This thread scares me. All that responsibility is hurting my brain.
Good point. Take all the stuff they bring to your room - if you don’t take the snot sucker, they can’t sterilize it and use it for another baby, they’ll just throw it out.
We got craploads of bottles, caps and nipple assemblies from our hospital. I’m still using them to store breastmilk in. They were disposables (but you can wash and reuse them) which were loaded into WhyBaby’s bed each morning. Any still left when she was discharged were going to be thrown out - even if they were still sealed. Ditto soap, snot suckers (I have three and all for free - one for the diaper bag, one for the toiletries drawer and one next to the bed!), pacifiers, at least two diaper bags filled with formula, diaper and diaper wipe samples, mini bottles of baby wash and shampoo and lotion and creme and coupons. Even three insulated bogs with ice packs for transporting bottles or frozen breast milk! Part of me hates that formula manufacturers undermine breastfeeding education by giving out all this free crap with their product and advertising, but the other part says, “meh. Free stuff!”
The samples make great diaper-bag sizes. I leave the sample diapers in their wrappers and tuck one in the pocket of the Maya Wrap, along with the packet of six wipes (also a sample), and don’t have to carry a diaper bag on short outings.
A second (or third?) to the snot sucker. Good thing - babies are indeed incapable of blowing their little nosies.
Blanket sleepers galore if you live in a cool climate, ie anything above the Tropic of Cancer. Babies don’t control body temperature well and need extra help. They’re also magical at being unable to lie under a blanket. the blanket will be over the head with everything else showing, under them, beside them, covering one foot, etc. Every possible place but over the baby’s body.
With onsies & sleepers, get more than you’ll think you’ll need. Going through two or three in a day isn’t all that unusual.
If you’ve got two floors in the house, it’s nice to have a pop-up crib, aka: “the baby box”. Set it up on one floor while the crib is on the other. It’s great to have a place to put the kid while you’re on the other floor. When you leave to visit relatives and show off the bundle of joy, it’s your travel crib, too.
Another requirement would be the book “Babyhood” by Paul Rieser. It’s out of print but availble used from Amazon. It’s not an instructional book like the “Everything you need to know…” series but it’s just a funny book about raising a newborn. The problems you have, you’ll find, though are not unique. (The “Need to know” book is good, too.)
This was loved by all three kids, the bouncer. On my my kids practially lived in this 24-hours a day. It was the only way he would sleep. We placed him in it in his crib at night. I wired it for AC, even, we were going through batteries so fast.
A cheap baby monitor is peace of mind when you’re out of earshot. Fancy video cameras, etc, are overkill, IMO.
You personally will require this… lots of it.
Useless items would be, for me, bassinets. Nice for a month until the kid outgrows it. The crib works fine from the get-go. Activity centers, those circular things that replaced walkers, etc. were only enjoyed by one of my three kids and even then it’s an older kid thing. Useless until the kid can sit up on thier own.
$0.02
-B
Snot suckers can be tough on little noses, though; if you’re adventurous (or desperate), try just doing it yourself & spitting it right out.
Have some Infants Tylenol (store generic brand fine) on hand right away, along with vaseline and a hairbrush (for cradle cap), nasal saline spray, size 1 diapers, a thermometer (anal is best), lots of onesies and blankets, mittens, nail clipper, babywash (I like Aveeno), baby washcloths, diaper cream (Desinex works best, but stinks; Aveeno is good too), a baby bathtub, a sleeping bag or two (if in a cold climate), a humidifier if in a cold climate, and a couple of soft rattles.
Instead of a changing table, you can use changing pads, or just your towels. Having the baby sleep with you is so sweet - as long as you’re not taking any sleeping meds, and are careful about your bedding, it’s a good choice. Dr. Sears The Baby Book has great medical information and advice on co-sleeping and slinging; he can be a bit dictatorial, so take it with a grain.
We didn’t use a Diaper Genie - just emptied the trash every day. For the first months, all your little bugger is likely to do is sleep & scream & eat & scream & sleep. The cribs came in handy once they could roll over.
I bought just about everything at thrift stores, for pennies on the dollar.
Congratulations, and good luck!
A couple of other things for the medicine cabinet: simethicone drops for gas (they just break up the bubble but don’t get digested, so you can use them as often as you want), and an antifungal cream (the ones sold for jock itch and athlete’s foot), which is great for helping clear up diaper rash if it happens.
It’s also the same one used for thrush and yeast infections, so if you’re kid has thrush AND diaper rash, it’s a good bet the diaper rash is due to yeast. So the anti-fungal will work better on this type of rash than zinc oxide. (Desitin)
Here’s another vote for the vibrating bouncy chair; I consider it the best twenty bucks I’ve ever spent. When my daughter was a baby, we called it the “magic chair.”
