FTM lurking from A15 :)

ptelfra · July 2015

hello ladies!! I'm a FTM lurking from August 15 and I love reading your discussions because since you ladies have all your beautiful babies already it helps me to read all your situations and advice to one another. So now I guess I have a question I don't know if it's been discussed on here already and if it has been sorry for the repeat but how much of everything are/have you used? I'll be formula feeding so about how many bottles? What size? Onesies? Receiving blankets? Burp cloths and bibs? I had my baby shower yesterday and was blessed to be gifted so so much things BUT I feel like I don't have quiet enough of the main things.. I'm 36.1 weeks and just want to know so I can start getting things in order these last couple of weeks. Thanks in advance!!

mishmardhiono · July 2015

Towelling onesies are the best things ever. I'd get lots of muslin wraps and use them as burp cloths/swaddles/wraps/shade. I bought tommee tippee back to nature and miomee natural bottles & avent. She hates them, she likes the nuk bottle from my breast pump and these 50c bottles. I'd recommend getting 3 nappy rash creams etc, we bath LO in laundry but normally change in her bedroom so I have a bathing station set up in our kitchen, nappy station in her bedroom. Just means I'm not always having to move stuff back and forth.

Go buy laxatives, wind drops, gripe water, pain relief and sample sizes of formula so you will have it on hand (with drs advice) straight away if needed & you won't waste heaps of money trying out formulas. Also try the cheapest formula first, doesn't have as much crap for them to react to and try digest.
The one thing I wasn't expecting is the constant need to check on her when she was sleeping so we bought angelcare monitors and didn't trust them ( false alarms & also alarms not going off when out of bassinet) so we bought a snuza hero (1/3 price of angelcare monitors) it's the best thing in the world!

dancegurl1118 · July 2015

Remember care for yourself postpartum as well! Buy some overnight pads (I like the always infinity - they're in a green wrapper, thin but high absorbency). Tucks pads for swelling, a sitz bath, and some underwear you don't mind ruining.

As for the baby, really less is more. Some burp cloths, a few 4 oz bottles, diapers, wipes, onesies with hand covers that fold over (much easier than mittens!) and swaddling blankets. If you're formula feeding, make sure you have some tight sports bras to wear for when your milk comes in, and some ice packs to ice them!

Good luck!

MaliKaela · July 2015

If you haven't already don't take the tags off the baby clothes you get. Depending on how much laundry you do, how big your LO is at birth, and how fast he/she grows you might not need nearly as much as you think. I got everything washed and ready because I was excited and now I can't return hardly or never used items!

KaLikeAWind · July 2015

I feel a bit like a minimalist here, but I actually got little by the way of stuff to prepare. I planned to breastfeed so did not stock up on bottles, but ended up having to supplement with formula and ended up needing bottles - I have the 2 that came with the breast pump and I've been using those. My LO is only 2 weeks old tho, so only takes 2 to 2 and half ounces or less per feeding, so they work fine for now. If I am not able to transition back to bfing I will have to buy larger bottles, yes. Point being, here in the beginning I have been able to get by with very few feeding items even tho I have been using formula. This way I can add in larger bottles as I need to. I have not used any bibs. I don't anticipate using them until much later in the game. If you are planning on spending the money on bibs yourself, I should think it would be OK tonwait until you need them instead of absorbing the cost up front.

Regarding onesies, clothes, etc - my LO spends a lot of time hanging out around the house in his diaper and a snap T-shirt. We only put him in a onesie when we leave the house, which is seldom at this point. Or if its chilly. He has maybe wore a onesie about 5 times. At this point I am wondering really how many nb size onesies he will actually get to wear. I'm glad I don't have that many.

What I wish I had just a few more of -
~ I have some pretty large muslin swaddle blankets, they are super awesome. I only have 4 tho, I wish I had maybe another 4 pack
~ more of those snap t-shirts. So easy and so cool for hanging out in the heat (we don't have AC - it hasn't been *hot* but we're not sitting around in an artificially cooled environment, either). I could honestly buy 3 or 4 more packs of 4 just because they are so easy and it would save me having to wash the ones I do have all the time (they are mad cheap)
~ diapers. So many diapers. I did not buy a lot of nb diapers because I heard they graduate out of them so quickly but all the same, we ended up having to buy more nb diapers anyway. If you buy packages of diapers from Target (or, I believe Walmart does this, too) you can return them for another size if your LO grows out of nb size.

