re: First baby purchases

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GTFO. They cost $35 and are worth every penny when your nursery doesn't smell like shite and piss

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Why do you leave shite diapers in the nursery? Take them to the trash can.

I've seen someone empty a bag full of shite diapers from a genie, f that. Looked like a piss/shite balloon ready to pop.

This guy gets it:

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Those diaper pails are a waste. We've never had an issue just throwing them in our kitchen trash can that has a lid. Granted ours is still on breastmilk (and veggies, of course) at 8mo and my understanding is formula babies urine/poop is not as pleasant.

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Must have been some green milk. Mine had breast milk until about 10 mo. First 6 mo. wasn't really bad changing diapers at all. Would volunteer to change him. Introduced solids and things got a little shittier. Now... good lord, kid can squeeze a nugget in his diaper and clear out a room.

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Go ahead and start buying diapers now. When you go to the store just grab a pack.

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Target will have a Buy 2 or Buy 3 and get a gift card type deal on a regular basis with diapers.

Combined with the Target credit card, it is a good deal.

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To all you experienced parents, please guide me to make the best (both economically and practically) decisions possible. TIA.

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Amazon Subscribe and Save

diapers
wipes
paper towels
lotion
etc

all that stuff

if you get 5 items per month you get 15% off the entire purchase and it just arrives at your door automatically

Haven't read every post in the thread, but I am a mom!

- Nursing a kid is beneficial to their health and your wallet. Try it.
- Get the infant car seat that clicks into the base. Bases are cheap. You can use that seat for a while. When you're ready for a convertible seat once your kid gets bigger, check out the Chicco NextFit Zip. Your kid will poop on it, throw up on it, spill things on it. That seat has a cover that zips off so you can toss it in the washing machine and zip it back on. That way you don't have to buy a whole new seat every year.
- My husband convinced me not to find out the sex of our baby. I was opposed to it at first, but now I recommend it to all first-time parents because since no one knew what we were having, I got all kinds of USEFUL things at my shower. I got a car seat, bottles, nursing pillow, stroller, baby carrier, gift cards, etc. My SIL had a girl a few months before me and she got a bunch of pink clothes. She had to buy the big ticket items herself.
- Accept clothes from wherever you can get them. My daughter still wears lots of hand me downs. Let me tell you how many she has ruined with poop or food or just playing outside...and I don't care at all. If you get a clothing gift you truly hate, sell it to Once Upon a Child and pick something you do like. Also, Once Upon a Child is a great place to shop. Sometimes you can buy clothes with tags still on them for a fraction of their department store price.
- If you aren't an Amazon Prime member, become one. And subscribe to diapers for 20% off. Not even Sam's is cheaper on the brands. The Huggies my daughter wears right now are like $0.15 a diaper because of Prime. And their one month supply box is pretty on target. You can always buy a small pack at the store if you need to get through a few days until your next one comes in.
- Don't buy an expensive swing or something until you know your kid likes it. My daughter hated the swing. She also hated the $120 Ergo but loved the $50 Baby K'Tan carrier. Have your wife try on various types before you spend a lot on something.
- Second the sterilizer someone mentioned early on. We have the Munchkin microwave sterilizer, maybe $20 at Target, which only takes four minutes and makes your life way easier with pump parts and bottles once they're in daycare.

Loved our britax marathon car seat and bob stroller. If you don't get a bob at least get a three wheel stroller. So much easier to maneuver.

The rock and play is the best invention by far. Our baby slept in this every night until she was practically busting out of it. It's great because it allows them to safely sleep at an incline which is great for acid reflux or colic babies.

If you do insist on baby sleeping in crib get the summer infant crib sheet protectors. Make it 10000 x easier to change the sheets. Get like 2-3


And a video monitor is awesome. I still use ours since we have a two story house.

LINK

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video monitor is awesome

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Second this. Check the radius of it before you buy, though. Our house isn't very big, but the monitor won't catch signal on our patio. So I also had to get a sound monitor that would reach farther.

The video monitor is good for not going in there if you don't have to. I can see if she's just fussing or if she's actually thrown up or something. And if she doesn't need me to come in, I've saved myself the trouble of her seeing me and not going back to sleep.

