Hey, Anna!

My husband and I are expecting our first baby in August, and as I’m going through the “Must-Haves” on the registry site, I’m seeing a lot of things that seem more like “wants.” I know every family and every baby is different, but I was wondering—What were you told was absolutely required, but that you found completely unnecessary? What were you hesitant to get, but once you had it, you wondered why you waited so long?

Thanks!!

Thrifty Mom to Be

Dear Thrifty Mom to Be, First of all congratulations!

Every baby is completely different but for us, here are a few of the things we’ve found unnecessary:

• The dishwasher basket for bottle nipples
• Baby-specific bath towels and washcloths (our regular ones would have worked just fine).
• We had far too many receiving blankets. (We ended up only using one but have hung onto them to use them as light summer sleeping blankets.)
• An excess of baby books
• Too many clothes,(especially newborn to six-month clothes). I would recommend registering for clothes beyond six months.)
• Changing pad cover (it just got peed and pooped on all the time)
• Burp cloths (we rarely used them)
• Scratch mitts (we used baby socks instead)
• Night lights
• Bumbo seat
• Grocery store cart protector
• Car seat mirror/backseat mirror
• Nursing cover (not useful if you aren’t able to nurse. I should’ve waited to get it.)

We’ve loved having:

• Halo sleepsack
• Munchkin white noise/sound machine (You can probably find it cheaper than on Amazon because we found ours for around $22.)
• Baby 411 book
• Tub of Aquafor
• Baby swing
• Safety 1st Easy Saver Diaper Pail (We like this one because it uses regular trash bags and not special ones like the Diaper Genie requires. Also, we have 2 of these. We use one for the disposable diapers we use at nighttime and then the other one hold the dirty cloth diapers.).
• Reusable Diaper Pail Liner
• Travel changing pad
• Changing pad for the top of the baby’s dresser
• Bottle brush
• Nipple brushes
• I ended up having to pump (because my milk wasn’t transferring to the baby), and the pump we got for free from insurance was terrible compared to the one I used in the hospital. We ended up renting a hospital-grade pump, and I am SO thankful we did!
• If you do end up pumping, get a pumping bra—it’s completely amazing. I swear I could’ve cried when I first used it. I had my hands back!
• Baby nail clippers (Some people use the baby nail file, but the file takes forever, in my opinion. Also, this is the only item we ended up using from the nail care set.)
• Graco Snugride Click Connect 35 Infant Car Seat (I did a lot of research and liked this one the best — especially for the price.)
• Car seat carrier (We were able to find ours  used on Craigslist.)
• When the baby was around one our car and all of our baby gear was stolen. It turns out that if the car seat had to have been stolen it was actually okay time-wise because we needed to switch to a different car seat pretty soon anyway. We got a convertible car seat (the Diono Pacifica Convertible Plus—it can be used on an airplane, and it can be used until the child is able to be in the car without a car/booster seat. (The Diono car seat can actually be used from birth up.)
• We got an $80 umbrella stroller, and used that from the time the baby could sit up on his own, so we were able to avoid buying an expensive stroller. (We like it because it’s super lightweight and it’s easy to get it up the stairs to our place.)
• Birth Doula
• Huge bottles of generic hand sanitizer (with the pump) for the changing table.
• Cloth diapers (We went with these ones: Bumgenius Freetime All-in-Ones with the snaps (because the velcro would get fuzzy and gross over time), and we got gender-neutral colors so they would be easy to use with subsequent children/it’d make them easier to re-sell.)
• A comfy rocking/glider chair. (Be sure to get one with good butt padding because you’ll likely be doing a lot of sitting in the beginning. Again, we went with a neutral color to make it easier to sell when we were done using it.)

Also, from new parent to new parent, after the baby is born, if people ask you if you need anything, be sure to take them up on the offer! We told people we would love it if they could bring food by—they did, and it was amazing. It was so helpful! People told me that they were glad that I let them know how they could really be of help!
I hope my experience helps you!
Anna

What baby items could you live without and which ones are a must have for you?

If you’d like me to answer a question for you here on the blog send me an email with your question to: [email protected] In the subject line please write: Reader Question. I’ll change all identifying info so no one will know it’s you but me and you. I most likely won’t be able to answer every single question but I’ll try to let you know ASAP if your question will be getting selected for inclusion in a post.

UPDATE (5/27/15):

I was thinking about a few more items we’re really been happy with so I thought I’d share them here so you can try them out too, and not waste money with things that don’t work. (At least they’ve worked well for us. Of course, every baby is different!)

• Nuby straw sippy cups -We’ve tried a zillion different kinds of sippy cups and these ones really DON’T SPILL!
• Salt Walter sandals -These are a little pricey but they don’t rub his feet or cause blisters, he’ll wear them every day this summer, plus they’re just so darn cute.
• Lovey – These are Henry’s absolute favorite! These things are amazing. Especially since they come as a set of two.
• Baby moccasins – These are sooo cute, come in a ton of colors, they’re perfect for a new walker. Plus, these are far less expensive than the $60 versions (which is what I like the most about them).
• Outlet cover – Henry really likes to pull all the plugs out so I wish we had found out about these earlier than we did.:)