We’re slowly moving out of the newborn phase and looking back at those first few weeks, I cant believe how much easier it’s all gotten. I have such compassion looking back at my little family as we tried to navigate the unknown when we brought Travis home – Kyle and I trying to find our feet as parents and a new little human adjusting to life outside the womb. It felt completely different to how it feels now that we’ve settled in. Gone is the wide-eyed desperation and the barely scraping through each day in one piece. We’ve settled into somewhat of a sweet spot where we’ve got our little boy more figured out, have found our routine and take each day more in our stride.
We would not have got through those first few weeks without a few essentials. We found ourselves relying on a few key items to get us through each day and while they may or may not work for you, here is what we found most helpful in those first few weeks:
Top 10 Newborn Essentials
1. Bouncer – Although this list is not in order of importance, this is number one for a reason. We first tried using our bouncer on our third day home and it was honestly a game-changer. Travis hated being put down and needed constant movement to sleep. Whenever we’d try putting him down in his bassinet he’d wake up, and we desperately needed an hour here or there to have a break and get a few things done. The bouncer was incredible for this – Travis slept so soundly in it for the first two or three weeks to the point that we’d put it in our bedroom at night for him to sleep in – it was either that or sleeping in our arms. After the first few weeks he stopped sleeping in it and got used to being put on his Nurture One mattress (see number 10), but his bouncer has still been an essential in our household for playtime and for me to pop him in so I can make myself lunch etc. We got the Ingenuity SmartBounce Automatic Bouncer and have loved it, although could have got one without the music/sound feature as we hardly ever use it.
2. Felt Caddy – I ordered a grey felt caddy off of Takealot and this was so handy for carting all of the important little things around the house with us. It was literally next to me wherever I was which made it so much easier to get what I needed when I needed it. The things I used most frequently in my caddy were Travis’ dummy, the gripe water spray bottle, burp cloth, nipple cream, my water bottle, lip ice, a hair band and pain pills for postpartum.
3. Swaddles – We didn’t really use swaddles in the first week as we found Travis hated having his hands wrapped up and wanted them up by his face, but as we hit week two and three when the overtired screaming started, we finally figured out the beauty of these stretchy pieces of fabric. Travis is still being swaddled before we put him to sleep and we find that if he isn’t wrapped up tight enough he wakes himself up with his flailing little arms and has a very broken sleep. We tried swaddling with muslins but they didn’t keep his hands in securely enough, so stuck with the stretchy fabric ones we received as gifts from Keedo (although many shops sell these).
4. Dummy and Gripe Water – I originally didn’t want to give Travis a dummy for the first few weeks to avoid nipple confusion, but when he wouldn’t settle in the hospital and I had to leave him with a nurse to go shower, out the dummy came and we’ve been using it ever since. Although Travis isn’t very keen or reliant on a dummy now, it was a saving grace those first few weeks when we needed to settle and soothe him. We had the Bibs stage 1 dummies, a Nuk newborn dummy as well as a Snookums honey dummy and he would take all of them, but we decided to pick one and stick with it so Bibs it was for us. We learnt about gripe water during our antenatal classes where the Sister suggested we keep some in a little spray bottle and spray it on the dummy before giving it to our baby. We’ve done this from the beginning and not only do babies like the taste of the gripe water, but it’s also meant to help settle crampy stomachs.
5. A White Noise Machine – Although not a necessity for everyone, we did and still do make good use of white noise to help Travis sleep. We have an Ollie The Owl for his nursery and at night we play an 8 hour white noise track off of Spotify as he sleeps in our room with us. Travis tends to sleep better with some element of noise and has hardly ever slept in dead-silence. Especially for those early days a white noise machine soothes them by helping to replicate the noise that our babies are used to from being in the womb.
6. Sterilizer – A sterilizer is a must have for cleaning dummies, bottles and your breast pump if and when you begin to use one. There are various different sterilizer options out there, but my most used method has been Sterilon in the Miltons bucket (the Miltons solution needs to be changed daily where Sterilon only needs to be changed weekly). I did also buy a Snookums microwave sterilizer but I use the liquid sterilizer far more often and personally find it more convenient.
7. Baby Bath – We borrowed a small plastic baby bath from family and set up a bath station in the nursery by putting a large piece of wood and a towel on top of the crib (which is not currently being used as Travis is sleeping in our room). It’s nice and high which makes it easier for us to handle a small, slippery baby, and it’s been perfect for our winter as we can turn the heater on in his room to warm the space up before bath time. We do have an Angelcare Bath Support which we’ve used in the normal bath once, but while they’re so tiny we felt that the baby bath was a lot easier to use.
