If you have some spare time, could you critique my registries and let me know any suggestions? Thank you in advance!
I plan to breastfeed and have baby room in with us for the first few months. I will go back to work after 12 weeks (sometime after the first of the year).
We have already purchased/have:
- crib/mattress (Graco Lauren/Kolcraft Pediatric 800)
- swing (FP Snugabunny)
- nursing pillow (My Brestfriend)
- baby book
- glider/ottoman
- jumperoo
- lots of 6-9 month long-sleeve onesies
- lots of diapers/wipes
***links removed for privacy***
Re: Registry Critique?
ETA: From your Target registry I am side eyeing you for registering for a trash can, cubicle, and containers. Those are things you buy yourself. If you want the completion discount, register for them AFTER your shower. I also wouldn't register for clothes. People will buy you whatever they want. I don't think you will need two sound sheep and only one Wubanub should be ok, in case your LO doesn't like soothies. Other than those things, your list looks good.
comments were made under the assumption that you are having a shower
Totally agree. Seems strange.
Everything you named is either on one registry or the other.
Thank for the feedback! Our friends/family know that we are doing an HP nursery and have been asking us what to buy in regards to that, so I added those for that reason. I wouldn't see why nursery decoration and necessities is any different than anything else. Why would a trash can (we're not getting a Diaper Genie or the like) be any different than registering for an "official" diaper disposal item?
I only registered for very basic clothes. I don't assume we'll get a lot of clothes since we are team green.
I liked the idea of the larger and then "travel-sized" Sound Sheep.
I'll take the Wubnub advice into mind, but I know that pacis notoriously get lost and it would be nice to keep one upstairs in the nursery and one downstairs and/or for travel.
Thanks for all the comments! All makes sense and I'm going to make some changes right now!
The HP stuff is for you, not the baby. Why does the baby need a large (adult size) witch hat? That's why I would skip it. The diaper genie/trash can has an obvious purpose.
The difference between nursery decorations vs things you need is just that. You don't NEED nursery decorations.
I think the HP nursery is cute, and with your explanation, I understand why you included this stuff on your registry.
However, I think you want to eliminate anything from the list that's not either wall art or a stuffed animal. I can almost guarantee you that in a year, you'll be looking for a place to store "Harry's glasses," The Sorting Hat, and any other breakable stuff. The dominant decorative theme of most one year old bedrooms is Fisher Price. You'll be needing the shelf space for all the actual baby toys your child will receive and really play with over the next year.
By the time your child is old enough to not break these decorative items, he/she will begin to have his/her own opinions about favorite licensed characters, and it probably won't be Harry.
You may want to save a lot of the "Harry" stuff to buy your child for birthday and Christmas in 5 to 7 years, when you share the novels with your child and he/she discovers the magic. Don't blow it all on an infant!!
Agreed. Even if this is for decoration, it's too much. Buy decorations for the nursery yourself. And I'd get rid of all the clothes, people will buy what they want (even get rid of the all white onesies).
Overall, I feel like you have a lot of stuff on your registries. Are you sure you would buy everything on these registries yourself?
Thanks for the input! We're planning to do one or 2 shelves in the nursery (high enought out of reach) with some of the main items from the books (Harry's glasses, a snitch, quidditch goggles, Hedwig, etc.), so these aren't meant for baby/child to play with.
Keeping some items for later is a good idea. Thank you for that idea.
I'm getting mixed reactions on the clothes, so I'm going to leave them. I really only registered for white onesies and sleep sacks/swaddles. We aren't planning to buy many clothes beforehand because we are Team Green.
Other than the nursery decorations, I didn't think I registered for many unecessary items.
Two diaper bags? A trash can? A floor fan? Two Furnitue cubes? You have 104 items on your Target resgistry. Yes, I think it's too much and I would side eye you. You need like 1-3 sleep sacks/swaddlers, not the many you've registered for. Listen, you asked for feedback and mine is that you have too much stuff on there. Good luck.
Thanks for your input. I will definitely keep in mind. I've gotten numerous comments that the registry seems "sparse", so I guess it's a matter or balance.
DH and I work complete opposite shifts and will be spending nearly equal time with baby. One diaper bag for DH and one for me.
I'm not registering for a diaper genie because I'd rather have a regular trash can.
A fan in baby's nursery is recommended. We are not installing a ceiling fan.
We aren't going to get any toy organization/book shelf etc. The 2 cube organizers will serve as a purpose to organize these things as well as clothes as nursery has a large, open closet.
