There are a few must haves for newborns.
One thing I didn’t know when I had Tums; well, tbh I didn’t know a lot considering before her I hated kids and never really had much experience around any, especially babies. So everything about motherhood and babies I kind of had to learn literally as she was growing. Which wasn’t so bad! It was kinda fun and definitely interesting!
Babies have preferences which for some reason I think is weird. Like hi, you’re BRAND NEW to this life thing, how the hell do you have a preference already?!
And it was especially frustrating when her preferences didn’t line up with things I wanted to use lmao.
BOTTLES
Tums had a number of different bottles we would switch out from. She had about 5 in the kitchen and 5 in the bedroom; of those 5 there were 2 she liked the most. She’s also going to be a year old this week and we never switched her nipple size. She seemed fine with 0 and when we did try to switch her to 1 when “it was suggested you do” the flow was too fast for her and she’d choke on her formula. But she’s been fine with size 0 up until now!
One of the bottles she preferred were these from Philips Advent which comes in different sizes in the set, it’s super handy. When she was smaller she ate easier with the shorter bottles and as she grew she started rejecting the shorter bottles for the longer ones. The bottle she uses now in the room is just a regular Target bottle that came in a set of 3 for like $5. She does have a Tippe Tommy and a Nuk bottle but the Nuk has a nipple size of 1.
PACIFIERS
When I was pregnant I was obsessed with all the cool different types of pacifiers. All the different colors, patterns and words on them! Some that even glowed in the dark!
I gave Tums a pacifier when they were taking me to the postpartum ward after I had her. And that whole weekend she seemed super uninterested in it. When we got home she hated the smaller normal pacifiers and would often spit them out. It was definitely frustrating.
For Easter last year (her first Easter) her daddy got her a WubbaNub in her Easter Basket. And that changed everything. She LOVEEEEES her WubbaNub’s! She now has so many it’s insane. The three she has in the bedroom are the dragon, the dinosaur and the special edition pink fox. She likes to squeeze them as she falls asleep; for example, with the dragon she rubs his horns and ears. With the pink fox she likes to squeeze her hands and her head. Same with the dinosaur, she often squeezes his head when she’s falling asleep. I think it’s great there’s a pacifier out there that can also serve as a comfort item for babies.
BOTTLE CLEANER
For those of you who think this is a duh item, remember, I HAD NO IDEA ABOUT BABIES BEFORE HAVING ONE. I didn’t even know what a bottle cleaner was for! But these things are AMAZING. I’m not sure how it is with breastmilk since I don’t breastfeed but with formula it can sometimes get gunky at the nipple. Or if you wait to long to wash the bottle before uses it can leave residue inside. The bottle cleaners have special nipple brushes which I think is so cool. The only thing is I haven’t exactly mastered cleaning a bottle without making a spashing mess lmao.
We use the Dr. Brown’s one the most! These literally make a wonderful baby shower gift cause you really can’t have too many of these! We had lost our first set and remembered we had gotten another set during our baby shower. Whew!
SWADDLES
Swaddles are a freakin lifesaver! It takes awhile to figure out how to fold them into a swaddle but once you do… oh man. Game changer. Even with Tums being almost a year old now, we still swaddle her in a normal throw when she’s fighting sleep or when she’s grumpy. I literally don’t know what it is about being swaddled that comforts them, it’s like hey you’re finally out of that small womb, YOU’RE FREE! And they’re like “nah fam, swaddle me.”
There are definitely a few different kinds out there. My favs are the ones from Cloud Island at Target, hands down.
Besides swaddling I also use them as a blanket for her at home or in her stroller, a sheet to put down when changing her in public places, you can also use these for tummy/floor time. There’s just so many things you can use a swaddle for than just swaddling them to sleep!
I also use the Aden + Anais ones on hotter days or when she’s just taking a nap. They’re a little more pricey and they’re really really thin compared to the Cloud Island ones plus they kind of scrunch up. I wouldn’t recommend them for much else than a light swaddle on hot days or even to double as a bump towel which I do sometimes. But they do come in super cute prints!
