10 Baby Registry Must-Haves: What New Moms Really Need
This isn’t me suggesting a product, this is me giving you advice if you are creating a baby registry. You WILL NOT use half of the clothes you are registering for. They are cute. It is exciting. But your baby will live in onsies. You will be annoyed if they are wearing anything other than a onsie. And they will outgrow half of the things before they even get to wear them more than once. Or at all! Put the clothes you want on your registry then cut it in half. Ask for more diapers and wipes. You will actually use those. And a tip on the onsies: I don’t care how cute it is, you will HATE doing 15 buttons on their jammies in the middle of the night in the dark.
- Nose Frida
- This product has saved us and is still saving us from countless sleepless nights from a stuffy baby. Some people are grossed out by the idea of sucking snot out of a baby’s nose but it isn’t as gross as it sounds. The nose frida is much more effective at removing snot from their nose than the bulb suckers, which also just seem so much harder to clean.
- Windi
- This one also grosses people about, but when your newborn still doesn’t know how to pass their own gas after a month of living, sometimes you have to figure it out for them for your own sanity. I can’t even count the number of times that our babies calmed down and went right to sleep after we were able to calm their tummy down with a windi. Don’t knock it till you try it.
- Baby Carriers
- It took me FOREVER to figure out the stretchy baby wraps. But after lots of practice, I figured it out with my third baby and loved it. All that being said, if I could do it all over again (and I will when we have another baby), I would get the Boppy baby carrier. It is the comfort and security of a wrap without the complication of tying it up every time. However, babies tend to outgrow the strechy wraps. Once my baby has more head control and is awake and alert for longer windows, I opt for the infantino 4-1 carrier. It has held up through 3 babies and its versatile and comfortable.
- Hatch
- Another product I wish we would have bought sooner and would 100% buy again if we lost it. It can be used as a nightlight and a sound machine. My favorite features are that I can control it from my phone and I can set “okay to wake” lights so the kids know when it is okay to come out of their room.
- Wyze Camera
- I prefer this over any of the other baby monitors we have tried. I love products that aren’t specific to a certain time period. These are great because after you no longer need them as a baby monitor, you can use them as a security camera in your home. They connect over Wi-Fi, so you can access the cameras anywhere. They have free motion alerts, and if you want sound and other alerts, you can pay for a subscription which is only $2 per camera per month. You can also talk through the camera, which I have found to be distressing to my child but maybe it will work for you!
- Manual Pump
- This is a personal preference of mine. I will say this doesn’t work for everyone. But I began using a manual pump with my second child and now exclusively use manual pumps vs electric. I would breastfeed directly at night so I didn’t have to double my time pumping then bottle feeding. But during the day, I would manually pump while I was at the park or at home. I found it to be faster and more efficient than the electric pump.
- Diaper Bag
- I have tried 4 diaper bags. And this one takes the cake. It is so spacious and has so many pockets that I don’t even use them all. I have never run out of space, but I also don’t feel like it is too big. I love the color and the style. It has 3 types of straps so you can carry it like a purse, a backpack, or a duffle bag. The water bottle pockets on the sides fit my owala and every style of sippy cup that we own. I rarely misplace my keys because it is so easy to find stuff in the organized pockets. I have recommended this bag to two of my closest friends who bought it and also love it.
- Diaper Genie
- If you take out your trash every day, you can skip this. We probably COULD live without this now. But if your house frequently smells like poopy diaper, invest in this. Is it extra? Sure. But we save on the cost of bags by only throwing POOPY diapers in rather than all diapers. They do such a good job at containing the smell. Make sure you do hold your nose though when its time to empty the diaper genie bag.
- Boppy
- I am overly dependent on my boppy. I am terrible at just holding my baby and feeding them. I had to have my boppy. My husband always called it my floaty because I would grab it and put it around my waist before walking to grab the baby. But I would recommend this to any mom who doesn’t want to hate breastfeeding. And it doubles as a great tummy time and sitting tool.
- Swaddles
- All of my babies loved swaddles. We would use the muslin blankets and the Halo sleep sacks and some off brand amazon velcro swaddles. However, this past year I was a night nanny for a little baby and I taught her mom how to swaddle. The mom then did some research and found the Ollie swaddle and Holy cow. My life was changed. I will be buying one for my next baby. All of my kids were escape artists when it came to swaddles, and I didn’t want to do it too tight where they felt uncomfortable. But this swaddle is so stretchy that they can still have a decent amount of movement without getting their hands up by their face.
