Throughout my surprisingly “easy-going” PCOS pregnancy and as we geared up for baby, we outsourced tons of researching, planning and decorating to friends and family. But now that we have better footing of life with baby, we’ve taken stock of all the products we tried and what truly worked for us in our small space and budget (but everyone was so kind and gifted us so much).

This is just part 1 of our 0-3 month guide! We found so many great products that made our lives easier in the first few months with baby. We’ve got a little bit of everything in this guide: mostly natural or organic where it makes sense + convenient conventional products + absolute winners for small space living.

I didn’t grow up with sisters but now I’m blessed x4 with the world’s greatest sister in laws who provide me daily mom-spiration. They were invaluable to navigating those first few months and I still reach out to them weekly for advice.

Amazon Baby Registry and Registry Aggregaters

There are so many places to register for your new little bundle of joy. We recommend registering at local stores where you know friends and family will be shopping (or better yet enlist help and have a friend register for you 🙂 in addition you can use sights like Myregistry.com to aggregate registries from stores. I highly recommend Amazon Baby Registry for a number of reasons!

• Easy for your friends, family and yourself to make purchases
• Easy for your loved ones to purchase Amazon gift cards for you so you can buy other things you need
• Completion discount! Once many items on your registry have been bought, you get a one time use 15% discount (if you are a Prime member) to use to purchase more items on your registry as your due date approaches (note you only have until  your registered due date on the registry.
• Easy returns for Amazon credit
• $100 in rewards for diapers and wipes! Once at least $1000 has been spent on your registry you can use $100 in credit from Amazon to buy diapers and wipes.. Important to note not every option is available; our preferred wipes were but our preferred diapers were not.

I’m not a doctor (and certainly not your doctor or your baby’s doctor) and any of our recommendations are based on our own experience with success. Please check with your doctor or pediatrician for any questions on care for your child.

0-3 New Baby and Mama Guide Part 1

(Hi friends! Links to Amazon are affiliate links, which means if you click on these links and buy a product I may make a very small portion from a purchase. All of my opinions and thoughts on these products however are genuine and are meant to save you time. These are item’s I’ve recommended based on our experience. I’ve provided enough information so that if you feel more comfortable you can search for the product in Amazon and find it and add it easily to your registry or cart). 

Images and prices are provided for ease to help you visualize how our favorite baby essentials might fit within your space and budget.

Newborn Bath Essentials

• • We first bathed our nugget in a bathroom sync with towels, but if our sink was deep enough we would have used this great flower padded bath sponge (we sent it to a friend and she loved it!)

• • • • Once he transitioned out of the sink we absolutely loved this infant bath tub. This is a sis-in-law approved recommendation 🙂

    • We are very careful about the ingredients we use for ourselves as adjults so of course we were cautious in bathing our littlest boo boo. We have Erbaviva products bought at Seamakers & Co here in San Diego in La Jolla – they have no scent! But we also loved this Pleni Natural that I first received in my Glowing Beets box last year.
    • I’m also a huge fan of this Dr. Bronner’s sugar soap for everything. I even use it as hand soap.

    • We found soft bamboo baby towels with hoods were the best size towels for drying him and these are our favorite! We recommend at least 3.
  • Sooo…if you really want to spoil your new little bundle and yourselves, we love our Brookstone towel warmer and love giving this as a gift.

• • Our baby LOVES bath time and getting the temperature right helps! We love this little temperature sting ray (for so long I thought this was a turtle??).

• • He loves to snuggle with washcloths. These tiny bamboo ones are our favorite. We probably have 15 or so and we normally used 2 per bath – one to cover his little belly and one to use for washing.

• • Unfortunately our littlest love had cradle cap. We tried a few different tools but this Mustela cradle cap shampoo and this cradle cap brush and comb really helped. Mustela has mostly natural ingredients although you know me I would have preferred no scent 🙂

• These Skip Hop bath kneelers and whale rinser are still used every day in our household!

Newborn Baby Laundry Essentials

• • We love everything 3 sprouts and this laundry hamper has helped us separate his sweet little clothing from ours.

• • We use very gentle scent free detergent on our own laundry so we used the same for him! When we are being good and take the time to mix the concentrate we love using Branch Basics products (we got their new products last year – previously wrote about their initial batch that worked well for us. Love that Branch Basics is unscented!).  I recommend the starter set with oxygen boost. The bottle quality is awesome too – I definitely need to order more of the foaming wash bottles (yeah, maternity leave may leave you a little stir-crazy in your house, suddenly caring about your soap container 🙂 ). We also like having the super convenient option of Puracy detergent.

Newborn Baby Diaper Essentials

• • • We’ve tried ALL the more natural and hypoallergenic disposal diapers. Our favorites were originally Pamper’s sensitive and then Honest Company when he was ready for size 1 (also recommended to us by family).

  
  

  • We were very choosy in our diapering care products and ingredients. We use this great Badget Balm diaper cream and we’ve tried a few different talc-free natural powders.

• • For wipes, we had Pampers in the hospital, we tried Babyganics at home, but our ultimate favorites are still Waterwipes. The Pampers version are OK but have more added ingredients than the Waterwipes version. Waterwipes come in big packs and travel size which are great for diaper bags! WaterWipes have no scent! They get rid of most messes except for those very tough first poopies 🙂 One of the best compliments I’ve ever received in my life was that “your baby doesn’t smell like a baby”. Our baby just smells like his pure self; not pampers wipes and baby shampoo. 

• • We use this soft baby changing bad with a soft minky cover. This fits well on top of our Babyletto dresser/changing station.

• • We love this portable Skip Hop changing stations for travel and for different areas in our house.

I would not recommend spending a lot on a diaper bag at first – not until you have tried a few and understand the size and shape that works best for you (keep in mind they may change).

We love this Jujube bag we were gifted in a different pattern. The fabric is fantastic and it has lots of compartments. This is not always our every day bag though because sometimes it doesn’t feel big enough for my “bring-everything-at-all-times” mindset haha. It’s at least always stocked as a backup bag in a car. Jujube has lots of styles and this was can be a shoulder bag or a backpack!  It was such a thoughtful gift from our family.

We then transitioned to this great faux-leather version (would make a great adult version! in multiple colors)

We just started trying this O’beanie bag that is more of a tote style bag. It’s been working really well!

• To accompany our diaper bag, I treated myself to this awesome Lo & Sons ‘Waverly’ bag to easily grab and go – it stows easily in bags and I can even wear it as a chic fanny pack if needed. I got this on sale for Cyber Week.

Update: Lo & Sons is having a memorial day sale with 30% off some styles! But you can almost always find a 15% off code

New Mama Nursing Must-Haves

• • • • • I lived for months in this crossover nursing top from the Gap and their nursing camisoles. Both of them are frequently on sale! I also tried a few Kindred Bravely items from Amazon, but they fit me a little funny so you might have to try a few sizes. I highly suggest sizing up!
      • I tried SO MANY nursing bras but these are still my favorite. They are unlined and un-padded so to keep everything looking smooth I add these pads.

• • • • A pumping bra is absolutely essential. These are the versions I used that I like.

• • • • There are a lot of great options for stocking up on extra pump parts.

• • • • So many milk storage options out there! These Lashinoh bags work great.

• • • • We love to use this little cooler especially when we are on the go.

Stay tuned for part 2 of our Newborn and New Mama guide + more monthly guides further down the road. Would love to hear about your favorite baby products!