Oregon Babies
Help from Oregon moms please!
Hey ladies! I am making up a list of "musts" to get before baby comes and to start chipping away at it. What did/do you have that you would recommend? TIA 
Warning
No formatter is installed for the format bbhtml
This discussion has been closed.
Re: Help from Oregon moms please!
Onesies (lots of them! I put them under everything when LO was a newborn...and they poop alot...lol)
Burp clothes/receiving blankets (they spit up more than they poop!)
If you are going to BF, a Boppy or "My BreastFriend"
A bouncy seat (great for newborn naps and transports easily to put baby somewhere safe in any room of your house)
Though some would disagree with me on this, I recommend a diaper genie. The bag replacement rings last a lot longer than people think. I change my ring every 1-2 months. But they keep the smell away! We have ours in our kitchen because we don't spend much time upstairs, and you can never smell it.
A word of advice for things NOT to get...at the top of the list is a wipe warmer. They dry the wipes out and I hated it. If you forget to put water in it, it looks like it starts to burn the bottom wipe. No bueno.
As far as big things, like a swing, it all depends on the baby. I got LO a swing and she only used it for about 2 months and then wanted nothing to do with it. But, I know others who's one year old still loves their swing.
I also recommend randomly buying packs of diapers. You will go through them like crazy, so it's good to have a stock of them in the closet. They grow out of newborn size really quickly so probably start with size 1 and up.
Hope that helps a bit! Those are the things that I can think of off the top of my head that were great for me.
Congrats to you again!!!
A boppy pillow for breastfeeding and general extra support when your arms get tired or you need to set the baby down for a few minutes. We had a swing that was great, but Raleigh only used it for maybe 4 months. We didn't use a changing table, but instead just had a changing pad for downstairs and upstairs. I've found that nail scissors are easiest than clippers because their hands are so tiny. Scissors work better for me to be able to round the nail instead of leaving sharp edges like the clippers did.
I would have invested in a nicer stroller. I would have liked something that was a little taller so me and my 6'5" husband didn't have to hunch over to push the stroller. Storage space below to put bags and extras woudl be nice, as well as a cup holder. These few thinsg drive me crazy that I don't have, but I'm too cheap to replace the one we have
The best thing to prepare for baby is to invest in a really good camera and learn how to use it. Get the most expensive one that you can afford.
The second best way to prepare for baby is to hire a housekeeper to start when you are 8 months pregnant. We waited until our baby was three months old to get a housekeeper and wish now that we had started way sooner. It makes a huge difference in my level of stress. Even once a month is better than nothing.
In terms of baby gear, DO NOT get a stroller 'system'. Yuck. Just get a carseat and a stroller frame. Way easier. Then you can get a regular stroller later on. Cloth diapers are easier than you might think. Do some research and try some different kinds.
I would get lots of onsies (10-15?). August was born in September so he lived in onsies. Our place was warm so that was all he wore.
Socks (7 pair?) My favorites were the Gap baby socks. They didn't fall off as often as EVERYTHING else.
3 crib sheets
2 mattress cover/protectors
I preferred My Breast Friend to the Boppy. The breast friend snaps on to you and made my back hurt much less than with the boppy.
The Medela Pump In Style back pack (Trust me, if you are planning on breast feeding, you WANT to have this ahead of time! I made DH run out and get it the second I became engorged. NO FUN!!
Depending on how much room you have in your baby room either a dresser and changing table or just a dresser. We did just a dresser because the top was big enough to put a changing pad and supplies on and less stuff to take up room.
3 changing pad covers
a carrier ( we loved our Bjorn but also think the Ergo is great. I would suggest the Ergo because baby can use it for a few years rather than months)
a noise machine!!! We got ours from Bed Bath and Beyond and I think it is by Homedics. I has all different sounds to help baby sleep.
burp rags (9ish?)
I DID LOVE my wipe warmer. I SWORE by it when August was a newborn. He would pee ALL over the place but once we started using the wipe warmer, he stopped. Plus, I felt terrible with freezing cold wipes on his poor little but and stuff. I didn't have too much of a problem with the wipes drying out. But you do need to be sure that you keep the pad wet.
My favorite butt balm is Earth Mama Angel Baby's Angel Baby Bottom Balm. This is one of the three or four things I buy friends who have babies. It is oily, and organic and smells amazing!!! Since it is oily, it lasts for ever. I still have my little container.
The seahorse that everyone has. August loved his more as he got older but I have heard people say they used it to time their LO's tummy time. It has a 5 minute timer for music and is like a glow worm- it's tummy lights up. I used it ever single time August went to bed and eventually he knew that when that music played, it was bed time.
