newborn essentials

Aren't baby stretches the cutest?  I often find myself just staring at him in the mornings as he grunts and wiggles around with his eyes close.  And I know I'm biased, but he is one pretty darn cute kid.  So it is not very hard to stare at him all hours of the day.  

Today I wanted to share some "must-haves" that we have found most helpful this first month of parenthood.  Registering is so overwhelming in terms of which brand or model of a particular item to register for.  I've found myself wishing I'd registered for this instead of that already many times.  But I've also found myself wishing for wants instead of needs.  That will have to be a whole other post, but today I have items that made our lives much easier with our sweet peanut.  

White Noise!!!  The HoMdedics Lullaby Sound Machine is what we currently have and it plays all night long and also when I can get him to take a nap in his sleeper.  White noise is a life saver!  I read over and over again how white noise mimics what babies hear in the womb, and how essential it is to recreate a womb-like environment for them so they feel comforted.  This also projects lights onto the ceiling at night which Nathan loves as he falls asleep.  We have white noise everywhere!  Our swing plays it, and an app on my phone comes in so handy when we are out of the house.  Calms him down instantly! 

I absolutely LOVE the ErgoBaby!  And a huge thanks to sweet Katie for letting us borrow her infant insert!  The Ergo is so easy to put on once you adjust it to you, and Nathan falls asleep in it instantly.  I love to wear him when we go out of the house, it is my life saver.  We also have a wrap that I use when we are at home, although he is starting to not like that as much. 

At about two weeks old Nathan started get very congested at night and it was definitely affecting his sleep and ours.  We had many aspirators (huge bulbs) that the hospital gave us, and even after the pediatrician showed us how to get a good suction out of it we still resort to using our Nose Frida.  At first this grossed the husband out thinking that baby snot would end up near him.  However we quickly realized how much more effective this was compared to the huge bulbs the doctors give you to get their noses clean.  I love this because you can see what you're getting out to know if there is more up in their tiny noses.  The Nose Frida is definitely the way to go! 

When Nathan was having his bout with nighttime congestion, he had such a hard time sleeping on his back.  We have the Arms Reach CoSleeper next to our bed, but we found ourselves constantly pulling him in bed with us as he would wake up from all of the congestion.  My girlfriend let me borrow her Rock N' Play and he has loved it the minute we put him in it!  It is so compact that we can take it with us to our parents' house, fold it up to save space in our bedroom, or travel with it.  It's inclined which helps with the congestion and it snuggles the babies' sides so he's not sleeping flat on his back.  We will definitely be buying our own when #2 comes around.  He has slept amazingly since the first time we put him in it! 

Swaddlers are a life saver!  We personally love the Aden and Anais blankets to swaddle Nathan in, but no matter how tight we tried one of his arms always broke loose.  So we quickly jumped onto Amazon and order the Summer Infant SwaddleMe pack.  These.  Babies.  Work.  Nathan doesn't break out of them and it keeps him nice and tight to have the sweetest dreams! 

And lastly, a wipe warmer definitely comes in handy.  We didn't register for this because we didn't think we would need it.  After my grandma changed one of his diapers in the hospital she decided he needed one for comfort sake.  I'm so glad she picked one up for us because it has made the diaper changing experience much more pleasant!