Favorite Things Friday – My Must-have List of Baby Gear

When you are pregnant with your first child and you head off to do your first registry, there are so many things that they will try and tell you that you MUST have for your baby. My experience has told me that you really only need a fraction of those items! 🙂 I have done this for a few friends before, but I decided to share my list of must-haves (obviously you need a car seat but I didn’t include it here) for your baby–baby gear that I have found to be indispensable!

• Ergo Baby Carrier–I seriously don’t know how I would have survived #1 and #2 without this carrier. I registered, and received, a Baby Bjorn. It was fine until my first son hit about 15 pounds. After that it hurt my shoulders and upper back A LOT. Enter the Ergo, and I was in baby wearing heaven! I love the fact that not only is it super comfy, but the baby is placed in a position that is ergonomically comfortable for him/her. I mean, let’s be honest here, who wants to be suspended by their crotch for extended periods of time anyway. 😉 In my opinion, the Ergo is truly worth it’s weight in gold.

• Side snap shirts— You can buy all of the cute little shirts that you want, but side snaps are key during the newborn weeks. Although newborns pretty much sleep, eat, and poop, they are not that keen on getting changed and that includes clothing. After I got home with #1 and some of the side snap shirts the hospital sent home with us, I promptly went out and bought extra ones!

• Stroller–If you have anywhere to splurge, do it with your stroller. It will become your new best friend. You want to be totally in love with it since you will be spending a lot of time together. Make sure it’s easy to carry around, open and close, and doesn’t weigh a ton. With #1 I had a travel system and a Snap N’ Go (a great piece to buy!). Since I bought the Quinny Buzz for #3, I won’t need the Snap N’Go because the frame will work with our car seat. You will soon learn that the car seat carrier is not ergonomic and gets heavy sooner than you would imagine!

• Bouncer (or swing if your infant prefers it)– Both of my boys LOVED their Fisher Price bouncer and got a lot of enjoyment out of the toys and vibration. I imagine their enjoyment translated into my ability to cook dinner and clean the house!

• Arms Reach Co-sleeper— Disclaimer: this is just my experience. I could not handle waking every 2 hours to feed and then transporting my newborn across the hall to a crib, so I chose to use the Arm’s Reach Co-sleeper. I could feed the baby and then place him in the co-sleeper right next to the bed (it attaches in a safe manner to the side of your bed, so that baby has his/her own mini crib). I swear it was the only way I got any sleep.

So that’s my list of essential baby gear. I’m sure I forgot something major (pregnancy brain!). What’s on your must have list?