I wondered what I would find useful for James after he was born. What things do new parents need to have on stock when baby is born and what things can parents wait a month or two to purchase? What are the most necessary and what are the nice to haves? Well, I don't really have an answer to the last question, but I did make an effort to notice everything we purchased and reused for James for the first five months of his life. I've had a couple friends reach out to me with their registry lists to ask me to review them, and this is something I'm definitely happy to do. There are many items that meet similar needs, and I think it's so tricky to make all those decisions.
A neighbor told me that our family is pretty good at finding deals for things. I use slickdeals.net for buying big ticket items on sale, I use camelcamelcamel.com to track Amazon price history, we used lucieslist.com to help pick out baby items, and I generally trust the recommendations on thewirecutter.com too. What am I missing? Have you used these sites before?
Below is a list of what baby items we used for James. He's still in our room, which is why you won't see a crib and crib sheets on our list, but we will probably move him into his own room sometime in the next month or two. I tried to label the items below more generically, but I wasn't 100% consistent. If you want more specific recommendations, please do feel free to reach out to me. I have found that childcare and the hospital bills are very pricey compared to purchasing the items below that you may want to use to care for your newborn. Anyway, hope this list is interesting to you:
| Category | Item | Month introduced |
| Changing: | Diapers (Started size 1 around 3 weeks, started size 2 at night around 10 weeks) | 0 |
| Diaper wipes | 0 |
| Contoured diaper changer with cover (have a second changing station on our main level too) | 0 |
| Diaper cream | 0 |
| Wipe warmer (New addition to make diaper changes more comfortable, only useful the first month at night) | 0 |
| Nightlights (to see enough during diaper changes) | 0 |
| Diaper pail and plastic liner refills | 0 |
| | |
| Feeding: | Powdered formula (Go through about 1 Costco container per 2 weeks) | 0 |
| Several 4oz bottles (Switched to 8oz bottles around 4 1/2 months) | 0 |
| Bottle sterilizer, scrub brush, and soap | 0 |
| Size 1 nipples (Used premie for the first week while I was pumping/nursing, the size 1, then started size 2 nipples around 3 months) | 0 |
| Long spoons for stirring the formula | 0 |
| Two formula dispensers (easier to measure scoops beforehand) | 0 |
| Many burp cloths | 0 |
| Comfortable chair (and pillows while I was trying to nurse) | 0 |
| Pacifiers, including a WubbaNub (Introduced around 3 weeks) | 1 |
| | |
| Sleeping: | Bassinet with extra sheet covers | 0 |
| A few Swaddles/SleepSacks (Nice to have spares for spit up) | 0 |
| A couple receiving blankets (Usually laid on the ground for tummy time, but occasionally swaddled) | 0 |
| Baby monitor (We like one with video that we watch on the iPad) | 0 |
| | |
| Clothing: | Button jammies and onesies (Organized Neil's old clothes into bins so that these were easy to find and reuse, moved our big guy into 3 month clothes around 1 month) | 0 |
| Soft hats (To keep baby warm the first couple weeks) | 0 |
| Fabric bibs for feeds and drool | 2 |
| | |
| Car: | Car seat (Can't leave hospital without one, we have a cover with ours) | 0 |
| Stroller (We have both a single and double stroller with the car seat adapters, will use more when baby is older) | 0 |
| Diaper bag | 0 |
| | |
| Wearing: | Ring sling, Ergo baby, and Ergo 360 with infant insert (Started using Ergo for a nap each day around the 1 month mark and then daily for carrying when he had good head support around 2 months, I didn't like the ring sling) | 0 |
| | |
| Bathing: | Infant tub | 0 |
| Hooded towel and wash cloth | 0 |
| Baby shampoo | 0 |
| Fingernail clippers and nail file | 0 |
| | |
| Mom: | Comfortable leggings, nursing tanks, and big t-shirts (and pads and ibuprofen) | 0 |
| Pump and pumping supplies | 0 |
| | |
| Activities: | Activity mat | 2 |
| Sit-me-up floor seat (Better than a bumbo in my opinion since you don't have to worry about legs that are too chubby and as much neck support, some parents use a swing instead of this) | 2 |
| Jumperoo | 3 |
| Random baby toys (like a rattle) | 3 |
| Interlocking floor pads (We have hardwood floors and wanted a soft area to lay baby down, you don't need these if you have carpet) | 3 |
| Board books | 5 |
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