or a tennis ball and they certainly work.

While the dryer balls claim to dry clothes faster, I haven’t found that to be the case. Howewver, if there are simply too many clothes in the dryer, the balls won’t work. But what I have found is that the dryer balls definitely make clothes feel softer and prevent some wrinkles. This result was obvious with bamboo towels we have. These towels consistently took a long time to dry and came out of the dryer rather “rough” – well with the dryer balls, the towels come out noticeably softer anyway.

So for around ten bucks, a set of dryer balls will easily pay for themselves in savings over dryer sheets or fabric softeners, plus no chemical residue.

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Electric dryers use 5,000 watts of electricity – that’s about the same as three space heaters. Numerous cheap ($10) and simple products exist that make it super simple to divert your clothes dryer vent heat inside your house rather than outside.

Some make it a snap to flip a switch so you don’t heat your house when it’s warm out through some sort of diverter. Most offer some degree of additional lint filtering in the form of a mesh screen or panty hose stocking. The model I use (pictured left) uses a tray of water to collect finer particles of lint (it’s the only one with a water+screen filter and is the most expensive; I would avoid the Heat Saver Tee they sell since it tends to leak a ton of heat which is inefficient in the summer). If the one you choose doesn’t have a filter (and it should) you can attach a panty hose or vacuum cleaner bag to catch the small stuff. In any case, it’s essential to keep these traps clean to prevent fire.

But this technique isn’t for all homes: don’t use this with gas dryers (carbon monoxide in the vented air); the exhaust air is wet, so don’t use in poorly ventilated, wet or closed spaces (could result in mold); the air will smell like the fabric softner or other things in the dryer (Trader Joe’s makes nice lavender dryer bags).

Check out the inline diverters from Ace. Dundas Jafine makes the inline and end style.

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Sodastream has been available online and in Europe for several years now but only recently began selling at US retail stores this holiday. I’ve been using the system for well over a year now and find it a healthier and cheaper alternative to bottles and cans at the store.

The Sodastream system consists of simply a bottle of carbon dioxide and a contraption to connect the bottle of water. No moving parts, no electricity. The catch is that its a proprietary system – you need to use their carbonation bottles and their water bottles. The carbonation bottles require a small deposit (included in the initial price) but are easy to swap out.

For soda pop lovers, Sodastream also offers a variety of mixes that can be used after the water is carbonated. I’ve tried many of the diet and regular varieties which are all high quality and comparable to big name brands. An added benefit for diet drinkers – no aspartame – Sodastream uses sucralose.

Pricing is controlled pretty tight, so you’ll probably find the same costs at your local retailer as you would online. The Sodastream site has the largest selection of carbonation bottles and mixers plus offers a point program which can be used for discounts (save $10 with the code “BESTFRIENDS”).

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