mlindzz · July 2015

Don't buy to many newborn diapers! Our LO is 3 weeks and we're already about to switch to size 1's.
Also as PP mentioned, prepare for your self care Postpartum. It won't be easy to run to the store or grab things needed from the basement/garage etc (heating pad, Ice packs, extra blankets, etc) . Have all the things you 'might' need easily accessible.
Tell friends/family in advance when they offer to help that food is great. You'll appreciate it so much more than the flowers people bring.
There is no such things as enough blankets, we go through them like there is no tomorrow. And to my suprise babe don't wear as many outfits as I though, I assumed I would be changing him a few times a day. But he's warm bodied and we love our skin to skin time, so don't worry about clothes needing to fit when baby first comes home.
Also, we have started introducing a pacifier already. If your LO wants to be on you 24/7 you might also decide to use one sooner than the suggested 6 weeks as well. So perhaps buy some in advance. Also, hope water as others suggested. We haven't used it yet, but if I had some on hand last week I certainly would have.
And a good rocker/glider is a life saver, we use it all day! Along with a swing for baby which your LO will likely also spend many happy napping hours in the first few weeks.
Enjoy every minute.. the days will fly by! & best of luck!

Edit: typo

ptelfra · July 2015

Thank you so much ladies!! This is all so helpful and it's currently 90 degrees in Boston so I am having some nesting urges because I cannot imagine going out in this weather in one or two weeks when I'm a lot bigger and more uncomfortable.

virginiaunicorn11 · July 2015

I 100% agree with "less is more". We bought a lot of things on Amazon once LO was born and we knew what we needed. Most of what we bought before wasn't needed.

I do wish I had more breast care products at the beginning, which translates to your having good formula supplies before LO arrives.

My kid outgrew newborn clothing sizes at 3 weeks and never wore newborn diapers - pampers 1 since birth.

I second the need for 5+ muslin blankets and a crap ton of burp cloths. We ran out and bought 10 cloth diapers for the changing station on Day 2, and we do at least two loads of laundry every day.

I wish we didn't have any onesies that go over the head. Much prefer the snap front ones. Also sleep gowns are wonderful (open bottom outfits, I mean, not just the sleep sacks). If you get long onesies with feet, zippers are way easier than snaps.

Couldn't live without the Moby or some type of baby carrier. Simple bouncy chair has worked wonders for us.

There is a thread called "love/hate" or something along those lines, where everyone lists their favorite and least favorite items. But the real point of that thread is every baby and set up is unique.

PS, We keep a fitted sheet on our couch and have to change our bed sheets every few days. We spend a lot of time in those spots together and LO spits up copious amounts daily. We ended up buying more bed sheets to add to the rotation so laundry wasn't such a desperate situation. But this may be unique to our situation.

rrcameron21 · July 2015

I thought I got way too many blankets for gifts but I use them like crazy!! I especially love the Muslin swaddle blankets. They are so light and airy,
Perfect for the summer. I only have 3 but I wish I had like 6!

I never thought I would have to use bottles/formula but I'm so glad I had them! It would've been a pain trying to get to the store for those. I recently did go buy more bottles though. I love the tommee tippee ones. Good for pumped breast milk too.

My LO just hangs in a onesie all day. I like to put him in the long sleeve ones with the fold over the hands at night so he doesn't scratch his face. So we only go through 1-2 onesies a day.

We have yet to put him in any of his fancy little outfits. Comfort wins every time.

hswan26 · July 2015

I have about 6 onesies that LO wears out of the house of it's hot and 2/3 pairs of newborn pants to throw over them. I have about 6 sleep and plays for bedtime. We swiped the recieving blankets from the hospital, they are bigger and thicker. We swaddled LO for a few days but now they are burp cloths. We formula fed from the start. Sign up with similac and enfamil and they will send you free samples plus coupons. I second the having a variety of small cans/containers on hand. Both of my daughters went through a few different formulas before we found one that worked well for them. Pick up gas drops and gripe water. I went through 2 boxes (88) count of newborn diapers by about 6 weeks and now LO is outgrowing and heading up to size 1. We also went through about 1.5 boxes of wipes in that timeframe(I'm pretty liberal with the wipes so you might stretch them further) we have about 10 bottles and I wash them once a day. One thing I will suggest is the Dr Browns formula pitcher. It makes my hard to mix formula mix beautifully. Then I just warm a bottle up under hot water. The rock n play sleeper is a must! Hope that helps!