Maybe this has been mentioned, but you’ll need a diaper bag. This isn’t just for diapers – you’ll be carrying a lot of stuff with you when you leave the house with the baby. It’s not going to fit in mom’s purse, unless it’s a very big purse with not much else in it.
I thought the Diaper Genie was great. I don’t remember how much the refills were, but I don’t remember them being appreciably more expensive than a supply of garbage bags.
You’ll want many, many, many wet wipes. Useful in many ways, for a long time. (Random tip: if you want to travel light for a short trip, a supply of wet wipes and a couple of diapers in a big ziplock bag makes a “commando diaper bag.”).
Seconding the Baby Tylenol (or Motrin) and the saline spray. I used the stuff sold in a white bottle with an orange lid called Ocean Drops. Great for stuffy noses. One quick squirt up each nostril and it dries up the snot. And baby just loves when you do that! :rolleyes:
You can use Neutrogena’s T-Gel shampoo for cradle cap. It’s gentle enough for babies.
Yes, diaper wipes are great for many things. I still keep boxes in the kitchen, bathroom and car, even though my youngest kid is six years old.
Hmmm…I’m probably not the one that should even be piping up, becuase, see…
My ex left me within days of me finding out I was pregnant. I was left with nothing since we weren’t married.
I had only worked a few months before my doctor told me that if I didn’t stop I’d surely kill myself and the baby. I still kept working but the toxemia and pre-existing type 1 diabetes made me cut down to part time because I was too sick and exhausted all the time to do more.
In those days people weren’t so eager to give baby showers to unwed mothers, so I couldn’t count on that to add to my baby essentials stock - I got something from my best friend but it was so usless I don’t even remember what it was.
The only reason I had anything at all (even a roof over my head at that point) was due to the generosity of my financially strained brother and sister-in-law. My sister-in-law’s brother had year-old triplets so I was lucky enough to get quite a few sleepers, t-shirts, socks and onsies of varying sizes. I bought the cheapest breat pump I could find along with a few bottles for freezing and storing the “left overs”. WalMart had the cheapest diapers, and I bought a few cloth and a few disposables. A local charity provided the car seat, and it was NOT the kind that doubled as a carrier. That’s ALL the baby equipment I had when the little guy made his appearance.
We did fine. He slept in a laundry basket at first, then graduated to a dresser drawer (yes, I did pull it out of the dresser when he was in it!) then eventually slept with me. By the time he was seven months old I was back on my feet and had added a real (albeit used - the triplets had graduated to beds!) crib, a dresser, baby wipes, lots and lots of darling little outfits (he was far and away the best-dressed kid in day-care, thanks again to WalMart), a few quality toys, a hip sling, a walker, a cheapie stroller (the kind that looks like an umbrella with wheels when its folded up - do they still make those?) a cheapie little non-carseat seat (couldn’t even be used as a carrier it was so basic and cheap) and a portable washer and dryer, but never did get any of the rest of the stuff. I never had a snot-sucker and don’t recall that I ever needed one - but then my son has had an iron-clad immune system since the day he was born. This may very well be an “essential” for a normal baby.
Just giving another perspective since you were asking for opinions on what was fluff. 
A good stroller choice for us was a Snap 'n Go. Basically, it’s a stroller without a seat - just a steel frame.
You clip the carseat to it, for a travel system tons cheaper and lighter than the full blown stroller and seat combos that are sold.
The system will fit nearly any brand of car seat sold. We had two different brands for our twins, and both clipped onto the double Snap 'n Go just fine.
Not at all, lorinada, we were fine, financially, but one thing I learned from the first is how little stuff you do really need. (BTW, I slept in a drawer for a little while, too. I was adopted and I guess I became “available” at rather short notice for my parents.)
Another great baby thread Stainz …Thanks! 
lavenderlemon, you wouldn’t believe how long I debated getting one of those boppy pillows in Babies R US the other day. I did finally buy it, although I’m not sure why…Glad that it’s not a completely worthless purchase as I will be (trying) to breastfeed!
Ok, now it’s back to taking notes…
(No baby yet, Shana?)
The Boppy is great for *some *mothers for nursing. For those of us who are a little ahem round about the tum, it may not fit comfortably. However, it also makes a great seat or lying-on pillow for baby before they can sit on their own. Our physical therapist encouraged me to sit WhyBaby up in the horseshoe and sort of wrap the Boppy around her to help her stay verticalish. Or, lay her in the horseshoe and put her arms up on the pillow, which helps her strengthen her abs and back muscles during Tummy Time. (Don’t leave baby unattended, YMMV, IANAD, Void where prohibited.)
