What Do You Really Need for Baby? The Baby Products We Used from 0-6 Months

Oct 23, 2019

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Well you guys, I've finally taken the time to tackle this topic. Baby items you actually need. Holy crap, there are a lot of baby things out there but what baby items do you need for a newborn?. I mean, why does a 1-month-old need a bajillion different toys. Here's a spoiler alert: there are definitely a ton of baby items you really don’t need. If you're like me, you can easily get overwhelmed by the amount of stuff that's out there. Not to mention the choices! How do you decide which brand of pacifier to get? What bottles should you use? The list of questions, brand comparisons, and options is honestly endless when it comes to baby items. My goal is that this post will help you soon-to-be mamas out there who are building your registries to feel better confident that you’re actually putting baby registry items you actually need on your list.

To make it hopefully a little bit easier on you, I wanted to break down a list of the baby items we ACTUALLY used over the last 6 months. I'm talking everything from bottles to sleepers to baby loungers and everything in between. I'll also be covering what I wish we had bought instead for some items as well as what I wish we would have had sooner. And, you guessed it, there’s definitely a few baby items you don’t need.

Now before we take a dive into the world of prepping for baby and the list of all the things you need for baby, I wanted to explain our baby situation a little bit for those of you who might be new here. We were set to move across the country from Georgia to Alaska within a month of my son's birth. So we knew that a lot of the baby items on our registry would be staying in boxes for a few months and that there would be a lot of baby-related purchases we would have to make once we arrived because it didn't make sense to have them sitting on a truck in transit for a month. With that being said, let's get into the nitty-gritty of what you actually need for baby from 0-6 months.

What Do You Really Need for Baby? The Baby Products We Used from 0-6 Months

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Baby Products You Actually Need

Swaddles

Swaddles are a huge must-have for babies. Swaddles are essential in those first few months when babies still have the startle reflex. They help keep them cozy and feeling safe outside of the womb. There are a ton of options out there and a lot of opinions on velcro swaddles versus muslin swaddles. We personally loved the ease of use of velcro swaddles. The Swaddle Me velcro swaddles were our favorite and we used them until Jasper was almost 4 months old. What's great about the velcro swaddles is how easy it is to get baby in and out of a swaddle. The nurse at the hospital tried her best to teach us how to swaddle a baby and while Justin especially got pretty good at it after a few tries, we quickly came to the realization that it was just so much more simple to use the velcro ones. We didn't have any problems with the velcro sound waking Jasper up at night and we didn't have to worry about him breaking out of the swaddle and ending up with a blanket in his bassinet. It was also easy to find a position he loved to be in with the velcro swaddles which allowed us to swaddle his hands near his face from the beginning.

The other swaddle we really liked was the Ergo one. I loved how the bottom was this big open pouch with enough room that Jasper could move his long legs when he wanted too but still kept his arms close so that he wouldn't startle himself. We were able to use the ergo swaddle longer because of the length in the bottom compared to the traditional velcro swaddles. We'll be using both of these with future babies and I plan to get another of the Ergo ones in the future.

Baby Clothes

How many baby clothes do you actually need for a newborn? I was definitely one of those new moms who fell into the trap of wanting a ton of clothes for my baby when in reality for the first few weeks you want them in a simple onesie or footed sleeper most of the time. And now that Jasper is bigger and I'm starting to figure out his personal style a bit more, he wears the same few pieces. I wish I had just started out like that from the beginning instead of quickly getting overwhelmed with clothing.

One of the best things we purchased were the plain white Gerber baby onesies. Our next baby will just be living in these when they come home from the hospital. We also really loved the Cloud Island footed sleepers from Target because they actually zip from the bottom up instead of the top making diaper changes much easier!

Truly the only baby clothes you need for babies are onesies and some footed sleepers. They grow so fast in those first few months that any outrageously cute clothing item tends to get worn once and then they grow out of it. That was my experience with Jasper at least!

Baby Loungers

Everyone raved about the Doc-A-Tot while I was pregnant with Jasper. It was pricey so I begged my mom to buy it right before he was born when we didn't get it as a registry gift. I loved having a place to put him in those first few weeks so we definitely used it. However, I will say that in the future I'll be purchasing the Snuggle Me Organic to use instead of the Doc-A-Tot. There are a few reasons to chose the Snuggle Me Organic vs. the Doc-A-Tot. A big one for me though was the fact that the Doc-A-Tot is two separate pieces that need to be taken apart when you wash it. I didn't realize that before purchasing and it made for washing it extremely annoying. And you'll wash it a lot because babies are messy. The Snuggle Me Organic is one piece and seems like it would be a heck of a lot easier to clean and switch covers. That being said, I do fully believe that you should invest in a lounger of some sort but we did only use it for about a month since we packed it with our household goods. By the time we got our shipment, Jasper was too long for it. However, we did use it round the clock every day in that first month of his life that I believe having one is worth it. Also worth noting, I hated the Boppy and so did Jasper. We hardly ever used it. When I was breastfeeding I found that my hips were too wide for it to fit anywhere near me comfortably.

