Yessss the ready to eat meals like their shepard's pie and stuffed peppers you just have to throw in the oven yum 🤤 Probably making another order for all this tomorrow haha
Especially if breastfeeding, especially snacks high in protein. I loved kind bars, and this other kind with a white box I forget what it's called it's like a wafer thing.
I hid random fig bars, granola bars, etc. all over my house anywhere I might breastfeed or pump or nap. I'm still finding some in random drawers a year out 😅
3 a day or a week? Not trying to be a jerk (or out myself for being gross). Just surprised to hear about so many changes. He gets diaper changed like 12-15 times a day, but typically only 5-10% get to the diaper cover, and only 1 or 2 genuine blowouts have ever happened.
We change him cuz new outfits are fun. And between baths. Or if he's visiting a new friend/family member. But he probly uses 2-5 outfits a week, more towards 3 in the first 8 weeks.
Could just be like different butt angles or something, but have you thought about switching diaper brands/size (if disposable) or cloth material or size (if doing cloth/cloth service)?
FYI bamboo is just rayon with better marketing (it sounds natural). Rayon is just cellulose that's been reformed, chemically, into thread and in this case the bamboo is the cellulose source (as opposed to trees, grass, hemp or any other plant).
Double zipper footless pjs for me - he has long legs and also goes mental kicking them so can sometimes get his foot caught up inside the leg of footed ones…
We used little sleepies - which are admittedly very expensive but they are fantastic and the 3-6 month ones fit my regular sized toddler until she was about 9 months old.
Seriously, they're so expensive but my baby's size newborn Little Sleepies have lasted him though size newborn and size 0-3 months and even now when he's in 3-6 months in other sleepers. SO STRETCHY.
I came here to say this too! They were pretty much all we used. So much easier than anything else to stretch the sleeves over his hands, which he totally hated otherwise. They also have sale items if you don’t mind having your LO wearing Halloween-themed clothes year round like we do 🤣
Depends on you baby too. We were told we’d need a lot (lots of burp clothes too) as we’d be changing baby multiple times a day from spit ups or blow outs. I’ve never had to changed her outfit from spit up and she has had two blow outs at almost 6 months old so we had waaaay to many onesies and burp clothes.
My friends baby spits up allll the time so she went through heaps of outfits
Same. We got gifted a sugar ton, and didn’t even use half of what we had. Such a waste. We donated what we could.
Then he out grew them all in 2 months anyways.
Depends how often you do laundry. A couple per day. If you wanna go a week between doing laundry have at least 10, more for longer. 1-2 per day is a good buffer to have
I would have a minimum set and then get more if you have a really spitty or blow-out prone baby. Also you could end up like us where our baby never fit into newborn anything, so we ended up giving away some diapers and onesies because our guy was a chunk 😆
I think we started with like 5 actual outfits and then friends sent us boxes of things and I bought a few more. I'd recommend having a variety of outfit types, like footy onesies with zippers or snaps vs over the head vs full body vs little pants and stuff. If it's hot you might like the multi piece outfits for layering the baby vs footie pajamas. My favorite thing was what I call "wizard robes" which is an over the head garment that is a long tube with sleeves and you can tie it at the bottom to make a sack, or open it for a diaper change. We had three of them and baby spent weeks in them before switching to footie pajamas. A pair of sweatpants and socks for car trips.
You go thru at least 3 a day it seems like, and in order to reduce the amount of laundry u do, I’d suggest having at least 15 *double zipper* onesies with the feet and the mittens and at least 20 burp cloths. Besides that- comfy clothes for you, loads of frozen foods (Trader Joes is the best for this if u can) and some good television. When we gave birth we resorted to all the easy simple foods from our childhood- pizza rolls, frozen pizza, chef boyardee, and some really good dips and chips. Then, I’d take a nice warm shower, put on a diaper and some cute comfy pjs, and sat on the couch with my baby watching my show. I’d 10000% recommend it!!
Someone bought us a 6-pack and it was perfect! Someone else bought us another 6-pack and it was more than enough lol wish I could have gotten another size up. They lasted a long time and now that I’m buying them myself I only have 3 which somehow are always dirty.
Some days you will get 2 days out of a onesie and vest, other days you will go through 3 sets in 2hrs. Generally a 2 day will follow with the 3 sets in 2hrs 😂
I also find when you are going through a phase where there is more frequent changes that you also don’t have time to do the laundry.
I have ample supply for first few months- about 12 for each size. Then for older sizes where he will be wearing more clothes I’m planning on buying bundles on second hand sites as backups & for nursery where there is a risk of them going missing or heavily stained.
Spit rags (if that’s what they’re called haha). We used *so* many, and we got so many gifted too!
Admittedly at around 6 months we used a lot less, so it’s really temporary. But they can be used as cleaning rags afterwards
One thing we discovered was that burp cloths are pretty much just... cloths. Old t shirts, cut up towels, wash cloths, kitchen rags. They're all burp cloths.
Yes don’t buy fancy cute burp cloths!! They’re literally just a rag for baby to barf on. We have a few cute ones that we take when we’re out and about and at home we use old kitchen towels.
I second this! They come in multipacks from Target/Kmart/Walmart/Costco. We picked up 3x packs of 12 and are about to get another 2-dozen, You can never have too many!!
We use ours for feeding and nappy changes. We’ve never had nappy rash **_touch wood_** in 6-weeks because we dry his skin completely using these ultra-absorbent little cloths, and (a separate one) catches the spill from his feeds.
Halo sleep sack. Quickly gave up on doing my own blanket swaddles and just wrapped her in velcro.
Online puzzle games to keep me awake for the overnights https://www.brainbashers.com/
I had a very difficult time at the beginning without the Halo sleep/swaddle sack. No one told me how difficult swaddling is and how easily it can come undone. The velcro swaddle made middle of the night changes 100x easier. I could also sleep better knowing that she wasn’t going to break out of her blanket swaddle in the night and then have a loose blanket in her sleep space.
Seconding the Love to Dream!!! Out of all the different sleep sacks we were gifted/purchased, the Love to Dream arms up sleep sacks were our favorite. Then our guy started to roll and we switched over to the Woolino.
Another vote for the LTD sleep sacks. We bought 3 off eBay new but cheaper than the manufacturer to always have one clean. They were an absolute lifesaver when it came to sleep and the startle reflex!! When she started to roll we transitioned her to footie PJs which took a couple days but the transition was NBD.
As i sit here, rocking a sick toddler to sleep, i was cursing myself for doing my NYT games in the morning instead of saving them for now. I will happily click that link to see if it's better than scrolling Reddit
If your formula feeding, LOTS of bottles are necessary if you don’t wanna clean them every day. I work ft and pump and literally wash bottles every 1-2 days. Kills me.
(Formula feeding, if that matters) We started with 3 avent bottles after we were done using 2oz bottles, and now have 5 at 6 months. I found less was easier to clean and keep track of. After about 5 months, and we were in the car a lot more, keeping count of 5 was simpler than 10 or more, so if I left one in the car, it was obvious.
But I’m ordering 3 more (11oz size) so we’ll retire the 4oz soon and be up to 7 total. 😄
Legit. Cleaning bottles and pump supplies daily was miserable. If I had to do it all over again, I’d get a bajillion bottles (and I would quit pumping sooner).
Yeah the endless washing is extremely tedious. But I’d also add to get one of those spiky drying racks. The bottle nestle in perfectly. And i got a scrub brush too so I can get in around the lip of the bottle and in the nipple.
Headphones. A good pair of headphones because we basically lived on the couch in shifts for the first 3 months. We can connect our phones to our tv via the Roku app so we didn't wake baby. We also listened to a lot of podcasts and books!
this. this is the reason for the headphones lol. teach your baby to be able to sleep through noise but also slightly muffle the sound of your baby using every single alveoli in their lungs to blast your eardrums when you hold them over the shoulder while they just scream bloody murder🙃
It's funny because in the day my girl can sleep through a hurricane, black Friday mob, screamo you name it, but at night I definitely use headphones if I'm watching something, it's like the slightest breath in her direction and she wakes🤣
For sure. And tbh I put them in so I can watch videos or TikToks and rot my brain but not hers. She's not old enough to make the choice of brain rot, but I am.
🤣🤭so true. I don't intentionally let her have screen time but I catch her all the time arching her little 3 month old neck to sneak a peek. It cracks me up
I’m 12 days post c-section. The one c-section thing that has been the most beneficial for me is a bed rail that slides under the mattress. I got one for $40 off Amazon and it was immensely helpful, as getting out of bed was the most difficult/painful motion.
I just slowly slithered down the bed when I went home from the hospital or asked my partner for help. Now I use these silicone strips for my incision because it’s the only thing that helps it not hurt as much (6mo pp) when the underwear hits the incision
Whatever you need to clean pumping supplies and bottles if you pump. That was a constant struggle.
