Newborn Favorites
I thought it would be fun to compile a list of my favorite newborn things this time around. It’s funny how what you like changes with time. I definitely feel myself leaning more and more towards minimalism with kid and baby gear. It can just get out of control. When I was pregnant with Lottie there were so many things I thought we needed to have in order to be good parents and take care of our baby properly. After having a baby, I would definitely go back and tell my inexperienced self to not buy so much and wait and see if I ended up needing or wanting it. We are told we need so many thing by advertisers and it’s just hard to decipher what’s really important. I’ve definitely paired down my list from the first time around. Although this is not a complete list of everything one needs for a new baby, it is a list of my most used items.
Rock-n-play: I purchased a second hand rocknplay when I had Lottie but I didn’t end up using it much and decided to sell it thinking I just didn’t like it. However, this time around I was really wishing I had one. Clara was and still is a spitter and laying her flat down was a sure way of having a lot of that good mama milk come right back up. Amazon was having a sale on one and so we just went ahead and purchased it. Clara slept in it a lot in the beginning. I made sure to let her sleep in the bassinet as well, because I’ve heard other mama’s woes about not being able to transition their babies to sleeping flat after sleeping in the rocknplay for so long.
Rocking Chair: I received this rocking arm chair from my granny when she was downsizing several years back. It was a faded blue color and not very attractive looking. We had it reupholstered 3 years ago after we had Lottie. I’m so glad we did because this is seriously my favorite chair ever. It’s so comfortable. I’ve fallen asleep in this chair more times than I can count. It’s perfect for nursing and snuggling. This is probably my single most favorite piece of furniture we own.
Lot’s of comfy squishy pillows: I liked having lots of squishy pillows (think feather pillows) to tuck wherever I needed extra support while nursing in the early days. I haven’t really liked my Boppy nursing pillow much. I found it just didn’t fit close enough to my body to offer good support. Nice squishy feather pillows are what I like best.
Wrap: I really like my solly baby wrap. It’s super light and Clara just fit in there like a snug little bean. And it’s easier on my back than some of the others I’ve tried. I’d love to try a ring sling sometime too because the wrap can be a bit cumbersome to tie especially in the grocery store parking lot.
Breast pump: I have an electric breast pump but I didn’t use it much for Lottie and have only used it once so far with Clara. I had heard a lot of other mamas say they liked this silicone breast pump and decided to give it a try. This thing is amazing! It’s really easy to use and clean. I’ve frozen a lot of breastmilk just using this during nursing sessions.
Sleepers: With Lottie I loved getting her in a cute outfit everyday. But this time around I found myself leaving Clara in her sleepers a lot more. Finally, I realized she just seemed more comfortable in them and I liked how easy they were. Plus, I think they are pretty cute too. There is something extremely convenient about sleepers with zippers, however I’ve found that they bunch up a lot and I prefer the snap ones. I like my babies to seem comfortable and the zipper sleepers just seem to bunch up around their faces a lot. I also like ones with the footies. Baby socks are the bane of my existence. I have yet to find ones that stay on. If any of you mamas have any proven winners please let me know.
Kimono Tees: I like how easy these were for skin to skin in the first couple of weeks. And since my babies spent most of their time swaddled the first several weeks, I wasn’t worried about them being chilly.
Swaddles: These muslin swaddles are my favorite. They are light and easy to use. I also like these velcro and pod ones too. My babies seemed to really like being swaddled and sleep much better when they are!
Sound machine: Clara wouldn’t take a paci no matter what we tried but swaddling her and the sound machine would take her from full on crying to sleep in 5-10 seconds! It was such a life saver!
Burp clothes: Unfortunately Clara was a spitter… Oh the laundry! We were rarely without a burp cloth for the first 3 months. Notice the burp cloth in the picture below. Thankfully, she has mostly grown out of that now. I liked to use prefold diapers to catch the gerb. I find them to be pretty absorbent. When I was pregnant with Lottie, I sewed some fabric onto the prefolds to make them cute but I found I don’t like the fabric side because it doesn’t absorb well. Although they were cute, they just weren’t practical.
Well, there you go, my favorites this time around. It will be interesting to see how they change when we have another baby in the future, God willing.
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