Hi Mommas & MTB,
I can’t believe how quickly Evelyn is growing! These past few weekends i’ve been cleaning out her closet, packing up her 0-3 & 0-6mo clothing to make room for her new 6-12mo pieces, packing up and giving away or donating what used to be her essential baby items that she’d now grown out of!
As more and more of my friends get pregnant, and start asking what they need, I realized that in all my research there are some must have items that we relied on a daily basis that no one told us about!! So today, I wanted to share our Top 10 Must Haves that we used on a daily basis that made our lives soooo much easier….
- A Noise Machine – Everyone tells you to get this for the baby but newborns can actually sleep through almost anything. It was actually Tim & I who needed this thing! Whenever family would watch the baby so we could sneak a nap in, they’d be in the living room talking or helping wash dishes but we could hear it all from the bedroom and it was so hard to sleep! The noise machine was clutch so WE could get a good nap in!!
- Gripe Water – This was a game changer. We didn’t find out about this until she was 4 months. I wish we’d known about this magical water from day 1! I talked about this in another post but we were using gas drops which is to help babies burp. Evelyn had a ton of gas as a little one and she actually needed the gripe water. Within seconds of giving it to her she would peacefully fall asleep. It’s now a part of our daily nighttime routine. The fact that we didn’t know this existed for the first 4 months of her life haunts me. Does that sound dramatic? Not when you haven’t slept more than 3 hours at a time in 120 days…
- Overnight Diapers – This is another game changer that took us wayyy too long to discover! Evelyn hates the feeling of a wet diaper which made sleeping long stretches through the night impossible. We finally tried these when she was 5 months and now she’ll sleep 7:30pm – 3am!!
- Pampers Swaddlers & Costco Wipes – Speaking of diapers, I wanted SO BADLY for Evelyn to be an Honest Company or Parasol diaper wearing baby. But they used Pampers Swaddlers in the hospital and once you know how much easier life is with a wetness indicator strip you just can’t go back. Also, we tried a bunch of different wipe brands and the Kirkland wipes are our favorite – Nice packaging and a really big wipe to get a lot of surface space. (** For her first month, we used Water Wipes). UPDATE: Since I wrote this Pampers came out with their “Pampers Pure” brand which we used and loved. I plan to use this for the next baby.
- Nose Frieda Saline Spray (but not the snot sucker) – The snot sucker is gross, we’ve always used the bulb from the hospital and it works great. I’ve tried a few brands of the saline spray and the Nose Frida seems to have the best “stream” while not totally drowning her in water. We use this almost daily. BONUS: I also love the oogiebear for digging out any stragglers, soooo satisfying.
- Thermometer – So far, Evelyn has actually never had a fever. But as hovering first time parents you better believe we are constantly checking her temperature when there is any type of fussiness.
- Rock n’ Play – So many moms told me this was the only thing they could get their newborn to sleep in. Turned out to be the same for us. She HATED sleeping flat on her back, especially with gas. And the bassinets felt too big to her. She loved being snuggled into the Rock n Play. ** If you want to pay full price for this I guess go for it but this is an item you can definitely find for less on Facebook Marketplace.
- Magnet Pajamas – I know I’ve raved about these before but seriously, I can’t stress enough how amazing magnet closure PJs are for newborns, especially first time parents who are navigating night time diaper changes and exhaustion for the first time! And the fabric is so soft!
- Nursing Liners – You’re going to need these on 24/7 for as long as you’re breastfeeding. My cousin gave me all of her leftover (unused) boxes so this is the only brand i’ve tried but they work great. I’ve also heard great things about the bamboobies. When I run out and have to buy my own, i’d probably get a package of reusable pads as there’s so much plastic waste per pad with the disposable ones.
- Probiotics – You know you’re a new parent when you can’t stop talking about poop. We started Evelyn on probiotics when she was 2 months old to help with her gas and to hopefully get ahead of any constipation issues. She poops daily and we’re so thankful! We had started with Gerber drops and I was having to self express on a spoon… it wasn’t easy to aim… TMI? Anyway, Mommy’s Bliss has a dropper that you can just drop directly in their mouth and it’s made it so much easier!!
I hope these help! Let me know if a post on 0-6 months of “hot items” that weren’t worth the money or hype would be helpful to all you MTBs!!
For a complete list of all our tried and recommend products you can check out my Amazon page: https://www.amazon.com/shop/maria_pelletier
Xo, M