Pretty sure you mean what we refer to as onesies, right? The only people who wear singlets in the U.S. are wrestlers, as far as I know. Also, vests are generally outerwear items, like what Rick Santorum wears on the campaign trail. I love all these language differences! “Singlet” sounds really funny to me as applied to an infant’s wardrobe!
As for the OP, we didn’t get much use out of our bibs until they started eating solids. We used them for meal times, not for drool.
I think there *is *a bare minimum that one should learn before the baby comes, but it’s really, really basic stuff that’s not hard to remember.
The very hardest one is, don’t shake your baby. This is NOT one of those “do what works for you and the baby” things, because babies will laugh and giggle and really, really like it if you toss them around and shake them. But you can kill them, giggling all the while. Don’t shake the baby.
Unless your doctor says otherwise, put the baby on her back to sleep, and don’t put toys or blankets or crib bumpers or cloth books or stuffed animals or real animals or anything else in there. Babies don’t have the same sense of oxygen deprivation we do while they’re asleep, and they may not wake up to change position if something smothers them. SIDS has gone down over 80% since we started telling parents to put babies on their back to sleep and stopped putting Stuff in the crib.
Don’t use a microwave to heat bottles. They heat unevenly, and the baby can be sucking just fine and then get a blast of really hot milk that burns her throat. Fill a pan 2/3 full of hot water from the tap, and put the bottle in it. Then go change the baby’s diaper or sing her a song or whatever. 5 minutes later, the milk will be as warm as it needs to be. Give it a good shake and sprinkle a drop or two of milk on your inner wrist. You shouldn’t feel it at all; that means it’s not too hot. Totally old school method, but still the best one, IMHO. It’s what we still use in the NICU at the hospital!
Don’t leave your baby on top of anything and turn away. Not even for 2 seconds. Not even to answer the phone. This will be the time she learns how to roll, and takes a header off the bed/changing table/counter/etc. You’ll get very good at remembering what you need to have with you so you don’t have to leave. If you do forget something, take the baby with you to get it.
Don’t leave the baby alone with pets. I know, it’s a great dog and has never hurt anyone. Any animal that ever hurt a baby had a first time. It’s just not fair to the baby or the animal or you to allow a situation to happen.
Other than that, there’s not a lot of rules. Do what works, and enjoy your wee one!
Do the nappy wallets work with cloth diapers, too? I suppose I should buy some disposable ones for going out and use the cloth ones just around the house.
I’ve read about half of the Happiest Baby book and it’s really giving me a more realistic idea of what the first 3 months will be like. Lots of swaddling and jiggling and breastfeeding. Ok, cool. I just hope that the breastfeeding helps me lose weight- I gained 3 pounds since my last midwife appointment 6 days ago, making my total weight gain 40 pounds. And I’ve been tracking my eating the whole time. My goal was 25 pounds- hah! I know, the true goal is to have a healthy baby and everything, but I haven’t been overeating and I’ve been walking for an hour 4 times a week. None of the calories in/out logic applies to being pregnant, I guess.
Whynot, wrt to the pets, oh I’m a terrible person but I was really hoping my 18 year old cat would have peacefully gone to his kitty reward at this point. But he’s a tenacious little beastie who’s going to live forever and I have no idea what to expect from him with the baby. He and my MIL are neck and neck as my biggest stress sources. (I told my mother in law about my Braxton Hicks contractions and she told everyone I was going into preterm labor.)
You’re not a terrible person*. He’ll probably want to give her a thorough sniff-over, which is totally fine while you’re sitting there watching. If he starts going, “grrrrrrr…” or looking aggressive, then you just pick up the baby and stand up and he’s left at your feet feeling abandoned. He’ll get over it. After the initial introduction, most cats ignore most babies, hoping that if they ignore it hard enough, it will go away.
*Now, if you were to give your tenacious beastie of a cat to your mother-in-law, you might be a terrible person! Unless she likes cats. Then you may have solved two problems in one! 