8. Heater – This is completely season-dependent but an absolute essential if you’re giving birth in winter. Every mom I spoke to recommended getting a portable Elektra heater to place next to the changing station to keep baby warm during nappy changes and after bath time. We didn’t have this initially because our bedrooms all have aircon/heaters in them. Although this has been handy nothing comes close to a portable heater. We eventually borrowed an Elektra heater from friends for the compactum, but in the early days we often changed Travis on our bed and so used our hair dryer on the lowest setting. Not only did the loud noise immediately soothe him, but he loved the warm air and it made change time calmer and far less stressful. Although we no longer use the beloved hair dryer (after 5 weeks of abusing it, it finally gave up), we do still use the Elektra heater in his nursery.
9. Burb Cloths – You can’t have enough of them. Have one in every room, in your nappy bag, in the car, in the pram. Everywhere! We’ve used the white cotton toweling ones you can buy from Woolworths and Pep and they’ve been worth every penny.
10. Nurture One Pillow – This is the one essential I didn’t know I needed. I hadn’t even heard of Nurture One Pillows until my sister-in-law gave me hers to use. If you are going to be using a sleep pod you don’t really need this as they serve the same purpose, but we didn’t have a padded pod so this became crucial for us. The Nurture One is basically a super soft cloud-like pillow/mattress for baby to sleep on. The one side is slightly more padded to make sure baby’s head is slightly raised, and your baby basically melts into the pillow to prevent him or her from rolling off. We take our Nurture One around the house with us wherever Travis is going to sleep, and it even fits into the bassinet that attaches to our travel system. We love it so much we’re even considering buying the bigger size for when he outgrows this one.
There are a few other extras that we have used a lot so far:
- Mobile for above the changing mat
- Baby monitor
- Nappy bag
- Breast pump (you will probably not need this for the first 5 or 6 weeks)
For the first few weeks with your newborn you need surprisingly little. I tried to buy every single thing imaginable before giving birth and haven’t needed half of it. In hindsight I’m glad I did all of the prep work and shopping before Travis arrived as getting to the shops with him is too much of a challenge at the moment, and there’s barely enough time to make myself lunch let alone spend hours researching and online shopping. Knowing what I know now I feel like there are some things I wouldn’t have bought at all and I could have saved quite a bit of cash taking a more minimalistic approach. Here is my list of things I’d hold back on given the chance:
- Feeding Pillow – I splurged on a really nice feeding pillow which I absolutely love, but haven’t used enough to warrant the price. I barely touched it for the first 2 weeks as I mostly fed lying slightly reclined as I recovered from my c-section, and I found the feeding pillow worked best if you sat up straight in a chair. I didn’t have a feeding chair either so for me the pillow was sometimes invonvenient and I rather used smaller pillows from the couch or bed to prop everything into place. Now, 9 weeks in, I’m using a combination feeding method for Travis as I struggled to maintain enough milk for his demanding appetite so I hardly even use the pillow. Some women also land up not being able to breastfeed so this then would be completely unnecessary. My advice would be to either buy a basic, more affordable cushion, or to hold out on buying one completely until you know you definitely need one.
- Breastfeeding accessories – The same applies to breastfeeding accessories. I spent so much money buying breast pads, milk storage bags, button down PJs etc. and although the feeding clothes did come in handy, I have not touched the breast pads or milk storage bags because I never leaked and don’t have enough extra milk to freeze – everything that I do express gets given to Travis in a bottle the next day. I would recommend holding off on some of these purchases until you get a better understanding of what your breastfeeding journey is going to look like.
- Clothes – Everyone said not to have too many Newborn clothes and have more 0-3 month clothes, and so that’s what I did. I felt this advice was completely wrong despite Travis being so big (he was 4.46kg at birth). Babies lose weight after birth and it takes some time for them to gain it back. Even though Travis was big he wore his Newborn clothes for at least 4 or 5 weeks and so smaller babies will be in them for much longer. We had a limited Newborn wardrobe so I was having to do washing every 3 days to keep up. Now he’s in his 0-3 month clothes and I feel like he’s going to outgrow them before he’s worn everything more than twice! If I could go back I’d buy a couple more Newborn onesies and buy significantly less 0-3 month clothes.
- Footwear – Socks, booties etc. You really don’t need much. I have far too many socks that he’s never going to wear as most of his onesies cover his feet anyways and socks really don’t get dirty. I’d say you need 2 pairs per size maximum.
- Snuza – This really depends on you as a parent as some moms swore by this little device. Kyle and I thought we’d be a lot more stressed out about monitoring his breathing while he was sleeping and the risk of SIDS. In the hospital there was a breathing pad in the crib so we didn’t need the Snuza, and when we got home Travis always slept within our range of sight for the first few weeks, also sleeping with us a night. We never felt the need for the Snuza and haven’t used it once, so as quite a big-ticket buy this was a waste of money for us.
What did you find essential in the first few weeks with your newborn?
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