First-Time Parent Essentials: 5 Products Worth the Investment
We’re 10 months in as first-time parents, and I think I could say now that I know a thing or two about the essentials! It’s always hard when you see the beautifully decorated nurseries and aesthetic bathroom setup for people’s babies. Still, there are really only a few things that you truly need, especially with newborns. Those things are the essentials for eating, sleeping, and playing.
Now, every baby is different, so you’ll probably have to try a variety of things to see what sticks. For example, some babies apparently hate the bouncer, but some love it (and it helps them poop!). The items I’ve listed below are the ones we’ve used nearly every single day since bringing the girls home from the hospital, and we’re still using them today. And quick PSA, of course, a pillow like a Boppy is important, but below are the things that I didn’t think I would need or use all the time as much as we did.
Psst: I did use affiliate links, so I’ll get a small percentage if you use my link to purchase something. With that said, I really do recommend all of the things I’ve listed here!
Muslin burp cloths
I saw on some twin website that a buttload of burp cloths were a must, and mentally, I thought, “No way we will need that many. We can just wash them when we need to!” I still put burp cloths on my registry. Fast forward to postpartum life, we were incredibly thankful for the amount of cloths we had, especially because Jasmine was such a reflux-y baby and spit up after nearly every feeding.
Actually, the girls are 10 months old now, and we are still using these burp cloths regularly to wipe spit up, drool, and boogers! Babies are so messy, period. You can probably go with any brand you want, but I randomly picked out these, and they’re great.
Miss Mouth's Messy Eater Stain Treater
Speaking of messy, we’ve been doing solids (a mix of purees and baby-led weaning) since the girls were 6.5 months old, and it is chaos. We have eating smocks that cover the majority of their bodies — we learned our lesson from the first time when we just used a regular bib — but food has a way of getting everywhere, no matter how much we try to protect the surroundings.
And before starting solids, there was a different kind of mess that traumatized me — the #2 kind of mess that would make its way outside of diapers and onto clothes. Blech! That’s why this stain treater is truly a lifesaver, and it seriously works. I was shocked to see how this spray removed tomato stains, barf stains, poop stains — literally everything that was on their clothes. I even started using it on my own clothes instead of Shout wipes, and I have a Subscribe & Save set up on Amazon for this thing.
Woolino Sleep Sack
I am quite literally obsessed with these. I put two on our baby registry, which friends were kind enough to purchase for us because they are a little pricey for swaddles ($109 before tax), and we actually use them every single night ever since the girls were out of swaddles. Literally, if it gets dirty, I will do laundry that day just so we can use them again that night.
These are perfect swaddles, especially for a temperate place like San Francisco, because the temperature truly does not fluctuate that much. Since it’s temperature regulating, it works great for the slightly colder nights, but is light enough for warmer nights that are really not that warm. I also love that these will fit up to 24 months — that’s a long time! I can also confirm the strawberry print is so cute IRL.
Baby Brezza Formula Dispenser
I know people have mixed feelings about the Baby Brezza. It honestly isn’t very consistent, and it puts out more formula than the actual oz you’ve set the machine at. If you search on Reddit, there are plenty of threads complaining about the inconsistencies and how the formula powder settings are off, depending on the brand of formula you use.
With all that said, this machine has been essential for us as twin parents and for me as an underproducer. We were combo feeding the first few months, but it wasn’t going well, so we switched to 100% formula by 4 months. This machine helped us so much because we didn’t want to wait the extra minute or two for milk to warm, and we didn’t want to have to worry about measuring powder in the early morning.
Hot tip: You’re supposed to clean the funnel every 4 bottles, so I just bought an extra funnel off of Amazon. Technically, you can pull the funnel out and pop it back in to make the warning message go away, but a ton of formula gets trapped in the funnel when you do bottles back to back, so you might as well just clean it.
Newton Mattress(es)
Once again, babies are disgusting creatures. I love my babies, but they can be so gross sometimes! They’ve projectile vomited, peed or pooped through diapers, and have gotten mucus and boogers all over their crib sheets before. At the beginning, I had a waterproof mattress protector under the sheets to protect their mattress, but I got too nervous about it once they were rolling over.
The Newton mattress gives me peace of mind because it’s so breathable — we actually tested breathing through it ourselves without any covering, with the crib sheet, and with the sheet + mattress protector. You could still breathe through with the sheet and mattress protector, but I felt better just going with the sheet since they have tiny little noses! It’s also great because the mattress is double-lined, and each liner is machine washable. As a busy mom now, sign me up for anything that is both easy to clean and safe for our babies!
Bonus: Baby Einstein Play Gym
Tummy time is essential for babies, and you will literally hear this all day, every day, from your mom, TikTok, the pediatrician, and the random lady going googoo gaga over your kids on the street. With that said, it actually is kind of important, and there are so many toys out there you can choose from. I know everyone loves the Lovevery toys, but we saw that the Baby Einstein had good ratings, and I kind of loved how colorful it was (and cheaper!).
It did end up being a good decision because our girls were obsessed with the piano accessory. If we needed to get something done without having to hold them, we would plop them into their Baby Bjorn bouncers, put this piano on the couch, and turn on the music mode. They still really love this toy 10 months later (maybe because of the flashing lights at the top?), and the play mat piece is sitting in the closet, but that part was useful in the beginning when we were trying to get the girls to reach above their heads!
