If I Could Send a Shopping List Back in Time

vadadell

New member
As I'm finally getting used to this baby thing, I wish I could go back and tell myself what has and has not been useful. There is a huge gap in age between my kids, and there are so many products out there now that I swear did not exist 20 years ago. So I've compiled a few lists. Keep in mind that I am trying to be as frugal as possible (as we had to drastically cut our income so I could be home more with the baby), I try to be conscious of our carbon footprint (trying to avoid buying new if possible), and I appreciate things being simple and practical. I hope this is helpful for others, or possibly helps people who would like to buy baby gifts that are outside the box and are generally more practical. If you have any items to add to the lists below, I would love to hear them. I'm in the process of getting together gifts for pregnant friends / family, so anything that you found very helpful would be helpful to me.

These things are easily found used. I was able to acquire many of the items through friends, through my local buy-nothing group, or at a much cheaper price (often free) used online. I would not add any of these to my baby gift registry.

- Baby bottles (I prefer glass ones, there are so many out there)

- Baby bathtubs

- Clothes for 0 - 6 months

- Boppy pillows. They are everywhere!

- Baby towels, which I honestly have only used a few times. Usually we just use regular towels, and the baby doesn't seem to care that his towel doesn't have ears on them.

- Muslin Blankets. These are great for everything. I keep one in each car, one in the diaper bag, one in the stroller, etc. They're great to use as spit rags, to cover the car seat / stroller from the sun and wind, to swaddle, the list goes on.

- Swaddles

- Bibs

- Pack and Plays. I have 2 and have yet to use it for anything other than a cat bed. As soon as you announce your pregnancy, someone will ask you if you need a pack and play.

- Crib Sheets

- Bouncy Seats

- Toys for babies, especially the ones they walk behind

- High Chairs

Here is my list of things that are surprisingly useful, but are harder to find used / online / free. Some of these were already on my registry, and some are items I wish I had added.

- Consumable items such as lotions, gripe water, gassy drops, saline drops, and boogie wipes.

- A battery operated nasal aspirator. Just trust me.

- Cloth diapers. These have been my favorite frugal item. If you are considering it, let people know. You may be surprised at who may offer you their used stash. I also had cloth diapers and inserts on my baby registry list, so have not bought any cloth diapers myself but have a fairly decent collection. This has saved us quite a bit of money so far.

- Reusable wipes containers, mostly the small portable ones.

- Wet bags. I use these for cloth diapers, but they can be used for anything! Keep them in a diaper bag for unexpected messes while out. If there is something super gross that needs to wait until wash day, you can quarantine them in the bag so they don't smell up the house. They'll also come in handy later on when we can go to the pool and party like it's 2019.

- Nipples for baby bottles. I do not want to use used nipples. I wish I had added all the different stage nipples because that would have been really useful. Side note, I really wanted mason jar baby bottles because they spoke to my inner hipster. Instead, I just sterilized my old mason jars and ordered comotomo nipples with some rust proof stainless steel rings. This worked well because my baby would ONLY use comotomo nipples at first and those bottles are very expensive.

- A humidifier. Get one in advance so you're not running out to the drug store at 2 am.

- A dock a tot. There are also lots of non-brand ones that are nice. You will want to dock your tot at some point.

- A really nice foam play mat. This was an impulse buy, but we use it every day! Easy to fold up and clean, and very gentle on mom's knees.

- Strong command hooks. You'll be surprised at what you suddenly want to hang on the wall after baby.

- Black out sheets. I know this seems somewhat strange, but you'll be glad you added it to your gift registry when the baby hits that first beautiful sleep regression.

- Clothes for 9 months +. I'm not sure why this is so much harder to find used. I guess babies are just rougher on clothing when they hit 8 months.

- Cool baby sleep suits, like the zippity zip or the magic merlin puffy thing.

Things that we did not need.

- Wipes / Bottle warmers

- Sterilizer. I just boiled water, plus the ones for the microwave never seem to fit everything just right.

- White noise machine. I eventually stopped using the one we got and just plugged in my old phone with a white noise app.

With the money we've saved, we've been able to splurge a little bit on ourselves. These may also make great baby gifts, because mom and dad are tired and need presents.

- Nice coffee and tea

- Nice(r) things for mom, such as lotions and bath bombs. My incision still hurts and I'm tired, so smelling nice has been a really nice boost. Organic / natural items are nice, because then I don't have to worry that I'm smearing chemicals all over the baby.

- Extra bedsheets because the baby will split up all over your bed when the other sheets are dirty.

- Can you gift youtube premium? Because when you're up at 2 am pumping, youtube premium is really nice.
 
@vadadell White noise machine saved my life, so I’ll have to disagree on that one, but the reusable wipes container I do agree with, had ours for two and a half years now and still going strong and it’s been trodden on, shat on, fallen on, you name it, best invention ever
 
@ntopcat I don't disagree with white noise, the white noise itself is a must have! Tbf, it may have been that the white noise machine just wasn't great and I didn't feel like it was doing a great job. The white noise on an old phone was a lot simpler for me than searching for a new one. Is there a certain brand / style you recommend?
 
@vadadell Marpac hushh was my favourite, until it didn’t work anymore- charger port wasn’t the best so it kept cutting out, so now I have a cheapie. I am not sure of the brand, I tried the white noise on the phone but it kept running the battery flat, which one did you try?
 