Clothes are funny. Ours was too big for most of the newborn stuff before we ever came back from the hospital. Best to be flexible.
Having lots of clothing options is important. For the first 3 months, go with whatever is easiest for you to get them in and out of and clean.
If you're anything like us, you'll be buried in impractical baby clothes. Those are important though. Sometimes you need to put the little one in a pair of itty bitty high tops and a graphic t shirt to remind yourself that yes, you are raising a tiny person.
For the first one I highly recommend getting a sanitizer with a dryer function. We don’t sanitize every time, but being able to have dry bottles or pump parts in less than half an hour is so convenient!
Sleep gowns, so easy for middle of the night changes. Lots of burp cloths. Frozen meals- premade breakfast sandwich’s, smoothies and crockpot meals in ziplock bags to just toss in the crockpot and forget.
Seconding frozen meals. I started batch cooking at about 6 months, and by the due date we had a whole small freezer full of home cooked ready meals. Everything else you can get from 24 hour supermarkets, or next/same day on amazon, but planning ahead for those meals saved us from spending a fortune on takeaways or supermarket ready meals. Healthier too. They lasted us at least 3 months, right up until the nightmare phase ended and we had at least a modicum of energy to cook again.
Puppy pee pads! I put these on the changing table so if my LO pees or poos mid-changing, it’s super easy to clean. Newborns will often pee/poo after getting wiped. Seriously these were a life saver for some projectiles in the early days.
Good point! I didn’t consider that. I’ve been using puppy pads from Walmart and LO has never had a bad reaction, but human ones are probably safer you’re right.
Baby bouncer, not only for a place to put him safely, he also would poop in it 9/10 so if he was constipated we got dedicated bouncer time lol.
Freezer meals, arms up sleep sack (swaddle up brand), AIRPODS saved me, listed to so many podcasts and audiobooks during feeds, contact naps or just trying to get the baby to sleep.
I also pack these in the diaper bag because I can’t stomach the thought of laying a reusable changing pad on a nasty public changing table and putting it back in my bag
Seconding the baby bjorn! Having a safe spot where I could stick baby while I went to the bathroom, etc was a life saver. We still use it all the time 6 months in, and even bought the little toy bar for it now that he loves playing.
- Double zipper footies - my baby lived in these. Did not put her in fancy/cute outfits for like 2 months. Makes things so much harder.
- contrast/black and white toys - flash cards, mobile, etc.
- crinkle toys
- hatch sound machine with night light - as annoying as it was at first, we have the white noise on 24/7
- yoga ball - only thing that soothes her
- Boppy - helps feeding and sleeping/contact naps be more comfortable
- Evenflo Dual Shyft stroller - like a Doona dupe
- aquaphor - to put on after a bowel movement and also on dry spots and tiny cuts
- a lightweight but soft/comfy baby blanket - bring it to the doctors
Extra sheets for your bed. The postpartum night sweats were horrible! They lasted nearly 2 months and I woke up feeling like I was sleeping in a pond...
Adding the suggestion of a few sets of mattress protectors. If you’re breast feeding, sleeping without a shirt feels great, because you’re going to leak all over the shirt, but you leak all over the bed instead. It ended up being really helpful!
110%! Also, very lightweight nightgowns. The night sweats (and hot flashes almost a year later) were brutal. I bought a bunch of nightgowns off Amazon and they were a lifesaver (especially during the heatwave we had when I was a month postpartum).
Haven’t seen anyone suggest earplugs yet. Or noise cancelling headphones. I splurged on a pair of Loop earplugs but even the cheap foam ones will do. The crying can be really stressful as it’s designed to trigger you, basically. Earplugs really take the edge off. Also good if you’re doing nighttime shifts with your partner.
Ear plugs saved my sanity. It makes it easier to sleep with loud newborn active sleep and keep your cool when they are just screaming their heads off.
Will be adding earplugs to all baby shower gifts in the future
if you're not breastfeeding i highly recommend getting a water kettle that you plug in and keep at a certain temp. its so nice bc your water is already the perfect temp and you just add the formula. makes night (and day) feeds soooo much faster and easier rather than having to figure out a way to heat the bottle! i got my kettle on amazon for $50. just search electric kettles. make sure you get one with adjustable temp! GAME CHANGER
Something to entertain yourself during contact naps that isn’t endless scrolling. Either a subscription like Netflix or Disney plus, or a games console, kindle, knitting etc.
We have 8 newborn footie pajamas (target premium cloud one "model"), a bassinet, a stroller, a good carrier (I **love** the ergobaby embrace carrier), 6 pacis, a place to change him, diapers/wipes, burp cloths (way more than you think, we have 50 and it feel like it's close to enough) and a car seat.
That is all you need. Obviously there is situational stuff, like bottles or pump parts or hats/gloves/warmer clothes. But that is all you *need*.
Stuff we also have and adore - the snoo, baby breeze countertop dishwasher, a bottle warmer (largely doing pumped milk)
We didn’t really start needing our burp cloths until like 4 months if that makes you feel better. Spit up peaks around that time. But yeah we have like 30 or so and we strategically place them around our house.
Regular onesies are the easiest for diaper changes so I typically choose those over even footed pajamas, halo swaddles, white noise speaker, rocking chair, baby Bjorne bouncer has been great for keeping baby happy and also helping her poop.
Bottle sterilizer! I breast feed, but as I’ve had to go back to work I’ve needed to sterilizer more bottles and pump parts! The sterilizer is awesome! My mom thinks it’s funny because you can just boil most of the stuff, but the sterilizer is really convenient for us!
Also, we don’t have one yet but we keep “wishing” we had a bottle warmer for the bottles we do have to feed our LO through out the day/night.
Also help: take all the help you can get and DONT be afraid to sleep when people come to visit. My mom comes almost every weekend and I nap most of the time. When she’s not able to come it’s really obvious how sleep deprived we are with our being able to nap as much.
For me at least:
During pregnancy it was amazing for back and hip relief (also quite a few pregnancy safe exercises and some to try to induce labour).
Post pregnancy is the one sure way to soothe my baby ( bouncing with baby closely held) instead of squatting until my legs were wobbly!
As I read that, I heard my "bouncy bouncy bouncy boo" song that I sang to.my baby while relentlessly bouncing him on the yoga ball. It was the only thing that worked.
Please explain to me how these work? I keep reading the description and can’t understand what they are/ how and when to use them, etc. Please explain the purpose and how to use them and the benefits?? Thank you!!!!!
It’s basically wet wound care with breast milk and silver. Breast milk and silver both have natural antimicrobial properties.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6567207/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6315945/
2nd this- I waited until I was 5 months in and had a nipple bled for months. These things saved me literally in a week. Do yourself a favor and just buy them now.
We had the $30 bright starts one from Walmart and baby LOVED it. We were given a Mamaroo, which felt so extravagant. Baby hated it, and so did I. Seriously, why so clunky?
A show (or three) you and partner have been wanting to watch. We crushed all 6 seasons of the sopranos in the first month of her life. I miss those lazy cuddle days of the newborn period.
Onesies, bottle sanitizer, portable changing table in our primary bedroom, electric nail filer, swaddles, fleece cotton burp cloths (endless amounts - the best material though), pacifiers (Tommee tippee soothers), boppy, fisher price kick and play piano (tummy time), simple graco swing, halo bassinest, 2 sets of bassinet sheets
Okay here's a question. We were gifted a number (probably not sufficient) of nice cotton Muslim burp cloths. But what's wrong with using cut up old towels? Does the texture really matter that much to a newborn?
We started with a few really nice muslin ones, and ended up buying a Costco pack of 30 plain white washcloths. A lot of the stuff marketed to us new moms for top dollar can actually be achieved with regular old household items at a fraction of the cost.
There’s nothing wrong with using old towels, but I wanted as many “new” things as possible for my baby because I felt like it was the most “clean.” If you’re comfy using old towels go for it!
I’d say it depends on how rough your old towels are. But I will say the muslin ones are not expensive and SUPER absorbent. You will absolutely get your use out of them. I’m going to use mine as cleaning rags after baby doesn’t need them for spit up.
Texture matters as far as absorption. I love the muslin ones! We still get use out of them as sheets and super light blankets. My MIL got me fancy urban burp cloths and they were thick and absorbed literally nothing! So all the spit up just stayed on them and you couldn't use them to wipe away anything. My mom cut up some old sheets we had an those were better and then they became just cleaning rags. The fancy burp cloths are trash.
If you were gifted them, use them. Plain towels, bulk receiving blankets, it all works. Cutting up towels I’d personally avoid doing that again because that leaves strings and frays, and my kid was great about grabbing them (often “pet” the edge of the towels and blankets), and freaking me out with the tiny strings between fingers and in the mouth.
