So I have been pretty excited about this post just because I have really given it about 8 months of thought. A lot of friends and family members are expecting and I thought I would give my 2 cents on things that were really important for me being a first time mommy. After reading and researching before Ripley was born about "Baby necessities" These were items that were golden for me.
Valerie is my best friend, she was/is my go to for pretty much everything in life. I just wanted to post that here because shes going to be mentioned a lot in this post.
Wireless head phones: At the time we had Ripley in our bedroom and I was breast feeding which means I never left the bed. It got boring. We couldn't watch TV (First world problems) because Ripley would wake up or the TV was so far we couldn't hear anything. We read subtitles for a long time until Scott discovered they made wireless headphones that we could hook up to our TV and listen great while Ripley lay next to us sound asleep.
The owlet: This was the biggest purchase I made. It costs about 300 dollars but IT WAS SO WORTH IT. Ripley was born with a heart murmur which later ended up maturing but the weeks before we saw the cardiologist again just had me thankful this was on her as she slept. I mostly only kept it on her as a new born 24/7 because she was sleeping more often then. I now only keep it on Ripley when she sleeps at night. I slept so much better knowing this was on her. There has been times where I'll forget to charge it and don't end up using it and its such a weird feeling knowing its not on her...
fuck man im becoming a helicopter parent....
Anyways... this is a great gift for a new mom. We take it with us when we travel so I know shes okay. I have no complaints either. Her sock has never fallen off, we havent ever got any warnings. It was worth it.
A portable decent white noise machine... When Ripley was born, the only thing that kept her calm was be bouncing on the birthing ball vigorously or playing this youtube video of white noise BUT ONLY THIS ONE for some reason any others wouldn't do it.. but then I couldn't use my phone while she slept... so we bought this tiny white noise machine.. I needed something with multiple noises (incase she didn't like some of them) and that was loud (i had a feeling the white noise in the video was louder and higher pitched and thats why it calmed her?) and this is the one we bought, it gets super loud and the battery life is insane.. its gone for 12 hours. We take this with us when we travel, it cancels out noises and it helps her sleep really well. I feel like when we go see family and she's in a place she doesn't recognize, at least she knows this noise.
Nose Frida. If you are doing any research for registeries and what you will need, youve probably already hear of this. Its totally worth mentioning. It was weird when I first heard about it. I honestly thought it was crazy to go to that extent but I put it on my registry anyway. I am so glad I had that alien tube. Those bulbs SUCK! well.. I mean they dont actually suck. For real they dont do anything in the nostril and sometimes I wonder if I'm making it worse? The nose frida made her instantly unstuffed and she actually enjoyed it haha. You dont suck any snot into your mouth. Its reusable and easy to sterilize.
Clothes. I mean yeah clothes are a necessity but I wanted to shed some gold that no one ever mentioned in anything I read. Babies grow fast. DO NOT SPEND A LOT OF MONEY ON CUTE CLOTHES. Valerie donated all of her sons clothes to me. I never had to buy clothes and a lot of them were gender nutral anyways. Even if they weren't, I didn't care. She didn't care. Ripley was also so large that all of the newborn outfits I had DIDNT FIT HER. Yeah all those "delivery bag" packing lists... PLEASE PACK 3 MONTH OLD ONSIES. My best friend Adriana made a trip to target for Ripleys first outfits because the ones I packed didn't fit her.
- footie pajamas were my jam. It was easy to keep her warm in them. Socks are always falling off of her feet and all the sets of socks I had are all missing a sock by now. When we travel we put her in footie pajamas. This girl never wears shoes anywhere... seriously shes barefoot 9/10. i actually dont even have a pair of shoes that fit her. This will change when she starts walking I'm sure
- When I was working at the animal clinic before I gave birth, my office manager told me to have everyone bring diapers as an entrance fee to our baby shower. I thought this was a great idea lol. Only thing is, we never got to actually have our baby shower because a hurricane ripped through the weekend we were supposed to have it lol. Diapers are so awesome for gifts.
- As I said Valerie basically furnished Ripleys bedroom with literally everything I could possibly need. She donated a rocking chair, unused bottles, pacifiers, jesus I mean really everything. I had some other friends like Jessica and Olena donate a BUNCH of things too like diaper pails and clothes and boppy pillows. This was truly a blessing, we had saved so much money by not having to really purchase anything.
- I never used the steamer container for the microwave. I am still sterilizing her bottles in boiling water every night for 10 minutes. I felt weird about microwaving bottles?
- I do have a bottle warmer but I only usually use it at night. She gets room temp bottles and doesn't even care. My sister told me this word of advice.
- If Valerie hadn't already done everything she also was my go to for parental advice on pretty much anything. She told me NOT to get an infant carseat but to buy the grow-with-me car seat. Its essentially the only car seat you'll ever need. I should've listened to her advice. It is convenient to have the infant carseat to take baby in and out of car but I am a minimalist and having to buy ANOTHER seat was so stupid to me. I should've just listened to her.
- There is a redick amount of support for pretty much anything on the internet. If you DONT happen to have a friend like Valerie OR even if you want more friends like Valerie... you can find them in online forums like facebook pages and groups. The what to expect app also has a ton of groups for pretty much anything on there as well. It was really fun joining them and seeing everyones progress or different advice. I feel like I have gained so much knowledge just by having that online support.
Lastly....Lets talk baby registries. The great thing about signing up for registries is you will get free sample bags of really great items. I found that amazon and target were pretty great. My actual registry was just with target though. My only reason is I know I'm a procrastinator and I wanted to give the option to just pick up at the store rather than wait the 2-7 days for delivery for friends and family. I noticed though that the majority of items I wanted were cheaper on amazon by a few dollars or less. I am also a minimalist. I didnt want to send my family and friends all over the place to find an item. I saw someone post their registry and it was on 3 different websites, which is fine I just wanted it to be as easy as possible for people. Valerie told me when she was setting up her registry at target they gave her a gift bag every time she went to add items. You guys.... I GOT 4 FREE BAGS. These bags had formula in them, advent bottles, teething toys, pacifiers and other various tiny samples.
Take this advice with a grain of a salt. What worked for me, wont work for some but if you liked what you read I'm happy I could help.
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