@ntopcat It's called White Noise Lite. It's the only thing installed on an old iPhone, which we keep plugged in and mounted on a wall. I like this app because you can hit the "night" button and it changes to a soft light clock, and you can create custom sound mixes. The white noise machine we had before only worked on a timer and would shut off after 45 minutes - I might as well just go in and wake the baby up myself at that point!

Happy cake day!
 
@vadadell We understand some people prefer buying used, but it's ok to go new for everything baby-related. We don't trust used stuff, tbh.

I also disagree on the Dock a Tot. These are outgrown very quickly, they're just a $300 pillow with bumpers, the genuine ones are very expensive b/c the company needs parents to pay for the ones they send influencers for free, and the dupes don't follow the same rigurous standards that actual baby products must follow (they're also banned in Canada).

But all the things under "Didn't use" have been very useful to us.
  • Bottle warmers: If LO prefers room-temp or warm milk, a bottle warmer that can take care of that in a few minutes is a lifesaver.
  • Sterilizer: We've been using ours daily for almost seven months, mainly for bottles. It puts my mind at ease to have a device do this for me so I don't have to boil water every time. Boiling also would leave things cloudy, but the sterilizer leaves everything clear.
  • White noise machine: In the earlier months it was to simulate LO's (supposed?) experience in the womb. Now, it covers all other noises, conversations, etc. so that LO can keep sleeping peacefully.
In case someone needed an alternate viewpoint, there it is!
 
@ijusdontknowanymore This is why I sometimes dislike these “must have” lists. Everyone’s preferences will be vastly different. In my opinion, I also think the dock a tot is a waste of money, yet this persons must have. But the white noise machine they didn’t use is one of our favorite items! To anyone reading: take these things with a grain of salt.
 
@cankosker I can understand that. It wasn't meant to be a "must have" list, more so things that I didn't realize I would want / need and I wished I had asked for on my baby registry (like the baby sleep suits and black out curtains) as well as things we did buy / ask for but didn't necessarily need (especially when money is tight). Hopefully there are a few items that are helpful to some, especially people having to carefully choose where to spend their money. But I can see why these lists might not be helpful for many people.
 
@ijusdontknowanymore New is good too! It was just my preference this time around to buy used, maybe because I've already done a round of buying (and giving away) new? I guess my thinking was that because times are tough right now, I wanted to let people know what we were able to easily find so if they have to choose between buying X or Y, they could possibly have both.

I can definitely see why a bottle warmer would be helpful, I probably should have specified that we use room temp water and powder. I struggled with pumping for a really long time, but it probably would have been more useful if I had stored breastmilk or formula in the fridge. I'm also a huge advocate of white noise! We use it every night and for every nap. Just with an app on an old phone that I had rolling around in my drawers.
 
@vadadell We used to use room temp water..but then the temps dropped and the pipes got cold..and now the water we get is cold, which is nice for us (I'll even put ice in mine!) but no bueno for LO. So we had to get the dang bottle warmer quickly!

When I was pregnant I'd save lists like yours to see what we'd get, so i can definitely see their value, but now that LO's here, I also enjoy chiming in so that future parents have other POVs.
 
@vadadell I hear you on local buy-nothing groups. It's too bad that COVID cases are extremely high in my area... I'm not willing to risk going out in public unless absolutely necessary. With our first, we got a lot of baby gear from thrift stores and Craigslist... We have a big gap and with this baby we're getting a lot more items new because we're self-isolating and shopping online.
 
@vadadell One thing I wish I could go back to and stop myself from buying is so much baby clothes. My daughter is 5 months old and she has worn maybe half of the things I’ve gotten her because she outgrows them so quickly.
 
@thebucketwoman We got a TON of clothes from the local buy nothing group! Best part was i could collect all the clothes offered and then pass on the ones that werent our style. My 4m is in 12m clothes so it has been a lifesaver! However we did discover certain styles we prefer (like zip up footless sleepers since he maxes out the footed ones so quickly) so i keep my eye out for sales on those brand new still
 
@vadadell Thanks! I’m 11 days post partum and mostly happy with what we got, but quick question - can you link the:
- foam playmat
- humidifier
- reusable wipe container

Thanks!
 
@rakib Congrats! Here is the playmat. It has honestly been one of my favorite purchases so far. It's really big, but can be folded in half for smaller spaces. The baby and I spend a ton of time playing on it every day! This is the reusable wipes container that I mentioned. It's a travel sized one, since we wet the wipes down individually when we're at home. As for the humidifier, it's just a small cool mist one from CVS that I bought in the middle of the night when the baby was sick. I wish I had gotten one in advance, because the choices were very limited at the store and it was way more expensive than if I had ordered one online.
 
@vadadell Awesome! Thank you so much. The mat looks great and the wipe container is awesome, we buy them in 100+ packs and it would be nice to have more portable options.

Yeah I’m a bit lost on humidifier options but will look into them. It’s very dry here so we may need one when the first baby cold hits.
 
@vadadell Awesome list!! Considering taking the wipe warmer off my registry, however I have one question. You mentioned you use cloth diapers (I am too) and I am also planning to use cloth wipes, hence why I was planning for a wipe warmer. Do you use regular wipes or cloth wipes?
 
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