No, I can promise they aren’t all as good. Thought I’d get by with Kroger brand’s Good Start copy, but I knew right away that something was up. No matter how hard I shook the bottle it still looked dusty and oily at the same time. It was late at night and all we had so I tried it, but she didn’t much care for it, and this child will eat anything. So in my opinion the extra couple bucks a week is worth it. I only use a can a week to supplement anyway.
I was too fat for the boppy to be comfy. Cats loved it though.
My diaper genie was an empty cat litter container with a roll of rose scented 99 cent bags. I haven’t noticed the smell except when had the Great Juice Experiment, but we just stuck those outside in another cat litter container until we made it out to the trash that night.
Ah yes, juice can give some realllly funky diarrhea, just to let ya know ahead of time.
I use Kroger FMV diapers during the day and Huggies supreme at night because the FMVs just don’t carry her through until morning. It’s worth it to me to buy one bag of the good stuff every few months.
My major recommendation is this nifty swing from Fisher-Price called “Aquarium Cradle Swing”. It goes back and forth and side to side, it has a mobile, a light up “fish tank” so the baby has something to look at when s/he is reclining, it has about a dozen speed settings (no hand crank for my baby number two!), and plays either music (very pretty music) or other sounds like waves and rain. I was so lucky to have been given this swing. I was at the end of my rope with Isabella when she hit teething age and rocking her side to side in the swing was like a magic bullet. I’ve found it’s useful right now as her high chair since she doesn’t feed herself with a spoon yet, so it saves a tiny bit of space.
I haven’t read all the posts so sorry if I’m just repeating this, but make sure your stroller handle is a good height if it’s not adjustable. Mine is too short for comfort on long walks so I’m looking for another.
I loved the vibrating bouncy chair too, but it didn’t last long because Issy has powerful legs (she’s walking alone at eight months!) so she’d try to stand up in it and it would then lean over. I don’t know if it was really unsafe but it made me uncomfortable.
We had a vibrating bassinette but it was piled with clothes after the first week when we started co-sleeping.
Now we have a crib that’s used as a giant toy basket.
The bathtub we got was fairly useless since the only time I got to bathe is when she was with me. I got one of those rings thinking AHA! Now I’ll have free arms! Nope, she stands up in it as soon as I sit her down.
However! (note my excitement here!?) I have discovered for myself the Johnny Jump-Up hanging from the bathroom door gives me a great opportunity to have a nice hot bath! I love that thing! Just make sure you have the right kind of door frames. In this apartment there’s only two doors that it works with, and one of them is a closet. The new JJUs have a frame, but it takes up so much space!
Don’t buy anything new if you don’t have to. I get everything from Junior League’s thrift shop. I’m really liking the exersaucer now that it’s the only thing that keeps her in one spot. I got that and the bath ring for eight bucks. I got the crib, sheets and blankets there too. I get most of her clothes either there or Family Dollar (eight sundresses for twenty bucks got her through the summer).
I think that’s about it. Best of luck to ya!
Oooh, I forgot about the gas drops, we used those a lot for a couple of weeks there.
We tried two different Exersaucers (which you won’t need for at least 4 months) and the one they loved is an older Graco version, no longer sold & hard to find. It’s green & orange, and the really neat part is all three legs have shock absorbers built in, so baby can bounce the whole thing! That was the biggest lifesaver! The number of toys on the contraption wasn’t anywhere near as interesting to my twins as being able to bounce.
None of our doorways would support the Johnny Jumper. If I had it to do over, I’d consider buying the one that can sit on the floor, but it’s new & therefore impossible to find cheap.
Swings can be good - my daughter liked it, but my son hated it. They were both kind of meh on the bouncy chair, but those are easy to find at resale shops for cheap.
Harvey Karp’s Happiest Baby on the Block was excellent advice (my Mom couldn’t believe how easily we soothed our newborns), and I loved Vicki Iovine’s Girlfriend’s Guide to the First Year of Motherhood.
I think the main thing you need as a new parent is time. Time to get used to your kid, your new role, your spouse’s, your relatives’. Most of the things that will drive you batty in the first months will resolve on their own, given time. Be patient with yourself as well.
Awww babies. Glad someone besides me is having them.
What I found as essentials were pretty run of the mill. Honestly look at how you function day by day and get what you feel will work best for you. Don’t establish an elaborate system for baby changing if you can’t keep a system for anything else in the house for example.
For us the crib and changing table were the two best things in baby’s room. I am not a good sleeper and having the baby two feet away summoning demons from the astral plane ensured I got no sleep at all. Yes my kids sounded like that as babies. I am sure it is normal but boy is it disturbing. I also needed a place to change the baby and store all the stuff that was sectioned off from the dog and cats and eventually the roaming toddlers. I still use the changing table for my 2 year old. He is also still in his crib. Free range toddlers at 2:00am are dangerous.
