For my best friend, who is having her first. For myself, to see what else I can get rid of.
Stroller: Babyzen yoyo+
Clothes: no stress, can be bought after birth by dad, when the birth weight is known. We had to skip right over to size 3-months.
- onesies, only those which opens on the front: 7 / # of wash you accept doing per week + 20% (for accidents). We do 1 wash per week, so around 10 onesies. If you do 2 per week, then go for 5.
- 3 pyjamas with feet (don’t want to deal with socks)
- 2 sleeping bags adapted to season
Baby wrap: they are all good, just make sure it’s an ergonomic one. Brands we have and recommend: Boba, Sollybaby (for petites), and a classic Ergobaby (for dad)
Nursing: silver cups (Envie de fraises, or second-hand on Anibis) + pads
Maxi-cotton gauzes: to wipe, to swaddle, to use as nursing cover, to use as changing station outside, to cover stroller for naps…. we just took 2 in the bag everytime we went out and that was it. Brand: Aden + Anais I recommend the cotton ones, the silk ones shrank over time.
A nursing cushion Brand: Red castle
Furnitures:
- changing station: we started with a removable changing station on top of the crib / then we moved to a changing mattress on top the Ikea Hemnes dress / now we found a second-hand SUNDVIK dresser. All work fine.
- a diaper trash can
- if you decide to do this, a co-sleeping side bed (we didn’t)
- a high chair: 2nd hand Tripp Trapp chair + newborn set
Bath: we used the Shantala tub (bought at Jubilane) and were happy with it. But I think it’s fine to just bathe with a parent, or directly in a regular baby bathtub (which we used after his 4 months). We don’t use any specific bath product.
Other: 1 pack of newborn diapers, cotton pads from Migros (you can stack these up)
Everything else can be bought later, depending on evolution, specific needs from the baby, including: bottles (after breastfeeding), special mattresses if they have gastric reflux, shoes (only after they walk, it’s better to be bare foot), breast pump kits, toys, food cooker/mixer, utensils, play foam mattresses, bike trailer…
This is the only video I liked when searching for baby essentials, from Farmhouse on Boone.
The best friend’s comment :
First of all I love lists, and short ones even more. And I was worried I was not ready. This was thus the best list to content my nesting instinct before birth.
Poussette : If you live in town, do not think twice and get the yoyo, it’s worth every penny (and you can find one second hand as I did).
Clothes : just a note that at some point after a few month, pijamas with no feet are useful because the baby can move around better with bare foot. Definitely way better with feet for newborns.
Baby wrap : I loved the Boba wrap my Bestie gave me, but it only worked for a few month unitl baby got too heavy. After you need to move to a non-strechable material, which is much harder to wrap (I still haven’t got the hang of it). We used the Ergobaby a whole lot with the infant insert at first.
I did not need nursing cups but used the magic “purelan” cream which is given at the hospital, aka sheep wool fat, aka what is used to milk a cow (true story).
Furniture : advantage of the co-sleeping bed : you can lower one side of the bed, which helps baby to breath better when he has a cold.
Bathtub :I discovered “free bathing” (basically bathing your baby in 5cm of water at the bottom of your bathtub) (changed my life, saved my back), you can start around 2 month, so basically, I didn’t really need a bathtub.
I would add to the list :
one oil/cream for baby (we started with almond oil)
one rocking item, we got a rocking chair and it saves my back
a “mobile”, it is more for 1 month +, but it is a nice way to have baby do some short alone time. We got the Montessori black and white one which interested our kid very early on.
Thank you Bonnie for the great list 🙂