Ultimate List of the Best Newborn Essentials

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In: Momma to Momma, Motherhood

When you’re an expecting Momma in the nesting phase, you want to be able to go to one place that has listed all the things you need for your baby. The same goes for if you’re shopping for a baby shower and want to make sure the gift you buy is actually a newborn essential. After having two babies of my own and caring for countless others as a nurse, I have found these to be the BEST newborn essentials currently available!

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Setting Up Your Baby Registry

By far, my favorite place to add my registries is Amazon. When I was pregnant, I was OBSESSIVE about my registry. I researched all the products I wanted to add to it and continued to update it regularly. I loved that it also acted as a form of checklist for me as well.

Some of the benefits of having an Amazon Baby Registry:

  • Welcome Box
  • Group Gifting – for larger ticket items
  • Completion discount of 15% off anything left on your registry 60 days prior to your due date for Prime Members (10% for non Prime Members)
  • You can set up diaper funds
  • Easy to share your registry with others
  • Convenient for people to purchase items on your registry
  • Items can be mailed straight to your door
  • 365 day returns

Start your Amazon Baby Registry here!

Best Newborn Essentials for Sleep

  • Sound Machines – These are a MUST HAVE newborn essential to help your baby sleep better and longer, from birth on. In the womb, babies are accustomed to hearing your heartbeat and your blood flow through the placenta. This is LOUD to them, think the sound of a vacuum cleaner or blow dryer. So sound can be really soothing to newborns. Silence can feel really unfamiliar and scary to them. As babies get older, sound machines also help drown out external sounds such as older siblings or anything that may wake them up during naps or nighttime sleep. These are the sound machines we used with our babies and loved:
    1. I love this one because it has several different sound options and the best part is that it has an option to not automatically shut off. This is CRUCIAL for that nighttime sleep because if the sound machine shuts off, that usually results in the baby waking up.
    2. Shusher – while these DO have automatic shut off options of 15 and 30 minutes, I find them really useful for helping soothe fussy newborns which is all part of helping them fall asleep independently. Fun fact: we actually use these in our nursery in the Mother/Baby unit I work on as a nurse!
  • Swings/Bassinets – The AAP recommends your infant sleep in your room, in a separate sleep space, for the first 6 months and even up to a year. My first daughter slept in a pack n play in our room at night for the first 3 months and then we began to transition her into her crib in the nursery. That was just better for all of our sleep! My second daughter will likely stay in our bedroom longer though.
    1. Graco DuoGlider – Other than the pack n play in our room and crib in the nursery, my first daughter LIVED in this swing bassinet in our living room the first 6 months of her life! It glides frontwards and backwards, reclines almost completely flat, and has multiple nature and musical sound options.
    2. This is the updated version that we have for my second daughter. We LOVE this thing! It is what she sleeps in at night in our room. I do want to add a disclaimer, especially as a baby nurse, that it’s not 100% safe sleep approved. BUT it’s the safest of all the “swing bassinet” options currently on the market. And us having the Owlet sock gives us even more peace of mind with it.
    3. This pack n play is the one we had for our first daughter and she slept in it in our room for months. Then once we lowered the mattress down on it she independently played in it well into toddlerhood.
    4. This is a crib similar to the one we used for our daughters with this mattress. My 2.5 year old still sleeps in it and it also provides a safe place for her to play or rest without us having to worry about her getting into anything.
      • Obviously you’ll need a pair of sheets for the crib mattress and play yard because you want to avoid any loose bedding the first year of your baby’s life. These are the sheets we have on our first daughter’s crib mattress. This brand has lots of beautiful designs! These are the play yard sheets we used.
  • Pacifiers – I know not all babies take a paci and that it’s a bit of a controversial subject. I for one love them and think they can be a great aid in helping soothe your baby and helping them sleep. If breastfeeding, it’s recommended to wait to introduce a paci until baby has a good latch and nursing is well established. The AAP does also claim that pacifiers can help to reduce SIDS so that’s an added bonus! These are my favorite pacis and paci clips.
  • Monitors
    1. Owlet Sock – Like I mentioned above, this thing gave us SO much peace of mind with our second daughter! It continually monitors the baby’s oxygen saturation and heart rate. If these levels fall outside the set limits of what is too high or low, an alarm will go off. This device also tracks their sleep which I found really helpful for tracking how much baby slept at night and therefore how much she needed during the day.
    2. Yi camera – There are so many expensive video/audio baby monitors out there on the market. I find a home security camera to be a cheaper alternative and is often much more affordable since it isn’t directly marketed for expecting parents.

Best Newborn Clothing Essentials

Zippered Sleepers!!! – Both of my babies LIVED in sleepers for a loooong time! People would actually make fun of me for hardly ever putting “real clothes” on them. But you know what? I didn’t give a rip what people thought because they were what was most comfortable for them, convenient for me, and made the most sense. Buttoned sleepers are okay, but fiddling with 20 buttons with a screaming baby is no fun. Zippers are the way to go! And if they zip from the feet up, even better! This really helps during diaper changes, as well as putting on the owlet at night. These were some of my favorite sleepers with my babies:

Knotted gowns were also a favorite of mine with baby #2. They were great for diaper changes and she also didn’t seem to outgrow them as quickly.

