Have you started stocking up yet?

hargis87

This is my first board post that I have initiated myself so guide me if I do things wrong!  I've posted on other discussions but never made my own until now and felt like a good ol' poll would be best and give us all some ideas. I'm on the fence about already starting to stock up on things. ( diapers, wipes, really need ideas for other things) So, ladies what are you stocking up on? When are you starting if not already? What advice can you give others?

sleepy33

I wouldn't stock up too much on diapers unless you know for sure you can return or exchange them. Different brands work for different kids and you don't know how long they'll stay in a certain size, etc. 

SpaceBurger

This time around I will buy some more diapers, but not newborn size. My first never fit into the NB size, so I'm going to get some 1s. They're going to look so small compared to the 6s I usually buy haha. 

I'm curious to see what others will stock up on?

k2k2tog

Careful when stocking up on diapers. Babies grow fast and you may find yourself having to buy size ones before your newborn diapers are all gone. That said, I believe Walmart takes unopened boxes, - maybe even opened ones? - no questions asked, even if you didn't buy them there.

We won't stock up on anything though. We'll have a pack of newborn diapers for the meconium days, and then we'll be on to cloth diapers and wipes. And we have most other stuff because STM.

hargis87

@sleepy33 I dont think I will do much diaper stocking unless they are bigger sizes possibly. I've still been on the fence about this one the most.

@SpaceBurger I think my big thing will be wipes. We have a 2 year old that uses wipes still and 3 other messy kids so you cant really go wrong there. They will for sure be used.

laeberge3

We stocked up on a diapers last go-around and now I have a box of 1s and 2s that we didn't use for DS that we'll use for this LO.  So, definitely be aware that you may very well end up with more than you need at those smaller sizes!  I use Amazon Subscribe and Save for wipes and will just keep them coming. DS still uses them, and we have a small stockpile already. 

hargis87

@k2k2tog I am drowning in laundry with 6 of us, so regular diapers it is for us! I do love how cute the cloth ones are though! No Newborn diapers for us unless they are needed. Maybe not even ones if we get a lot for gifts.

We don't have a lot from our others since its been almost 8 years since my (not so) little one was a baby and DH doesn't have much from when his 2 year old was a baby either. Almost like starting over!

expandcontract

I listened to everyone's advice last time about not getting NB sized diapers or clothes.  I regretted it. My daughter was only 6 lbs at full term. She stayed in the NB size for quite awhile. This time around,  hoping everything goes well,  I'm definitely going to have NB boy clothes ready along with diapers.  But Im not going to purchase them yet.  

robyn2201

I’ll probably buy one pack of size NB prior. We will be doing cloth diapers and wipes, which we already have. But I will be buying a couple of cute boy print diapers before hand and get rid of our girly ones. I’ll just wait till I see the brand I like go on sale.

kvh22

We didn't stock up on diapers and wipes with DD and won't this time, either. I think I had one package of newborn diapers and one box of size 1s plus an honest "diaper cake" with size 1s. That plus all the free samples of diapers was perfect (I have 7 size one diapers already from buy buy baby and amazon's registry gift bags/boxes). DD was 8lbs at birth (not huge, but definitely not small) and gained weight really well so we just switched to size ones when we ran out of the newborn diaper pack and samples. At 15 months, she's still in a size 3 so spent a lot longer in those bigger sizes, but I know other kids her age who are already in size 5s. I bought size 4s on mega sale on prime day and DD is still not in them yet and it's driving me kind of crazy that they're taking up valuable space right now, but if you have the storage, that's totally different. Just don't overbuy.

With Amazon subscribe and save (plus we're in an apartment with even less space now that we have all the toddler things), I'm planning to do JIT ordering as I hate the hassle of going to the store. I had no diapers on my registry with DD but will potentially put some on this time. The subscribe and save discount is better than the registry discount, though. I've been getting the huggies DD uses for ~11cents/diaper.

As a STM, I send the amazon sensitive wipes to daycare, use the amazon unscented at home, and waterwipes in the diaper bag so they can be used for clean up as well. We keep a stock of those and basically order one box of one kind a month, which works well for us.

I found this super helpful although as others have mentioned (and mentioned above), you might not need any newborn diapers and your baby might grow out of any of these sizes faster, plus you don't know what brand will work best (we started with pampers and eventually switched to huggies and kirkland, really anything worked with DD but that's not always the case):

This has been pretty accurate for DD although she was out of newborn diapers in about 2 weeks, not 3 and is towards the upper end of size 3s a bit past when this says she would be.

SpaceBurger

By stocking up I mean like a box or two haha We cloth diaper until solids are in the game. 

wishiwaspreggo

I'm going to stock up on free formula. If you go to baby consignment sales (which I highly, highly recommend especially for big-ticket items like exersaucers, high chairs, Pack n Plays, etc.) there's always a vendor hawking formula. I grab a few cans and I make my wife grab some, and if our moms are there I make them take it, too. Sometimes they have really nice kits with cold packs, transportation bags, coupons, and liquid formula samples.

