I will tell you we wasted so much money on our first. Many things which are perfectly fine to be bought used, of course we bought new. We bought everything and more that the magazines and those very helpful ladies at babies r us said were must haves.
This is just my personal experience but here goes. Comforter sets are useless and expensive. You can use so very little out of these sets and what you spent on these could probably outfit most of your nursery. On the next child I ended up buying a bed skirt and several sheets individually which saved me a ton. I just decorated around these. All the cute little baskets with cloth liners I found useless. They get messy, you wash them, they shrink and unravel. Honestly I went plastic. Don't look as nice but you can bleach those puppies. You just never know where the pee, poo, and all other uckies may fly. We bought a couple monitors. Never used them. Almost had a nervous breakdown listening for breathing with our first. At this point I can hear my daughter breathing in the next room. They can be handy but the super fancy, so expensive ones are such a waste. Unless you plan on leaving a baby alone alot they are just not needed. Be careful with wipe warmers. The old one my sister in law gave me was great. It died and so we bought a new one which promtly caught on fire. After that they got cold wipes. Diaper stackers. Pain in the rear and a nice plastic tub holds them and everything you need very nicely. ( Our first decided that reaching over and pulling diapers out of the stacker was tons of fun)
Things we never regretted buying ( the list we did regret is bigger and more expensive)
Baby chest carrier
Baby back pack ( love love love these, we actually hiked to water falls and such with babies on our back. Could not have done it without these)
sheets
extra onsies
multiples of the exact same sock ( they always lose one, if you limit yourself to like 2 types and get multiples of those then at the very least you will end up with some matches instead of a bunch of lonely single socks)
sleep sheep ( white noise maker)
a really good humidifier
cheap umbrella stroller to keep in the car ( so handy when your car breaks down and you only planned to run to the bank so you didn't back the big stroller, ours was used so much it didn't last through all the kids and we had to buy another)
contour changing pad ( they cannot roll off those, just one extra safety step. I loved ours. And in a pinch it can act as a baby positioner too)
stickers for the bottom of the tub that change white when the water is too hot
The huge tub of diaper rash cream ( you can never have enough)
gas drops and gripe water
Ear drops ( life saver when they are screaming in pain in the middle of the night, if you go herbal try garlic oil drops. My son claims garlic oil is better than the numbing drops the pediatrician used. He actually recommended them to the pediatrician)
boppy pillow
One thing we did on our last 2 that was new and I loved is I bought a couple boxes of each size of diaper and a couple cases of wipes and stored them under the crib. It was so handy to always have these on hand. No matter what I always had diapers on hand and since things were tighter financially after the baby this was pretty nice too. It spread the expenses of diapers out almost another year by buying ahead.
Oh and forgot to add, after the first we skipped changing tables. Ours ended up being a place to toss the clothes the baby had just dirtied while we changed him on his crib. We had a low dresser though and ended up getting a contour changing bad. Worked wonderfully for the next 3. The changing pad was hauled all over the house and many different used. Very handy
This is just my personal experience but here goes. Comforter sets are useless and expensive. You can use so very little out of these sets and what you spent on these could probably outfit most of your nursery. On the next child I ended up buying a bed skirt and several sheets individually which saved me a ton. I just decorated around these. All the cute little baskets with cloth liners I found useless. They get messy, you wash them, they shrink and unravel. Honestly I went plastic. Don't look as nice but you can bleach those puppies. You just never know where the pee, poo, and all other uckies may fly. We bought a couple monitors. Never used them. Almost had a nervous breakdown listening for breathing with our first. At this point I can hear my daughter breathing in the next room. They can be handy but the super fancy, so expensive ones are such a waste. Unless you plan on leaving a baby alone alot they are just not needed. Be careful with wipe warmers. The old one my sister in law gave me was great. It died and so we bought a new one which promtly caught on fire. After that they got cold wipes. Diaper stackers. Pain in the rear and a nice plastic tub holds them and everything you need very nicely. ( Our first decided that reaching over and pulling diapers out of the stacker was tons of fun)
Things we never regretted buying ( the list we did regret is bigger and more expensive)
Baby chest carrier
Baby back pack ( love love love these, we actually hiked to water falls and such with babies on our back. Could not have done it without these)
sheets
extra onsies
multiples of the exact same sock ( they always lose one, if you limit yourself to like 2 types and get multiples of those then at the very least you will end up with some matches instead of a bunch of lonely single socks)
sleep sheep ( white noise maker)
a really good humidifier
cheap umbrella stroller to keep in the car ( so handy when your car breaks down and you only planned to run to the bank so you didn't back the big stroller, ours was used so much it didn't last through all the kids and we had to buy another)
contour changing pad ( they cannot roll off those, just one extra safety step. I loved ours. And in a pinch it can act as a baby positioner too)
stickers for the bottom of the tub that change white when the water is too hot
The huge tub of diaper rash cream ( you can never have enough)
gas drops and gripe water
Ear drops ( life saver when they are screaming in pain in the middle of the night, if you go herbal try garlic oil drops. My son claims garlic oil is better than the numbing drops the pediatrician used. He actually recommended them to the pediatrician)
boppy pillow
One thing we did on our last 2 that was new and I loved is I bought a couple boxes of each size of diaper and a couple cases of wipes and stored them under the crib. It was so handy to always have these on hand. No matter what I always had diapers on hand and since things were tighter financially after the baby this was pretty nice too. It spread the expenses of diapers out almost another year by buying ahead.
Oh and forgot to add, after the first we skipped changing tables. Ours ended up being a place to toss the clothes the baby had just dirtied while we changed him on his crib. We had a low dresser though and ended up getting a contour changing bad. Worked wonderfully for the next 3. The changing pad was hauled all over the house and many different used. Very handy
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