Oh, also get fitted for a good nursing bra! I forgot that and you’ll want your boobs to be comfy. 
QFT.
That said, they’ll give you some of the shelf-stable kind at the hosp if you ask them, so it’s not a must-have on Day 1.
The redoubtable Mrs. Cliffy pumped for both our kids. They both had difficulty latching on and that way they still got breast milk, which is the best food for them. (Although getting it straight from the tap is better than pumped because the milk changes over the course of the feeding, and if you pump it’s all mixed up at once. It’s not a huge loss, and formula is perfectly good if you can’t get breastfeeding, or lactation generally, to work.)
Lots of good suggestions in the thread, but outside of some clothes, the only three things you absolutely, absolutely need before you go to the hospital are:
A car seat
A safe place for baby to sleep, and
A pediatrician.
You’ll get some diapers, some formula, and maybe a couple blankets at the hospital. It’s best to have all the other stuff you’ll need ahead of time, but if you can’t get it done, it’s not gonna kill the kid to go hungry or wet for an hour, no matter how loud they protest. (Which can be unbelieveable. There’s nothing louder than the sound of your own baby crying.)
I don’t mean to suggest you should be casual about it. But in my experience – both as an observer and a parent – new parents are in constant fear that they’re gonna break the kid if they don’t do every tiny thing right. You’re not. Babies aren’t actually that delicate. Don’t freak.
Also, don’t wash a pair of dry clean only pants in the washing machine, no matter how much puke is on them.
–Cliffy
Another thing to find…
Someone with a baby about three months older than yours - preferrably, but not necessarily, of the same gender. And someone expecting three months after you.
For about eighteen months - and to some extent continuing through high school - your kid will outgrow everything from clothes to bouncy seats to (later) bicycles, wagons, roller skates…a source to get hand me downs (and someone to pass the stuff down to) will pay for semesters worth of books when Junior hits college.
New parents often really value new things, but trust me, a second hand stroller you can use - you can’t get second hand piano lessons or pay second hand fees for baseball.
(If you are independently wealthy, and grandma has the college tuition set aside already, this does not apply)
My experience for a total of 2 kids, 2 1/2 and 5 months:
I breastfed both, but it was not an easy process and fairly painful for the first 6 weeks or so. My lactation consultant (a midwife at my OB’s practice) recommended Avent’s nipple shields which were a lifesafer for #1, although I ended up not needing them for #2. Make use of any midwives/nurses in the hospital who can check your positioning and latch. Regardless of how much you study Dr Jack Newman and KellyMom’s excellent websites, nothing compares to someone who knows what they are doing being in the room. Lanisoh was also great for the sore nips, and cabbage leaves in the fridge when your milk comes in (about 3-5 days after birth).
Consider a breast pump - helps get them used to taking a bottle should you ever need to be out, and can help with engorgement if someone ends up sleeping longer than you expect. I never worried about having formula in the house, and have never used it, but I didn’t have problems with supply, so I think this is a personal choice and up to you. Remember that the best way to keep your milk supply up is to feed; it’s meant to act as a pre-order for the next day’s supply.
Avent and Nuk dummies are meant to be good - #1 liked her Avent and #2 refused them completely, so don’t get stressed if the baby doesn’t take it, although it’s meant to reduce SIDS risk if they do. I boiled anything to sterilise, never worried about buying anything to do this.
Sling was great, and I used this within the first 3-5 days or so - I made a Mai Tai style which kept the baby in a froggie position with their head up, there have been cases of babies suffocating in the more cross-body sling styles as their breathing is affected when their chin is tucked into their chest.
I used a really good iphone app (TotalBaby) to help keep track of feeds and sleeps - plus get yourself a contraction timer one too, very helpful to keep track of frequency and duration.
I cloth nappied, so can’t really suggest anything there.
Clothing - look for some long nightgowns (cotton or merino wool if you can find them), which make night nappy changes a snap - no worrying about zips or snaps at all.
Swaddles? Really suggest these, helpful for teaching the baby to self settle (recommend starting this around 6 weeks, no rocking, putting down to sleep while awake etc) - the biggest you can find to help wrap them tightly (120mm square). Muslin for summer, and I had a wonderful merino wrap from Merino Kids which was great in the cooler weather. Once they hit 3 months or so, wean them off swaddling into a sleeping bag.
