Baby Must Haves (The First Three Months)

**Updated on February 15 2009**

When I was pregnant I loved reading posts on baby must haves or product reviews. I have found so many amazing items that I would not have known about if it wasn’t for blog stalking. Here are our must haves for the first three months.

Happiest Baby on the Block by Dr. Harvey Karp – I have no words to describe how much I love what Dr. Karp taught me about the first three months of a newborns life. We were able to pick apart the 5 S’s (swaddle, side/stomach, swing, shhh-ing, sucking) and found which ones soothed Liam the best. Liam was and still is a fairly content baby but did have bouts of fussiness and what worked best for him was white noise and sucking. We downloaded the sound of static and would blast it through the house until he calmed and would then slowly lower the volume until it was all the way off.

Wubbanub. Liam loves loves loves his wubbanubs! He got his first when he was 2 weeks old and by 10 weeks was able to put it back in his mouth by himself. It really helps him keep it in his mouth for longer periods of time than just a soothie paci because it is a little weighted, plus when he spits it out it is 10 times easier to find! Now that he is a bit older and can use his hands he loves to hold his gup-gups legs and squeeze them and smush it in his face and chew on its head, legs, body…..

Halo Sleep Sack with Swaddle and SwaddleMe. Liam loves to be swaddled for bed. When he was a newborn until two months old we could not have lived without the Halo SleepSack with Swaddle, it is amazing! He was always able to break out of a traditional swaddle with just a blanket but the sleep sack was the perfect answer. Now that he is bigger and outgrew the halo he uses the SwaddleMe which we love. He also has a SwaddleMe travel for those extra fussy days when he doesn’t want to nap until wrap him up and put him in his swing.

Bouncy Seat and Swing. Liam loves both his bouncy seat and his swing. He has the Fisher Price snow globe bouncy seat and Fisher Price My Little Lamb swing. He would contently sit in that darn seat all day if I let him but his head is already flat so he isn’t allowed! His swing has been a saving grace. It plays music, two of which are loud nature sounds, which work great as white noise if he is fussing. He still naps most days in his swing in the afternoon.

Snuzzler Head and Body Support. I loved having this in his car seat when he was teeny tiny because it supported his whole body and head. We now have just the head support that came with the car seat and I so wish he would still be able to fit in with the snuzzler because it worked so much better!

Baby view mirror for the car. I do not know what I would do without this! I am crazy about having to see what he is doing in the back to make sure he is okay. This mirror works wonderfully and allows me to clearly check on him, it also serves as entertainment now because he can look at himself.

Lots of wash cloths if you have a boy. Anyone how has a boy will know from experience that they love to pee as soon as you take the diaper off. Parents get pee’d on, walls get pee’d on, beds get pee’d on, babies face gets pee’d on…all in all it is not a good situation! What we found works great are having a ton of extra wash cloths. Just place it on top and change the diaper without fear!

Green nasal aspirator from the hospital. Okay, at the hospital when they give you the green nasal aspirator GUARD IT WITH YOUR LIFE!!!!!!! We have three other ones at home NONE of which work, at all. When baby gets stuffed up having the hospital one that works wonderfully is the best thing ever!!!!!!

Extra pack n play instead of bassinet. Instead of getting a bassinet we purchased a cheaper pack n play to use in our room and it has been wonderful! I know a lot of parents that have had to transfer their babies to their cribs earlier than anticipated because they outgrew the bassinet, well this is the answer. Like most parents SIDS is a very scary thought. Two risk factors for SIDS include being a boy and winter. One of the things that you can do to lower the risk is to let baby sleep in the parents room until 6 months of age. Knowing this I am so glad that we have the pack n play that he will not outgrow before then!

Sheet Savers. These are great for those middle of the night diaper leaks or spit up accidents. You don’t need to change their sheets before putting them back to sleep just simply put a new sheet saver down.

Carters Sleepers. I believe Liam has every one that they make; I could truly be a spokes person for them. In all reality any type of footed sleeper is awesome. For most people, unless you leave the house that baby will be in comfy cloths that either snap or zipper down the front all day, everyday.

Burp Cloths. We have a ton of burp cloths but use these the most. We received them as a gift from Alex’s boss and family and absolutely love them. Not only are they super cute but they clean up his messes better than anything else we have. Well worth the money to me. See burp cloth example in picture below the next item!

