Most Used Baby Items

With Baby #2 on the horizon, I thought I would share our most used baby items with Theo. We only registered for THREE of these, and all others we quickly found out were essential, and bought shortly after he was born. If you’re looking for a minimal registry, these would be the 10 things I used nearly daily (with a bonus 11th item added at the end.) The only other essentials I would say are necessary early on, are a car seat, diapers, and wipes. Oh and a few outfits help too!

1. Baby Shusher– I’ll start out by saying that I saw this advertised everywhere before Theo was born and though it was the stupidest thing. It literally just makes a constant “shhh”-ing sound and I thought it was ridiculous you couldn’t just do that until the baby fell asleep. WELL. Theo showed us. Sometimes it can take hours for them to fall asleep and after Drew and I were losing our voices I caved and bought it. We also saw it in action during our newborn photo shoot. Our photographer kept it on the entire time and Theo slept, unbothered, while she manipulated him in all these crazy ways to get cute photos. I literally added it to my Amazon cart mid session.
2. Weighted Swaddle– Okay few words of advice. The pretty muslin swaddles that you will undoubtedly received 12 of at your baby shower, are just that…pretty. They are useless to swaddle with. I used them for a nursing cover here and there or just a lightweight blanket turned burp cloth most days. You need a good swaddle with stretch to tightly get them snug enough for good sleep. This was our favorite, and the added light weighted beans mimicked our hand on his chest and really made a difference. If you’re too nervous to use a weighted one, this is a good alternative.
3. Bouncer– By far our number one used baby item. It’s the simplest design, but sent directly from the heavens above. Had we discovered it 6 weeks earlier I probably wouldn’t need a chiropractor right now. We used it mostly in the beginning during times when he was inconsolable, the light bounce would calm him down enough to fall asleep. Then when he got bigger, we attached a toy bar to it and he’d hang out in there while I showered or ate. I love that it comes in a mesh fabric option, so when he did fall asleep in there it just gave me some peace of mind (even though he was never unsupervised). It’s pricey for what it looks like, but he used it well over a year, and we have it stored to use again for this baby.
4. Baby Lounger– Again I didn’t understand the hype with this. It seemed like a really expensive pillow that I just couldn’t get behind. Then I caved and got one because sleep deprivation is real, and now see why it has a cult following. It’s extremely portable and was something we took with us on every trip to keep Theo’s sleep routine the same.
5. Sound Machine– White noise will become music to your ears. We use it at every nap and bedtime and even bought this portable one for travel and car rides. Babies come from a very noisy womb, so silence isn’t the best sleep environment. It also helps drown out our neighbor mowing his lawn for the third time this week.
6. Nursing/Feeding Pillow– This is actually one of the things I recommend bringing to the hospital with you. It helps position baby properly to latch while breast feeding, and can help position them later on if you bottle feed too. I also highly recommend for any c-section mama’s because it creates the perfect barrier between your incision and flailing baby legs. This shop makes cute covers too.
7. Monitor– You don’t know anxiety until you’re back at home with your newborn night one. Are they breathing? Guess I’ll just check 134862523 times a night, just to be sure. At 4am I placed an order at best buy to pick up this breathing monitor in store first thing in the morning. It’s more affordable than the popular foot monitor, and it still connects to your phone via an app.
8. Wrap– Life saver during the witching hour. And while you’re trying to cook dinner. And when they start teething. And when you need to use the bathroom. (Yes, you will take them with you.)
9. Bath– This bath works great because it can be placed pretty much anywhere. We used ours in our sink for a while and then eventually moved it to the bathtub. But the shape is what we love. It contours their body perfectly so you can get all those lints out of their neck rolls. It happens.
10. Burp Cloths– Technically anything can (and will) become a burp cloth. But these are by far the best. They’re super absorbable so you don’t need a clean one after each spit up. They are also a lot wider than most, so if you do lay them over your shoulder you get more coverage. Bonus points is that they come in adorable prints with matching bandana bibs.
11. Hand Sanitizer– Okay here’s the bonus. Sounds ridiculous to register for, but you’ll want all the sanitizer on hand. (no pun intended), We kept one upstairs on his changing table, and one downstairs in plain sight- hint hint visitors.