I’m sure you know this, but nothing in the cot - no pillows, duvets, blankets, bumpers, sleep positioners etc.
A Cuski or similar sleep comforter (Cuski is safe from birth) - my 5 month old is devoted to hers, and it really serves to send her straight off to sleep. It’s my #1 gift for newborns.
TOYS. You don’t need a lot, but you need a few. From 6 weeks to 4 months, I spent a LOT of time waving toys in the baby’s face. I really recommend a pack of the plastic rings. They are super light, and they can grab them and swing them around very early. In the same vein, my baby liked his mobile more than his swing. He’d stare at it an embarrassingly long time. A couple very light rattles are also nice, as is a small mirror. He won’t be ready for them for 2-3 months, but you want to have these things already so that when he is ready, they are there. You might not think of it otherwise.
I second the breast pump, if at all possible. If you can pump enough so that someone else can give one of the night feedings, it will make a huge difference in your quality of life.
Related to that:
EARPLUGS. I could never sleep with the baby in the room. Every little noise woke me up. Putting in earplugs and sleeping in a different room for 5 hours a night (while Papa was in charge of the baby) literally saved my sanity. I truly believe I would have spiralled into a horrible depression if I had continued sleeping only in little cat naps. I was in really bad shape.
Take the sleep deprivation thing seriously. Everyone jokes about it after the fact, but it’s not funny when it’s happening. It’s dangerous and debillitatiing and you and your husband need to be monitoring each other’s sleep and making sure you are both getting enough.
Little things I was really glad to have:
Lots of laundry baskets. I didn’t hang any of my own clothes back up until the baby was seven months old.
Some cute onsies in newborn sizes. Yes, they don’t stay that small for long, but they can’t very well go naked for 3 weeks until they are big enough for the next size up. And by the time the umbilical cord fell off, we were really sick of white t-shirts and got a huge kick out of dressing him in color.
A floor blanket. The otherwise useless quilt that comes with bedding sets works here. Most baby blankets are these fluffy things that don’t lay flat. What you want is a small-ish quilt type thing you can lay on the floor to lie the baby on and make goo-goo noises and funny faces at. The plain carpet seems rough and dirty for a newborn, and can’t be thrown in the wash. A good floor blanket is heavy enough to offer protection but small enough to be washed.
A bed in the nursery. We left the bed in what had been the guest bedroom. We use it as a changing table by day, and for a long time we slept in it at night. It was much easier to move us out of the baby’s room than the baby out of our room (our bed held the clean laundry baskets). The plan is that when he’s ready for a big bed, we will just move him to it ,and in the meantime we even still have a guest bed.
Pillows. I found a nursing pillow useless–too elaborate. I really preferred to just adjust bed pillows into the configuration I liked. I ended up with a pile of pillows around the couch and another in the nursery.
I am still nursing my six month old, but since she has already begun solids, she doesn’t need to nurse all that much. However, thiswas one of the best baby shower gifts I received and I still use it.
Rocking chairs are awesome…so I suggest investing in a good one.
This stool: http://www.amazon.com/Medela-61082-Nursing-Stool/dp/B000056JIH was also very helpful and I still continue to use it. It helps my posture while breastfeeding.
I also got pretty chapped and bruised in the beginning, so like someone said, please get a good nipple balm. I used this. And the lactation consultant also suggested thiswhen I was hurting and it was also very helpful while I was healing. But make sure you get the right size for your nipples. Also, these are only suggestions based on my experiences, so you might find use for these things. 
Breastfeeding eventually became a breeze for me.
Oh…and some good cotton blankets for swaddling. We slowly moved on to this.
And lastly, get some sleep…NOW! 
Sleep was difficult for me during the last few weeks, but still…get as much as you can. Happy rest of the pregnancy and hope you have a wonderful birthing experience. Best wishes and good luck.
Hats off to Mrs. Cliffy. I pumped exclusively for 15 months so I know it’s not easy.
