@jacob1996 Don’t overdo it on clothes. I bought so many cute outfits because I was going to make sure he was dressed up every day. That didn’t happen. He spent the first few months in onesies and pajamas except for a party we attended for everyone to meet him. Plus they outgrow everything so fast or it gets stained and ruined.
Get a decent baby monitor. My mom kept pressuring me to put a baby monitor on my shower registry. I thought it was dumb because we have a small house so I’d be able to hear him from anywhere, but the scary thing is I can’t. When he’s in his room and we’re in ours we can barely hear him cry. To appease my mom I added the cheapest monitor I could find which someone bought. The battery sucks. It has to be plugged in at all times or it’ll die after like an hour. The sound isn’t great. I really regret not asking for a better quality one.
If you do have a shower and are going with disposable diapers I highly recommend doing a diaper raffle. We included a little card with the invite that said to bring a box of diapers or wipes in any size or brand and be entered for a prize. We gave away a wine basket. We didn’t have to buy any diapers until baby was like 7 months old and we still have over a whole case of wipes at 10 months.
Babies don’t need as much as you think they will, especially the first several months. We had so many toys and rattles and blankets and stuffed animals and like three different floor mats. It was crazy. He hardly used any of it. It took up so much space and it was a lot of wasted money.
This is more for you postpartum but don’t over do it. I watched so many videos on postpartum essentials and spent so much money that was completely wasted. The hospital either gave me so much I didn’t even use what I bought or I hated the products I bought. I made a ton of those padsicle things and I hated them. I wish I would’ve only made like 2-3 to start because I wasted almost an entire package of pads I could’ve used. So many people hated the peri bottle from the hospital so I bought the most recommended one but I hated that one and actually preferred the hospital one.
If you’re going to breastfeed/pump and it’s within your budget I’d get a pump that has a battery. I went through my insurance to get my pump so I didn’t have to pay outright for it. I had the option to upgrade and pay a little extra to get the pump with a battery, but I didn’t want to pay the money. It sucked having to be connected to the wall for 30 minutes multiple times a day. And when the power went out I had to use the hand pump which sucked even more.
The best advice I got was from my dad and it was that babies are more durable than people think. Every time I started to panic about if he was comfortable or what if this happens or what if I did that I’d just remember what he said and that always really helped me relax. It still does.
