Two dads

Bcald1

When is a good time to do a baby registry? What should be the must haves vs. not needing what's hyped up

valeriegp

We did our registry slowly over a couple of months, from about 5-7 months, I think. There are a lot of lists online, but I'd highly recommend getting the book Baby Bargains. It really helped us figure out what we needed, and so far (LO is 7 months on Monday) we've been pretty happy with our decisions. 

mwagner25

We started our registry around 5 months and I have continued to change and tweak things online.  I agree with the Baby Bargins book, it really helped decide where to splurge vs save.  We are first time parents, so I cannot comment to much about the "must haves" vs "do not need."  One thing that my sister recommended that I thought I wouldn't need was a bottle warmer and the cases for washing bottles in the dishwasher, she said that both were great.  Hope that helps! The registry process was overwhelming at first, we walked into the baby store then straight out the first time.... but, it's been fun now with showers coming up and that we got our crib delivered yesterday. 

clairmeij

We set ours up in the second trimester, and our friends threw our baby showers in the third trimester. Here are some things that we've found useful - our baby is only 3 weeks old though, so I'm sure others will have more for you!

Receiving blankets and muslin swaddle b;ankets - we wash these daily and always have one or the other with us.

Car seat - we chose the Chicco Keyfit 30

Stroller - we got the Keyfit Caddy because its lightweight and not clunky like travel systems can be. We also got the Bob Revolution SE with an infant seat adaptor for the Chicco seat. We use both daily.

Crib - we bought one from IKEA that we love

Pack n Play - We live in a double story house, so we keep this downstairs for naps.

Changing mat & covers - we started off with one and bought a second one for downstairs. When the poop explosions started, we decided that changing the p'np's sheets daily was a pain.

Burp cloths - lots of them, although people will probably gift you these without you putting them on the registry.

Diapers - we did cloth diapers, so we put a few on the registry to send the message that we didn't want to receive disposables.

Bottles - we put a couple of each that we liked on our registry - the baby will decide which he likes and then we can buy more of that kind.

Crib sheets and mattress protectors.

Baby bath - many people don't use these

Towels

Wash cloths - we use about a million of these

Rock and Play - we bought this a couple of days ago, and love it

Some toys with high color contrast, he already finds these really interesting to look at and is visibly stimulated by them.

A baby gym/play mat thing, same as above.

 

 

ball.and.chain

I haven't registered yet, since I've never made it out of the first trimester, but someone on another board recommended Lucie's List, which I found really helpful for breaking down what to buy/register for:

https://www.lucieslist.com/

only1leia

I didn't want to be stressed about doing everything at once, so we started our registry really early (probably around 12-13 weeks pregnant) but we didn't really tell anyone we had one so that we could just use that as a base and add things along the way.  Surprisingly, we did not get the "usual" baby stuff: no diapers (but like clairmeij we put cloth and made sure to tell family), no newborn or 0-3 size clothes (most are 3-6 month) ... I probably didn't do the greatest job on the registry, though.