Reading about poopsplosions reminded me not of something you need to buy but an invaluable tip I learned. So, your baby has had a poopsplosion and now you need to get the crap-splattered onesie off and want to do so without smearing poop on the baby’s torso, arms, hair, and face. Roll up the bottom of the onesie until there is no poop showing, then slip it over his or her head. It’s so simple but I never would have thought of it on my own.
We’ve both spent most of our lives living in places that don’t have dark skies. We don’t have a telescope, and don’t have plans to get one, mostly because the weather in Pittsburgh is so cloudy so often. Mr. Neville does his real observing at telescopes in Hawaii and Arizona, where there are operators who run them. They’re way too smart to let an astronomer work a multimillion dollar telescope. Especially in Hawaii, where the telescope is at 13600 feet altitude. You don’t think so well at that altitude if you’re not used to it.
Yes, I know that. Just a mattress, a fitted sheet, and the baby. I know I’m not supposed to bring the baby into our bed and let her sleep on pillows, probably on her stomach, like my parents did with me when I wouldn’t sleep in my crib. I guess I’m living proof that babies aren’t really all that fragile. That said, I don’t plan to let our baby sleep on pillows or on her stomach (at least not until she’s ready for those things).
Dry-clean-only clothes are strictly for job interviews and occasions like that in our household. If I wear dry-clean-only clothes, I change out of them at the first possible opportunity. I don’t plan to wear any for about the next year. When I do, I have a dry cleaner I’ve had get cat pee out of stuff (infected bloody cat pee, on one occasion). I’m hoping our baby’s outputs are generally not too much worse than bloody cat pee.
I have heard of using a cloth diaper for this. Which is better, in terms of washability and being able to get any yuckiness out of it?
Do Target or Costco sell cloth diapers and receiving blankets? Or is there a specialty store or somewhere online you go to get those? I know Costco and supermarkets have disposable diapers.
Sorry to hear that, its rough.
I was there too, and had PPD. And YEARS later my friends found out because somehow, wrapped up in my own little sleep deprived and depressed world, no one knew - and my friends were aghast that they hadn’t been there for me. People were giving us space to bond - well, except for my mother who was helpful and my mother in law who if I reflect on that time I’d still like to hit over the head with a shovel and bury in the backyard. So yes, sleep - even if that means Daddy gives one bottle of formula a night and risks nipple confusion. And friends. Friends to stop over with treats or take you and the baby out for lunch (or just you). A husband who is watching out for you who will call in these troops when you are too tired and too blue to recognize it needs to be done.
(My grandmother died of what was likely PPD, its a very serious thing and should be taken seriously).
I have depression, and I will be on the lookout for PPD. I see a psychiatrist who specializes in PPD and also has experience treating depression during pregnancy (I started seeing her because she was willing to treat depression during pregnancy).
I don’t think my husband had any idea how little sleep I was getting because I made sure he got eight hours out of each 24 and part of the irrationality was a drive to not break down. It wasn’t until I had an absolute meltdown that he insisted I put in the earplugs and sleep in the other room.
Really, it wasn’t that bad for me, but it easily could have been if things hadn’t worked out just right. I feel like we had a close call.
Good. My point is that, in my humble, non-medical expert opinion, the sleep deprivation is a huge part of it. I don’t know WHY this is never stated, but having been through the newborn phase, it seems transparently obvious to me that they are linked. Sleep deprivation does terrible bio-chemical things to your brain, and it’s cumulative It’s literally a form of torture. It makes you irrational. I’m not saying it’s the only factor, but it’s the one that is easiest to control.
Just before our oldest was born, one of my friends told me the great thing about babies is that we all start off as complete idiots but quickly become experts. 
We were overwhelmed with Beta-chan, do we do this? That? Is it OK to do this or that? There is a Chinese expression, for the first child you read lots of books (on how to take care of the baby). For the second, you just feed them like pigs. It works in Chinese because the words for books and pig are similar. The point is that you are just really a lot less worried the second time around.
Knowing other parents is really good, since you can bounce ideas and questions off in real time.
Well, it depends on your munchkin - Junior barfed so much that the extra fabric from the receiving blanket helped A LOT. You can buy them anywhere - Toys R’ Us, Sears, Target, Drug Stores, etc and they’re cheap and wash beautifully. (Like, $2 for a double pack).
Junior now likes the feeling of the soft flannel and will cuddle with one when he’s falling asleep.