Onsies are another newborn clothing essential, especially for warmer months. They can also be worn under sleepers for an added layer if needed. I had one baby in August and the other in December so I’ve experienced having a newborn in both extremes.

Baby Wearing Newborn Essentials

I have tried NUMEROUS baby wearing options over the years. From prewraped baby wraps that claimed to take all the difficulty out of it (this was NOT the case for me!) to more structured carriers.

None of them seemed to work great with my first daughter. Whether it was because she was about a tenth of my size by the time she was a month old or because I just couldn’t get the hang of it. Whatever the reason, it just always KILLED my back when I wore her.

With my second baby, wearing was a necessity to keep up with having a toddler and a needy, nursing newborn. So after some more trial and error, I finally discovered that just a traditional style baby wrap was what worked best for me. I liked that I was able to fully customize the size and how tight it was and how high I wanted her to be.

This was my favorite style and I also loved this one which is a similar but cheaper option!

Best Newborn Essentials for Diapering

Cloth

I personally prefer cloth diapers, but definitely do use disposables as well. I did a TON of research on cloth diapering when I was pregnant with my first. After some good old trial and error, I found that my favorite cloth diapering method was just a 2 in one system of prefolds and covers. I love that this method is not only one of the most affordable, but that you can fully customize the absorbency as well. They also wash a lot better and dry much faster than all in ones or other cloth diapering systems.

These were and still are my favorites:

While using cloth diapers I also like to just go ahead and use cloth wipes as well. My method for this is to just wet these baby washcloths and put them in a wipe warmer. This warmer is similar to the one I use. To be honest, we very rarely actually turn the warmer on. It’s just a nice place to keep the wipes and helps them to not dry out.

As far as where to put the cloth diapers when they’re dirty? I use one of these pail liners and just a very basic trash can as a diaper pail. Leave me a comment if you’d like me to go more in depth on my cloth diapering method and routine.

Disposables

My top two favorite brands for disposable diapers are Pampers and Huggies. There’s actually a nifty little “poop pocket” in the back of Huggies diapers to help contain the poop and prevent blow outs. And trust me, that newborn poop can be EXPLOSIVE!

My favorite disposable wipes are water wipes, but they can get a little pricey. Especially considering I can just use my homemade wipes. But disposable can be more convenient.

A changing pad doesn’t necessarily have to be a newborn essential, but changing pad liners are! These can not only be used over a changing pad but also to lay your baby on to change them anywhere.

Hygiene Essentials

  • Bath tub – We liked to just put this in the bathroom sink and bathe our newborn at the same time our toddler was taking a bath.
  • Baby wash – I prefer the least toxic products possible for babies’ and their sensitive skin.
  • Hooded towels – regular towels work just fine but these are nice to have.
  • Coconut oil – such a great multi purpose item to have on hand! Use it to moisturize baby, prevent diaper rash (cloth diaper safe), use for cradle cap, etc.
  • Vitamin E oil – can be used for all the same things as above but is sometimes more convenient since it’s already in liquid form.
  • Cornstarch – literally the best, least expensive, and natural solution for diaper rash and baby acne.
  • Baby brush

Health Essentials

  • Probiotics – I thought my second baby had colic until we started using this daily.

Fun fact: “Colic” is often misdiagnosed for babies with GI issues or even for being regularly overstimulated, overtired, or overly hungry.

Best Newborn Essentials for Travel

Miscellaneous But Still Essential

  • Vava night light – I absolutely love this little thing! It’s the perfect amount of light for middle of the night diaper changes and feedings. You can customize the brightness and temperature of the light. It has a small blue light that also helps you to find it easily in the middle of the night. I’ve even been known to carry it around the house in the middle of the night like a lantern to get a midnight snacky-snack! Breastfeeding hunger is REAL, y’all!
  • Muslin burp cloths
  • Diaper bag – backpack style is the way to go!
  • Receiving blankets – while I could have included these in the swaddle section, I actually never use these for swaddling besides maybe in the hospital. But I DO use them for tons of other things. Burp cloths, cloth diaper inserts, diaper changing surface, nursing cover (when I rarely cover), and even as substitute breast pads if I’m leaking and can’t find a clean breast pad. I have EVEN used two receiving blankets as a makeshift outfit once when my first baby had poop explosions in BOTH the extra outfits I brought with us in the diaper bag. Definitely one of my more innovative mom hacks that I was quite proud of! She looks so ashamed though haha!

That’s it for my ultimate list of the best newborn essentials! Now notice I didn’t include anything regarding feeding. That’s because I plan to do an entirely separate post specifically designated to all things breastfeeding, pumping, and bottle feeding essentials! Leave me a comment below letting me know if there’s any other newborn essentials you couldn’t have lived without!

Please share!