To say that our house is covered with baby stuff is an understatement. It’s everywhere!! We were gifted many, many wonderful baby treasures, and I of course went wild buying tons of cute things to make sure that we were set and ready for Vivian’s arrival. Of course every baby is different, so you don’t know exactly what they will like or not until they are here, but we were set with a plethora of options! I have noted some of our personal favorites below that we use every single day and simply could not live without!
Zip up Pajamas a.k.a. Sleep n Plays – Vivian lives in her pajamas. Is it because we are in a pandemic and don’t go anywhere? Possibly, but either way these are so dang convenient, and also cozy and cute; perfect for babe! There are so many wonderful versions of these. Target sells a great brand called Cloud Island, and we also love Old Navy. Both of these have zippers that can go from the bottom up to make diaper changes extra easy! They also have the fold over mitts so you can tuck baby’s hands in if needed. Many of the different baby brands make a version of these that work great! We prefer zippers over snaps, simply for ease, but now that we’re becoming seasoned professionals (lol), snaps don’t seem quite so bad anymore. Pretty much every photo of Vivian are in these types of PJ’s!
Burp cloths – Babies love to spit up, so having an abundance of burp cloths is a must! Thanks to my moms lovely recommendation, these cloth diapers from target are our favorite for burp cloths! They are large, greatly absorbent, and inexpensive. We loved them so much, that I bought a second pack because these too end up all over the house and then in the wash and you never want to be caught without a burp cloth handy!
Waterproof Changing Pad Liners – These changing pad liners are another must have! We have our changing pad and changing pad cover, and then set one of these on top for an added layer of absorption. Often times, once the diaper is off, baby will decide to start peeing. Or better yet, might not be done pooping. 🤦♀️ This liner will catch any of these lovely bodily fluids, saving the changing pad cover from getting dirty. This way, you just toss the liner into the laundry bin and pull out another one instead of having to change the whole cover. We loved these so much we went back for another pack as well!
Love to Dream Swaddle up – There are soooo many swaddles out there from as simple as a blanket, to fancy Velcro wraps. I stocked up on quite a variety so that we had different options to try. Vivian didn’t like many of the fancy Velcro ones. For weeks, we just swaddled her in the hospital style blankets, but those were easier to bust out of. Finally, we found the swaddle up, and we were instantly in love! This one keeps baby tightly swaddled, but allows their hands to be up by their face, where many babies naturally love keeping their hands. All while still being contained. This was so perfect, and stretches of sleep started to improve! This will probably be very personal to the baby, but this was our must have, and it was always a bummer when it was in the wash!
Pacifier – We were told to wait until at least 6 weeks to introduce the pacifier to make sure we had established a good breastfeeding relationship. Looking back I probably would’ve done this earlier simply to save some tears and so that Mike could help soothe Vivian. Not using pacifiers for the first few weeks meant that my boobs were pretty much the only thing that could calm her down. Oh well… we are past that now! We tried SO many different brands, and the Nanobebe brand is the only one that she likes! A few of these had come in sample baby boxes, and I’ve since ordered more because she can actually hold them in her mouth and enjoys them. We have a giant bag of rejected paci’s on our counter that she is just not a fan of. 😔
Bottles – Similar to the pacifiers, we also waited a few weeks to try bottle feeding to ensure that breastfeeding was moving in a positive direction. Again, she is very particular with bottles. We first tried the Mam, and it is still the only one that she will take. I tried a few others I had as samples when the Mam bottle was dirty, but had no luck. I have also stocked up on a few of these so that Mike can help out from time to time. Side note: we specifically use the extra slow flow nipples (size 0) as she seems to like that best. Those are ordered separately as the bottles come with a size 1. We also wanted to make sure that she would take a bottle! She wasn’t the biggest fan at first. My mom was the first to try giving her a bottle and she would spit it out often, but finally ended up drinking it. She wouldn’t take a bottle from Mike or me for quite some time, but we kept trying, and I think one day she was finally hungry enough and realized the milk in there was just as good. 😂 Thankful that worked out! Mama needs a break every now and then! I had also received a sample pacifier from Mam and was shocked when Vivian didn’t like it! You would think if she liked the bottle she would like the pacifier too, but no such luck!
A bonus tip: (if you have a two-story house) Set up a changing station downstairs as well. Her changing table and main diapering supplies are upstairs in her nursery, which is great for nighttime, etc. However, if you spend much of your time on the main level of the house during the day, it can be a pain to run all the way upstairs to change a quick diaper, especially during those early days when you are still recovering. It is also helpful if you find yourself in a pinch with a blowout! We grabbed a diaper caddy and just added a waterproof changing pad, diapers, wipes, butt paste, etc. Our pack ‘n play had a diaper changing attachment that was convenient to lay her on for the change.
Hopefully some of these products will work great for you too! Otherwise, these would all be great baby shower gifts for an expectant mama!
Laugh Often – Rachel
Simply Stoops 