Baby Registry Essentials
It's a funny thing: I'm a total shopping addict, but tell me it's time to register and I get the heebie-jeebies. Wedding, baby...I found them both incredibly intimidating and overwhelming. I get this strange nervousness that somehow I'm not doing it right, that other moms (or brides) will look at my registry and immediately arch an eyebrow in skepticism or flat out disapproval. Why do I care? That's a topic for another day.
Luckily for me, my girlfriend Ashlee shared her master list of baby must-haves to help guide me through the endless aisles of Babies R Us. Armed with Ashlee's list, product reviews, rankings, and months worth of other moms' two cents, I gradually built my newborn arsenal. Now that I have the most invaluable resource at my disposal - personal experience! - I wanted to share my top 10 baby products to add to your registry, plus a few extra tips. (Hint: Hover your mouse over the slideshow images to read why I chose each item).
Other tips:
Collect a variety of bottles by either registering for them or taking old hand-me-downs from friends. You'll want to have different kinds on hand because babies are picky! She may be a Dr. Browns girl when you swore she would choose Team Avent. Some brands, like Munchkin and Medela, offer bottles/nipples meant for breastfed babies, so if you plan on breastfeeding consider adding one of those to the group.
If you get gift cards and/or cash, stash them! That Snugapuppy swing on my top 10 list? Totally a 10PM run to Toys R Us when we were desperate for an-y-thing to help calm down our crying baby. Since then, we've bought bottles (see above), toys, her BOB (once the weather warmed up), and clothing that I didn't need but couldn't resist with the extra money we kept in the Harlow fund.
Do you have an Amazon Prime account? All these extra items you didn't know you didn't know you needed? (Yep, you read that right). Get them on Amazon, generally for cheaper, and get it in two days. We bought her BOB for $100 less than current retail price on competing sites. Another idea: build baby's library for way cheaper than selections at other retailers.
Shop my essentials: