7 Must-Have Items for Life With a New Baby

Maybe its the covid quarantine baby fever, or maybe its just the stage of life many of my friends are in. All of a sudden, a lot of friends are asking for my recommendations on baby items. It honestly felt a little weird… even though D is now over a year old still I don’t feel like I have the experience my friends think I have. I’ve just been making it up as I go along! 

With that said though, I do have a few suggestions as they get ready before their little one arrives. There were absolutely some items that felt like they were worth their weight in gold as D taught me how to be a mom. I’m including them here, with my reasons for why I love them.

These were the best!

Doona Carseat Stroller – Hands down, the best baby thing we chose. When we registered for it, we were thinking “oh this will be so great for traveling, on and off airplanes and around other cities – no need to pack a stroller!” But then covid happened. Even without that intended use, it was such an amazing car seat to have. I have a lot of chronic pain, and holding/carrying heavy things is very difficult for me. This infant car seat has wheels attached that can flip out so that you can push it like a stroller. If you flip them back up, it fits in most grocery store carts.

I really loved that I didn’t have to constantly be buckling D in and out of the seat or carrying the carrier into the building every time we made a stop. I never had to have a stroller in my car if we met up with a friend for a walk. The seat is able to accommodate babies up to 35 lbs or 32 inches. D is very tall, but not heavy. We used this carseat until she was about 14 months old and only switched to an adapting, grow-with-me style carseat because started preferring to ride in shopping carts, walk with me, or ride in a forward-facing stroller. My point is, there is a lot of opportunity to use the carseat before baby outgrows it. 

Newborn Nightgowns – these are amazing. They make diaper changes in the middle of the night easier because there’s no zippers to mess with. At the beginning, it felt like every time I nursed, I also changed a diaper. Just pulling the gown down and reswaddle made it a little easier to get her back to sleep.

Hatch Sound Machine – this machine is pretty cool. It has tons of different sounds to play, including typical white noise sounds and also lullabies and other nature sounds. It also is a dimmable night light, which is helpful for stuff in the middle of the night. You can also set your own favorites so that you don’t need to use your phone to switch between them. 90% of the time I’m either playing the Rockabye Baby before bed, or the clothes dryer sound (while sleeping). This is one that I’m sure I’ll be buying a second of when it comes time for baby number 2.

Stretchy Nursing Cover – this is the coolest. It is a nursing cover that is super stretchy and fits over an infant car seat to provide shade, wind, or even stranger protection. I used mine way more for the car seat than for nursing. Thanks to covid, we didn’t go too many places where I needed to nurse in public. There were times, though, when I’d need to take D somewhere with me – I’d just keep her covered. She usually snoozed easily in the car and would typically stay asleep between the car and a shopping cart. Friendly strangers never bothered us because she had a very cute little barrier between her and them, blocking their view AND germs. I also used it plenty of times on walks, to protect her from the sun. I also used it as a light blanket while we were driving somewhere!

Silicone Baby Bibs – There’s no way around it – food time gets messy fast. These bibs don’t catch everything, but they do catch a decent amount. Plus, once the kiddo realizes they can go back in the pocket for extra bonus snacks, it gets even more fun for them. These particular bibs are nice and soft silicone. I’ve tried others that were way too stiff and uncomfortable on D.

Bamboobies Nursing Pads – Nursing pads came in handy for me when I was nursing because the unoccupied side got the let down sensation at the same time as the first. These pads are SO SOFT and gentle, but absorbent. Since they’re reusable, there’s a lot less waste. It feels nice to do something good for the planet!

hiccapop Omniboost Travel Booster Seat – trying to feed a baby solid foods seems to have a lot of steps involved. Baby needs to sit up straight and wants to be involved in the group. That can get tricky whenever you want to eat somewhere that doesn’t have a high chair though. This chair is so useful! It folds out like a camp chair, has straps to secure it to a regular chair, and is machine washable. We’ve used it for tons of picnic lunches, while traveling since packing a whole high chair would take up so much space. Even just in the trunk of our car for a snack when we’re out and about. Pretty much any time we use the chair when we’re out in public, other parents will notice it and comment on it.

BONUS

My husband is including two more items. He was the one doing a lot of the dishes for a long time, so he felt strongly about these two. The first is a microwave steam sterilizer. This puppy was great for sterilizing bottle parts. While I was usually breastfeeding, we fell into a routine of him giving D a “breakfast” bottle of pumped milk from the morning before, while I pumped. It was a nice time for them to bond and have some special time. Because of that, we had bottle parts to clean each day, so we typically only needed to sterilize one batch a day. It worked great though, and it could definitely be used more often! 

The second bonus item is a dishwasher basket for the top shelf. A lot of baby items are “top rack dishwasher safe” and we definitely washed a lot of items that way, but in the process, we had a number of baby spoon casualties. No less than three times, we came down in the morning and opened up the clean dishwasher to be met with the smell of burned plastic from a spoon that had been knocked off the top rack and fallen down and landed on the heat coil on the bottom. This basket keeps all the little pieces of sippy cups, spoons, bottles, etc. from being lost forever. The basket even has slots for nipples to sit in so they don’t flip upside down. We haven’t lost a spoon since! It also is great for other stuff, like measuring spoons or really small tupperware type containers!

There you go! Hopefully there are some useful items in here – all of these have been so clutch for us! What items did you find to be total MVPs from the baby days?