Newborn Product Essentials For the New Parent
This post may contain affiliate links which means I make a small commission if you make a purchase at no additional cost to you. See the disclosure policy for more information.
Preparing for a newborn can be super overwhelming! When I became pregnant with Mila, we knew very early on because we had done IVF. I had told myself not to do anything until we were at least 12 weeks along, just in case something awful happened and then I’d be left with these items I had either bought or lists I had made or preparations I had made that could become some sort of torturous reminder of what had happened. When struggling with fertility, you live in a pretty negative and hopeless space a lot of the time because if you don’t prepare for the worst, you’re just constantly disappointed. Despite that, I would always find that strength to find positivity and hope because it’s a requirement in order to pick yourself back up and try again.
Once I knew I was pregnant, I couldn’t help myself though. I was filled with excitement. We were finally here! Pregnant! I had waited YEARS to make that baby registry and to buy those little first outfits and imagine our life with her. So alas, I started a registry! But once I started that process I discovered how crazy it can get. There are a million baby items out there and it’s hard to know what you really need, what’s nice to have, and what’s completely pointless.
My method for going about creating our registry was to first look at the big things I really knew were essential. A stroller, car seat, a bassinet, and a monitor were the top items. But the options are endless!
Stroller
I had been seeing the Mockingbird stroller advertised online for months leading up to my pregnancy. I loved that it had many of the same features and appeal as some of the more expensive brands and was adaptable to suit almost any car seat brand at a fraction of the price. I also loved that it would convert from a single stroller to a double stroller (for when we decided to go for baby #2) and also the option for a riding board. We have absolutely loved the stroller since getting it 2 years ago and look forward to adding on the 2nd Seat Kit for upcoming Baby #2!
Car Seat
Since we knew which stroller we were going with, we knew we had a lot of flexibility when it came to the car seat we chose. I did a ton of research, comparing car seats and all their benefits. I knew the Nuna brand had a great reputation and my sister in law had used Nuna products with our nephew and loved them. Their options for infant car seats are pretty extensive so it took a lot of comparing and thinking about how we might need to use the car seat in order to decide what was best.. We wound up opting for the Nuna Pipa Rx Infant Car Seat with Relx Base. We loved that it could be used with and without the base, making traveling with the car seat easy (doesn’t require you bring the base with you) and it also allowed for various reclined positions to suit baby based on their size/age. It also had a really great ventilated cover that we used constantly for car naps and while out and about in the stroller. Mila was a Summer baby and the warm weather went on well into the late months of the year so that cover came in clutch.
Bassinet
The last big decision was the bassinet. This one took me a lot longer to discover. As a newly pregnant women with no other children, I really didn’t know a lot about bassinets (or most baby products) but one of our friend couples had just had their 2nd baby and they told us about a bassinet they had rented called The SNOO. They raved about it! I really didn’t know much about baby sleep or what a baby needs but they made this thing sound like the greatest invention in the world. I began looking into it but when I saw the price point I thought, “This isn’t for us!” Even the rental price was something I debated about since one month was almost the same price as just buying a bassinet! I searched around and asked others what they had used but nothing was winning me over. The SNOO just stuck with me. And once I had read The Happiest Baby on the Block I was sold even more. The Happiest Baby company is the inventor of The SNOO and the tips from the book went hand in hand with the features and benefits of The SNOO. I actually wrote an entire article just about The SNOO that you can read here. At the end of the day, The SNOO won and we have been praising its existence ever since.
Baby Monitor
Finally, we needed a quality monitor. Lucky for me, I am a partner in a website development company and we had recently been working with a baby monitor brand called Nanit. I learned quite a bit about the Nanit while working on their site and was pretty blown away by what it could do. All I had ever seen in baby monitors were these carry-around devices with little antennas that gave an awful, grainy image of your baby and had a terrible range, often making it impossible to even see or hear the baby if you were too far out in your own backyard. What I was seeing from the Nanit was this incredibly clear image, working straight from your smartphone (and viewable from anywhere in the world in real-time), and offering tons of statistics and health and safety information about your baby while they were sleeping! The product is incredible. There was no way around it, I wanted the Nanit. After announcing my pregnancy to the client a few months in, they offered me their camera as a gift! I was ecstatic as I knew this was going to be an item that may not get bought from our registry due to the price point. We wanted the Nanit Pro Smart Baby Monitor and Floor Stand so we could initially use it in our room during the first few months and then move it into the nursery later on. Additionally, we wanted to travel system as we like to travel and do small road trips. The client was kind enough to gift us the Nanit Pro Smart Baby Monitor and Floor Stand option and my co-workers gifted us the Nanit Travel Case as well as the Nanit Breathing Wear Swaddle and various sizes of the Nanit Breathing Wear Sleeping Bag. To this day, I praise the Nanit product and recommend it to EVERYONE. Often, people will feel it’s too expensive and not feel it’s really worth it, but once they have it, they see why it’s so great. At my first mommy-and me “Mom’s night out” event when Mila was about 2 months old, almost every mom at the table had their phone out and their Nanit app opened as we gratefully applauded our husbands getting the babies to sleep and we sat in the comfort of knowing that the babies were fine and we could have a fun night! The app even let’s you invite other caregivers access to the app from their own device, which you can turn on and off access to as needed. This has come in really handy when having someone watch Mila during naps or bedtime. If you’re debating on this one, debate no more and get yourself a Nanit. You won’t regret it.
