The first few months with your new baby are incredible. We soaked up every single minute of Sophie’s first three months as a newborn. While pregnant, I did a lot of research on what we needed for a newborn. I thought we had everything we needed once Sophie was home, but I quickly found out we had missed a couple things that we ended up using quite a bit. I wanted to create a list of everything we used while Sophie was a newborn. We hope this is helpful for new, or soon to be parents! 🙂
A quick tip…
If you’re having a baby shower we highly suggest doing a diaper raffle. So far, we have only had to buy some preemie diapers (we weren’t planning on needing this size), and newborn size. At our shower guests also brought a book for Sophie instead of a card. We absolutely loved this idea, and now Sophie has all of those books to read every day.
Our Newborn Essentials:
Bath Essentials:
Bath tub, Washcloths (we have 10 and do baths every other day. This amount works well for now since we do her laundry every other day as well) , Towels (We have 4 baby towels for her, and this is perfect for us since we do a lot of laundry), Soaps, Coconut oil, and a DermaFrida. We use the coconut oil on her head before she is in the bath. The coconut oil prevented cradle cap, and has worked really well for us.
This bath tub has worked great for us. You can use it from newborn to toddler, and includes a net to lay your newborn on for sponge baths. A rinser is a must have as well.
The DermaFrida works great for preventing cradle cap. Using this, along with coconut oil, has kept Sophie’s scalp clean and moisturized. We use this for almost every bath.
Clothes:
Sophie wore newborn clothes for over 2 months (until Christmas), until she was 9 pounds. We had about 8-10 fleece onesies that she wore every day and night since it was during colder months. We also had a handful of outfits for holidays, pants, short sleeved onesies to go under the fleece ones, long sleeved onesies and a couple of zip ups.
Sophie scratched her face a lot, so we used baby mittens. We also used a lot of hats and of course socks.
Blankets:
We used a bunch of flannel receiving blankets to swaddle with. We also used these swaddle wraps that velcro and worked great. We of course have many soft and cozy blankets as well that we used every day. After your little one is 8 weeks it is recommended you stop swaddling, so we switched to sleep sacks and love them. We have a bunch from Carter’s. We REALLY loved the Love to Dream Swaddle. This swaddle lets your little one’s arms go up and still allows them to move around to get comfortable. Sophie liked this swaddle more than the wraps.
Sleeping & Lounging:
Sophie has a Pack N’ Play, that she slept in every night when she was a newborn. The one we have had a changing pad you could put on one side, and a bassinet on the other. We still use the bassinet. We love the Pack N’ Play.
Sophie did not spend a ton of time in her swing, but it was great to have when I needed to put her down for a little bit here and there. Ours plays music and has different speeds which was great. There are so many different swings, so I recommend just going with what you think would work best for you.
We also had a bouncer that we keep in our living room. The bouncer is by Skip Hop, and we love it. It was great to put her in while we made breakfast or were eating.
Of course you need a crib, and that is entirely personal preference since there are so many out there. For our crib, we use these sheets and this mattress. We love the mattress because it was super compact and easy to get in her crib, it’s SO comfy for her, and it has a waterproof, washable zip on cover.
Noise Machine:
Any sort of noise machine to help your little one sleep. We have the Hatch and love it because it has many colors, sounds, music and can be controlled by an app on your phone.
Owlet:
The Owlet is NOT a necessity, but it might be our favorite baby item. Sophie is almost 6 months old and we still use it every night. It has given us so much peace of mind. When Sophie left the NICU, I was so worried about her sleeping and found myself checking on her so many times throughout the night. This thing allowed me to finally relax. It also lets you know your baby’s sleeping patterns, how much time they spent sleeping, awake, their heart rate and oxygen levels. We love our Owlet.
Play mat:
Sophie still uses this at 6 months. She did tummy time on this, and just enjoyed laying on her back looking at the toys hanging, and listened to the music it plays. We cannot recommend this play mat enough.
Baby Carrier:
We have the Baby Bjorn and it works great. The only thing with the Bjorn was that we couldn’t use it until she was about 7-8 pounds. Sophie was born early, and got down to 5 pounds. The first time I put her in it, she was about 6 pounds and was too small for it. It fit so much better once she was a little bigger.
Changing Pad:
Any kind of changing pad will work. Here is what we use every single day:
Travel System:
You’ll of course need a stroller and car seat. We picked the Evenflo folio3 stroll and jog travel system and LOVE it! We ended up buying an extra car seat base for our second car too just for convenience.
Feeding:
When Sophie was in the NICU, I went 4 times a day to see her and do feedings. She is breastfed, but when I was not there they had to bottle feed her. We decided to start using Dr. Brown’s bottles, and got this kit. We still use Dr. Brown’s and really like them. We also use this bottle cleaner. I use the Spectra S2 Plus pump, which you can now get pumps through insurance, so be sure to check into what is available for you if you’d like to pump.
I cannot recommend getting some nursing bras enough. They are so convenient and helpful.
Smaller Necessities:
Sophie loves her Wubbanub. She has the giraffe one and it’s easy for her to grab and keep in her mouth.
The kit above comes with a thermometer, but it takes forever to take your babies temp. I ended up ordering this one and it works perfectly:
Butt paste, baby detergent and Aquaphor. Pretty self explanatory, but wanted to include them. Make sure you have what you think you’d like to use. Running out to get these things once baby is here is never fun.
We use a Boppy every day. For feeding, laying baby in to just hang out, and now for tummy time and play time. We use this cover below for ours, and it is so soft.
We love having a backpack diaper bag. This one below is very similar to the Eddie Bauer one we have. It has an insulated pocket for a bottle, a pocket for easy to grab wipes, a changing mat, and tons of storage space.
