Baby stuff we‘ll REALLY need

1. Burp cloths

2. More burp cloths than you need

3. More burp cloths than you need, factoring in #2.

An inexpensive white noise machine is useful if for nothing else than to prevent your baby from hearing background noise while sleeping. We liked the Velcro swaddles, then transitioned to the sleep sacks (ours is 20 months, still using the wearable blanket/swaddle sack) In addition to an infant car seat, one thing that might be worth buying new is a convertible toddler car seat that can go from rear-facing all the way to booster seat.

Pajamas with zippers.

my daughter is 16mo old! here's what i actually used:

• newborn clothes. my daughter was 7 lbs, 10 oz and i was told "oh you don't need newborn onesies! just put her in 3mo clothes!" i had 2 newborn outfits. immediately went out and bought more because she was drowning in 3mo size clothes
• bottles - specifically no drip bottles if you're going to bottle feed
• carseat that clicks into a stroller (0-6 mo). when she was about 9mo old we switched to a carseat that stays in the car but rotates so it's easier to put her in/out. ages 6+, a jogging stroller
• instead of classic bibs i liked lulu moon baby muslin bibs - i got mine on amazon but you can find similar. it can be used as a bib for food, a bib for drooling, or just a cloth. i rarely snapped it around her neck unless she was drooling, and would just tuck it under her chin when eating
• some kind of chair for the baby - we just got a cheap one off amazon but my in laws got a used graco swinging chair and she really liked it until she outgrew it
• high chair with foot rest (started using around 6 mo)
• mini bathtub for your bathtub - she used the sling insert then when she outgrew it used the seat within the bathtub. since maybe 9 mo she's just been chilling on her own in the full tub
• get a digital thermometer and a rectal thermometer - our girl had a fever at 1 mo and had to be hospitalized
• some type of baby carrying wrap. i got a knock off and it was fine. once she was like 6-8 mo she no longer wanted to be in it but she used to nap in it or at least chill in it
• HIP SEAT. i got a knock off and it still works great, she loves it
• sun hats
• i got a bunch of kids towels for her, the kind with the animal on the hood..... dont get these tbh. just use a big bath towel. the kid animal hood robe was never efficient enough for her squirmy wormy body
• if you can find a used playpen and have room for it, that could be helpful. we don't have room and never got one but our friends did and it was helpful when baby was starting to move around. but the kid outgrew it by 14 mo bc she was walking and would try to climb over it. an alternative is my mom found her pack and play from 1992 when i was born and put a bunch of balls in there so it's like a little ball pit for her. she still uses it and it's less space!
• as for toys, we got way too many toys bc she's the first grandchild BUT
  • the fisher price toy with the dangling things and music, kick piano ?? she loved. purple monkey is a solid song
  • the dancing crab was okayyyyy. good for practicing holding her head up
  • prop a pillar caterpillar was a gift but equally good would've been some kind of bolster pillow or just a maternity pillow

Do not buy a used car seat. You don't know the history or if it was cleaned properly. There is a Child Passenger Safety Technician page on most social media platforms to help with proper installment and use.

My advice though, is a "ClickTight" or "SnugLock" seat because you literally put it on the seat with the compartment door open, push it into the seat a little with the seatbelt threaded through the correct path and shut the compartment door and it's snug. No need to lock the seat belt by pulling it all the way out and hearing the ratchet clicking and still not getting the seat tight enough.

I've spent 10 min getting a Graco without the SnugLock that I've installed several times to be tight and sweating my butt off. But could go to my other vehicle and have the Britax ClickTight installed in 2 min with zero sweat.

Humidifier and electric snot sucker

Buy yourselves a few pairs of inexpensive wireless earbuds. Sometimes they just dont sleep and youve tried everything and theyre gonna cry for an indeterminate amount of time. Could be 5 min, could be 50. Youll be sleep deprived and desperate for rest and listening to a playlist with your eyes closed and gently rocking your baby is about 10,000x easier than trying to stay awake and endure the shrieking.

1. Nursing chair, find one your wife likes but you both are probably about to spend a lot of time sitting.
   
2. Baby bjorn bouncer (we've found several for sale at ~$25, don't pay full price- you can buy endless different covers to replace stained/used ones if you want)
   
3. A good carseat/stroller system- we went with nuna triv and the infant seat, works great and gets out of the way in a tight restaurant. Do not buy a used carseat.

If your baby ends up on formula a formula making machine has completely revolutionized our lives and is worth the investment- eliminates one of those frequent, inescapable hassles and that's all you can ask for from a gadget.

Most of the fancy infant outfits are never worn, you find out quick that something you can quickly and partially remove the bottom for changing and don't have to pull/stretch over their head is the holy grail, but you can find cheap infant clothes anywhere.

Don’t go crazy before the baby. All babies are different. We received so many of the gadgets and must haves at our shower or bought them on Black Friday sales and haven’t used 75% of it.

My baby is a sort of a Velcro baby and is very sensitive to how he’s being held and moved around. Our carriers, swing, bouncy seat and glider chair are all so far not used much.

Baby clothes sizes are nonsense. Only buy two way zip onesies and those jumper suit things that button under the diaper. Figure out how big your baby is and what fits before loading up.

The stuff you need is prohibitively expensive. Time... and patience.

If you can afford it…a proper nursing chair. One that tilts, swivels, rocks, reclines, and offers good back support.