When they were really little we had a swing and a vibrating chair. They each did their own special magical soothing thing. There are days when I want a giant humming sling for me too! I got them both as gifts so I didn’t feel bad using them both.
Boppy was a friend. Boppy is the greatest hemmroid pillow out there. Keeps the pressure off without putting the legs to sleep. Boppy kept baby from kicking me in the belly when I was newly home after Csections. Boppy held baby and helped baby sit up and stuff. Boppy has been retired with honor.
We called the snot sucker a snark bubble. Mostly I used it to puff air at the kids and make them giggle.
I have almost never used a high chair. That thing was useless to me.
When the kids were old enough to sit up we put them in the exersaucer. That toy is amazing and keeps a crawling kid in one place long enough to make dinner. That is worth its weight in platinum let me tell you.
Onesies are the universal baby outfit. My kids spend from May until September pretty much naked. Then we move on to onesies or pajamas. I feel for kids who are way overdressed and just look uncomfortable. I’m not sure what we’re raising here at Casa Tanookie but the first thing my kids do when we get home (they are 4 and 2) is take off their shoes and then the rest of their clothes. They live in undies! I know the modesty fairy will be around soon enough so I don’t fret it.
I didn’t make my own baby food. Neither of my kids wanted baby food. We went from formula to food pretty effortlessly. They ate what we ate but in smaller portions and chopped up a little finer. Cheerios really are your friend. Puree was spit out in any flavor. My kids did not want mush. Little imps
I’ve gone through a few diaper bags in the last 5 years. They live hard lives. If you get 3 of them at the shower you may want to keep them.
Our diapers go into a trash bucket in the kid’s room. We empty it on trash day. It has a cover. No one complains. Frankly if it bothers them so much they can take it out.
Cloth diapers. They are wonderful for absorbing spit up, spills, drool, pee, coffee…
Those cute little towels you get - well they don’t fit so well when you make gigantic children. I had a 6 pound preemie. I also didn’t use the little plastic tub much after the first few weeks. The kitchen sink works fine. They now bathe together in the big tub.
The one piece of baby care I didn’t shirk on was a good car seat. My kids slept through the one accident we were in. We were rearended on the highway!
Good luck. In the beginning they generally are crying because they are hungry, wet, uncomfortable, overtired/overstimulated. This is the easy part. I keep telling myself I’m doomed when the teen years come!
Ah WhyNot …I am trying to be patient, but still no baby…grrrr. My doctor thinks I may be late. I’m due the 16th…Keeping my proverbial fingers crossed and all that. I am one cranky so and so though. I’ll be happy when he’s out!
I’m wondering how many of you had your babies sleep in cribs right off the bat or did you put them in bassinets? Did they sleep in your room or the nursery? My two dogs sleep in our room in their dog bed. They snore like locomotives. I’m afraid they’ll wake the baby if the baby sleeps in our room. I can barely sleep myself as it is!
RE: Baby food mill…my babies did baby food for maybe a grand total of six weeks before they wanted to “do it themselves” and we moved to solid (albeit little teeny tiny solids).
In Minnesota with my daughter in winter, the thing that covers the carseat (so baby doesn’t wear a snowsuit) - wonderful!
Borrow what you can. Babies grow so fast that the swing you can’t live without is something you can’t live without for all of three months. We found the exerscaucer to be wonderful, but also relatively short lived - crawlers aren’t interested in sitting still.
Take what lorinda said to heart - you don’t NEED much, and its easy to spend lots of money. Kids are really expensive, and later you may wish you didn’t have a basement full of baby stuff and a little more cash.
WhyKid slept in a dresser drawer next to my bed for three weeks, then in a crib in the room next to mine. WhyBaby sleeps in an Amby motion bed at the foot of our bed, unless we’re camping, when she sleep with us (easier to make sure she’s warm enough that way…plus, I like it!) I’d rather she sleep with me all the time, but WhyDad doesn’t sleep well with her in bed with us, and he needs his sleep to go out and earn those paychecks! So , like everything else, you learn to compromise. (We still get to sleep together for naps, which is wonderful.)
Do whatever works for the whole family, and be prepared to change your ideas at least twice. Be flexible and be creative.
Oh, and my Holy Grail of baby advice? DO NOT let them sleep in a quiet room. Walk in, walk out, hold a conversation above the crib, let the dogs snore, run the vaccuum while they’re napping, etc. Do this from day one, and you’ll have a baby who can sleep anywhere, anytime, through any amount of noise. Remember, it’s not quiet in your womb, 'tween the blood whooshing and the heart pounding and the intestines gurgling. We train our babies to need quiet to sleep. Dont. Do. It.
Why is a baby food mill superior to a blender, out of curiosity?