Having a baby is overwhelming in general, and if it's your first it's even more so. You can walk into a baby store and you are bombarded with all these things that companies tell you that you MUST have when having a baby. If we got everything that these companies say we need, there would be no room in the house for us to live. When we got pregnant with our second, there were things we learned were a waste of money, things we learned we maybe should have had to begin with, and ways to save money on the things that we needed. I'm going to share that with you now.
1. You don't need that many newborn outfits. If you are having a baby shower ask people to get you bigger sizes. With our first she had at least 30 newborn outfits and maybe wore 10 of them before they were too small. It would have been much more helpful if those 30 outfits had been a range of sizes. **Tip for saving money, don't buy outfits brand new. Shop garage sales or thrift shops and just wash them really well.
2. If you are planning on using disposable diapers stock up way in advance using coupons. Build a stock pile, only buying when they are on sale. This helps in 2 ways, you save money, and you won't have to make a middle of the night diaper run when you randomly run out. This mom gives a good idea of how many of each diaper you will need in the first year (rough estimate, but still good info for stockpiling) diapers.
3. Buying expensive bedding is waste of money. I paid about $65-70 on that "cutesie" bedding for our first. She maybe used it one time. They aren't supposed to have pillows, or lose blankets, or crib bumpers (anymore), so what's the point in spending all that money? Just buy some sheets at target and buy some swaddle blankets. The expensive bedding isn't worth it.
4. A swing (or bouncer) is a must. We would have never survived either baby without a swing. Sophie slept in the swing for the first 2 months, Bret slept in the swing for 9 months (severe acid reflux). I would have lost my mind without one, that being said, you do NOT need to buy one of those ridiculously expensive ones. We had one of the much cheaper fisher price models and it perfectly for us (very similar model on amazon for about $120). I was just told the other day by a mom that she bought the expensive mommaroo swing and it was horrible (average about $200).
5. A pak-n-play is a great investment. We used ours when traveling, we used it when we were busy and weren't able to keep a constant eye on the baby (put baby in pak-n-play nearby with a few toys). They also come with a bassinet, we had ours set up in our room with our daughter sleeping in the bassinet for the first few weeks (until Mommy realized she wasn't getting any sleep with a baby in the room). You can bring it outside when doing yard work (put a sheet over the top to protect baby from sun). When they get older you can use it for a time out spot too.
Things we never used with 2 babies:
1. Infant bathtub, we used the kitchen sink until they were old enough to use the regular tub. I know some people swear by them, but to us it seemed like a waste of $30. The kitchen sink worked just fine for us.
2. Wipes warmers seemed like a waste of money as well. We never bought one, and we never will. The wipe touches their butt for maybe 1 minute, so I don't see the difference if it's cold or warm. I have heard about people using wipes warmers and then having nightmare diaper changes when out and about. Our kids got used to cold wipes and we had no big issues.
3. Bottle warmers went into the same category as wipes warmers. We never used one. We warmed bottles on the stove at home, when out we used warm water to mix bottles when it was available. If warm water wasn't available we used cold. Our kids never really seemed to notice the difference, so lugging a bottle warmer around with us would have been for nothing.
5, Bassinet, if you have a pak-n-play, they usually have a bassinet. Adding a bassinet is just an extra expense.
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