Breast is best, yes, but I can tell you from personal experience that there's nothing worse than going to the grocery store at 3:00 in the morning in the dead of winter because your baby is hungry, your boobs are not producing enough, and you absolutely need to have something to feed him. Even if you plan to EBF it doesn't hurt to have a few cans in the pantry in case of emergency.

aels12

Most hospitals will send home a bunch of diapers with you too, they sent both nb and size 1 home with us so we used nb for a week or two but never needed to purchase any ourselves. 

brie_and_almonds

I don't really understand the need/desire to stock up. Stores still exist and sales still happen after the baby is born. 

My kids weren't tiny at birth (7lbs and 8lbs), but must have skinny butts or something because they both wore newborn diapers for like a month, and neither of them has ever needed bigger than a 4.

expandcontract

wishiwaspreggo said:

Even if you plan to EBF it doesn't hurt to have a few cans in the pantry in case of emergency.

Exactly what she said. I had planned to EBF my daughter at least during the time I was on maternity leave but my boobs didn't make enough.  Im glad i had saved whatever samples I had gotten and any coupons i got in the mail.  I ended up relying on formula a lot.  
For us, Pampers Baby Dry have been a godsend.  They really have been great at not leaking this allowing us to not have to wake her up in the middle of the night top change her.  
And I agree with @kvh22 , Amazon subscriber and save is awesome!

sleepy33

brie_and_almonds said:

I don't really understand the need/desire to stock up. Stores still exist and sales still happen after the baby is born. 

My kids weren't tiny at birth (7lbs and 8lbs), but must have skinny butts or something because they both wore newborn diapers for like a month, and neither of them has ever needed bigger than a 4.

This is my general attitude. I did go through a couponing phase years ago, so if someone is into that, I can see stocking up. But you have to be very committed to hunting down all those coupons lol. 

SpaceBurger

If a vaginal birth was in my future, I'd be freaking stocking up on Tucks. They only have like 1 or 2 boxes at a time at CVS, and I would send DH out every other day because I neeeeeeeded MOAR!

hargis87

@brie_and_almonds I'm just a big fan of preparedness. I start planning for everything way ahead of time. Especially for this type of "you never know what kind of hard times or situations you can fall on" type thing. Plus me being excited takes over

hargis87

@SpaceBurger I forgot how amazing those are!

kvh22

@SpaceBurger lol I think I only went through 2 containers of Tucks but they were amazing (one I had purchased for PP and one from the hospital).

Having formula on hand is a great idea. Usually you can get a variety of samples, which is nice as I've heard babies can be super finicky with different types (reactions). I didn't end up using any of them but was glad to know they were there.

I will be stockpiling food for DH and me (moreso me). Can't start that yet, though.

sleepy33

Yassss @kvh22 I really loved having freezer meals ready to go. 

DressageDarling

I’m glad we didn’t stock up on diapers because DS ended up getting a rash from a bunch of different ones we tried other than Pampers Swaddlers and cruisers, so that is another thing to think about when stocking up.

hargis87

I've never done the freezer meals before to be honest but its something i'm 100% doing this time around.

kvh22

@sleepy33 I'm so excited for the freezer meals thread! I waited to start until my mom came out with DD (3 days before my due date) and I fully expected to be a week late. I was only a day early but just didn't have nearly enough in the freezer. I still have about 100oz of frozen breast milk in my freezer but am slowly reclaiming it and so excited to get the space back. We were duct taping it shut at one point and could barely fit a small bag of frozen peas in there.

chloe97

Two words- Amazon Prime. Four more words- Amazon same day delivery. A new mom's best friend. Though I would highly recommend against subscribe and save. I ended up getting 4 bottles of Dreft and forgetting to cancel my newborn diaper subscription and it was a mess. The only thing that would have made sense was formula after the newborn period, but it wasn't an option. I enjoyed having the excuse to go to Target anyway and leave a fussy newborn DD home with DH.

sleepy33

I'm getting a chest freezer at the new house. It is already decided. 

kmw611

I'm only stocking up because I exclusively cloth diaper but didn't buy any newborn sized with my son because we knew he would be 9+ pounds and fit OS immediately. This little one I'm hoping will my a bit smaller (different fathers) so I'm buying the newborn sized cloth I don't already have. I saved nearly everything else from my son expecting more kids and nieces/nephews. 

lovelybabybumpz

I didn't stock up with my first and won't probably stock up for this one either. Limited space in our 2 bedroom house, so we just buy as we go. DD was in NB for a lot longer than I expected though, so I may need to buy some more newborn clothes, if I continue the tiny, slow growing baby trend.

kvh22

@chloe97 I could definitely see subscribe and save being an issue. For us, it is like a monthly bill. I have to go in and edit it by the 11th and I either skip the month completely or make sure I'm getting at least 5 items. I've never NOT gone in but it would be a problem if I didn't depending on the month. Between diapers, wipes, laundry detergent, ziploc bags, my prenatals and probiotic, boogie wipes, DH's har gel, etc., we almost always can get to 5 items for the extra savings. I also started getting new sponges sent this way which is great for us as DH would just keep using the sponges forever and he's in charge of dishes for the most part so I don't notice until they're bad sometimes (FFTC?).