I have a few things to add that I haven't seen yet:

Rock and Play - Greatest invention ever However, be sure to watch your infants head. Ours ended up with some flat areas because she slept on one side fairly often. Her head is fine now because we caught it in time, but be sure that you are keeping their head adjusted and watching for flat areas.

Also, with the swings, i agree with not buying the most expensive thing. Case in point, we had the $60 rock and play, which she loved, but she hated the 4moms Rockaroo which was like $300. Luckily we were able to borrow the latter, and when we saw she hated it, we just gave it back.

All other items - Keep tags on everything that you can. Clothes, feeding, bottles, accessories, etc. You may receive a ton of newborn outfits, but the baby may come out at 10lbs and need to wear 6 month old clothes. You can return all of the stuff you didn't need and either get store credit to buy new items. Same thing with diapers, Babies R Us pretty much takes back any unopened diaper boxes. If you end up with a ton of newborn diapers but only use them for a month, you can return the unused ones. Go in with this mindset and you'll end up saving a lot of space and money.

As for video monitors, you may want to get one that doesn't rely on a separate device. We have a Nest Camera and a basic sound baby monitor. You can use your app on your phone to view the camera feed as needed. We use the sound monitor in our room at night to hear any crying. Then once the camera isn't needed in there anymore, we can move it to a different area for security.

Also, I really wish I would have paid the $10 a month to keep the Nest recordings. She does some really funny things in her bed, and it would have been cool to save those short clips to view later. Just something we probably should have done in hindsight.

Sorry to keep adding to this:

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Make sure she gets a good breast pump....and breast feed that baby.

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Insurance will typically pay for one. If you think you need one, buy a chest freezer. When you freeze the breast milk, lay each bag flat, let it freeze and then stack them upright on the door. (We had 2 months or so where we didn't stack them flat, and they are much harder to store and organize).

I recommend the Chicco key fit 30 car seat, get an extra base for both cars and get the chicco snap and go stroller. Our youngest is 18 months and still fits. AAP Rex's rear facing for 2 years so you'll get your money worth. Don't buy an expensive stroller until they are 6 months or so and will sit up on their own, then get something like a citi mini GT. Most of the time as newborn they will be asleep while driving and last thing you want to do is wake them up to take them out of car seat into a stroller... just click the car seat out and snap it into the stroller, they'll stay asleep.

Don't get many newborn clothes or diapers, they will grow out of those within a month or two

Get a good swing and good pack and play to place by the bed, we kept ours next to bed in those first few months since they wake up so often, naps in crib... then transitioned to crib once they started sleeping longer

Boppy pillow

Don't get the hate on diaper genie, I consider that a must. We've been using same one for 4.5 years.

Don't waste money on a baby monitor, you will hear them cry.

That's my 2c

We have a 3 month old now (our 1st). Some of what I contribute will mirror others posts.

Clothes - Carters has best deals and always has sales. Being our first child, we bought WAY to much in the way of clothes. Baby was out of newborn faster that he could wear each outfit. We should have invested in more 3-6 month clothes.

Get the swaddles that are easy to put on in a few moves. They were a lifesaver at night for first month in helping baby sleep. Or get really good at learning how to swaddle at Hospital before you go home.

Diapers- Buy more 1-3. We had so much newborn and immediately our son was in 1's at the hospital. Most stores will let you exchange them if unopened.

Car Seat- We like the Chicco Key Fit 30 with 2 bases for each car. Was the highest rated. Stroller - Chicco Bravo is great for ease of getting in out of car. You can buy seat and stroller as a package deal.

Our baby hated the bassinet, but slept very well for 2 months in the Graco Dreamglider - and it can be moved from room to room fairly easily.

If breastfeeding and need a pump we got ours FREE thru insurance. I'd look into it. We have Blue Cross, but its a deal thru Obamacare I think.

We also use Baby Breeza Bottle Sanitizer. Not sure if it is needed, but good for peace of mind for bottles and pumping equipment. We use it everyday 2-3 times.

Mom holds the Baby 24/7, but we really like the 4moms RackaRoo chair for living room. But as some said, some babies like certain rockers.

Lastly, now that our baby is in his own room, we bought a Night Light Moon Star Projector for the room, and our baby loves it!

Congrats!