Baby Essentials: Gear

Hello everyone and welcome to another post!

As you know my husband and I are expecting a little girl, so I thought I would write this post to share with you all some of the things we have gotten for her as well as some of the things that were gifted to us for her.

I will be including links, however this is NOT a sponsored post with affiliate links. I just love reading blogs like this and being able to easily find the products that are mentioned.

Carseat or Travel System

I think first piece of baby gear any parent should buy for their baby is a carseat or a travel system. Originally I wanted a travel system simply for the convenience of the “click and go”, but my mother in law got us a Graco carseat! We have been so blessed by her spoiling our daughter before she is even born.

Crib

My in-laws also got this beautiful crib for us and I couldn’t be more grateful! We do plan on having baby girl sleep in her own space so we can sleep in our own space but we will see what ends up working for our family.

I think you can find the crib at Target here.

Travel Crib/Pack n’ Play

I understand that this may not be an essential for everyone, but we will need a crib for her when we go to Alaska and New Mexico to visit our family.

I did want one with an infant insert, but unfortunately when I went to our Walmart they were out of every brand except the Cosco Play Yard & Travel Crib, so that is the one we have and you can find it here if you are interested.

Baby Moniter

I didn’t get a fancy video monitor for our little girl, mostly because I am a little freaked out by the idea of someone hacking into it and watching our family. But I did get an audio monitor just so we can keep an ear on her when she is sleeping in a different room from us. It was also a little cheaper and we are on a budget because babies are expensive.

White Noise Machine

I think everyone now days is thrilled that we no longer have to “shhhh” our babies to sleep. We can just turn on a noise machine and call it a night.

I think one of the reasons these are helpful is because the womb is not a quiet place. There are stomach gurgles, heart beats, gas, blood flow and a whole bunch of other loud noises that your baby listens to for 9 months. So it makes sense that they wouldn’t like to fall asleep in a peaceful quiet room when they first arrive.

We got a Homedics SoundSpa Lullaby from Target and its pretty neat because it plays several different white noise sounds, lullabies and it has a night light.

Bouncer/Swing/Rock n’ Play

As a mom you’re still going to need to keep house and maintain your personal hygiene, which means you’ll need a place to put your baby when you simply cannot hold them. I got a bouncer from Amazon and it is so darn cute! Plus it’s super portable so I can take it to the living room when I’m folding laundry or I can take it to the bathroom so I can shower.

Breast Pump

However you plan on feeding your baby is up to you. I think we can all stop arguing if breast or formula is best and just agree that a fed baby equals a happy baby which also equals a happy mama. I do plan on breast feeding or at least pumping for as long as I can if she doesn’t have a strong latch so I got this Haakaa knock off breast pump from Amazon.

Basically when you’re feeding your baby, you can leak milk from your other breast and this little guy is there to catch it all so you don’t have any wasted milk and depending on your supply, you may not even have to schedule in an extra pumping session later on if you’re trying to build up a breast milk stash.

I’m holding off on getting an electric pump until I know if we’ll need to supplement baby’s feedings with formula or not because they can be really expensive. And since I’m not sure if we’ll be daring enough to try for a second baby at some point in the future, I really don’t think it makes financial sense to invest in something if I’m not sure I’ll be able to get a lot of good use out of it.

Changing Pad

I have changed many diapers in my day and I have to say when it comes down to it, any surface can usually be transformed into a changing pad especially if you have a surplus of receiving and swaddling blankets. That said, I still really like having a changing pad. The one I found on Amazon is actually waterproof so you don’t need a cover if you don’t want one and if there is a blowout you can just wipe down the changing pad and move on with your day.

I also know that dirty diapers can happen at any time and any place, so I put together a portable diaper caddy with a portable changing pad, a receiving blanket to cover it, butt paste and everything else you’ll need to change a diaper just incase you don’t have time to get back to your changing station in your nursery.

Baby Wrap or Carrier

Sometimes you have a fussy baby who doesn’t want to be put down or sometimes you just want to go for a walk. Whatever you have on your agenda for the day, a baby wrap or carrier is a super great way to hold your baby and get it all done hands free in typical Super Mom fasion.

I chose the Baby K’tan wrap because it’s like the Moby wrap, but you don’t have to spend 10 minutes wrapping it. You just throw it on like a scarf and put your baby in it.

Diaper Bag

Of course you’ll need a diaper bag when you have baby. I decided to get a backpack so that my husband wouldn’t have to carry around a huge hot pink flowered toat bag. Plus I generally like backpacks instead of bags because the weight is distributed evenly on your back instead of on one shoulder.

If you want to know more about the diaper bag I picked and what I have packed in it you can check out my post: What’s in my Diaper Bag?