A WOOMBIE! OMG!!!! YOU MUST GET A WOOMBIE! Yes, they are on the spendy side but let me tell you how worth it it is! August was sooo colicky and a lot of the time that woombie was the ONLY thing we could do to get him to stop crying and go to sleep. He was ALWAYS able to get out of the swaddle wraps that everyone has, even being swaddled in a blanket he would get out of. SERIOUSLY YOU MUST BUY!
Ok.... I can't think of much else at this moment.... having a brain freeze.
We were lucky that we got a lot of things for free from friends. We got a ton of clothes including lots of onesies.
We got a swing that was used only for a little bit so I never would have paid full price for it. We did decide to get a nicer stroller bc DH is 6'6" and I didn't like the stroller systems. We bought the Uppababy Vista. It's pretty spendy but we've used it a lot. The first three months DD always took her nap in the bassinet as it was nice outside so she could just be outside with me. Now she still fits in the regular seat though she's almost getting too old to sit in the stroller, but luckily #2 is on the way so we'll use it again soon.
I had the Boppy and that was handy. We didn't buy a bumbo seat for her as I've heard that's the greatest waste of money. We bought a simple crib from IKEA and a dresser that also serves as a changing table.
We just use a regular trash can for diapers. After 2.5 years I can say we probably need to buy a new one for the new baby. DD loved to be swaddled the first four months and we used the SwaddleMe blankets. The Medela Pump in Style was my pump of choice as well. My health insurance covered 100% of it.
My amateur photo blog
I have to agree with the others on onesies and burp clothes! The Gerber cloth diapers work great as burp clothes, but make sure you wash them once first or they won't absorb anything!
As for the swing.. I'd probably buy a used one as we got a ridiculously expensive one as a baby shower gift and DD used it maybe 10 times? She wasn't a fan of it at all.. She loved the bouncy seat I bought used for $12 way more than the swing.
I liked the boppy more than the brestfriend because you can just lay baby in the boppy for naps, hanging out, tummy time, etc.. where as the brestfriend can ONLY be used for feeding..
I actually really thought the bumbo helped DD learn to sit up faster than she might have without one.. I know that she was sitting up unassisted a lot sooner than my friends baby that is 5 days younger than her, who didn't have a bumbo.
If you find a stroller/car seat system that you love, then go for it.. Otherwise, find the stroller that you LOVE and find the car seat that will fit on it.
We bought a stroller system because it was beeeeeeautiful.. Little did I know that the car seat weighed 11 pounds by itself (which doesn't seem like much, until you have a 9lb baby) and it was a great car seat, as it fits baby until 32 inches and 35lbs, but who on earth wants to carry around 40lbs of car seat and baby!? So since the car seat was so big, it wouldn't fit on a lot of the cool strollers
I personally wouldn't stock up on a lot of diapers at all.. We DID stock up on a lot of Costco and Huggies diapers because 2 friends of mine swore by them, but they were awful for DD and leaked EVERY SINGLE DAY so we had to switch to Pampers and had a giant box of both costco and huggies diapers to just give away.. I would however, stock up on wipes as they're all very similar and I've never found a preference to wipes. If you do stock up on diapers, don't buy many newborn size. The hospital will give you 1 package and that will probably be all you need. DD never actually fit into NB size, she was born in size 1..
I would ask for Amazon gift cards instead of target/bru gift cards because baby items are way cheaper on Amazon than the big box stores. Sign up for Amazon Mom now!
There's a really great post on this blog that goes into baby essentials - I used this a LOT when planning what we needed!
https://projectbalancingact.blogspot.com/2010/08/mother-of-all-baby-registry.html
We found our Moses basket to be extremely useful. She was able to sleep in it during the day downstairs and then next to our bed at night. Babies are supposed to sleep within arms reach for the first 6 months, so it worked out well for that. It was easier to move around the house than a bassinet would have been. Like a PP said, the insert in the Uppababy serves the same purpose and is a great stroller option. This plus the Miracle Blanket bought us many hours of sleep.
If you need pre-baby reading material, the two best books that I found are Our Babies, Ourselves (very AP, but good information) and Breastfeeding Made Simple: Seven Natural Laws for Nursing Mothers.
Swings, bouncy seats, carriers are variable based on your baby's preferences. My daughter LOVED the swing, but only for the first 4 months. Buy these things second hand.
Most people swear by the Ergo with the newborn insert. We liked the Moby early on and the Bjorn now. Again, it's different for each baby and parent.
A Zooper Waltz stroller! We all know about needing "all weather" gear and this stroller came with EVERYTHING! It is awesome! It came with a sleeping bag to attach, a bug/UV screen, a rain cover, removable tray, and has a shade that comes down over the entire seat (which lays completely flat and zips up at the bottom like a little bed). It is very versatile which is important in Oregon. Also it is a full size stroller that weighs like 17lbs and folds very flat. I could go on and on about how much I love this thing!
https://www.zooper.com/Waltz%20Products%20Zooper%202009.html
Did I mention it comes from Beaverton?