For our first kid we didn’t have any such thing and spent countless hours on the sofa surrounded by cushions to stay comfortable for those night shifts. Second time around we got a nursing chair and omg this thing is comfortable to sit in for hours at a time. Plus you can swivel around to grab things and get in and out of it easily while holding a baby. Game changer.

Definitely one of the many variations of propped up seats/swings you can set them in and keep an eye on them while you do stuff in the kitchen or shower or whatever. Not recommended to let them sleep unattended in those but great for being hands free when you need to. Dock a tot, mommaroo, boppy pillow (the full donut, not the crescent shape) with the washable covers, swinging rocker, any one or two of those will be great.

Velcro swaddles for sure, but everybody will swear by a different brand. Some babies like to be constricted, some want their arms and legs flailing (after so many months I think these are ok).

Our babies did not do bassinets, just cribs.

Get a mirror for the back seat headrest so you can check on them every 5 seconds to make sure they are alive and breathing while you’re driving.

Thermometer, diaper rash cream, formula, bottles, bottle sterilizer and dryer is nice, infant Tylenol/motrin, diaper bag for the car, baby monitor for the house with the panning camera, sound machine

1) the baby bjorn chair. Anything that frees up your hands even for a sec is nice, you can put baby in it and so the dishes for example (in full view blah blah) 2) a nice play mat, I had the lovevery one, for the same reason. First few months baby is pretty much a potato and will stay put on a play mat (before bb rolls) 3) the first toy my baby noticed and could play with was the oball toy. It’s like the only thing newborns can actually grip? And maybe a nice soft rattle 4) I just did footies for baby clothes, you really just need like 5-7. Cardigans are easier to put on than sweaters, since ur baby will be arriving in cooler weather. Footies are nice because they cover the whole body otherwise! I liked ones from kyte and magnetic me!

Mom lurker here, but these are the things my husband and I swore by when our kiddos were babies

-double zipper footie pajamas. Snaps are evil

-Munchkin Step on Diaper Pail. Get this new.

-Baby swing of some sort, you may have to try a few to find one your child likes. Luckily you can find them cheap in the second hand market

-if breastfeeding, get the Haaka manual breast pump (in addition to whatever electric pump). It's all one piece, made of silicone, and can easily fit in a diaper bag or purse. The LAST THING you ever want is to be out and about and have her become engorged with no way to relieve it (trust me, it's horrible)

-if formula feeding, get a couple of protein powder shaker bottles to pre-make formula in. Formula is good for up to 24 hours in the fridge after it's been made, so it's very easy to mix up a days worth of formula and have it ready to pour and heat at a moments notice. It's a life saver, especially during those middle of the night feeds. It also has the added benefit of letting the air bubbles pop and settle so there's less gas potential for your baby!!!!

-Baby Aquaphor. Diaper rash? ✅ Drool rash? ✅ Small cuts from razor sharp baby nails? ✅

-HelloBaby baby monitors. Cheap, great range, decent camera, and they use radio waves so they can't be hacked into

A diaper cream spatula. So worth it. Get two, one for home, and one for the diaper bag.

We loved a reclined hammock-like chair to put them down in. with seatbelt, can put it on the table, floor wherever you need it and have the baby tilted up a bit looking around and easily rocked if needed. 

Liked having lots of simple white onesies and buying sizes ahead of time.

Doona combo stroller/car seat with the dock and the Baby Brezza are the best things ever!

We did a Finnish baby box. It was about 400 euro but it was worth it. Had a very nice snow suit in it (we had a winter baby) Had some clothes, burp cloths, basically everything we needed and some we didn't know we needed for the first 6 months. We even had him sleep in the box as advertised until he moved into his crib at about 6 months. Most of our clothes we got for free second-hand. We also got a stroller second-hand. Those high-end ones also usually come with replaceable wheels so you can just spend like 100 dollars on a set of wheels if you wear them down.

We got our crib second-hand, and a high chair we got second-hand. We also got his kid-sized bed second-hand. Basically, if you can get something second hand I would suggest it. Put it out in your friends group that you are looking for stuff for your kiddo and you will be flooded.

Things I wouldn't suggest getting second-hand is a Car Seat. There is too much riding on the line with car seats to trust a second-hand one.

Nothing. No, honestly. There are some things that can be nice to have, but not a single one of these things (other than a car seat to come home in) are necessary.

Your baby needs clothes, a place to sleep (like a crib or bassinet), and a way to eat. Everything else will come around well after you bring them home.

So far the most crucial items for staying sane with the newborn have been the pack and play that has a changing station and bassinet that we keep on the first floor of the house. The mini fridge and bottle warmer on our second floor where we all sleep. The Da Vinci gliding chair for late night feeds. And the vibrating swing that plays music.

Everyone says your life is about to change well at least to this point it's a combination of sleep deprivation and just in general having a very loud human in the house because my wife and i don't really yell on a daily basis it's much less quiet around here. Fortunately I did get attached quickly or dealing with this little man would drive me nuts.

If you want to bottlefeed: a thermosflask. That way you don't have to boil water and cool it down again, but can do it once and have cooked, warm water all day (mine didn't really care about temparature of his formula, so we even used the water longer, until it was kindof room-temparature).

Edit: typo

A good precision screwdriver. All the battery operated things have tiny screws

Wipe warmer — increases the odds of keeping baby asleep during midnight diaper changes by half

A bottle of nair or similar incase a hair tourniquette happens. Also look up what hair tourniquette is.

Honestly, if I were doing it again I'd buy a smartphone for the baby right away.

With the right apps it's a monitor, a white noise machine, in-car entertainment, nightlight, etc.