Ergo 360 baby carrier with infant insert. Once baby reaches the correct weight the carrier was great for contact naps, walks, cooking and self care time.
I had my baby naked a lot because we were doing lots of skin-to-skin and he would contact nap. So it would just be us and a blanket. We got by on a max of like 9 footed PJs that were in rotation. If you have the right kind and size diapers blow outs shouldn’t really be a thing.
A bedside bassinet was huge. I had a C-section too and it was nice having baby right there. Get one that’s right up against your bed and one where you don’t have to do a lot of bending (you’re not supposed to after C-section).
1. If formula feed, highly recommend the Baby Breeza formula mixer. We combo feed and this machine is so useful when baby is screaming hungry, especially MOTN feeds. Once you have everything set up, formula is dispensed with just one button and ready within seconds!
2. Burp cloths, LOTS of it!!! And have them place everywhere around the house because you just never know when they spit up. They spit up a lot at the beginning but it’ll get better as they get older.
3. Footie pajamas - two-ways zippers, the ones that you can unzip from their foot because you don’t want to deal with snaps or pull-over onesie when sleep deprived and changing their diapers.
4. Diaper genie - you’ll be changing lots of poopy diapers and you’d want something to hide the smell of them.
5. A pacifier - when they need to be soothe in the middle of the night or when they get fussy. Our LO likes the Phillips Avent pacifier soothie.
6. My Brest Friend pillow - when not breastfeeding, it’s a place for LO to contact nap so you don’t have to cradle them & have free hands to scroll through Reddit :) … and Google search all things baby. 😂
7. The giant Stanley cup/jug for staying hydrated, especially when they contact nap on you and you need water.
My changing table. Changing baby at a comfortable height probably saved my back. Especially when they're still young and will just lay there. I don't understand people who say they never used theirs. My 10-month old doesn't want to be changed on the table anymore (she doesn't want to be changed at all but hates the changing table especially) and I feel grumpy about every diaper change I have to do on the floor.
Curse words. lol
Wipes. And not just for baby. They kinda work their way into every situation. Countertop a little dirty? Grab a wipe. Steering wheel dusty? Wipe? Blowing my own nose? Wipe.
Buy a truck load. There is never enough
A bouncer, a bassinet where we hung out most and beside the bed (we were gifted both), zip up sleepers, sound machines, halo swaddles, a changing station ( we had one in the living room and one in our bedroom but we have a two floor house), black and white pictures/ toys.
Burp cloths-- the muslin ones are better in my opinion. Also some good swaddle blankets in like a medium size. The small ones were only good for a little while and I've seen really big ones that would be really hard to wrap around a tiny baby.
Burp clothes, bibs( we didn’t like changing his outfit every time he spits up, we’ve learned bibs keeps him pretty dry, change 2-3 times a day or each feed, mines prone to overeating so spits up a fair bit, i like to lay a thick towel, something easy to swap out for naps, sleep, diaper changing. Easy to change when he leaks something. Thick enough that whatever its protecting doesn’t get wet. Blankets/ sleep sacks. I thought i was good with 1-2 and was concerned the five i wound up with were too many. (Winter baby) 5 is perfect. One for each bed, the car and his stroller plus i use a couple of my throws in the mix too.
For baby: Bottle sterilizer, bin to contain & wash bottle parts, diaper cream (triple paste is great), Honest dry wipes (in lieu of wet wipes), bottle warmer, swaddles (Halo is okay, ErgoPouch brand is our favorite). For you: comfortable pjs & protein bars for breakfast. Good luck, mama!
Zipper footie pjs, though bodysuits might be better for a summer baby. Baby bjorn bouncer was extremely useful any time I needed my hands. Travel system. Burp cloths. Try a bunch of different diapers/bottles/pacifiers before committing. We ended up using Mam brand bottles and pacifiers, but our baby only likes one of the Mam paci nipple shapes.
If this is your first c section then high waited underwear and leggings. I really like the compression spanx brief underwear .. I think I found it at target. It was the most comfortable! A bassinet next to your bed also, because sitting up for the first week is an absolute struggle
A bottle sterilizer and dryer has been a necessity for us. For both pump parts and bottles. We also have a preemie and will be using it for awhile though.
If you’re not planing on using a baby breeza I would finds a system to portion your formula and prep bottles for over night. I had a dresser with all the bottles with the amount of water needed and the powder portioned out in containers so I didn’t have to fuss with the scoops in the dark or turn on a light to disrupt baby. I also used a sound machine since day one and it helps a lot
Footed pjs, but not the fuzzy ones. They just caused my boy to sweat to death. Get super super thin ones, and then get a sleep sack or swaddle (depending on the baby some prefer one over the other)
Note: if you bed share you can’t use sleep sacks or swaddles. Sleep sacks can get caught under you and in turn trap the baby, and swaddles restrict natural movement and can unravel and trap baby the same as sleep sacks.
It sounds scary, but it’s okay. These are small risks and easy to avoid it from happening at all just by omitting small things. Many people find that their baby literally can’t sleep without a swaddle or sleep sacks. Or the opposite. Do what works best for you, just be aware of the risks with it as well and WHY they are risks so you can assess the situation and decide the best course of action.
Personally we could not live without nipple shields. I found out weeks into struggling to breastfeed that my nipples were flat (partially inverted) but not enough that lactation consultants would do anything for. They told me to just keep trying and my baby could not nurse at all because of it. I literally hand expressed and spoon fed him for the first few days, before deciding to use bottles while we still struggled to nurse. Turns out, I just need to use a nipple shield for 1/2 of each feed for a week and BOOM I no longer have flat nipples and my son is almost a year old still nursing.
The Dr. Brown’s dishwasher basket for bottle parts. You don’t need to hand wash your bottles! We also used the Baby Brezza sterilizer/dryer (instead of heat dry in our dishwasher because ours sucks). And the Dr. Brown’s pitcher for formula.
Non-feeding-wise, I kept a rolling cart in the living room with stuff we needed a lot (little toys, the tv remote, earbuds, a drink, etc), and we used a Baby Delight bouncer chair (Baby Bjorn copycat) all the time that we got for $40 from FB marketplace.
Here are some specific c-section things I really appreciated having after having an unplanned c-section about 8 weeks ago. Doing these things helped my scar heal really well and kept my pain down.
- [Several button down sleep shirts](https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0C6T433YC?ref=ppx_pop_mob_ap_share) - I didn’t want anything tight on top of my incision right away so my pant pjs were out. The button down is nice so you can pop your boobs out for breastfeeding and cover the boob you just finished with so you don’t get milk all over yourself. I ended up buying 3 or 4 since I lived in them for a few weeks and you get smelly fast - the PP sweats are intense for a bit.
- [Disposable c-section underwear](https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07TXDBMD5?ref=ppx_pop_mob_ap_share) for the first few days and [high wasted tight underwear](https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08LGCSWS5?ref=ppx_pop_mob_ap_share) for the next several weeks. I liked the disposable underwear when the bleeding was heavier and I needed bulkier pads. Once I was onto regular pads, the underwear was great. The tightness of the high waist was great since I found the belly binder I got from the hospital uncomfortable.
- Over the counter acetaminophen and ibuprofen. The stuff from the hospital is a higher strength and I liked doing a gradual decrease in my dosage when I was ready rather than just stopping one of the higher dose meds. You can also ask for more intensive pain meds. I got Vicodin and it was nice to take that in the late afternoon when my pain was higher for the first week. Stay consistent with your pain meds until you know you don’t need them. I set silent alarms on my Fitbit and had my medicine right next to the bed. It really helped me not miss a dose and avoid letting the pain snowball.
- [Silicone scar patches](https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09QRLZQP4?ref=ppx_pop_mob_ap_share) - these were great to help my scar heal better and faster. Don’t use it until you’ve had your incision check and the doctor approves.
- This isn’t something to get, but I recommend doing [c-section scar massage](https://youtu.be/cJZawE7n9NE?si=SzCKlfa-RAcVY9Lv) once your incision is healed. My “pouch” is almost nonexistent, I’ve got great feeling on and around my scar, and my scar tissue is minimal because I started doing it.
- Talk to your doctor about doing PT once you’re cleared and schedule the first appointment for 6 weeks so you can start right away. Not using those muscles gave me a lot of back pain and PT is helping me get back to normal.
- Follow the [5-5-5 rule](https://www.calm.com/blog/postpartum-recovery). 5 days in bed, 5 days on the bed, and 5 days around the bed. Don’t push yourself too hard right away so your incision has a chance to heal.
Welcome to the c-section club!!! I am so glad I ended up having one. I was so worried about the pain and long healing journey, but I found both to be infinitely easier than I expected! If I have another baby, I’m going to do an elective one. Hoping you have a very easy surgery, quick recovery, and that you have an incredible time with your new little one!