Yes, not a terrible person at all. Our 12-year-old cat has been awesome with our kid (now 1 1/2), but some of my previous cats would certainly not have been so patient with his full-contact style of love. We had to put one cranky old bastard to sleep while I was pregnant, and although I was devastated, in retrospect, I’m relieved he didn’t have to deal with the huggy little monkey in his twilight years. I think the most important thing is, as Whynot says, that you don’t leave them alone together. Unless you have a seriously aggressive cat, I think the risk is more that the baby will grab the cat, than that the cat will attack the baby unprovoked, but even a docile cat who feels threatened or trapped can be dangerous. So do make sure kitty has places to escape to (tall cat trees, etc.), especially once the baby starts rolling. And definitely don’t let them sleep together. The cat is a smothering hazard for the baby, not because it ‘steals its breath’, but because it wants to cuddle with this warm, soft, little creature, especially its sweetly milk-smelling little face. But while I’ve known of a few people who had to get rid of an aggressive and/or territorial dog when they had a baby, I’ve haven’t heard of folks having problems with cats. So here’s hoping it goes okay!
I cloth nappy our kids, and most nappy wallets will work OK - but depends on whether you are using cloth wipes too (generally these are too big). For quick trips I chuck a couple of nappies in a handbag, a wet bag (these are cute) for dirty ones, and a pencilcase sized bag containing a couple of cloth wipes, a bottle of spray (although won’t need this if you have access to water), a small tin of Badger baby balm and hand san.
Couple of other hints - if you are cloth nappying, remember to look at the contents of nappy creams, as anything with zinc oxide won’t wash off your nappies and will cause leaks. We use the aforementioned balm, or papaya/pawpaw ointment both of which work well.
And if you have a cat, I’d really recommend a mesh tent for your cot/bassinette, not that cats intentionally seek out kids to sit on (my 4 generally steer clear of the baby), but when something’s warm and milky smelling it could be a little too attractive. Peace of mind, plus it looks cute and doubles as an insect guard for warm weather.
(Sorry for all the Australian links, but figure once you know what you’re looking for you might be able to find US suppliers).
I wouldn’t necessarily sweat the diaper bag issue at this point; I really think it’s one of those things you may or may not need and you can’t know ahead of time… unless you’re taking the baby on all-day outings, of course
My baby has never had a blowout or a leak on quick trips. I change her before we go and we’re always back before she needs a new diaper. When she was in the newborn blow-out stage, she was particularly sweet about having the blowout just as I had her buckled into her pumpkin carrier and was about to head out the door.
There is a stage at the beginning when taking the baby out seems terrifying because STUFF could HAPPEN and the baby could MAKE NOISE and then SOMETHING BAD would happen!!! And then you realize everything is manageable and you chillax. And then the kid turns into a toddler.
Dammit, just when I start thinking I speak fluent American, something like this comes along. Yes, what you call onesies is at least similar to what I call singletsuits. I’ve been thinking your onesies are these or these (the latter is made out of a toweling-like material and is what my kids lived in at home until they didn’t come in their sizes anymore). Underneath, they were always wearing a singletsuit/onesie or a singlet.
But I stand by my original point!
I hesitate to disagree with you because you’re always right about everything, but what you’ve written contrasts with what I’ve been taught by my doctor and health nurse: it takes an act of violence to cause Shaken Baby Syndrome, you will not cause it though rough play.
The National Centre on Shaken Baby Syndrome in their FAQ has a section on rough play that says:
This is my understanding too, and in the book I’m reading it says to jiggle the baby so the head bobs ever so slightly to emulate womb conditions. The head is supposed to stay in line with the body and the movements are fast and tiny. The book makes it seem like it’s not something you could do accidentally, saying that Shaken Baby Syndrome is cause by something that any onlooker would recognize as a harmful way to handle a baby.
My husband likes to rock my baby bump side to side while I yell “Never shake a baby!”
Girl From Mars thanks for the ups on the diaper oinment. I have two tubes, Butt Paste and Weleda, and they both have zinc oxide! I never would have known! I love Badger stuff so I’ll get some of that.
Wow. We’d call that a tank top (or “wife beater” if dirty and formerly white) and I’ve never seen them for infants before. Preschoolers yes, newborns no.
Not at all. I am quite happy to find that particular piece of scary advice can be stricken from my spiel. Thanks for letting me know. 
FWIW, my 23 yo cat was wonderful when Junior was a newborn - I think Schatzi thought Junior was HIS baby. However, every cat is different so I would just watch carefully and don’t leave them alone until baby is old enough to defend themselves.