I've gotten numerous comments to register for many types of sleep sacks/swaddles because you don't know which baby will prefer. Baby is due late Sept/early Oct, so will likely be wearing these daily for 6-7 months as we have very long winters here.
Oops! Sorry, I thought it was only the first page. I do still think there are too many clothes though.
I really don't see why you posted your registries asking for 'critiques' if you are just going to justify everything. You asked what people thought, we gave honest answers.
You don't register for every single item you think you will need. As a parent, there are basics you should buy yourself, nursery wants being one of them. Also, the amount of clothes you registered for is ridiculous, plain and simple.
Can you honestly say that every single item on your registries you will buy and the quantities?
I didn't look at your regisstries but I did read the comments. As for the HP stuff...I'd leave it. People who are really into HP will buy it (especially if they aren't into buying "baby items". 2 diaper bags are OK...but truthfully I got a really nice one and hardly ever used it. I use the one given to me free from the hospital. It is smaller and easier to carry around. You might want to check to see if your hospital gives you one (your DH could probably use that one - mine is black). The trash can is fine. I used a diaper genie for the first baby but just a regular wastebasket for the next two. They are just easier.
Now...as for clothes. I know you said you are team green (I was as well) and didn't register for any clothing but got a bunch of it! We live in a cold climate and I loved the sleep sacs...but really only needed 3 of each size. I did get a swaddle me (or something like that) and none of my kids liked them. They liked their arms out! Matter of fact, my kids were all tummy sleepers from the time they were about 3 weeks old. They slept sooo much better that way. Unless you have to go to a laundry mat to wash you don't need a TON of onesies. Ten burp cloths are really a good number. BTW...I loved using the flat cloth diapers for burp cloths...they worked so much better then ANY others I tried. I did get a few homemade ones...but they just were as absorbant (and I had happy spitters). Keep in mind also that some clothing items get discontinued. You will most likely get additional gifts once the baby is born and once people know what sex you had they will purchase clothes!
Personally, I don't think you need to ONLY register for things you would purchase for yourself. To me a registry is a list of needs AND wants and I don't have an issue with that. I will look it over and then decide what to get the person. I always buy something off the registry and then something I think is missing. lol
I'm definitely thankful for the critiques and have made quite a few changes because of them, so thank you! I'm giving my feedback back not to justify, but to maybe better explain and get some further responses back, which I have been getting and it has helped me to make many necessary changes. I'm a first time mom, I don't know everything and everyone has been helpful.
I used my registry just as much to keep track in my own mind of things that we want/need to buy as to share with others that may be generous enough to give us a gift.
In regards to clothes, I registered for basic onesies and sleep sacks/swaddles/gowns which (I've been told) babies pretty much live in for quite a while. Baby is going to be dressing for about 6 months of cold weather right off the bat, so I don't think that basics are a bad thing. I registered for a variety of sizes 0-3, 3-6 and 6-12. I know that people typically buy baby clothes, especially after birth, but I'm not counting on this. If they do, great, if not....well I'd like to have the basics we need.
As for if I will buy everything on the registries. Will I run out after my shower and buy every single thing? Probably not. Are all the items either necessities or "would be really nice to have" items? Definitely. Do I think that I went overboard with unecessary items? No.
Thanks for the critique. I did take off some gowns. I've gotten mixed reviews on them, but have heard they are good in the beginning before umbilical cord falls off. The clothes you mentioned are exactly what I registered for. The only Gerber item I registered for are the long-sleeve side snap (I can't find if Carters makes a long-sleeve version).
I registered for 1 10-pack of cloth diapers (to use as burp clothes) and 1 set which includes 4 burp clothes. I've heard a range between 10 and a zillion are needed, so I don't see why 14 is too many.
We are planning to do 1-2 shelves of HP "signature" items in the nursery. They are for decoration, not toys, and will be out of arms reach of baby. Sorry that you don't like the theme. We've gotten overwhelmingly great responses about it. We love HP and really thought it was a great theme for a gender-neutral nursery.
Thanks for your input.
The only clothing items we registered for are basics - white/grey onesies (long sleeve and short sleeve, some grey pants, side-snap shirts, etc. I think the most of any one thing we registered for a 3-6 month onesies - 8 of each of white and grey and able to use as layering pieces. I know people will buy clothes after baby is born, but I'm not "counting" on that and think that we would obviously need some "staple" pieces. What is a good number of onesies/footies/t shirts etc. in each size range? I didn't think I registered for an overwhelming amount, but maybe looks like a lot because of the size ranges?