The Registry
Now that the big things were figured out, it was time to think about all the other essentials babies need. We created our registry using Babylist. One of the many great things about Babylist is that is helps you manage the categories of items you need. Creating a registry can be incredibly overwhelming and you often get caught up in finding all the fun things you want for your baby like cute outfits, swaddles, and accessories. Babylist helps reign you in and focus on filling the important categories so you end up with the essentials.
The next most important find for us was a breast feeding pillow, a sound machine, baby changing pad, and an infant lounger. For me, these items are absolutely essential because they receive everyday use and make your life so much easier!
Breast Feeding Pillow
I had no idea what I was getting into when it came to breast feeding. I had heard it was “hard” but for the life of me could not understand what that meant. Once Mila arrived, I caught onto the difficulty pretty quickly. Nursing takes A LOT of work. Besides issues with latching, milk production, and bleeding nipples, newborns can feed for hours upon hours a day. And although newborns are small and light, your arms get tired real quick when you’ve got them in your arms about 70% of the day. The two hottest breast feeding pillows are My Brest Friend and The Boppy. I was more familiar with The Boppy but a friend of mine recommended My Brest Friend so I did some research. We wound up opting for My Brest Friend and I was super glad I did. It straps around the waist (The Boppy does not) so if I ever had to get up and move while feeding, the pillow easily came with me. It’s also firmer and flatter which is more beneficial for supporting baby while they’re feeding. I borrowed The Boppy later when trying to prop Mila up for tummy time and The Boppy is great for that! But I tried using it for breast feeding and just didn’t find that it had the same support.
Sound Machine
The next game changer item was a sound machine. After reading The Happiest Baby on the Block and getting an understanding of how baby sleep works, I knew a sound machine was a necessary item. Just like shushing a baby, the sound machine reminds the baby of the sounds it heard while in the womb. The sound is comforting and allows them to fall asleep more easily and stay alseep. And long-term, the sound machine is a huge win when it comes to drowning out background noise when the rest of the house is noisy but baby is sleeping. The most prominent sound machine on the market is The Hatch and The Hatch Rest Plus. This sound machine plays a variety of different white noise sounds (e.g. rain, TV static, tumble dryer) and also allows you to set various colors and at any level of brightness. The only difference between them is that The Hatch Rest Plus has a battery backup so even if it’s unplugged (or the power goes out) the machine will continue to run. With only a $20 or so difference I would absolutely recommend going with The Hatch Rest Plus. We have had our power go out and the fact that it continued to play the white noise meant Mila stayed asleep and we could all continue a restful night. We’ve also brought it with us in the car on a long drive to ensure she took a good nap while driving. The other great part is that is connects to an app on your phone! Using the app you can pre-program settings with various light and sound settings that can be set for sleep time, night feedings, and even help as they grow older to indicate whether it’s wake up time or if it’s still bed time. We also loved being able to adjust the volume of the white noise when we would go to bed during the first 3 months. With Mila sleeping in our room, we’d often put her to bed with the volume set quite high but it was too much for us when we went to sleep a few hours later so we’d simply pickup our phones and slowly turn the volume down a bit so we could withstand the noise. Mila is now 22 months and still uses the sound machine nightly. The Hatch Rest Plus was by far one of our greatest registry items!
Nanit now makes a comparable sound machine, which can provide cost savings when bundled with your Nanit Pro Camera and other accessories! The Nanit Sound + Light Machine offers the same great features like varying sounds, app connected, colors and dimming capabilities, and programmable settings.
Changing Pad
The next important item was the baby changing pad. Get ready for changing thousands of diapers! I had done a reasonable amount of research on changing pads and found that a wipe clean pad seemed to far outweigh the softer mattress style changing pads with covers. I debated between the Keekaroo Peanut Changer and the Hatch Baby Grow Smart Changing Pad and Scale. Both are super easy to wipe clean, which was the primary thing I was looking for. Since the price point is just about the same, I was focused more on the features and what seemed best for me. Part of me was concerned that the Hatch Baby Grow Smart Changing Pad and Scale was at that price point because they had only focused their efforts on the scale part of the product but not the rest of the quality. After much reading and looking over reviews, we opted for the Keekaroo Peanut Changer. We love it and are still using it today (but now on the floor rather than the dresser top). When it’s cool, we lay a swaddle over the changing pad so it’s not too cold on Mila’s skin but then you can easily toss the swaddle into the laundry if it gets dirty. Otherwise, the entire pad can be super easily wiped clean as needed (which certainly happens a fair amount when they’re newborns and infants).
Infant Lounger
The last essential item for us was an infant lounger. As newborns and infants, your baby is almost always by your side and frequently drifting off to sleep. It’s not reasonable to think that you’ll be putting your newborn down in their bassinet every single time they sleep. Having a safe and comfortable place for them to sleep while you go about your day to day business in the house is essential. The two most popular infant loungers are the Snuggle Me Organic and Dock a Tot. We used the Snuggle Me Organic because my sister in law actually let us borrow it. We loved it and it worked great! Both Snuggle Me Organic and Dock a Tot. offer lots of great covers to match your style so even when you have it laying around your house, it doesn’t become an eye sore. The Snuggle Me Organic Covers are mostly solid colors while the Dock a Tot covers features a variety of patterns.
There are MANY available products in each of these categories to shop from, but this was just a list of my personal favorites. I will be writing additional articles containing lots of alternatives within each category to help you on your baby registry and shopping adventures.
I wish you the best in your new parenting journey!
Quick reference list of my personal favorites:
Find out why I also LOVE the award winning Nanit baby monitor so much!
Set your little newborn up with a solid sleep foundation from the get-go!
