Things to Buy Baby

A List of Things to Buy before Baby comes home

Diaper Bag:
Name the style, and the price, and you’ll be able to find what you like. There are tote styles, back pack styles, traditional diaper bag styles, fanny pack styles, briefcase styles, messenger bag styles . . . you get the idea. There are "package" deals you can get with a car seat, stroller, and diaper bag that all much, and there are even some great styles just for Dads. We received our first diaper bag as a baby shower and it included a changing pad, a smaller insulated bag for a bottle, and a case for diaper wipes, to name a few accessories.

Diapers:
You’ll want to determine if you want to go with cloth, disposable diapers (these days, a diaper service using cloth diapers costs about the same as disposable diapers), or a combination of both. If you’re going with disposable diapers, I highly recommend starting to stock up on diapers when you’re about 6 months pregnant. Start buying a package of diapers every time you go to the store or stock up on a couple of boxes whenever there’s a great sale. Buy a couple packages of newborn sizes (newborn sizes are from birth to 12 lbs., so I’d stop at two or three packages or so to see where baby is by then, just in case you’ve got yourself a big baby or a fast grower – many moms have said their babies outgrew newborn size by the time they left the hospital). Then start stocking up on sizes 1, 2, 3 . . . (our boys, who were born right before Halloween at 5 lbs were in size 1 by Thanksgiving, and size 2 by Christmas). Baby will be going through at least 8 diapers a day for the first three months, and that supply will dwindle fast.

In the event you do over buy in a size, your local food share, food bank, or women's shelter will gladly put to use any extras you have.

Diaper Pail:
You’ll be changing diapers at least eight times a day for weeks – if not months, and you won’t want to make a run out to the garbage container every time you change a diaper (and some of the diapers you change will be pretty fragrant and not meant for other garbage pails in the house). Some diaper pails, like the Diaper Geni, wraps each diaper individually in its own ‘pouch’ to help control orders and keep your life sanitized. Safety 1st has an “odorless” diaper pail, Graco has a hands-free diaper pail, and Baby Trend’s Diaper Champ uses regular trash bags (no special bags to buy) and can be used for cloth or disposable diapers. Whichever brand and style you decide on, you definitely want a diaper pail that has an air-tight seal!

Diaper wipes:
Costco (and other warehouse stores) are usually the best place to get large quantities of diaper wipes. You can’t overbuy on this one. You’ll still be using wipes for hands, faces, and other areas well into preschool age.

Fisher Price Ocean Wonders Aquarium or Waterfall Peek-a-Boo Soother:
These are two products that I’ll recommend by name because of the great success we had with the Fisher Price Aquarium. Soothing sounds, lights and bubbles were a tremendous help in getting the guys to sleep – especially once they learned to activate the sounds themselves!

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