Cloth diaper inserts for burp clothes is what we registered for. I changed the quantity to 1 pack of 10 after critiques here. We also registered for one bib/burp cloth gift set that has 4 burp clothes in it.
Thanks for the last paragraph. Everything on our list are either must-haves or would be really nice to have. I may not purchase EVERY item, but it will be hard to decide what we can live without.
Thanks for the thought on the swaddles. I will go back and take inventory and maybe take off the larger sizes. My justification is that baby is going to come right into 6 months of cold weather and will likely use a swaddle and/or sleep sack every night. I'll definitely go back and see if there are better options though. I added those that were highly recommended over and over.
I guess with the bath products, those are the brands I would like to try, so I added so people would know. I know we may still get other brands and that's ok.
I registered for 3 kinds of bottles to find ones baby likes. 1 3-pack of small sized at the recommendation of someone else.
I didn't register for a ton of pacis because who knows if baby will like them, but they are now recommended after BF is well-established, so we'll see how it goes.
We're really excited about the HP nursery.
Yep, I know the fan and garbage can aren't "typical" registry items, but they are needed for the nursery and we'll be buying those exact items if we don't get them at the shower.
We use the baby gowns. I love those. They are the easiest things to get on and off DS since he's such a squirmy baby. We only use them for bedtime though (it was annoying to have to change him into another outfit just to put him in the carseat). On the days we didn't go anywhere, he'd hang out in the gowns most of the day.
I don't think Carters has the long sleeve side snap shirts. All the ones we got from people secondhand are Gerber. We didn't use many of them anyway since DS was born in December. I just never felt like he was warm enough with one of those and some pants. If I did use the kimono shirt, it was more as a lightweight jacket type thing once it got a little warmer. I liked to put him in a onesie with pants or just footie pajamas. I think he lived in footie pajamas for the first 4-6 weeks of his life; it was so much easier.
I HATED the Gerber socks. They never seemed to stay on DS's feet. He wasn't kicking them off, they just fell off. So annoying. We use Carter's socks, they're a little tighter on top so they don't come off as often. I should add though, that the Gerber socks we have are hand-me-downs, so I don't know if the elastic wore off or what. But, the ones I tested in the store had the same loose feeling.
I think 14 burp cloths is fine. We have a TON, but we also use the flannel blankets as burp cloths cause we got a ton from people and DS didn't like being swaddled.
On the swaddling stuff, I'd buy one pack of each of the different kind of swaddlers in 0-3 size. If baby likes being swaddled, buy the next bigger size. DS hated being swaddled and we were stuck with a boatload of those swaddle me ones that our neighbor gave us secondhand. I also didn't like the swaddle mes, I never felt like I could get him swaddled tightly enough in those, so when we did swaddle him, we just used the flannel blankets.
Did you have cloth bibs on there? I might have missed them. If not, they're amazing for when they start drooling. It's so great to be able to change out the bib instead of changing the outfit...again. I picked up a pack of 10 at Target for 11 or 12 bucks.
I'd get two waterproof crib covers personally. It's really nice in the middle of the night to be able to just change the cover and toss it in the wash and not have to stay up until it's done.
I'd say one pack of the NB short sleeves and one pack of the NB long sleeves, and a pack of NB pants. A lot of babies never fit into NB, so I wouldn't buy too many, just in case. You can always stop at the store on the way home/send SO out for more if baby does wear NB. I'd do the quantity of 3-6 sizes you have registered for. Worst case scenario, you have to wait for baby to grow into them.
Eh, I didn't really see anything to make me side-eye you. Did I see a bunch of stuff that I wouldn't buy for you? Yup. But I didn't see anything to get the butthurtz over.
I do agree with pp that you went overboard on the swaddlers. My kid hated being swaddled. Hated. It. Sleep sacks are okay, but I wasn't a huge fan. I 100% preferred sleep n plays to any other night clothes for DD, I used fleece ones for cold nights and lighter ones for warmer nights. Come to think of it, DD wore those a lot during the day, too. I also thought you went a little nuts over baby wash products, I'd probably drop one of the lines off your Target registry.
I'd leave the less necessary things on your registry; it's not like your entire registry consists of nursery decor. Now that, I'd side-eye thehell out of.
The one criticism I do have of your registries echoes everyone else. I think you have entirely too many clothes on them. Baby clothes inventory at stores changes so often that what you registered for today might not be available in a month or two. Also, people are most likely going to buy you clothes no matter what, even though you are team green. Even though I had a lot of people who shopped from my registry at my shower, I still got at least twenty baby outfits on top of my registry gifts. I was glad I didn't register for clothing because I got to be surprised by all these cute outfits!