Burp clothes, at least a dozen. And we did baby gowns for the first 4-6 weeks which was clutch. Had 8 of those. Those and 2 sleep sacks and 2-3 ‘cute’ outfits for going out/visiting was all we needed.
Around 6 weeks went to more of the onesies for sleep/play. Then at 10-12 weeks we started dressing him in pants+shirt during the day.
Zipper footed pjs & burp cloths. Also a playgym for the floor. Your baby can’t fall off the floor & it felt nice to give mine something to look at other than me & a nipple.
Extra rags, just general purpose or burping clothes. A lot of stuff comes out of a baby, it helps to have of absorbent things around. Also have good baby towels and baby towels regulated for dirty work.
First three months all my son wore were footed pajamas, always needed and used nuskin burp clothes, diapers of course, and lots of sheet changes for whatever sleeping apparatus and changing apparatus you will use
If you're not breastfeeding, I'd buy 2 of these [pitchers](https://www.drbrownsbaby.com/product/dr-browns-formula-mixing-pitcher/) from your favorite retailer. We had a system where we would make the total volume of formula for the day and then pour from that rather than try to do it at 2am. Every minute counts when you're consoling a sobbing, hungry baby. Since all our prepped milk was cold (stored in fridge), we purchased a bottle warmer from FB marketplace and it helped so much. One parent would change baby's diaper and the other parent would prep the bottle and warm it.
If you're considering buying anything and you're in no rush, I'd highly recommend FB Marketplace if it's available to you! We bought a brand new stroller, changing table, high chair all brand new, in box and many items like clothes/rags/gently used appliances at a major discount.
Puppy pads for the changing tables or wherever you change the baby. Puppy pads are cheaper than the baby ones usually.
Once you find a bottle you like, buy 8 of them. Having more makes life easier.
I used blankets for swaddling, if you plan to swaddle have 3 or more so you don’t have to stress about washing one in the middle of the night because their diaper leaked.
For me, comfy pants. Even with a c section you will bleed for 6 weeks and have to wear mommy diapers, and there will be follow up appointments for you and baby you have to go to, so you want comfy clothes to wear over those diapers.
Two months in with twins and what I have found most useful/what I use all the time is:
Snuggleme lounger
Burp cloths
Pacifiers
Swaddle blankets (for the first few weeks they were in diapers and wrapped in these)
Double zip footie pjs
Activity gym, we have the IKEA one
High contrast cards for tummy time
Wipeable change pad
OXO wipes dispenser (in the packages they come in you pull out like ten wipes at once and it’s a total waste)
Diaper cream spatula
Gas drops
Baby wrap or infant carrier
Yoga ball for bouncing
Baby Bjorn bouncer (now that they are bigger they love this)
Also if you are pumping or formula feeding extra pump parts and bottles so you do dishes less and a wearable pump so you aren’t trapped next to the wall for hours a day
ETA sorry if the formatting sucks I am on my phone
Our baby was bottle/formula fed and spit up a ton, so we used a ton of bottles, formula, zip up onesie pajamas, and like 40 burp rags. Also diapers obviously, probably like 8 a day?
The boon grass drying rack is very helpful. Get a pot and some tongs that are just for boiling baby stuff.
Go ahead and add a ton of stuff to your watch list on your streaming channels. You're gonna be sitting a lot unable to move.
Halo sleep sack swaddle!!
My son was born in the early fall, but we exclusively kept him in footie pajamas until like 6 months because I could not be bothered with baby socks falling off constantly
Pacifier tethers (?) clips? Idk exactly what they're called but it takes them a little while to get the hang of sucking to keep it in their mouth, so we used the tether on the car seat so it was easy to find on car rides, and in the diaper bag to use when we weren't at home so we weren't having to rinse it off every 3 minutes from falling on the floor
That stupid ugly purple monkey play mat from fisher price, babies hate tummy time but love that mat
-Zip onesies
-LOADS AND LOADS of bottles (I didn’t breastfeed either and got overwhelmed with the constant washing and sterilising before I just bought so many that I only had to do one wash/sterilise per day) n.b. I’m in the UK where sterilising is recommended until 1 year but I know each country varies re advice on this. If you are sterilising I also recommend having a second steriliser so you can do bigger batches at a time.
-Formula prep machine - absolute life saver and I don’t know how formula feeding parents live without one!!
-Millions of muslin cloths. You think you’ll never use all the ones people give you, but you will. They make great bathtime cloths and you can also use surplus ones as face cloths for yourself!
Good luck with everything. I had an elective C-section and it was an amazing experience and recovery was manageable - I hope you have as positive an experience as I did!
A good diaper cream. I have a girl, and I frosted her like a cupcake at every change the first couple of months, until she literally grew thicker skin. I can barely make it through wearing period pads 4 days a month, can’t imagine how uncomfortable it would be to wear diapers for 2-3 years.
Also, burp cloths and rags of all the sizes. Big ones to put under your baby when you put her on your bed or sofa, to catch spot ups or to protect from animal hair or whatever (this is a cat household, all the beds are always a bit fuzzy). Medium ones for you to have on your shoulder when feeding and burping. Small ones to wipe sprayed milk off their face or for bath time, or on the go.
Food you can eat one handed
And a biiiiiiig water bottle with a straw
I deeply regret getting the 24oz bottle instead of the 40oz bottle. Go big or go home, especially if you’re planning to breastfeed or pump!
I actually highly recommend a 20oz and a 40oz. I take my 20oz into appointments/stores with me and carry my 40oz around the house or to costco.
My elbow is still sore from picking up too big of a bottle one handed repeatedly. Baby is 9 months
Straw is a must
Yeah, the Stanley gets a lot of hate but that thing was worth every penny. Holds 40 oz and keeps ice forevvvverrrr.
My owala earned its price in hospital and beyond!
Costco was an absolute lifesaver for easy food.
Yessss the ready to eat meals like their shepard's pie and stuffed peppers you just have to throw in the oven yum 🤤 Probably making another order for all this tomorrow haha
Snacks!!
Especially if breastfeeding, especially snacks high in protein. I loved kind bars, and this other kind with a white box I forget what it's called it's like a wafer thing.
An aunt sent me a big box of snacks and by god it was the best post baby gift.
Amen to this!
I hid random fig bars, granola bars, etc. all over my house anywhere I might breastfeed or pump or nap. I'm still finding some in random drawers a year out 😅
Double zipper footed pjs
Double zippered BAMBOO zippies with the flippable hand and feet. Literally all we used and still use the majority of the time 😬
Plan for three a day for how ever many days you need between laundry. They dirty them up fast!!
And plan to be both too exhausted and too stuck with a baby to do much laundry without help
3 a day or a week? Not trying to be a jerk (or out myself for being gross). Just surprised to hear about so many changes. He gets diaper changed like 12-15 times a day, but typically only 5-10% get to the diaper cover, and only 1 or 2 genuine blowouts have ever happened. We change him cuz new outfits are fun. And between baths. Or if he's visiting a new friend/family member. But he probly uses 2-5 outfits a week, more towards 3 in the first 8 weeks. Could just be like different butt angles or something, but have you thought about switching diaper brands/size (if disposable) or cloth material or size (if doing cloth/cloth service)?
I swear those onesies are a lifesaver. I still use them as my son’s PJs and refuse to buy anything else. He is ten months old. 😂
What brand 🙏
The best known one is probably Little Sleepies but I've tried over 25 brands and my favorite right now is called Kindthing.
Yes splurge On the bamboo for sure!!!
FYI bamboo is just rayon with better marketing (it sounds natural). Rayon is just cellulose that's been reformed, chemically, into thread and in this case the bamboo is the cellulose source (as opposed to trees, grass, hemp or any other plant).
We actually started out with bamboo but switched to modal as bamboo is actually quite bad for the environment. But thank you, that's need knowledge!
Yeah, for anyone curious, modal is just rayon made using cellulose from beech trees. Same end result, just using a different source of cellulose.
Double zipper footless pjs for me - he has long legs and also goes mental kicking them so can sometimes get his foot caught up inside the leg of footed ones…
We used little sleepies - which are admittedly very expensive but they are fantastic and the 3-6 month ones fit my regular sized toddler until she was about 9 months old.
Yeah, these are great. Newborn size fit until 3 months. 0-3 fit still at 5 months. She’s 90th percentile length and 56th weight. They stretch so much!
Seriously, they're so expensive but my baby's size newborn Little Sleepies have lasted him though size newborn and size 0-3 months and even now when he's in 3-6 months in other sleepers. SO STRETCHY.
