OK, so if you are new here… I had a baby. A cute little boy named Miles Henry. He is quite the peanut! Anyways, I am three months into new mama life and I wanted to share my fave items for the newborn stage. These are the big things that would be super helpful to to have right away when your little one arrives. With the amazon and targets of the world, you can really get anything at any time so do not stress!
Hope this helps! Sending lots of love to my new mamas out there. It is one hard transition, but I promise it gets better each day 🙂
Disclaimer: This is all based on my own personal experience as a new mom! I am not a baby expert or medical professional. Also, links below may be affiliate links.
Newborn items I had or wish I had right when I came home or soon after that… and some thoughts to go with it.
BASSINET: Now this was something I stressed A LOT about. I was torn with the SNOO and decided not to go for it because it was too pricey. We borrowed a Halo and although it was fine, I didn’t love it. It was kinda chunky and the legs were really big and took up a ton of space. In the end, our favorite bassinet was actually the one that came with the Uppababy stroller. Next time, I would get a stand for that and just use that. It is sleep safe and you can easily wash the mattress cover / get extras. Admitedly, we rented the SNOO for a month when Miles was 8 weeks old. I ordered it when he was around 6 weeks and sleep was NOT GOOD. It was one of those desperate 4am purchases. The SNOO was not a good fit for Miles. He hated the motion and I felt it was constantly startling him. That could be that we didn’t start it from day 1, but who knows! Lots of people swear by it, but I think there is merit to having your baby be able to fall asleep without that help. But as always, you do you! We returned it after a month because by the time it came, he was sleeping SO much better.
Note: We moved Miles out of our room after about 2 weeks. It was a grunty baby and it was too stressful for us. Sleeping already is limited! It’s a personal choice, but for us it worked. We have a great monitor (Nanit) and his room is directly next to ours so we felt ok with it.
SWADDLES: So I have also tried 10000 swaddles. At first, he was so upset in velcro ones and we could only do the blanket style ones. Then he learned to really sleep well in the velcro ones. They change their minds all the time, that is why it is good to have a few options or do not buy too much of one style until you have tried it. In the end, the best ones for Miles were the Happiest Baby Sleepea (same brand as SNOO), the Ollie and the Aden and Anais velcro ones. The happiest baby ones are SO easy to put on. Today, he is almost exclusively using these. You can go up in size as they gain weight. During the day, I sometimes swaddle him in the Love to Dream ones since his allows his arms to be up.
CHANGING STUFF: So the basics here that you need right away. Diapers, wipes, change pad, change pad covers (if you go with the Peanut like me) and diaper ointment. A huge regret of mine was not putting diaper ointment on at the beginning. He ended up getting a severe diaper rash and it was so sad. We swear by A&D ointment (similar to Aquaphor). He also needed hypoallergenic diapers since the regular ones added to the rash. The regular diaper pastes (butt paste, triple paste /anything with zinc oxide) also agitated him. To this day, we only use the ointments. He is 13 weeks at the time of this post. The diapers we love are Huggies Special Delivery and have recently tried the Mamabear brand from amazon. For wipes, we love waterwipes.
SOUND MACHINE: Cannot stress this enough. We are big sound machine people (pre-baby too) and Miles loves it. We use it for naps and night time sleep. We also have a portable one that we keep in strollers and the car.
NURSING STUFF: If you plan to nurse, I recommend the my brest friend pillow. It was a game changer! Also, a pump is important to have right away because as your supply comes in, you will pump more than your baby will take. It is a great time to build up a stash. When adjusting to breastfeeding, nipple cream, a nipple latch assist (they gave me both at the hospital) and pumping / nursing bras are huge. For bras, it may take a few to find one that works for you. My boobs grew so much when my milk arrived.
Pro tip! After pumping you can store pump parts (not tubes / electric part) in the fridge for your next pump. You can do that for 24 hours. It helps with the amount of cleaning and time it takes to clean. I did not learn this until 8 weeks and omg its life changing.. especially for late night or night time pumps. I have the Motif Medical pump as well as the Elvie stride for portable / travel. Both are great.
BOTTLES / STERILIZER: We went with the Dr Browns bottles because of the anti colic insert. This helps with the amount of air that comes in. We introduced the bottle early and it worked just fine for us. He takes boob and bottle just fine! The sterilizer and bottle soap / brush / tray is also huge right away if you are going that route. I also recommend getting a few bins where you can organize bottle stuff in a central location (clean, dirty, etc).
BABY CHILLING ITEMS: The dock-a-tot or swaddleme are musts. This way you can safely put baby down at any time and they can nap in them. They are not meant for nighttime sleep, but during the day we were ok with it because we were around. We also are obsessed with our fisher price swing and baby Björn bouncer, but we didn’t use those until about a week in. I also loved having a carrier early on too – they love feeling close to you!
CAR SEAT / STROLLER: This is an obvious one. We are huge Doona fans. The most conveient ever!!!! For our main / larger stroller, we have the uppababy vista. We used that right away too for walks from our house with the bassinet.
NEWBORN HEAD PILLOW: apparently these help keep baby’s head from getting flat in the early months. We stopped used them around 12 weeks when he was more playful and wanted to move his head around more.
PACI: We love the phillips and tommee tippe ones. And in later weeks (8 weeks), we love the NUK ones.
MUSLIN BLANKETS / BURP CLOTHS: Stock up on these! If you have a spitty baby like me, you will go through these like crazy. The bibs we added on after about 3 weeks and go through so many daily.
LAUNDRY DETERGENT: You will need this right away. I do laundry like crazy for the guy.
BABY BATH: At the beginning you only bath them with washcloths and warm water, but after the cord falls off you can use mild baby soap and a real bathtub. We liked having those ready to go. Also love the Tubby Todd all over ointment for dry skin!
PLAYMAT: We started tummy time after a few day and having this mat was so great! It also comes with high contrast cards that they will learn to LOVE. Also OBSESSED with the fisher price music playmat. We started using a little later though.
BABY CLOTHES: The only thing you NEED right away is sleepers. I recommend zipper ones with feet on them because of how often their diapers need changing. The cute outfits are fun too, but don’t get too much in the newborn category. I also bought Miles some of those mittens because it was scratching himself.
POSTPARTUM MOM THINGS (c section): LOTS of maxi pads (You bleed for 6 weeks btw), disposable undies for the first 2 weeks, belly band (c section). I also got this c-section undies and they were great after i finished with the disposables. For non c section – the classic frida postpartum kit is a must. Some also swear by sitz baths.
Also, most women still look pregnant for a bit (at least I did) and you will wear nothing but cozy pjs all day. I eventually started wearing my fave joggers and I still wear my henley tops non stop. So great for nursing.
I hope this list helps! Remember, you can do this. You were made to do this. Give yourself grace and be kind to your self. Taking care of YOU is important to. Do not be afraid to rally support around you if you can and be patient. It gets better and better!
Xoxo, sari
