This is a massive list of Essential baby items that I’ve found completely necessary. Some things you may find unnecessary, but if they made my life exponentially easier then they have a place in this list. Enjoy. Also, if you haven’t started you baby registry yet then CLICK HERE to get started on you Amazon registry.

_{**This blog is a participant in the amazon affiliate program. I may get a small commission for the items that you click on, but it will cost you nothing}

For Nursery

Crib– This you will need and has a rightful place on the massive baby registry list. After a few weeks home you will want to get baby used to sleeping in his/her crib.

If you ask friends/family there is usually someone willing to give you their old crib.

Just make sure it’s in good shape and not broken or defective. My crib was off Amazon and worked wondefully and lasted through 2 kids just fine. When I was done with it I sold it for $80.

Nursing Glider I nursed both my babies, for a long while so this was VERY necessary FOR ME. Even if you’re not nursing, a glider will help you when rocking baby to sleep and you will do this alot.

Advice from a chiropractor, you’re not doing your back any favors by rocking baby while standing.

Some type of rocker needs to have a place on your massive baby registry list.

Changing Table– Baby’s need diaper changes alot. They have a liquid diet, so the clean up can be intense. I called them “poop explosions” and I’m telling you they EARN that name.

You can always change the baby on the floor, but again you’re not doing your back any favors.

Not to mention you can keep close things like diapers, wipes, diaper cream, extra onesies etc.. by a changing table. My suggestion is getting something more dresser-like so you can store clothes and stuff in there as well, that’s what we did and we still have this piece of furniture in my daughters room as her dresser.

Side Table and Lamp– Keeping a side table next to youe nursing glider is smart and efficient. I bought this table with some pullout drawers. I had it stocked with burp clothes, 2 extra nipple shields, nursing cover, nursing pads, baby blanket and bottled water.

I also kept a touch lamp with low lighting setting on the stand too. So easy to just reach over and BOOM LET THERE BE LIGHT!

Once your comfy with baby on your glider you won’t wanna move for water or to track down your nipple shields!

Noise Machine– I will never understand parents that bring their baby home from the hospital and seriously expect 100% quiet everytime the baby sleeps. That is not sustainable. Especially not when you have more than 1 child. My old neighbors were like this with their first baby. They would actually walk over to my house and ask me to bring my children inside to play because they were being loud and waking their baby. My kids were playing in their own backyard. That is unrealistic. Noise machine should be on EVERY massive baby registry list

It will NEVER be 100% quiet, even your womb wasn’t quiet. Put a noise machine on if you need to drown out the rest of the house.

I bought this one and it also has a soft low nightlight, who wants to be in a pitch black room?

Crib Mesh Lining– Hear me out here. I realize crib bumpers are a suffocation hazard, I am not recommending bumpers.

These are liners that go around the crib and prevent little arms and legs from getting stuck between the rails.

I had nothing on my crib when I brought my first baby home. At around 3-4 months, when he figured out how to rollover, he started getting his legs caught in between the rails. Talk about screaming bloody murder, OMG. So I put these mesh crib liners in and they never caused any problems whatsoever.

Baby Monitor– This is an absolutely necessary item in the massive baby registry list, in my opinion. Of course, I was a helicopter mom. I needed to see and hear my baby. I needed to know they were breathing, some monitors have a SIDS pad that sounds an alarm if baby stops moving (stops breathing). The baby monitor i got at my shower did not have this.

For the first few days home I kept running in the nursery to check my son’s breathing, I drove my mom and my husband bonkers.

My mom ended up getting me this angelcare monitor with a SIDS pad. It eased my anxiety so much. I could sleep knowing he was breathing. I also ended up using the same monitor when my daughter was born 22 months later. It worked wonderful through 2 kids. This thing saved my mind. Put it on the massive baby registry list.

CLOTHING

Onesies– Stock up on these. Make it easy on yourself and get the onesies with the crotch buttons. I wouldn’t get the onesies that snap all the way up the legs to the chest, those take FOREVER to snap up and it’s miserable. Especially when you’re changing them every couple hours (babies have a liquid diet and the poop is runny and they pee ALOT). Hence, lots of changing.

Also, when you change baby in the dark all of those snaps are infuriating.