YouAreMySunshine15 · July 2015

My girl is 4 weeks old. I can't stand NB onesies or anything you have to tug over the baby's head. I'd recommend side snap shirts, kimono style onesies, and button up sleepers. I'm not a fan of the zipper sleepers because they bunch up funny and aren't comfortable for LO. The 0-3 month onesies worked better for us when she was born. A little looser and easier to get on. Get more 0-3 size clothes than NB. I never use my 5 million receiving blankets. Just my Aden & Anais Muslin blankets. Get a ton! They're amazing. We don't use bibs yet. I use cloth prefold diapers as burp cloths. They're perfect and inexpensive. Good luck!

ptelfra · July 2015

Thank you all so much!! I picked up a few onesies 3-6 months since I have a quite a few newborn size. I picked up some crib sheets, a pack of burp cloths since I'll be using the hospital provided ones more for that, some small bottles of formula and a dispenser and some more bottles. Just have to get my PP care items and the gas drops and gripe water.

JessHeppell · July 2015

dont forget 0-3 month ones as well. it honestly is different for everyone depending on how much laundry youre willing to do everyday.

ptelfra · July 2015

I was gifted a lotttt of 0-3 month plus grabbed a few today also!

DolphinLover2002 · July 2015

My girls are almost 6 weeks and still in newborn clothing. 0-3 is still too big for them. So it totally depends on the baby. We have a ton of clothes for them, but they're twins, so we use double what everyone else does. Yesterday we had 3 blowouts, so changed several times.

We love dr. Browns bottles. They're awesome. Used them for our ds and now the twins. We go through bottles a lot with pumped milk, so we have a big stash. I think we have around 10 bottles for them to use, plus the ones that came with my pump for pumping.

Good luck! Enjoy the last part of your pregnancy, and enjoy when baby comes. Time really does fly.

mindaa · July 2015

I got a lot of used stuff and had about 15 newborn outfits both long and short sleeve. It felt like way too much the first couple weeks, then the poop and spit up became so regular we were going through several outfits a day. But I still washed new outfits on an "as needed" basis.
Keeping him in his diaper at home during the day helped. He's just now growing out of nb clothes at six weeks, so most everything got worn a couple times at least.

HoosOnFirst · July 2015

We didn't use bibs... At first. But now I have a VERY spitty baby (tm @cillymama) and I'm sick of changing her every time she eats and inevitably spits up. So yeah, now I'm all about bibs!

I'd say don't over buy on breastfeeding stuff until you start and then know what you need. Breastfeeding ended up not working out for us and I had opened a lot of stuff that I ended up not needing.

Personally I prefer the snap sleepers over the zipper ones, because you have to unzip the whole suit to change the baby and mine gets cold and complains loudly! At least snaps can be undone in more local areas.

HoosOnFirst · July 2015

ptelfra said:
Thank you so much ladies!! This is all so helpful and it's currently 90 degrees in Boston so I am having some nesting urges because I cannot imagine going out in this weather in one or two weeks when I'm a lot bigger and more uncomfortable.

Also hello to another Boston mom! I wish you good luck that there's no home Sox game when you head to the hospital

ptelfra · July 2015

hoodoll82 said:

ptelfra said:
Thank you so much ladies!! This is all so helpful and it's currently 90 degrees in Boston so I am having some nesting urges because I cannot imagine going out in this weather in one or two weeks when I'm a lot bigger and more uncomfortable.
Also hello to another Boston mom! I wish you good luck that there's no home Sox game when you head to the hospital

Haha thank you! Although the hospital is a very short 5 minute drive, traffic can get real crazy

kkdb14 · July 2015

I use bibs like none other now. When I first got them, and until about 6 weeks, I figured they'd collect dust for several months, but nope. I got reeeal sick and tired of having a wet outfit on LO and she spits up at every feeding multiple times. It's also easier than a burp cloth if they aren't in your shoulder, because it's like a burp cloth that's attached to them. Wipe and go! LO is 7 weeks and still fits in NB onesies and sleepers are just recently beginning to get snug. I can use both NB & 0-3 right now. i can go forever without doing laundry at the moment

I had a baby under 6 lbs, so I was able to use the receiving blankets as swaddling blankets for about 3 weeks, and now they're barely ever used. I have one that covers the napper in the PnP in case of leakage or spit up (that thing is super hard to remove and wash) and I very very occasionally use one to cover her legs in the carseat. I much prefer the Aden & Anais. Expensive, but worth it. I used all my individual packs of wipes first, so I'm not totally sure how much I've gone through up to this point but I'd guess about 2-2.5 boxes? I'm pretty bad about using lots of wipes though. Diaper rash was also not a problem for me until 6.5 weeks, and now it seems to never go away. I suggest using cream BEFORE the rash occurs. Desitin is like $4 and totally worth it to use basically all the time. Because I had a small baby, LO fit into NB diapers until about 5.5 weeks (~9 lbs). She seems to almost be growing out of 1s now though so I'm not sure what's up with that! I was told 1s would last the longest!