My mother actually made me some awesome 1 meter x 1 meter double thickness ones - they were the shits for swaddling (too thick); however, they were awesome for nursing (double thick = double absorbency). I still use them over the sheet on the bottom of Juniors bed - if he barfs, or leaks his diaper in the night clean up is really quick - much faster than having to strip the whole bed to just whip off the gross blanket. I can whip one up and send it to you if you like - send me a PM if you’re keen. 
Oh, I know from personal experience that sleep deprivation tends to make my depression worse. This is why I’m not planning to even try to go back to work while I’m breast feeding (the psychiatrist says this is a good idea). Mr. Neville and I are fortunately in a good enough place financially that I can wait until the baby is sleeping through the night and not breast feeding to go back to work.
Totally agree - I’m usually quite a reasonable person but the first couple of weeks Junior was around I was a sobbing, hysterical mess (Mr. Wonderland was horrified).
Get as much help as you possibly can - I didn’t actually get help from anyone (due to a wide variety of unfortunate circumstances) and while I did manage to make it through, I wouldn’t recommend it to anyone.
Any of those places will have cloth diapers and receiving blankets. Get a bunch; they’re cheap. With a newborn, you’ll probably want to have the cloth diapers handy during feeding to catch dribbles and maybe spit-up. The receiving blankets are just general handy, plus good for swaddling a new born. (Our youngest hated being in a swaddle sack, but she loved being swaddled up like a football. God damn adorable, too.) But I certainly used them when I didn’t have a cloth diaper handy, too.
Baby puke doesn’t really stain, at least if you get it in the wash within a day or so. That’s true even of the gallons of it that our kids generated.
It’s good that you’re on top of the PPD thing. Do not be afraid to ask for help, and definitely don’t be afraid to make the dad do some bottle feeding. I gave/give my kids about half their milk, and I’d have really missed it if I didn’t get to do that. Nipple confusion is a real thing, and it’s ideal to avoid it, but “ideal” usually goes out the window when a newborn is around – and that’s not something you need to sweat.
Due to decades of being dismissed and ridiculed, the breatfeeding advocates (who have the science firmly on their side) have had to become strident and obnoxiously militant to even get their message heard. So I don’t blame them for it. But because of that, new mothers can get the idea in their heads that if they don’t nurse exclusively, their kid’s going to end up manning the bellpull at a French cathedral. Bullshit.
–Cliffy
Two things we found usefull for Vorlon Jr.—the brain sucker, as we knew it, to unstuff the nose, and WalMart’s generic of Mylacon, for when gas reared it’s ugly head.
Check the second hand shops for a lot of the kid stuff, they grow SO fast that the first few years stuff never wears out.
Make sure you have a good camera, and KNOW HOW TO USE IT. The nice thing about digital is it cost next to nothing to take shots. Take them, you can always embarass your offspring later in their teenaged years!
Just popped in to add baby monitor. Invaluable when your baby gets a little older and isn’t by your side every moment. Try ebay or rummage sales for this item as well.
Even better, and few people realize this, but most onesies that have the fabric overlap at the shoulders can come off down the babies body so the poop end never even needs come over the head.
Note: if poopsplosion happens out the legs, even money it’s up the back too. Don’t forget to check there. ^_~
Poopsplosions are most likely to happen two minutes after you put on that extra cute, brand new outfit you wanted to have your baby seen in at the party you’re late for.
Thought of something else: buy cheap (baby) pants and expensive (baby) socks. You don’t have to bundle a newborn in 32 layers, no matter what your mother says, but I did find just a onesie to seem kind of chilly in an air-conditioned house.
Wal-mart sells soft jersey pants for next to nothing: buy a bunch in neutral colors. Pants are really size-flexible, as well: you can use the same pair from too long to just right to too short and then skip ahead 2 sizes and repeat the process. I was given dozens of onesies and maybe 3 pairs of pants.
But where you can go really cheap on pants, don’t bother going cheap on socks. The cheap ones just won’t stay on. Gymboree makes good socks. Zotano makes good socks. Robeez socks were the best that I found. Cheap socks get lost within minutes. Good socks stay on, and then make it to the hamper, and have a good chance of making it back in the dresser.