Baby Carrier

Babywearing isn't a must for everyone but it was definitely a must for me. I knew that we would be flying across the country with a newborn and I wanted a way to be handsfree while trying to handle that. WildBird was my answer to that problem and if you've been around any part of my blog or Instagram or really anywhere, then you'll know I'm obsessed with my WildBird ring slings. I even have a Wildbird tutorial on my Instagram if you're curious about how they work! I didn't know if the WildBird would work for us as perfectly as it has so we also got an Ergo Baby carrier. I do like this carrier but I can't use it without the help of another person to put the clips together. So the WildBird ring slings or any baby carrier you can get on by yourself was the best option for us. Babywearing is a great way to bond with your baby for both mother and father and it also helps you to be hands-free when you need to be. I love wearing Jasper at the grocery store for my anxiety and also to make my life easier when I'm running errands!

Stroller/Car seat System

For the stroller and car seat system, we decided that we wanted the best of the best. That meant splurging on the UPPABaby Vista. The UPPABaby Vista comes with a Rumble Seat (basically you're traditionally stroller seat) as well as a bassinet. We ended up using the bassinet for the first 4 months of Jasper's life because it was easy for us to take with us when we moved. The UPPABaby bassinet is rated for safe sleep so we had no concerns about letting him sleep in it overnight. Having the bassinet attached to our stroller also made mornings easy when he was a newborn because we could just load the stroller up and roll him out from our bedroom into the living area since we only had a one-story house at the time. One of the main reasons we decided to go with the UPPABaby Vista was because of its ability to hold multiple kids. Twins run in my family and at the time we purchased the stroller, we didn't know if we were having one or two babies. While it ended up only being one, I'm glad we have this as an option if we ever do have twins.

The other reason we loved the UPPABaby system is that the car seat (also UPPABaby) simply clicks right into the stroller from the car seat base. I can't even begin to tell you how much of a necessary must-have this is for whatever stroller and car seat system you are buying for your baby. It was also incredibly important for me to be able to carry/fold/etc. the stroller that we bought and the UPPABaby Vista makes that so easy. Traveling with the UPPABaby Vista was also a breeze and we had no issues flying with the bassinet, stroller, car seat and base.

Feeding

Skip buying the bottles you THINK you're baby will like and do yourself a huge favor by buying/registering for a bottle sampler pack instead. We have tried SO many different types of bottles and I feel like every couple of months we throw them out and start all over but I definitely wish we would have started with a sampler pack or just smaller packs of each type of bottle so we could see which ones we liked the best before buying a ton of different options. Also make sure to have the newborn nipples ready to go, even if you're planning on breastfeeding, so you're not washing the same dang bottle nipple every five minutes like I was. The types of bottles we ended up using were: Philips Avent, Doctor Brown’s, and Tommee Tippee which we still currently use.

If you're breastfeeding, I can't say enough good things about the Haaka. I only breastfed/pumped for two weeks (you can read that full story here) but I used the Haaka every day of those two weeks and it was so helpful! It helped me get ahead on feedings and bottles a few different times and I think that was one of the only things that saved my sanity during that period.

Nightime

Two products we swear by for nighttime are the Hatch Baby sound machine and the Owlet monitor. When I first told my husband about the Owlet monitor he was instantly obsessed with the idea since he loves tech stuff like that. I liked the idea that I wouldn't have to worry quite so much about the baby sleeping at night. It wasn't on our must-have list but I'm so glad we purchased it. I was filled with anxiety about our move and the Owlet was one thing I knew I could count on in those first few weeks and when we were sleeping in different hotels every night. I'm planning on writing a full review of the Owlet monitor here soon because there is just so much to talk about so stick around if you're interested in that. The Hatch Baby sound machine is one of the items that we use every single day, multiple times a day. White noise is critical for helping babies to nap and sleep well so we knew we needed a good one. I love that this one has an app that I can use to control it, different settings for alarms and wake clocks and things like that and can really grow with him. I would also recommend getting some sort of portable sound machine as well. We had a battery-powered one but I would get this rechargeable one for next time!

Diapering

Contrary to what most people will tell you, you don’t need to stock up on a million boxes of diapers before the baby comes. We were lucky enough that we were gifted a wide variety of different diapers and bought a few smaller packs of the kinds we wanted to try. We ended up loving the Pampers Pure diapers and used those exclusively until recently when our local Walmart was out of Jasper’s size. We switched to the Hello Bello diapers and have been loving them. Jasper has really narrow hips so the Hello Bello diapers seem to fit him perfectly. As far as wipes go, we tried a few different kinds. Water Wipes are great for those first few days when the baby has tar-like poop. We found these were the easiest to get him clean. Water Wipes are expensive though so we quickly switched to the Pampers Pure wipes which we used until we got our Costco membership. Since then we’ve used the Huggies Natural Care Wipes and we really like them. They’re great for all the messes older babies get themselves into. Now we’ve started exploring cloth diapering at home so stay tuned for a full rundown on that experience!

One thing I heard a ton was that you didn’t need a diaper pail. I absolutely hate this advice and can’t believe that there are people who just live with dirty diaper smell all the time. We love our Ubbi Diaper pail! I love that it doesn’t require special bags even though we were graciously gifted a bunch and are still using those.

The final diapering item I highly recommend is our Keekaroo Changing Peanut. I love this changing pad so much more than traditional changing pads because of the fact that it isn’t cloth. The material makes it easy to wipe down and clean up after messes, especially if you have boys. I also don’t have to worry too much about it moving on the dresser.

Whew. We did it! What's one baby item you had to have? Is there anything on my list that surprised you? I was honestly surprised by the items I actually ended up loving versus what I wish we would have bought in some cases. I definitely have a better idea of what to buy for future babies! Please share this post with any mamas in your life and save it for later for your own reference!