My Top 10 Baby Must Haves for First Time Moms!

GAHH! I am so excited about this one because EVERYONE has been asking me about my FAVORITE baby must haves for first time moms…I hope that, for some of you, I can help eliminate some of the stress and “choice overload” that I DEALT WITH!

Listen, I was 100% that mom who bought everything…like, EVERYTHING…

…because I had no idea! 

I wasn’t baby fluent. I had never been a babysitter or even thought much about what babies need until I got pregnant and thought…CRAP, it’s time to freaking panic. HAHA!

So, I went down the lists of recommendations I found, and it was SO overwhelming.

All the do’s and don’ts, the “buy this” and “you need that.”

I mean, there are like 5 different kinds of baby beds, 1,000 car seat brands and 1 million things you just “need.”

Not to mention at your baby shower, everyone LOVES giving you the “cute” stuff that you really never even end up wearing!

So, now that Evelyn is 8 months old, thriving, and we’ve passed the newborn stage…I wanted to write a TRUE and HONEST blog about what I view as baby must haves for first time moms. ..

All the things below, I have tried and used almost EVERY SINGLE DAY since bringing her home. Nothing is an AD or sponsored!

So without further ado, here’s the list so you can be WORRY-FREE!

#1 – Nuna PIPA Lite

THE CAR SEAT – Because what’s the first thing you do when they send you home with a freaking baby that you have no idea what to do with?? 😉 You have to put them in a moving vehicle and drive down a highway with them!!!!! ALERT!!! HAHA! Prepare for the scariest ride of your life!

The question I get asked the most is, what car seat did I get? And do I like it? After testing out 100, we decided on the Nuna PIPA Lite. It’s super lightweight, and once you spend about 30 minutes trying to hook your baby INTO the car seat, the last thing you want to do is UNSTRAP them to put them into a stroller. SO, we got one that CLICKED INTO the stroller bottom. She’s 8 months old and we STILL use this car seat/stroller combo, and it’s been GREAT, especially when she is napping in the car and we don’t want to wake her…but have to run those errands 🙂

It’s fit into three vehicles wev’e had since we had her and NONE of them were a mini van 😉

LINK HERE!

#2 – SNOO

The BASSINET —- SPLURGE ALERT. Of all the baby must haves for first time moms, this one did break the bank a little at the time…But worth every freaking penny!

SO what is the second thing you think of when you get home? Where am I going to put them?!?!

When your arms are so tired, you need to have some place for them to sleep.

Our question, then, was: bed sharing or not?? (We chose NOT, because it made my husband extremely nervous.) We decided on the bassinet by the bed routine! SO then the next question came…WHICH bassinet? We were lucky to be surrounded by a village who had successfully brought up a bunch of children 🙂

SO we asked around and had some friends who RAVED about the SNOO.

Maybe you have heard of it? It’s basically technology’s gift to babies and parents! It’s a bassinet that claims to be:

• A) the safest place for a newborn to sleep because it straps them in on each side, making rolling IMPOSSIBLE. Which for me was the biggest factor in SLEEP. I could shut my eyes without worrying if she was going to roll onto her face or break out of her swaddle. (I wasn’t a good swaddler ! Haha!) Just zips up and clicks in!
• B) It responds to the baby and soothes them to sleep or back to sleep! NOW, don’t get upset. OF COURSE if your baby is crying, hungry, uncomfortable, etc…you pick them up and care for them! This simply helps them calm themselves down as they are learning about their new world! It mimics the mother’s womb with an internal sound machine and a rocking motion 🙂 This helps them navigate sleep cycles effectively.

NOW, this item was a SPLURGE. However, we SAVED up for this bad boy. The company usually has some awesome sales AND they even have a free trial period!!

…Where you can order it and use it for a certain amount of time. And if your baby doesn’t like it, or if you don’t, you can send it back! We used ours until the very last time we could (until she was rolling and breaking out of the swaddle at 6 months) and plan to use it for all our future babies! 🙂

#3- The Dock-A-TOT!

Ok, I was really skeptical of this one at first…

Because honestly, it was everywhere! All over Instagram, and every Instagram person posting those perfectly posed pics with the baby matching the fabric!

And things like that always make me wonder if they REALLY like it, or if they are just getting something for free. Right??

So, we tried out THREE …..the Dock-a-Tot, the Snuggle Me Organics and the Mumbella.

(I told you guys I went a little crazy. Lol.) 

They were all pretty good products. Because THINK ABOUT IT …..Say you want to sit on the couch, or lay in bed, or cook some food….WHERE do you put your sweet newborn who can’t sit up yet, who doesn’t want to lay in their bassinet? IT’S CONFUSING!

SO, for us……we put her in the Dock-a-Tot!

SAFE, EFFECTIVE, in her Love to Dream Swaddle ( next item ;)) and she was content!

TIP: We did NOT use this for sleep, other than if she happened to take a short nap while I was watching her! (It’s not recommended for sleep.) But what we DID do was, we SIZED UP in the Dock-A-Tot, so we didn’t have to buy another when she outgrew it! It was a sad day when she could roll out of it and we had to stop! Haha!

#4- Love to Dream Swaddle!

AKA – the Squirrel Suit! Haha! We called it this because when she had it on she looked like a flying squirrel!