Playtex Drop-ins. These are the bottles we chose and we love them! First of all they make clean up super easy because there is no actual bottle to clean. I simply fill the sink with hot soapy water put all the parts (bottle, nipple and nipple ring) in, let them soak, and rinse off. Secondly, they are the best bottle for reducing the amount of air that baby sucks in because you are able to squeeze the liner so that almost all the air is out. The Playtex liners cost around $5 for 50 but you can get the target brand which are around $2 for 50 and are the same exact thing!

Sophie the Giraffe. This toy has amazing reviews and we are starting to see why as Liam grows. He already loves to chomp on her face and ears and can grab her easily with his little hands.

Soothe and Glow Seahorse. It plays very calming music and helps him go to sleep so easily, helps us fall asleep too.

 

Bath Luve. During bath time i typically have two wash cloths, one for washing and one that i keep warm and lay on his chest. The bath luve is designed to keep baby warm in the tub! You can lay it on their chest when they are little and then on their backs when they are older. For a kid that already loved bath time the bath luve has made it even more enjoyable for him. Every time we put it on him he starts laughing and giggling.

 

OUR VERY FAVORITE ITEM! I can't explain to you how much we love and how much we use our video monitor. As you know Liam sleeps in a pack n play in our room and we have the camera on the opposite end of the bed. It is wonderful in the middle of the night when he starts moving around to take a peak on the monitor and see if he is just moving around or if he is going to melt down. After we put him to bed at night we bring it downstairs and are about to see if the if he is still awake or if he needs us to come up and give him his paci again, etc. I am a visual person not audio (but speaking of audio the sound on this thing is amazing, you can hear him breathing so easily!) so this product is perfect for me. I honestly can not recommend this enough! We love love love it. And we got it at a steal on amazon.com!

This last one should really be posted in my next review but I have to mention it now in case anyone reading is registering for a high chair for their baby shower. We just put together Liam's high chair and we love it! Honestly i cannot say enough good things about it. It is the Fisher Price Rain forest High Chair. Liam loves watching Alex and I eat and up until now we were not able to sit together as a family for dinner. This chair has a 5 point harness (that is super easy to adjust and take in and out for easy cleaning) and a infant head support so that Liam is able to sit with us comfortably during dinner time.

Other things we also like but are starting to LOVE now that he is a bit older are:

The Bumbo Seat with tray attachment he loves to sit up and look around so the bumbo is great for a kid like him. I love having the tray attachment because we can put toys on there and he grabs for them to swats them off the side. Yes we are already playing the “i throw it and you go get it” game.

Rainforest activity mat. He has been using this since he was just a few weeks old but at 3 months started grabbing for the toys and having a blast! It is also nice for tummy time because there are bright pictures on the bottom for him to look at and grab for. 

Baby Einstein Exersaucer He is really getting a lot of use out of this since he has turned 3 months old. At 3 and a half months he is really starting to play with the toys. It is so cute to watch him process everything and reach out to grab, spin, or swat at the toys.

Baby Mozart DVD He will sit and watch this whole DVD while laughing and cooing at the tv like crazy. It is so cute!

Thing we found that you do not need:

Boppy…..i just used a pillow or two under my arm or fed him on the couch and used the arm of the couch for support. It was nice to lay him in it during play time but that only lasted two weeks.

A wipe warmer and diaper genie. I had heard from many many  many people that these were a waste of money so i took their advice and i am glad that i did.

Sleep positioner. We got this after hearing it was a must have from a friend and it was not for us. The only time we used this was when Liam had a cold and the incline of it helped with his congestion.

A front carrier such as BabyBjorn. I think this would have been awesome if Liam was a summer baby but being born in late fall we didn’t go out and do much. I much preferred carrying him around the house in the sleepy wrap opposed to the front carrier.

Lastly tips from a few mistakes i made.

Do not open any diapers! Before we went to the hospital i had stations set up both upstairs and downstairs with diapers, wipes, etc. all ready. Little did i know we would be sent home with 4 packages of diapers and that Liam would outgrow newborn size within he first month leaving up with a ton of newborn diapers that i could have returned for size 1’s had i not opened them.