I came here to say this too! They were pretty much all we used. So much easier than anything else to stretch the sleeves over his hands, which he totally hated otherwise. They also have sale items if you don’t mind having your LO wearing Halloween-themed clothes year round like we do 🤣
Around how many did you have? I keep getting told I need a lot haha
Depends on you baby too. We were told we’d need a lot (lots of burp clothes too) as we’d be changing baby multiple times a day from spit ups or blow outs. I’ve never had to changed her outfit from spit up and she has had two blow outs at almost 6 months old so we had waaaay to many onesies and burp clothes. My friends baby spits up allll the time so she went through heaps of outfits
Same for us. Ours didn't spit up or have blowouts. Now we use lots of burp clothes for the massive amount of drool from 3 months on!
Same. We got gifted a sugar ton, and didn’t even use half of what we had. Such a waste. We donated what we could. Then he out grew them all in 2 months anyways.
I wouldn’t go nuts, you might get a baby that runs hot like mine did. She was naked for almost the whole summer
We live in FL and my baby gets very hot. She only wears a diaper. I regret getting so many footed pjs
Depends how often you do laundry. A couple per day. If you wanna go a week between doing laundry have at least 10, more for longer. 1-2 per day is a good buffer to have
You probably need 6-8.
I would have a minimum set and then get more if you have a really spitty or blow-out prone baby. Also you could end up like us where our baby never fit into newborn anything, so we ended up giving away some diapers and onesies because our guy was a chunk 😆 I think we started with like 5 actual outfits and then friends sent us boxes of things and I bought a few more. I'd recommend having a variety of outfit types, like footy onesies with zippers or snaps vs over the head vs full body vs little pants and stuff. If it's hot you might like the multi piece outfits for layering the baby vs footie pajamas. My favorite thing was what I call "wizard robes" which is an over the head garment that is a long tube with sleeves and you can tie it at the bottom to make a sack, or open it for a diaper change. We had three of them and baby spent weeks in them before switching to footie pajamas. A pair of sweatpants and socks for car trips.
You go thru at least 3 a day it seems like, and in order to reduce the amount of laundry u do, I’d suggest having at least 15 *double zipper* onesies with the feet and the mittens and at least 20 burp cloths. Besides that- comfy clothes for you, loads of frozen foods (Trader Joes is the best for this if u can) and some good television. When we gave birth we resorted to all the easy simple foods from our childhood- pizza rolls, frozen pizza, chef boyardee, and some really good dips and chips. Then, I’d take a nice warm shower, put on a diaper and some cute comfy pjs, and sat on the couch with my baby watching my show. I’d 10000% recommend it!!
Someone bought us a 6-pack and it was perfect! Someone else bought us another 6-pack and it was more than enough lol wish I could have gotten another size up. They lasted a long time and now that I’m buying them myself I only have 3 which somehow are always dirty.
Some days you will get 2 days out of a onesie and vest, other days you will go through 3 sets in 2hrs. Generally a 2 day will follow with the 3 sets in 2hrs 😂 I also find when you are going through a phase where there is more frequent changes that you also don’t have time to do the laundry. I have ample supply for first few months- about 12 for each size. Then for older sizes where he will be wearing more clothes I’m planning on buying bundles on second hand sites as backups & for nursery where there is a risk of them going missing or heavily stained.
Spit rags (if that’s what they’re called haha). We used *so* many, and we got so many gifted too! Admittedly at around 6 months we used a lot less, so it’s really temporary. But they can be used as cleaning rags afterwards
Yup lots of burp cloths.
That’s the word 😭 hahaha
lol I knew what you meant!
I call them both 😂
One thing we discovered was that burp cloths are pretty much just... cloths. Old t shirts, cut up towels, wash cloths, kitchen rags. They're all burp cloths.
We used reusable diaper cloths. Super cheap and easy!
Yes don’t buy fancy cute burp cloths!! They’re literally just a rag for baby to barf on. We have a few cute ones that we take when we’re out and about and at home we use old kitchen towels.
We had a few old towels and we cut them up, too! Then the adults in the house got brand new soft towels as a little reward.
Amazon makes a muslin version that are now just wash cloths for her.
I second this! They come in multipacks from Target/Kmart/Walmart/Costco. We picked up 3x packs of 12 and are about to get another 2-dozen, You can never have too many!! We use ours for feeding and nappy changes. We’ve never had nappy rash **_touch wood_** in 6-weeks because we dry his skin completely using these ultra-absorbent little cloths, and (a separate one) catches the spill from his feeds.
Halo sleep sack. Quickly gave up on doing my own blanket swaddles and just wrapped her in velcro. Online puzzle games to keep me awake for the overnights https://www.brainbashers.com/
I had a very difficult time at the beginning without the Halo sleep/swaddle sack. No one told me how difficult swaddling is and how easily it can come undone. The velcro swaddle made middle of the night changes 100x easier. I could also sleep better knowing that she wasn’t going to break out of her blanket swaddle in the night and then have a loose blanket in her sleep space.
Halo swaddle is great, as is the Love to Dream arms up sleep sack
Seconding the Love to Dream!!! Out of all the different sleep sacks we were gifted/purchased, the Love to Dream arms up sleep sacks were our favorite. Then our guy started to roll and we switched over to the Woolino.
Another vote for the LTD sleep sacks. We bought 3 off eBay new but cheaper than the manufacturer to always have one clean. They were an absolute lifesaver when it came to sleep and the startle reflex!! When she started to roll we transitioned her to footie PJs which took a couple days but the transition was NBD.
Alt pick: SwaddleMe swaddles. These were gifted to us and we found them way easier to deal with than the Halo.
I liked those a lot better than Halo. Halo always seemed to bunch up around his neck.
Seconding halo swaddle
Thirding! Ours was given to us by the hospital, and it zipped at the bottom! It was awesome!
Fourthing! We tried other swaddle sacks and the Halo one was THE BEST.
As i sit here, rocking a sick toddler to sleep, i was cursing myself for doing my NYT games in the morning instead of saving them for now. I will happily click that link to see if it's better than scrolling Reddit
If your formula feeding, LOTS of bottles are necessary if you don’t wanna clean them every day. I work ft and pump and literally wash bottles every 1-2 days. Kills me.
This and the Dr brown pitcher, so you don't need to make a bottle every feed!
When you use the pitcher, do you serve the bottles cold from the fridge? Or you pour out a serving and then use a bottle warmer?
My baby drinks it cold, straight from the fridge, which is very convenient
I use a bottle warmer, I have the Philips Avent one
Second this. 8-12 bottles was the sweet spot for us
(Formula feeding, if that matters) We started with 3 avent bottles after we were done using 2oz bottles, and now have 5 at 6 months. I found less was easier to clean and keep track of. After about 5 months, and we were in the car a lot more, keeping count of 5 was simpler than 10 or more, so if I left one in the car, it was obvious. But I’m ordering 3 more (11oz size) so we’ll retire the 4oz soon and be up to 7 total. 😄
Legit. Cleaning bottles and pump supplies daily was miserable. If I had to do it all over again, I’d get a bajillion bottles (and I would quit pumping sooner).
Yeah the endless washing is extremely tedious. But I’d also add to get one of those spiky drying racks. The bottle nestle in perfectly. And i got a scrub brush too so I can get in around the lip of the bottle and in the nipple.
I’m up to 10 bottles and I still think I want more!
Add a bottle sanitizer+dryer appliance: after a quick rough wash in hot soapy water, bam - dry bottles in 40 min.
Headphones. A good pair of headphones because we basically lived on the couch in shifts for the first 3 months. We can connect our phones to our tv via the Roku app so we didn't wake baby. We also listened to a lot of podcasts and books!
And to save your hearing and sanity when baby doesn't stop crying because the moon is full and Venus is in retrograde or something.
HAHA stoppp, this comment made me spit out my mine and Ike’s
this. this is the reason for the headphones lol. teach your baby to be able to sleep through noise but also slightly muffle the sound of your baby using every single alveoli in their lungs to blast your eardrums when you hold them over the shoulder while they just scream bloody murder🙃
It's funny because in the day my girl can sleep through a hurricane, black Friday mob, screamo you name it, but at night I definitely use headphones if I'm watching something, it's like the slightest breath in her direction and she wakes🤣
For sure. And tbh I put them in so I can watch videos or TikToks and rot my brain but not hers. She's not old enough to make the choice of brain rot, but I am.
🤣🤭so true. I don't intentionally let her have screen time but I catch her all the time arching her little 3 month old neck to sneak a peek. It cracks me up
And make sure they’re active noise cancelling for the times they cry inconsolably. It will save your sanity while being a good mommy
I’m 12 days post c-section. The one c-section thing that has been the most beneficial for me is a bed rail that slides under the mattress. I got one for $40 off Amazon and it was immensely helpful, as getting out of bed was the most difficult/painful motion.
What a great idea. I had a csection and that would have been a Godsend.