BURP TOWELS
WILL BE YOUR BEST FRIEND. Especially with a newborn. I hated the burping phase. It’s like no matter what I tried, this kid would ALWAYS end up spitting up. ALWAYS. It was crazy. Burp towels were a definite MUST HAVE for me because who wants spit up all over their clothes every feeding? I mean, it still happened some days… I don’t know how many times I had to change clothes after feeding her when she was a newborn. But burp towels are definitely helpful.
JUMPER
This isn’t a TOTAL MUST but it is nice to have once they start napping less and have a lot more energy. It took me a few months to get Tums her own jumper for the house and even then it’s not as big or as mobile as the one she has at her dad’s mom’s house. But she still does enjoy standing in it and playing with the toys it comes with. I still need to put batteries in it at some point!
The one I got is from Amazon and you can find it here. It doesn’t take up much space — which I love since it’s between the bed and the closet wall. It can also be folded up for easier storage. And you’re able to change the height as your baby grows. It doesn’t provide EPIC jumps like some of the bigger jumpers but it is still a jumper. I also like to set Tum’s snacks next to the music box so it keeps her extra occupied!
BABY FIRST AID KIT
A baby kit is always handy to have. Make sure you have one of those bulb suckers (trust me, you’ll be using this more than you think you will), nail clippers, a thermometer, butt cream and Infant Tylenol on hand. Especially if you have your baby close to the flu/winter season. There are different types of thermometer’s but this one I got from Amazon is the kind where you can scan their forehead. Of course they’ll tell you that the under arm ones are the most accurate but if your baby fights you, these ones are also good to have.
Everyone swears by Destin butt cream but we didn’t like it when we used it. Instead we use A+D and I swear I see a difference within a day and it’s super affordable. Babies can easily develop a diaper rash, no matter how often you change them their skin is still pretty sensitive to things, even their own waste and can create a rash. It’s always heartbreaking when they have super painful ones but the cream’s definitely do help, a lot! I find that Tums usually has the worst diaper rashes when she has really wet squishy poop.
Infant Tylenol is just always handy to have; they could get fevers from shots to just teething. And I know Tums started teething at 4 months like crazy even if her first tooth didn’t pop til 7 months. She luckily didn’t get any fevers (just a lottttt of drooling, another reason why burp towels are good to have), but I kept the Tylenol on hand just in case!
Baby nail clippers look super intimidating. I didn’t know babies were even born with nails! But they are and they need to be clipped. Unless you like your face scratched up by them. They’re definitely much easier to clip than a cat’s nails, that’s for sure. I usually sit Tums down somewhere and take her hand. Then I gently squeeze the finger I’m clipping enough to let her know not to move this one suddenly. She usually watches me unless she’s doing floor time and she’s super distracted by something. But I’ve clipped her nails probably once a week since she turned about 8 months old.
ONESIES
This might be a well duh. But you literally can not have enough onesies with or without the feet. Babies are messy eaters. Period. I hate it. I hate it so much. But it is what it is. So when I’m feeding Tums table food (even if it’s pancakes which I SWORE was fool proof, but SURPRISE! It’s not) I’m constantly having to change her shirt or her onesie cause she either spilled food or her drink on it. You’d think by now I’d invest in darker colors but nope. I still grab the pastels and white/gray ones. Sigh. Some day I’ll figure it out… I hope lmao. I usually get Tums ones from H&M since some are a buy 2 get 1 free situation. Or I’ll get a bunch from Walmart. But I really prefer the sets that are from Target that come with like 3. She has some Star Wars and Dr. Seuss ones that even came with matching pants! Another great place to get separates if you’d prefer those are at Macy’s! They have a table of mix and match and the shirts and pants are like $3-$5 each. I definitely grab a lot from there. The boys have the cutest ones but the girls also have shirt dresses that are really cute as well!
Hopefully this helps you sort out what you’ll need before your bundle of joy arrives! I swear the best part of newborns is buying all this cute stuff for them; but the newborn stage goes by FAST! And so does the infant stage! Try and soak up as much of this time as you can!
Looking back at these photos it’s so crazy to believe I went from prepping for Tums and seeing how small she was back then compared to now! I swear I feel like I just had her not too long ago, how the heck has it already been almost a year?!
What are some things you feel is a total MUST HAVE for you?