I did get a bunch of different brands and colors, but the Gerber onesies ended up being my favorite just because they are cheap, have easy snaps and have the split shoulder so you can bring the onesie over baby’s head for changing. Stock up on onesies for your massive baby registry list, newborns have a liquid diet and the poop is hard to contain in a diaper. You will go through onesies like toilet paper…

Diapers– Diapers are not all made the same. You have to find the right one that… 1.) doesn’t give your kid diaper rash 2.) Can absorb liquids without leaking and 3.) is made with good materials (this one is important to me, especially for my girl). I tried so many different diapers with my first baby. I have a whole other post on War of the Diapers and you can read it here. Huggies Lil Snugglers were my favorite diaper while exclusively liquid feeding( 0-5-6 months). The Huggies kept liquids in like a darn champ. Honest diapers are my winner and top choice when my kids incorporated solid foods and when learning to stand/walk/run/fall (6 months- 3T) because Honest diapers hold their form and structure very well. Kids in that walker stage MOVE ALOT and the Honest brand stayed put (no wedgies, sliding down) . I also really loved the Honest prints, adorable. The Honest Company caught my attention as they claim to filter out alot of harmful chemical and materials in their manufacturing process. Head over to my Diaper Wars post and read through it for a complete breakdown of the good and bad points with all of the popular brands we have tried, I am not going to expand on it here. The take home here is; try different brands, moms have different experiences with the brands. One is not better than the other, but one may work better for YOUR BABY.

I wish I would have put a ton of diapers on the massive baby registry list. You go through SO many. Just a word of advice, stock up on SIZE 1, do not stock up on newborn size…my kids never fit in newborn anything.

Wipes-I actually really liked these Pampers Sensitive wipes. They were easily accessible at every store around me, amazon is still the cheapest, and my kids had no problems with them. One issue I had with Packaged wipes though was that they dried out when kept in a wipes warmer. My kiddos were winter babies, December and January, so I used the warmer because it was more comfortable for them (especially for nighttime changes when I don’t want them to wake up). This wipes warmer is ESSENTIAL for winter babies. If I kept these wipes in the warmer I’d have to mositen them every other day to keep them from drying out. That was pretty irritating. I ended up using the wipes and keeping them in the warmer, but I’d moisten them with a solution of Coconut oil, aloe vera gel, Castille unscented baby soap and a few drops of lavender essential oil, below is the recipe. My kids did SO well with that moistening solution…it took care of diaper rash very quickly.

So if you’re using a wipes warmer then I recommend keeping this moistening solution next to the warmer, so your wipes don’t dry out. Lavender Solution: 2 Cups boiled purified water, 2 Tbs Bronner’s Baby Castille Soap, 2 Tbs Fractionated coconut oil, 2 Tbs Aloe Vera gel and 6 drops of Lavender Essential oil.

Mix it all up and pour over pre-moisted wipes, don’t squeeze out the excess solution from the wipes (you want it extra liquidy because the warmer dries the wipes out)

Wipes Warmer– This may not be completely essential for everyone, but I would not want to wake up from a sound sleep and have my bottom wiped with a freezing cold wet wipe. So, I figured my babies wouldn’t either. Also, I had winter babies and the house always felt cold to me, so I used this alot. Just make sure you use the moistening solution from recipe above so ywipes don’t dry out.

Baby Items-Misc

Pacifiers– Some moms do not use these. I have had a few moms tell me that they were afraid of nipple confusion if they introduced the paci while breastfeeding. If you’re having trouble with breastfeeding then CLICK HERE to read my post on Key to Successful Breastfeeding. I introduced the pacifer when we got home from the hospital and it really did soothe the sucking reflex for my babies. To each his own, it’s a personal decision.

I honestly did not want to put my boob in my baby’s mouth every 15 minutes, so the paci helped my babies and me.

My son loved the Soothie paci’s, I got some of these Wubbanub paci’s at my baby shower and they were fabulous. The stuffed animal attached to the paci gives a bit of weight to keep the paci from falling away. It’s fabulous.

Nursing Pads– If you’re breastfeeding or pumping you will need these bad boys.

Even if you decide not to breastfeed or pump you will still need some type of nursing pad because you will leak milk.

The link above is for disposable nursing pads that I loved. I did also have some reusable and washable nursing pads, but I lost them constantly in the laundry (in the same way that socks just magically disappear, the sock elf right?). So I was a bigger fan of the disposable pads. CLICK HERE to read my post on breastfeeding supplies helpful for successful breastfeeding.