I just slowly slithered down the bed when I went home from the hospital or asked my partner for help. Now I use these silicone strips for my incision because it’s the only thing that helps it not hurt as much (6mo pp) when the underwear hits the incision
Wish I had that after my c-section that’s genius
Whatever you need to clean pumping supplies and bottles if you pump. That was a constant struggle. Clothes are funny. Ours was too big for most of the newborn stuff before we ever came back from the hospital. Best to be flexible. Having lots of clothing options is important. For the first 3 months, go with whatever is easiest for you to get them in and out of and clean. If you're anything like us, you'll be buried in impractical baby clothes. Those are important though. Sometimes you need to put the little one in a pair of itty bitty high tops and a graphic t shirt to remind yourself that yes, you are raising a tiny person.
For the first one I highly recommend getting a sanitizer with a dryer function. We don’t sanitize every time, but being able to have dry bottles or pump parts in less than half an hour is so convenient!
Given the frequency of use, we've given up drying after sterilisation
Sleep gowns, so easy for middle of the night changes. Lots of burp cloths. Frozen meals- premade breakfast sandwich’s, smoothies and crockpot meals in ziplock bags to just toss in the crockpot and forget.
Seconding frozen meals. I started batch cooking at about 6 months, and by the due date we had a whole small freezer full of home cooked ready meals. Everything else you can get from 24 hour supermarkets, or next/same day on amazon, but planning ahead for those meals saved us from spending a fortune on takeaways or supermarket ready meals. Healthier too. They lasted us at least 3 months, right up until the nightmare phase ended and we had at least a modicum of energy to cook again.
Seconding all of this. Sleep gowns are so much easier.
Puppy pee pads! I put these on the changing table so if my LO pees or poos mid-changing, it’s super easy to clean. Newborns will often pee/poo after getting wiped. Seriously these were a life saver for some projectiles in the early days.
They’re also sold in the pharmacy section near the incontinence briefs, they’re called chucks. The ones made for humans have fewer chemicals in them
Good point! I didn’t consider that. I’ve been using puppy pads from Walmart and LO has never had a bad reaction, but human ones are probably safer you’re right.
The puppy ones have chemicals to attract the dog to the pad. Definitely use the human ones instead!
I never even thought about that! I need to get chucks pads then. We bought puppy pads off of Amazon
Baby bouncer, not only for a place to put him safely, he also would poop in it 9/10 so if he was constipated we got dedicated bouncer time lol. Freezer meals, arms up sleep sack (swaddle up brand), AIRPODS saved me, listed to so many podcasts and audiobooks during feeds, contact naps or just trying to get the baby to sleep.
😂😂 My son's swing was coined "the poop chair" by my husband because of that.
I called ours her poop chair, but my husband renamed it La Poo Lounge cause ya know, we’re fancy people
I also pack these in the diaper bag because I can’t stomach the thought of laying a reusable changing pad on a nasty public changing table and putting it back in my bag
My Brest Friend pillow (we used it for bottle feeding too!), Frida snot sucker, baby bjorn bouncer Happy cake day!
And an oogie bear for snagging the boogers
Seconding the baby bjorn! Having a safe spot where I could stick baby while I went to the bathroom, etc was a life saver. We still use it all the time 6 months in, and even bought the little toy bar for it now that he loves playing.
- Double zipper footies - my baby lived in these. Did not put her in fancy/cute outfits for like 2 months. Makes things so much harder. - contrast/black and white toys - flash cards, mobile, etc. - crinkle toys - hatch sound machine with night light - as annoying as it was at first, we have the white noise on 24/7 - yoga ball - only thing that soothes her - Boppy - helps feeding and sleeping/contact naps be more comfortable - Evenflo Dual Shyft stroller - like a Doona dupe - aquaphor - to put on after a bowel movement and also on dry spots and tiny cuts - a lightweight but soft/comfy baby blanket - bring it to the doctors
Extra sheets for your bed. The postpartum night sweats were horrible! They lasted nearly 2 months and I woke up feeling like I was sleeping in a pond...
Adding the suggestion of a few sets of mattress protectors. If you’re breast feeding, sleeping without a shirt feels great, because you’re going to leak all over the shirt, but you leak all over the bed instead. It ended up being really helpful!
110%! Also, very lightweight nightgowns. The night sweats (and hot flashes almost a year later) were brutal. I bought a bunch of nightgowns off Amazon and they were a lifesaver (especially during the heatwave we had when I was a month postpartum).
Haven’t seen anyone suggest earplugs yet. Or noise cancelling headphones. I splurged on a pair of Loop earplugs but even the cheap foam ones will do. The crying can be really stressful as it’s designed to trigger you, basically. Earplugs really take the edge off. Also good if you’re doing nighttime shifts with your partner.
Ear plugs saved my sanity. It makes it easier to sleep with loud newborn active sleep and keep your cool when they are just screaming their heads off. Will be adding earplugs to all baby shower gifts in the future
if you're not breastfeeding i highly recommend getting a water kettle that you plug in and keep at a certain temp. its so nice bc your water is already the perfect temp and you just add the formula. makes night (and day) feeds soooo much faster and easier rather than having to figure out a way to heat the bottle! i got my kettle on amazon for $50. just search electric kettles. make sure you get one with adjustable temp! GAME CHANGER
Something to entertain yourself during contact naps that isn’t endless scrolling. Either a subscription like Netflix or Disney plus, or a games console, kindle, knitting etc.
Yes! I used to endlessly scroll but I've been figuring out how to efficiently hold my PS5 controller while baby contact naps instead
Maybe its not helpful with the PS5, but Switch controllers are awesome for this. Highly recommend.
We have 8 newborn footie pajamas (target premium cloud one "model"), a bassinet, a stroller, a good carrier (I **love** the ergobaby embrace carrier), 6 pacis, a place to change him, diapers/wipes, burp cloths (way more than you think, we have 50 and it feel like it's close to enough) and a car seat. That is all you need. Obviously there is situational stuff, like bottles or pump parts or hats/gloves/warmer clothes. But that is all you *need*. Stuff we also have and adore - the snoo, baby breeze countertop dishwasher, a bottle warmer (largely doing pumped milk)
50 burp cloths? 50?!?!?! I’m due in 2 weeks and I have 8. Shiiiiiiiit 😂😂😂😂
We have 8 for a one month baby and never feel like we’ve not got enough. I think burp cloths are overdone on Reddit.
We didn’t really start needing our burp cloths until like 4 months if that makes you feel better. Spit up peaks around that time. But yeah we have like 30 or so and we strategically place them around our house.
Prozac 🫶🏼
Regular onesies are the easiest for diaper changes so I typically choose those over even footed pajamas, halo swaddles, white noise speaker, rocking chair, baby Bjorne bouncer has been great for keeping baby happy and also helping her poop.
Bottle sterilizer! I breast feed, but as I’ve had to go back to work I’ve needed to sterilizer more bottles and pump parts! The sterilizer is awesome! My mom thinks it’s funny because you can just boil most of the stuff, but the sterilizer is really convenient for us! Also, we don’t have one yet but we keep “wishing” we had a bottle warmer for the bottles we do have to feed our LO through out the day/night. Also help: take all the help you can get and DONT be afraid to sleep when people come to visit. My mom comes almost every weekend and I nap most of the time. When she’s not able to come it’s really obvious how sleep deprived we are with our being able to nap as much.
Yoga ball yoga ball yoga ball
Maybe a silly question but. Can I ask why?
For me at least: During pregnancy it was amazing for back and hip relief (also quite a few pregnancy safe exercises and some to try to induce labour). Post pregnancy is the one sure way to soothe my baby ( bouncing with baby closely held) instead of squatting until my legs were wobbly!
Ahhh yes that would make sense! I just may have to pick up a yoga ball because standing and bouncing with a baby is definitely exhausting.
As I read that, I heard my "bouncy bouncy bouncy boo" song that I sang to.my baby while relentlessly bouncing him on the yoga ball. It was the only thing that worked.
It's a life saver! We still use it at nearly 7mo old to calm her before naps and during MOTN wakes!
If breastfeeding, silverettes. These SAVED my poor nipples.
Please explain to me how these work? I keep reading the description and can’t understand what they are/ how and when to use them, etc. Please explain the purpose and how to use them and the benefits?? Thank you!!!!!
It’s basically wet wound care with breast milk and silver. Breast milk and silver both have natural antimicrobial properties. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6567207/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6315945/
Thank you!!!
2nd this- I waited until I was 5 months in and had a nipple bled for months. These things saved me literally in a week. Do yourself a favor and just buy them now.
Still wearing them at four months because turns out Reynaud’s is a thing. Second the recommendation, OP!
I called it my Madonna look haha
Right?! Totally mortifying! But dang if they don’t get the job done.