poshspice

If target does the $20 GCs for spending $100 (or similar deal) on baby items we will be getting diapers, but otherwise probably not. They did that a few times when I was KU with DD, so fingers crossed they do it again because it makes Pampers Swaddlers so much more affordable. 

chloe97

@poshspice they just had one of those about a month ago. I highly recommend the Target app to keep track of the coupons they are running. That’s a great point though about the Target baby sales. Definitely worth keeping an eye on.

poshspice

@chloe97 I definitely wasn’t secure enough in this pregnancy to start stocking up a month ago! 😬Hopefully they’ll have another in the spring! Those sales are so good, though. 

Sarahbtek

We had a diaper party with my oldest (guys all got together for a night of drinking and hanging out, but brought a pack of diapers in any size.) We had a huge shower and everything was gifted to us. Our second, my mom won free diapers for a year from Luvs. (AMAZING! And they lasted longer than a year) and i bought everything second hand over time-- this one I plan on buying a little every time I shop and going second hand again.  The dangers of having babies space 4+ years apart and moving often = having to start over every time!

mcewen3

@kvh22 we use subscribe & save like that too.  I don’t find it to be too big of a hassle to double check my monthly order, and if I forget to skip one item that I didn’t really need I just make sure to do it the next time.  It took a bit of work but I have the re-order months set up pretty well for each item that we are always getting them just as they are starting to run low.  Everything is staggered so I always have 5 items each month, but rarely are they the same items.  

DuchessOfCambridge

Not stocking up. DS was small so I'll get a couple NB things just in case this one is small too, and will purchase a box of NB diapers at some point. We use wipes all the time so we'll keep buying them as normal. We will have some formula just in case. I didn't need it with DS but it was really nice to have as backup and not be stressed about something happening.

mcewen3

Won’t be stocking up on anything here either.  We cloth diaper so aside from a pack of diapers and wipes to get us through the first couple weeks, we really won’t need much.  I always sign up for all the baby freebies, with many of them being formula.  I’ll keep it on hand until we have BF well established but I haven’t ever needed it in the past.  I always sign up for the freebies anyways though because I donate all the free formula to the food bank and also give them the formula cheques that they send.  Seriously, somehow one of the companies (Similac to be specific) reset my registration or something because about 8 months ago I got a new mom package with a TON of formula, coupons, etc.  And now am getting formula cheque’s regularly again.  So the local food bank is getting a bunch of extra Similac again 😊

MaggieG183

Stocking up here. We do cloth diaper once baby hits the point of being in one size diapers - if a friend of mine’s NB cloth diapers are not being used by then, we’ll borrow those instead once we get through the first couple weeks - but with DS he didn’t get to the point where he was out of NB diapers until he was almost 3 months old. I was on the small side as a baby and DS totally has fallen in step with my growth pattern as well. He was in NB for almost 2 months, size 1s to 6 months when we used sposies and even now at almost 2 years old (just two weeks from now...I really need to plan a little get-together for his bday, like, right now) he’s still in size 3s and just moved into 18 month clothes last weekend full time. He just hit 22 lbs the other day. I plan on grabbing 1 box of NBs, 1s, and 2s when I see a good deal and I’ve already started stocking up wipes as we go through them like water already. I’ve also started stocking up on free samples for formula too because this girl has zero shame when it comes to breastfeeding feeding anymore. Fed is best in my book and I will not let breast feeding insecurities get the best of me this time around.

beccaneu

I don’t plan on stocking up on diapers.  As many others have already mentioned, there are just to many unknowns and any potential savings from taking advantage of sales could easily be negated if you end up with too many of a size or a brand that ends up not working well for baby.   Same when it comes to wipes, I have very sensitive skin so it wouldn’t surprise me if baby is the same way and I’d hate to find out the wipes I stocked up on don’t work for baby.

I absolutely plan on stocking up on any free samples I can get my hands on though, especially when it comes to formula.

k2k2tog

What are Tucks?

anonellis

@k2k2tog they’re medicated pads for you for after you give birth.  They are amazing whether you tear or not, but can be hard to find!  

wishiwaspreggo

Okay, so freezer meals...

I have tried so, so many times to do it. I'll make a bunch of stuff and then what happens? We don't eat it. It ends up getting freezer burnt or stale or just tastes gross after I reheat it. I'm really weird about leftovers (so is my wife) so we just literally can't do it.

There is a work-around, though! Costco! My parents brought us a cooler full of frozen foods from Costco and it was a lifesaver. I didn't have to cook for 2 months. We had frozen raviolis, mixed tropical fruit, empanadas, flautas, and other things I can't remember off the top of my head but everything was delicious. It was all packaged in servings for two and each box had 4 2-person servings so you could rotate out the meals. It was great. I am totally doing that again.

I may also beg someone to make a meal train for us. People stopped by with lunch/dinner with our first and it helped a lot. I'm hoping enough people will want to see the twin babies and bring us food again