( and yeah, prefold cloth diapers are the best burp cloths around. Someone got me a pack of patterned ones from gerber that have yet to be used. You're going to want something thick and absorbent. Good luck to you mama! The first few weeks are hard, but around the 6 week mark, things start to FINALLY fall into place.

HoosOnFirst · July 2015

kkdb14 said:
I use bibs like none other now. When I first got them, and until about 6 weeks, I figured they'd collect dust for several months, but nope. I got reeeal sick and tired of having a wet outfit on LO and she spits up at every feeding multiple times. It's also easier than a burp cloth if they aren't in your shoulder, because it's like a burp cloth that's attached to them. Wipe and go! LO is 7 weeks and still fits in NB onesies and sleepers are just recently beginning to get snug. I can use both NB & 0-3 right now. i can go forever without doing laundry at the moment I had a baby under 6 lbs, so I was able to use the receiving blankets as swaddling blankets for about 3 weeks, and now they're barely ever used. I have one that covers the napper in the PnP in case of leakage or spit up (that thing is super hard to remove and wash) and I very very occasionally use one to cover her legs in the carseat. I much prefer the Aden & Anais. Expensive, but worth it. I used all my individual packs of wipes first, so I'm not totally sure how much I've gone through up to this point but I'd guess about 2-2.5 boxes? I'm pretty bad about using lots of wipes though. Diaper rash was also not a problem for me until 6.5 weeks, and now it seems to never go away. I suggest using cream BEFORE the rash occurs. Desitin is like $4 and totally worth it to use basically all the time. Because I had a small baby, LO fit into NB diapers until about 5.5 weeks (~9 lbs). She seems to almost be growing out of 1s now though so I'm not sure what's up with that! I was told 1s would last the longest! ( and yeah, prefold cloth diapers are the best burp cloths around. Someone got me a pack of patterned ones from gerber that have yet to be used. You're going to want something thick and absorbent. Good luck to you mama! The first few weeks are hard, but around the 6 week mark, things start to FINALLY fall into place.

I'm with you, girl! I never used bibs until week 5 and now I never do a feeding without one!

lany07 · July 2015

We had to try out several different bottles. So my recommendations is buy two or three different brands just in case. We eventually landed on dr brown bottles but went through a lot of trial or error.

btm013 · July 2015

Take back any receiving blankets you get. I seriously have no idea what their purpose serves. Burp clothes and muslin swaddles are the way to go!

KaLikeAWind · July 2015

^^ I use my receiving blankets as spitty blankets and also will tuck them around LOs legs when he is in the car seat. If I happen to have it with me when I changing him, I may also just drape it between / over his legs to prevent an unintentional shower while I grab a new diaper or whatever

delujm0 · July 2015

We're in NC and it's super hot this summer...LO wore only a diaper and muslin swaddle for the first two weeks and is now in a short sleeved onesie during the day, with a diaper and swaddle at night. I have used zero long sleeved onesies or feetie pajamas or pants yet. She's also about to have to move to 0-3 month size onesies (3.5 weeks now) because she's long so snapping the bottom is becoming an issue.

We're still in newborn diapers but they're getting tight around her fat little thighs now so we're moving to 1s soon...she's well over 8lbs now we're pretty sure (was 7.13 at 10 days).

Buy so so many wipes. You will need them. We also love our boppy lounger for daytime catnaps.

Steal as many pads and mesh disposable panties from the hospital as possible. Stock up on several size pads and cheap panties you don't care about for when you get home. And ibuprofen. And stool softeners. I fortunately feel completely normal now aside from light bleeding and occassional Boob soreness, but I didn't tear much. Even so, the first week to ten days was pretty rough. Make sure you have help around.

CanadaMom17 · July 2015

I use receiving blankets as burp cloths. I find burp clothes less useful. If you sew, make some flannel receiving blankets big enough to be useful, and the muslin ones are awesome for everything.

My LO is just shy of 8 weeks (May lurking mom), and she's still in NB sizes, though some of her smaller brand 0-3 stuff is fitting now. I ended up buying more of it after she was born, since I didn't have enough. Some things you can wait and see.

My Fisher Price vibrating/bouncy chair is proving a hit now that she's a little older too. Lets mamma do some dinner/kitchen prep while we talk.

rrcameron21 · July 2015

I use receiving blankets for everything! Swaddling, burp clothes, diaper changes in random places (specifically the couch) and for snuggling. I personally love them.

I love all my blankets. Can't get enough.

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