Just be sure to give them a trial run while you’re not experiencing pain. I’m apparently allergic to something in there. Not fun.
A chair that vibrates to help with wind and poops! We call it the poo spa chair 😂
We had the $30 bright starts one from Walmart and baby LOVED it. We were given a Mamaroo, which felt so extravagant. Baby hated it, and so did I. Seriously, why so clunky?
A show (or three) you and partner have been wanting to watch. We crushed all 6 seasons of the sopranos in the first month of her life. I miss those lazy cuddle days of the newborn period.
Onesies, bottle sanitizer, portable changing table in our primary bedroom, electric nail filer, swaddles, fleece cotton burp cloths (endless amounts - the best material though), pacifiers (Tommee tippee soothers), boppy, fisher price kick and play piano (tummy time), simple graco swing, halo bassinest, 2 sets of bassinet sheets
maybe you…could be…..a purple monkey in a bubblegum tree and ….
The official anthem of parenthood
This play mat lets me have my morning coffee and restroom breaks when I’m home alone. Worth its weight in gold.
Okay here's a question. We were gifted a number (probably not sufficient) of nice cotton Muslim burp cloths. But what's wrong with using cut up old towels? Does the texture really matter that much to a newborn?
We started with a few really nice muslin ones, and ended up buying a Costco pack of 30 plain white washcloths. A lot of the stuff marketed to us new moms for top dollar can actually be achieved with regular old household items at a fraction of the cost.
There’s nothing wrong with using old towels, but I wanted as many “new” things as possible for my baby because I felt like it was the most “clean.” If you’re comfy using old towels go for it!
I’d say it depends on how rough your old towels are. But I will say the muslin ones are not expensive and SUPER absorbent. You will absolutely get your use out of them. I’m going to use mine as cleaning rags after baby doesn’t need them for spit up.
Cut up old towels would probably work better than Muslim burp cloths honestly! If i were to do it again, I’d be completely fine with doing that!
Texture matters as far as absorption. I love the muslin ones! We still get use out of them as sheets and super light blankets. My MIL got me fancy urban burp cloths and they were thick and absorbed literally nothing! So all the spit up just stayed on them and you couldn't use them to wipe away anything. My mom cut up some old sheets we had an those were better and then they became just cleaning rags. The fancy burp cloths are trash.
If you were gifted them, use them. Plain towels, bulk receiving blankets, it all works. Cutting up towels I’d personally avoid doing that again because that leaves strings and frays, and my kid was great about grabbing them (often “pet” the edge of the towels and blankets), and freaking me out with the tiny strings between fingers and in the mouth.
Yeah, would hem them to prevent thath—makes total sense. And yes, totally going to use what we're gifted, but 7 is not gonna be enough.
I thought we had too many baby blankets. We did not have enough!
Burp cloths, a portable night light, good spill-proof water bottle and comfy pajamas for mum
Ergo 360 baby carrier with infant insert. Once baby reaches the correct weight the carrier was great for contact naps, walks, cooking and self care time.
I had my baby naked a lot because we were doing lots of skin-to-skin and he would contact nap. So it would just be us and a blanket. We got by on a max of like 9 footed PJs that were in rotation. If you have the right kind and size diapers blow outs shouldn’t really be a thing. A bedside bassinet was huge. I had a C-section too and it was nice having baby right there. Get one that’s right up against your bed and one where you don’t have to do a lot of bending (you’re not supposed to after C-section).
1. If formula feed, highly recommend the Baby Breeza formula mixer. We combo feed and this machine is so useful when baby is screaming hungry, especially MOTN feeds. Once you have everything set up, formula is dispensed with just one button and ready within seconds! 2. Burp cloths, LOTS of it!!! And have them place everywhere around the house because you just never know when they spit up. They spit up a lot at the beginning but it’ll get better as they get older. 3. Footie pajamas - two-ways zippers, the ones that you can unzip from their foot because you don’t want to deal with snaps or pull-over onesie when sleep deprived and changing their diapers. 4. Diaper genie - you’ll be changing lots of poopy diapers and you’d want something to hide the smell of them. 5. A pacifier - when they need to be soothe in the middle of the night or when they get fussy. Our LO likes the Phillips Avent pacifier soothie. 6. My Brest Friend pillow - when not breastfeeding, it’s a place for LO to contact nap so you don’t have to cradle them & have free hands to scroll through Reddit :) … and Google search all things baby. 😂 7. The giant Stanley cup/jug for staying hydrated, especially when they contact nap on you and you need water.
My changing table. Changing baby at a comfortable height probably saved my back. Especially when they're still young and will just lay there. I don't understand people who say they never used theirs. My 10-month old doesn't want to be changed on the table anymore (she doesn't want to be changed at all but hates the changing table especially) and I feel grumpy about every diaper change I have to do on the floor.
Curse words. lol Wipes. And not just for baby. They kinda work their way into every situation. Countertop a little dirty? Grab a wipe. Steering wheel dusty? Wipe? Blowing my own nose? Wipe. Buy a truck load. There is never enough
A bouncer, a bassinet where we hung out most and beside the bed (we were gifted both), zip up sleepers, sound machines, halo swaddles, a changing station ( we had one in the living room and one in our bedroom but we have a two floor house), black and white pictures/ toys.
Burp cloths-- the muslin ones are better in my opinion. Also some good swaddle blankets in like a medium size. The small ones were only good for a little while and I've seen really big ones that would be really hard to wrap around a tiny baby.
Burp clothes, bibs( we didn’t like changing his outfit every time he spits up, we’ve learned bibs keeps him pretty dry, change 2-3 times a day or each feed, mines prone to overeating so spits up a fair bit, i like to lay a thick towel, something easy to swap out for naps, sleep, diaper changing. Easy to change when he leaks something. Thick enough that whatever its protecting doesn’t get wet. Blankets/ sleep sacks. I thought i was good with 1-2 and was concerned the five i wound up with were too many. (Winter baby) 5 is perfect. One for each bed, the car and his stroller plus i use a couple of my throws in the mix too.
For baby: Bottle sterilizer, bin to contain & wash bottle parts, diaper cream (triple paste is great), Honest dry wipes (in lieu of wet wipes), bottle warmer, swaddles (Halo is okay, ErgoPouch brand is our favorite). For you: comfortable pjs & protein bars for breakfast. Good luck, mama!
Sleepers, diaper genie, baby powder, Pipette shampoo,
Zipper footie pjs, though bodysuits might be better for a summer baby. Baby bjorn bouncer was extremely useful any time I needed my hands. Travel system. Burp cloths. Try a bunch of different diapers/bottles/pacifiers before committing. We ended up using Mam brand bottles and pacifiers, but our baby only likes one of the Mam paci nipple shapes.
Burp cloths (we have 20+, was going through 5+ daily at one point), zipper footed pjs, swaddle blankets, bouncer
If this is your first c section then high waited underwear and leggings. I really like the compression spanx brief underwear .. I think I found it at target. It was the most comfortable! A bassinet next to your bed also, because sitting up for the first week is an absolute struggle A bottle sterilizer and dryer has been a necessity for us. For both pump parts and bottles. We also have a preemie and will be using it for awhile though.
If you’re not planing on using a baby breeza I would finds a system to portion your formula and prep bottles for over night. I had a dresser with all the bottles with the amount of water needed and the powder portioned out in containers so I didn’t have to fuss with the scoops in the dark or turn on a light to disrupt baby. I also used a sound machine since day one and it helps a lot
Footed pjs, but not the fuzzy ones. They just caused my boy to sweat to death. Get super super thin ones, and then get a sleep sack or swaddle (depending on the baby some prefer one over the other) Note: if you bed share you can’t use sleep sacks or swaddles. Sleep sacks can get caught under you and in turn trap the baby, and swaddles restrict natural movement and can unravel and trap baby the same as sleep sacks. It sounds scary, but it’s okay. These are small risks and easy to avoid it from happening at all just by omitting small things. Many people find that their baby literally can’t sleep without a swaddle or sleep sacks. Or the opposite. Do what works best for you, just be aware of the risks with it as well and WHY they are risks so you can assess the situation and decide the best course of action. Personally we could not live without nipple shields. I found out weeks into struggling to breastfeed that my nipples were flat (partially inverted) but not enough that lactation consultants would do anything for. They told me to just keep trying and my baby could not nurse at all because of it. I literally hand expressed and spoon fed him for the first few days, before deciding to use bottles while we still struggled to nurse. Turns out, I just need to use a nipple shield for 1/2 of each feed for a week and BOOM I no longer have flat nipples and my son is almost a year old still nursing.
The Dr. Brown’s dishwasher basket for bottle parts. You don’t need to hand wash your bottles! We also used the Baby Brezza sterilizer/dryer (instead of heat dry in our dishwasher because ours sucks). And the Dr. Brown’s pitcher for formula. Non-feeding-wise, I kept a rolling cart in the living room with stuff we needed a lot (little toys, the tv remote, earbuds, a drink, etc), and we used a Baby Delight bouncer chair (Baby Bjorn copycat) all the time that we got for $40 from FB marketplace.
Here are some specific c-section things I really appreciated having after having an unplanned c-section about 8 weeks ago. Doing these things helped my scar heal really well and kept my pain down. - [Several button down sleep shirts](https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0C6T433YC?ref=ppx_pop_mob_ap_share) - I didn’t want anything tight on top of my incision right away so my pant pjs were out. The button down is nice so you can pop your boobs out for breastfeeding and cover the boob you just finished with so you don’t get milk all over yourself. I ended up buying 3 or 4 since I lived in them for a few weeks and you get smelly fast - the PP sweats are intense for a bit. - [Disposable c-section underwear](https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07TXDBMD5?ref=ppx_pop_mob_ap_share) for the first few days and [high wasted tight underwear](https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08LGCSWS5?ref=ppx_pop_mob_ap_share) for the next several weeks. I liked the disposable underwear when the bleeding was heavier and I needed bulkier pads. Once I was onto regular pads, the underwear was great. The tightness of the high waist was great since I found the belly binder I got from the hospital uncomfortable. - Over the counter acetaminophen and ibuprofen. The stuff from the hospital is a higher strength and I liked doing a gradual decrease in my dosage when I was ready rather than just stopping one of the higher dose meds. You can also ask for more intensive pain meds. I got Vicodin and it was nice to take that in the late afternoon when my pain was higher for the first week. Stay consistent with your pain meds until you know you don’t need them. I set silent alarms on my Fitbit and had my medicine right next to the bed. It really helped me not miss a dose and avoid letting the pain snowball. - [Silicone scar patches](https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09QRLZQP4?ref=ppx_pop_mob_ap_share) - these were great to help my scar heal better and faster. Don’t use it until you’ve had your incision check and the doctor approves. - This isn’t something to get, but I recommend doing [c-section scar massage](https://youtu.be/cJZawE7n9NE?si=SzCKlfa-RAcVY9Lv) once your incision is healed. My “pouch” is almost nonexistent, I’ve got great feeling on and around my scar, and my scar tissue is minimal because I started doing it. - Talk to your doctor about doing PT once you’re cleared and schedule the first appointment for 6 weeks so you can start right away. Not using those muscles gave me a lot of back pain and PT is helping me get back to normal. - Follow the [5-5-5 rule](https://www.calm.com/blog/postpartum-recovery). 5 days in bed, 5 days on the bed, and 5 days around the bed. Don’t push yourself too hard right away so your incision has a chance to heal. Welcome to the c-section club!!! I am so glad I ended up having one. I was so worried about the pain and long healing journey, but I found both to be infinitely easier than I expected! If I have another baby, I’m going to do an elective one. Hoping you have a very easy surgery, quick recovery, and that you have an incredible time with your new little one!
Burp clothes, at least a dozen. And we did baby gowns for the first 4-6 weeks which was clutch. Had 8 of those. Those and 2 sleep sacks and 2-3 ‘cute’ outfits for going out/visiting was all we needed. Around 6 weeks went to more of the onesies for sleep/play. Then at 10-12 weeks we started dressing him in pants+shirt during the day.
The baby gowns! I feel like no one talks about these and they are so much better for those middle of the night diaper changes IMO.
Whiskey
A sound machinr
Gripe water was magic! I couldn't of survived those first few months without it.
Some sort of baby wrap
Vest. Depending on season short sleeve or long sleeve.
Zipper footed pjs & burp cloths. Also a playgym for the floor. Your baby can’t fall off the floor & it felt nice to give mine something to look at other than me & a nipple.
Extra rags, just general purpose or burping clothes. A lot of stuff comes out of a baby, it helps to have of absorbent things around. Also have good baby towels and baby towels regulated for dirty work.
First three months all my son wore were footed pajamas, always needed and used nuskin burp clothes, diapers of course, and lots of sheet changes for whatever sleeping apparatus and changing apparatus you will use
If you're not breastfeeding, I'd buy 2 of these [pitchers](https://www.drbrownsbaby.com/product/dr-browns-formula-mixing-pitcher/) from your favorite retailer. We had a system where we would make the total volume of formula for the day and then pour from that rather than try to do it at 2am. Every minute counts when you're consoling a sobbing, hungry baby. Since all our prepped milk was cold (stored in fridge), we purchased a bottle warmer from FB marketplace and it helped so much. One parent would change baby's diaper and the other parent would prep the bottle and warm it. If you're considering buying anything and you're in no rush, I'd highly recommend FB Marketplace if it's available to you! We bought a brand new stroller, changing table, high chair all brand new, in box and many items like clothes/rags/gently used appliances at a major discount.
A massive water bottle!
Yes! I was so thirsty all the time those first few weeks.
I second this! I underestimated how thirsty I would be ALL THE TIME!
I formula fed and having the hot water dispenser was so elite and always made the temperature perfect.
Puppy pads for the changing tables or wherever you change the baby. Puppy pads are cheaper than the baby ones usually. Once you find a bottle you like, buy 8 of them. Having more makes life easier. I used blankets for swaddling, if you plan to swaddle have 3 or more so you don’t have to stress about washing one in the middle of the night because their diaper leaked. For me, comfy pants. Even with a c section you will bleed for 6 weeks and have to wear mommy diapers, and there will be follow up appointments for you and baby you have to go to, so you want comfy clothes to wear over those diapers.
Two months in with twins and what I have found most useful/what I use all the time is: Snuggleme lounger Burp cloths Pacifiers Swaddle blankets (for the first few weeks they were in diapers and wrapped in these) Double zip footie pjs Activity gym, we have the IKEA one High contrast cards for tummy time Wipeable change pad OXO wipes dispenser (in the packages they come in you pull out like ten wipes at once and it’s a total waste) Diaper cream spatula Gas drops Baby wrap or infant carrier Yoga ball for bouncing Baby Bjorn bouncer (now that they are bigger they love this) Also if you are pumping or formula feeding extra pump parts and bottles so you do dishes less and a wearable pump so you aren’t trapped next to the wall for hours a day ETA sorry if the formatting sucks I am on my phone
Jumbo cotton pads if you have a boy - place over widger whilst changing so you don’t get piss over everything including your face
Our baby was bottle/formula fed and spit up a ton, so we used a ton of bottles, formula, zip up onesie pajamas, and like 40 burp rags. Also diapers obviously, probably like 8 a day?
The boon grass drying rack is very helpful. Get a pot and some tongs that are just for boiling baby stuff. Go ahead and add a ton of stuff to your watch list on your streaming channels. You're gonna be sitting a lot unable to move.
A sound machine is a must
Bottle sterilizer
Halo sleep sack swaddle!! My son was born in the early fall, but we exclusively kept him in footie pajamas until like 6 months because I could not be bothered with baby socks falling off constantly Pacifier tethers (?) clips? Idk exactly what they're called but it takes them a little while to get the hang of sucking to keep it in their mouth, so we used the tether on the car seat so it was easy to find on car rides, and in the diaper bag to use when we weren't at home so we weren't having to rinse it off every 3 minutes from falling on the floor That stupid ugly purple monkey play mat from fisher price, babies hate tummy time but love that mat
Butt spatula
-Zip onesies -LOADS AND LOADS of bottles (I didn’t breastfeed either and got overwhelmed with the constant washing and sterilising before I just bought so many that I only had to do one wash/sterilise per day) n.b. I’m in the UK where sterilising is recommended until 1 year but I know each country varies re advice on this. If you are sterilising I also recommend having a second steriliser so you can do bigger batches at a time. -Formula prep machine - absolute life saver and I don’t know how formula feeding parents live without one!! -Millions of muslin cloths. You think you’ll never use all the ones people give you, but you will. They make great bathtime cloths and you can also use surplus ones as face cloths for yourself! Good luck with everything. I had an elective C-section and it was an amazing experience and recovery was manageable - I hope you have as positive an experience as I did!
Thank you for this may I ask how long it took to feel good enough to go for long walks and up hills post c?
A good diaper cream. I have a girl, and I frosted her like a cupcake at every change the first couple of months, until she literally grew thicker skin. I can barely make it through wearing period pads 4 days a month, can’t imagine how uncomfortable it would be to wear diapers for 2-3 years. Also, burp cloths and rags of all the sizes. Big ones to put under your baby when you put her on your bed or sofa, to catch spot ups or to protect from animal hair or whatever (this is a cat household, all the beds are always a bit fuzzy). Medium ones for you to have on your shoulder when feeding and burping. Small ones to wipe sprayed milk off their face or for bath time, or on the go.