This thing is a LIFESAVER! So, I don’t know about you, but when they teach you how to swaddle for the first time after you’ve just given birth, and feel like a Mack Truck hit you in the vagina…..you’re kinda not listening that closely!!!

And she would break out of it all the time!

SO, we found this one that zips up, gives them that close swaddle feeling, but also lets their arms be up by their face to self soothe! GAME CHANGER!!!

LINK HERE:

#5- THE PACK and PLAY!

Ok, now this item is the real winner in the category of, “Everything that you PUT THE BABY DOWN IN!”

Hahaha!

This was so awesome because we were able to put the last two items together INSIDE this, and she was happy as a clam ! We would put her in her Love to Dream Swaddle, in her Dock-A-Tot, INSIDE the Pack and PLAY…and BOOM…Nap time for baby, next to momma, who had free hands!

This one was actually a GIFT at our baby shower, and the quality is amazing. It folds up easy for travel and looks so pretty 🙂

#6 – The Fisher Price Sit Me Up Seat!

This next item was the most POPULAR on my social media…I got so many QUESTIONS when I would post a video of her in this seat!

We needed a place to set her when she didn’t want to be laying down, and she needed to practice that head strength…but couldn’t quite be trusted to do it on her own at first.

This seat was AMAZING! Let her be a part of the kitchen activities, and made her happy to be seemingly sitting up on her own! When we were warming milk or making dinner, this was awesome to put on the counter!!

TIP: Don’t even leave them out of your view in this! And make sure you have EXTRA large counter space! ALSO works really well on the floor!

#7 – THE OWLET SOCK 

Sleep Safety! This next gadget is SO COOL…(AND ANOTHER SPLURGE ALERT!)

Ok, this is for the moms who can’t sleep at night wondering if all the horror stories people insisted on telling you could possibly come true. I’m obsessed with this thing! I have to say, I have definitely read mixed reviews on this about false alarms and what not. This did happen to us one time when she was a newborn and her foot was too small for the sock, but since then, I haven’t had one problem.

The sock did stop taking a charge once, but I contacted the company and they sent me a brand new one FREE!

It connects to my phone, so I can check her whenever, wherever I want. And it gives me some cool analytics on how she slept last night, if she woke up, how long it took her to go back to sleep, etc.

I actually have a friend who had a sweet girl born with CHD and this sock saved her life! (her words)

TIP: They actually have refurbished ones on amazon as well! Which are about half the price. I don’t think customer care would be included though!

#8 – NANIT

On that note, what about the best baby monitor? We have actually gone through a few of these! Haha!

And the NANIT really does take the cake. This monitor is attached to wifi SO I’d make sure your connection is strong enough to support that! BUT if it is…man, this thing is a game changer! It is on a stand over her crib and has a full view of the entire thing, connections to our phones, iPads…So even when we are out on a date night, or at work, our parents are watching her…we can see her and check in! It gives us alerts and sleep analytics and has been really reliable!

#9 –  LOVEVERY BABY PLAY GYM

But life isn’t just about sleeping, even for a baby…So next, we had to think about a PLAY MAT (play gym). 

So, every parent knows…once they become parents (meaning, I had no idea about this beforehand, HAHA) that Tummy time is so important! It’s where they really develop that neck and head strength, which dictates crawling, walking, eating, etc. ALSO, shaking rattles , working on grabbing, etc!

You’ll need something to place the baby on!

There are one MILLION play mats and I’m SURE all are GREAT! HOWEVER, we got this at out baby shower as a gift and it is MOST DEFINITELY a CUT ABOVE…The LOVEVERY BABY PLAY GYM!

First of all, it’s adorable and comes with REAL WOOD frames. I feel like most everything now is plastic and we do try out best to reduce as much as we can. Plus, it just looks nicer and higher quality!

BUT this mat is super well thought out for babies’ development! It has special instructions, parts, books, activities…and as she has grown, she STILL uses all the things every time she develops a bit more! I would HIGHLY recommend this one!

TIP: This company ALSO has a monthly subscription you can sign up for that has toys for each stage of development, and they REALLY WORK! Sometimes the things that come in the box I am skeptical of, because they don’t make much sense…and EVERY TIME SHE LOVEEESSSS them! They are well thought out and researched! It’s been AWESOME!

#10- HATCH SOUND MACHINE

GAME CHANGER. So, we were determined to get this little one to be a good sleeper…and of course, like most parents, we struggled for a while! To be expected 🙂

Newborns generally want to party all night 🙂 We read a sleep book and took a pretty clutch sleep class (Taking Cara Babies — find her on Instagram!), but our little girl LOVED the shushing sound, or white noise!

We actually learned that it’s pretty LOUD in the womb, and babies are not used to silence like we are when sleeping. It really weirds them out!

SO we were gifted a few noise machines that I put on my registry, and they either were not loud enough…couldn’t get close enough with the cord…did not stay on all night…or used batteries that died at the worst times! HAHA!

Until we found HATCH —EPIC!!! Has so many sounds, and most importantly, a white noise sound that stays on ALL NIGHT! Also has some other features like a nightlight, etc., but we don’t use those just yet 🙂

But what’s even more IMPORTANT than these baby must haves for first time moms? It’s this advice:

Mom (or Mom to be)…I want you to remember this…

“Babies don’t really NEED much. Babies need to be Fed, Babies need a relatively clean environment to prevent infection and Babies need to be loved by at least one person.”