No, offense, but I wouldn't buy the harry potter stuff. It's decoration- not something the baby will use. Buy it yourself.
I think you have too many shampoos. IMO, I would take off the california baby and earth mama stuff. I think its too expensive for people to want to buy.
you should add:
more baby books/toys
more pack n play sheets
walker
grooming kit
vicks pads to insert into the humidifer
convertible car seat
baby blankets and burp cloths
Edit: i think you have ALOT of clothes too. maybe take some off? People normally buy whatever baby clothes they want to buy.
Thanks for all the comments - very, very helpful!!!
Yep, I stuck with the Gerber long-sleeve side snaps because I couldn't find Carters. I just really think we wouldn't use short sleeve because it's going to be cold for 6 months right after baby comes. The long-sleeve make more sense. I also plan to have baby pretty much live in sleepers, but it's really hard to find gender neutral ones (nor do I want all gender neutral), so we'll deal with that after the shower and/or right after baby comes.
I can't really find any gender neutral socks other than Gerber. I'll just delete the larger sizes and leave the newborn.
A lot of people have mentioned the swaddles. I'm definitely going to go back through and get 1 of each and then buy more if needed. Sounds like baby may or may not like being swaddled, and sleep sacks are a must.
I didn't have cloth bibs because, again, hard to find gender neutral. I did find some Aden+Anais ones that I like, so I added those to the Amazon registry.
Thanks for the input on the crib covers, I'll change quantity to 2.
Thanks! I went back and made some changes. I was under the assumption the Carters "newborn" meant 0-3 months and then "3M" meant 3-6 months. Nope! Good thing I checked the FAQ on their webside. I went back and deleted the newborn stuff (many babies don't need and we've already got a few "newborn" onesie freebies) and kept the 3M stuff. I'm debating on whether I want to keep the 6 month gender neutral stuff, or just wait to find out gender.
Thanks!
I went back and edited the clothing. That seemed like a common theme for critiques and I appreciate it!
As for the ceiling fan. Right now, it's a no-go. Our house is very old and has drop ceilings. That in and of itself isn't a huge problem, but there is little to no ceiling wiring which makes it difficult. We have a ceiling fan (installed prior to our purchase) in the living room which has to have a huge exterior cord running along the ceiling and down the wall to work. We will definitely make sure that once baby is mobile, that fan is out of reach, or that we otherwise "baby proof" it! Thanks for the input!
Thank you! I definitely have received great input and have made a lot of positive changes from all the input and I really appreciate it!
Thanks! I definitely went back, researched the swaddlers and did edit. I am hoping to get/buy some sleep n plays - I just didn't register for them since we are team green.
Maybe I'll drop the J&J bath stuff - that's the most common people buy anyway. I put the California Baby and Mother Love.... on because I would like to try those brands and I don't think they are as common for people to buy and me to remember to buy.
Awesome comments! Thanks so much! Responses in bold...
Thanks! I definitely edited the clothing because that was a common theme in the critiques. Thank you for being so helpful and we LOVE our HP theme!
Thanks for the input - my comments are in bold.
I'm going to nix the idea of adding a convertible car seat. Car seats expire, and unless you're planning on using it from birth, you're shortening the time you can use the seat. Let's say you pick a car seat up today, the date of manufacture could have been months ago (which is normal). Take the Keyfit you registered for, it's good for six years. If it was made six months ago and sat in a closet for a year you've lost 18 months of use (this is more important for convertibles, you'll obviously be using them longer than the year you use an infant seat for, approx.).
One more point is unless you're going to get one of the longer lasting (height wise) seats on the market like the Chicco Nexfit or Graco MySize, I'd personally wait to see if lo falls on the tall side or short side and get a seat that fits your lo AND fits in your vehicles. You'll want one for each vehicle it's going in regularly.
It looks like you had help with picking the Keyfit and the JJCole cover, you picked the "good" cover, two thumbs up.
I wanted to throw in one suggestion for your City Mini, add the BJ Liquid Holster, the parent console sucks for anything larger than the pop can in the pic. I've had one for years and put it on other brands of strollers because it worked so well compared to others.
I don't know how to make it clicky, but we have these bibs from Target. They say they're boy, but, in person, they're pretty gender neutral since they're pastels v. the brighter colors.
https://www.target.com/p/neat-solutions-boys-bib-pastel-10-pack/-/A-13996908#prodSlot=medium_2_25
Edit: apparently I do know how to make it clicky lol