Baby Regisry Breakdown

I started building my baby registry pretty much as soon as I found out I was pregnant. I was excited. I didn't care who knew I was pregnant. I wasn't scared of the "what if's". I wanted to just be happy and live the pregnancy life.

When we first were first married, Mike and I were living in a small one bedroom apartment. We wanted to start our family then, and we knew if we got pregnant in that apartment, we would have to have a very minimalistic registry since we didn't have the physical room for all the different things that are offered for babies.

Now that we are in a much larger 3 bedroom apartment, with a nursery for baby, my first thought was "I need to fill up this room!"

And then I took a step back.


If you go to any website to build a registry (we personally used Babies R Us, Amazon, Target, and then combined it all on Babylist) they will give you a "Checklist" to go through to build your dream registry with everything baby "needs".

Here is a sample of the lists.

http://www.toysrus.com/shop/index.jsp?categoryId=17082946

Now, is this super useful? Absolutely! I do like that this shows you a "needs" list and a "Good to have" list. However, I wanted to write this blogpost to give you my list of things I think are "needs" and "good to have's" and a third category of "You don't need this but someone somewhere decided you needed this".

So here it is, the blog post we've all been waiting for...

What You Actually Need For Your Baby

Now, I'm going to put a little disclaimer right here. My son has not been born, so once he's here, I will probably write another post that says "why did I think I needed/didn't need ____" because I know I'm not right all the time.


I personally am in the mindset that less is more, and encouraging play and natural movement is very important. It could be the teacher in me. It could be the fact that I grew up with a teacher as a mom. But I was always playing with my dolls and playing dress up as a kid. I didn't have a "gaming system" until I was a senior in high school, and all the games I was allowed to play on the computer growing up were educational games that taught me to either type faster or how to spell or learn Spanish. So for me, it just made sense to start our child off in a minimalistic mind set. Just because we have the space doesn't mean we need to fill it.

What you ACTUALLY Need

• A place for the baby to sleep (Preferably a crib, or if you decide to co-sleep, your own bed)
• Clothes
• A car seat
• A way to feed your baby (If you're not breast feeding, bottles/formula. If you are breast feeding, a pump/bottles if you won't have the baby with you 24/7)
• Diapers (Cloth or Disposable)
• Wipes

If you really think about it, that's all an infant NEEDS. I've been very blessed and have either been gifted a lot of these items, have gotten items on sale, or the items have been bought off of our registry. If this baby came today (please cook longer baby), I wouldn't be freaking out because he doesn't have something he needs. He would be okay to come into this world and live at our house. Currently in our nursery, we have a glider, a dresser, a changing table dresser, and a night stand that we are making from crates. With the exception of the crib (which has been bought off of our registry), our nursery is ready to go.

What's Good To Have

• A way to store baby clothes (dresser/bins for in a closet/hangers)
• Burp Clothes/Bibs
• Stroller
• Carrier (Ergo/Wrap)
• Diaper Bag
• Baby Bathtub
• Baby Monitor
• Teethers

When it comes to the "good to have" list, I really looked at this list as "if we have all of our needs met and had extra money, what would be the things we would go out and buy." Now for us, we already have a dresser so that's already checked off. My stroller has already been bought for us as well. I think having a wrap to wear baby (like this one) is probably the first item I would buy if nothing else was bought off of our registry. I love the idea of wearing our son and keeping him close to me rather than having him in a stroller all the time, but realistically a stroller can be easier for those long walks around the mall, and that's okay!!!! And for us, because of the layout of our apartment, we really don't NEED a baby monitor (which by the way, I'm talking basic $30 sound only monitor), but once he's transitioned into his room full time it would be great for those late night feedings.

What People THINK You need, but you really don't!

• Mobile
• Sound Machine
• Crib Bumpers
• Diaper Stacker
• Diaper Warmer
• Car Seat Toys
• Pacifiers
• "Containers" for Baby (Don't worry, I'll explain)

*I'm just gong to put this here, but I KNOW I'm going to get some strong opinions over this, and that's okay*

When I originally had the idea for this blog post, I was going to make it a "things you'll never see on my registry" post, but really there are only 2 things I feel strongly about not having that it would have been a short and probably bitter blog post so that changed. I will say that the list of things you don't really need, I have some of these items on my registry, and that's okay! I have pacifiers on my list, but I'm not going to go over board about getting them because I don't think baby NEEDS it. But he maybe could.

The real thing I want to address here is the crib bumpers and the "containers". I have a crib bumper of sorts on my registry, but it's breathable mesh and more of a bumper for the top of the crib for when baby can pull himself up so he's not hitting his head on the hard wood. The typical crib bumpers are a huge safety issue in my opinion because if they roll over next to it and can't breathe against the cloth...problems.

The other thing is the "containers". A container would be things like swings, bouncy seats, jumper-roo's, rock&plays, and the like. I am not opposed to these items, as I have most of these things on my registry, but it's when they are excessively used or used for the wrong purpose that I have a problem with them. I know that this is a very unpopular opinion, but I will not be registering for a rock&play. Many many many moms have told me they were life savers when their children were younger because it could be used as a bassinette in their room at night, and for babies with acid reflux it was a life saver. After doing a lot of research, I know I will be putting my child in either his crib from the beginning or in a pack and play next to our bed flat on his back. I know people want their child to be comfortable and want the padding and pillows and like the recline of the rock&play, but a child should be sleeping on their back on a flat surface as an infant to prevent SIDS. This is my belief, and it's ok if you believe differently. Moms will probably say "my baby was fine and didn't die from SIDS from being in a rock&play to sleep" and that's GREAT for you. But there have been too many cases of babies sleeping not on their back for long periods of time and their airways getting cut off or suffocation from the plush materials of these products that I'd rather not risk it.

As for the other containers (swings/bouncers) these items ARE on my registry, but if they aren't gifted to us at showers, they probably aren't items I would go out of my way to purchase on my own, just because I would rather be engaging with my child/having them explore their environment rather than be stuck in one spot looking at one thing for an extended amount of time.

I hope that wasn't too harsh, it's just my opinion and I know I'm not right on a lot of things (especially since this kid isn't even born yet) but these are the things I have learned from a few years of teaching, being friends with mama's, and being the daughter of an infant teacher.

Quick baby update: he's awesome. I'm just about 30 weeks and he's measuring perfectly with where he should be for size, and his heart beat is perfect. Can't wait to meet this nugget!

XOXO
Manda and Nugget