Nipple Cream– After breast feeding for a total of almost 2 years with my kids I have tried EVERY nipple cream and oil imaginable for dry and itchy nipples. Unfortunately, only a few actually work. My absolute favorites were Landsinoh with Lanolin mixed with fractionated coconut oil. This mixture BY FAR worked the best for my poor dry and itchy nipples.

Now if you read my post HERE then you’ll get a homemade nipple cream recipe that will SAVE your cracked, bleeding, itchy nipples (that’s a medicated version)

Nursing Bras–

There is no faster way to attain clogged milk ducts than to wear a underwire bra post partum. I speak from experience. If said clogged milk ducts happen then CLICK HERE to read my Kung Fu to get rid of ’em.

Not 48 hours after giving birth and my breasts were hard, swollen and tender watermelons. Completely unrecognizable. And they hurt, my goodness engorgement hurts. Have some mercy on your girls, NO wire bras and no constricting push-ups. You won’t need the push-up anyways. I loved these sleep bras on Amazon. You just pull the front to the side to whip boob out for breastfeeding, also super comfortable to sleep in. On the downside, not that supportive. When at work I’d wear these more supportive wireless bras. Point is, you need a nursing bra that is compatible with quick access to your breast for feedings.

There is nothing more irritating than having company walk in when you are topless breastfeeding on the couch (yes I speak from experience).

Breast Pump/parts– I won’t go into alot of detail on pumps here, but I do have a post about Tricks for Successful Pumping HERE. I will keep this simple on this post, if you have health insurance then you get a pump for free, so don’t buy it.

Now there is a specific way you have to go about getting insurance to cover a pump for you, so don’t buy one and amazon and send the bill to insurance. Does not work that way.

I cover all of this on my Tricks post HERE. I will say one more thing on this, I have alot of pregnant moms who come into my office and say they don’t need a pump because they will only breastfeed. In a perfect world, that sounds fantastic, but things come up where you will need to pump. I’ll cover this in the Tricks Post, but get a pump.

Bottles– I did successfully breastfeed my babies, but I also did go back to work at 12 weeks. I pumped milk for my babies in bottles while I was at work. It was not ideal, but I have to work.

I always suggest only breastfeeding when you get home from work, some babies get that bottle and then abandon the nipple. Both of my babies tried to abandon the boob, I just kept giving it to them. Stay the Course. Be patient.

Bottles are like diapers in that baby’s like different ones . My son loved Dr. Brown’s…which was great because I registered for a ton of them. I tried to re-use those Dr. Brown bottles with my daughter..NO GO. She flat out refused them. I tried about 5 different brands until I had success with MAM.

So don’t register for a huge pack of one brand, I’d get maybe 3 or 4 of different brands and see what baby takes. Then buy more of that one. The bottles that I tried with the best reviews were of course Dr. Brown, MAM, Tommee Tippee, Playtex Drop-ins and Como Tomo.

Nursing Cover– If you didn’t get one for the hospital then I’d get one, especially if you plan on nursing or even pumping for a good while. You will have all kinds of visitors wanting to see the baby.

Sterilizer– The first few month you will need to sterilize pumping equipment (everything except the tubing and pump itself) and bottles and bottle parts. You can get a sterilizer that you just pop in the microwave, no boiling water and pot required. I used this one and it lasted through 2 babies just fine.

Bottle Brush– You will need this to clean the milk out of the bottles, breastmilk has fat content so it will leave an oily film on bottle parts.

Bottle Drying Rack– This is by no means necessary, but the rack does allow for faster and more time efficient drying of bottle, parts and nipples. I loved the Boon grass with the added “stems and twigs” to hold bottle rings and nipples.

Diaper bag– I used a Storksak with my first baby and it was exceptional (of course this was years ago and I have seen my mom friends with updated way better diaper bags…so I’m editing this topic. A few of my girlfriends have this backpack diaper bag and I have watched it in action….WAY BETTER THAN MY STORKSAK. It’s a backpack for one, so no bag falling off the shoulders to the arms and landing on your kids head…BONUS. Also, it has little separate compartments for ALL.THE.STUFF. Of course you could always just buy this Wine Backpack (2nd picture below)too…i’d do it lol. SO FUNCTIONAL and the wine backpack can be used years later at Little League or at ballet recitals ;-P COST EFFICIENT!