In depth newborn product reviews!

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Newborn Products we actually use.png
Newborn Products.png

I’ve tried to link everything below from either target or buy buy baby because I feel like they have the best discounts for your baby registry and buy buy baby has so many great coupon offers!

Nanit Monitor

We love the nanit monitor! First, it has an app that has a clear image (you can literally see them breathing and hear every noise.) We just have our iPad set up in our living room when we use it and can carry our phones with the monitor on it too. The view of the monitor in his nursery is great because it shows the entire room. And when we have the portable monitor in our bedroom when he’s in the bassinet it is super clear too.

The monitor tracks sleep patterns by using a “breathing wear” system. (kind of like a swaddle that goes around their belly) We haven’t used this yet since he’s not in his crib and this part doesn’t work with the mini “multi stand” we’re using in our bedroom. But we LOVE that the nanit comes with a small detachable monitor that can go in our room/used for travel! We thought we would have to buy a separate monitor for the first few months, so the fact that it comes with a small monitor we can use while he’s in our room is awesome.

You can buy the complete monitoring system or just the camera system. So far we probably could have just bought the camera and not the monitoring system. You can add the mini/travel monitor onto this for $50 and the total is $250 vs $379 but we got the entire system on sale for black friday for the cheaper price so why not! (if you’ll be pregnant around thanksgiving definitely wait for deals- we got a lot of great large items at this time!) Overall, we haven’t found it necessary to have the entire monitoring system unless he’s in his crib which wont be until 6 months.

Pros:

  • love how it has the “multi-stand” mini monitor option

  • great clear image and sound

  • modern, sleek design in nursery

  • like the sleep tracking app but haven’t found it to be necessary yet

  • like that the app gives you free “sleep tips”

  • great view of nursery on main monitor

    Cons:

  • not necessary to have the complete monitoring system yet

  • multi travel stand doesn’t work with the sleep tracking wear so unless their in a crib from birth you can’t use the sleep tracking part

  • no major cons, overall we really like this monitor!

    Wipe warmer

So many people told me not to register for a wipe warmer because they were “unnecessary” so we didn’t! I feel like this is an item that yes, you don’t need…but now that we have one it seems so necessary to us! We ended up buying one from amazon in the hospital to have sent to our house for when we got home haha! Every time we would put the cold wipe on Nathan he would SCREAM and continued to hate the cold wipes for about a week until the wipe warmer came in! As soon as we started using it he hardly ever cries during diaper changes and our diaper changing routine is much more calm now.

The only con to the wipe warmer is that is has to stay plugged into a wall. Unless there are wipe warmers that are chargeable (which I can’t find) I dislike the fact that we carry it from room to room to use. If you have a large house I would maybe get 2.

Pack n Play WITH changing station!

We went back and forth about getting a larger pack n play with a changing station because our house really isn’t huge and we weren’t sure if we needed the pack n play in our living room with the nursery being so close. My uncle ended up giving us this pack n play and I’m so glad he did! We change him mostly out in the living room and it’s so much easier to have the changing station so close throughout the day. He also loves the music and lights that this one has!

Pros

  • Can be a changing table, moveable bassinet

  • Love the music option and lights

  • Pockets for storage

  • Great size to grow with him

  • Great quality


    Cons

  • Large/takes up more space


    Burp cloths

    We have a ton of these burp cloths which are great for my diaper bag, but overall we’ve been using these muslin swaddles because they are so large and can be used as a blanket too. We just lay them across our shoulders and since their so big we like these the best for burp cloths!

Hands down our favorite baby item we received from our registry. He absolutely loves the mamaroo and would nap in it all day if he could haha! We’ve never tried another swing so yes, he might be just fine with an inexpensive swing. Guess we will never know because we love the mamaroo haha!

Pros:

  • baby loves it

  • size is great compared to other swings, its very compact and doesn’t take up a ton of space

  • light weight and easy to use

    • great after feeding to have the baby stay sitting up right

    • love the different options for sound, and type of movement


      Cons:

    • More expensive for a swing

    Halo Bassinet

    Ok so the halo bassinet was probably our least favorite item that we’ve bought. I thought it would be great because it has so many great reviews and it seems to be THE bassinet to get. It just wasn’t my favorite, but that just might be our opinion! If you do get the Halo I definitely wouldn’t recommended any of the upgraded bassinets. Just get the least expensive one, I also like how the legs tuck all the way under the bed with this one. Linking that one here

    We ended up getting this bassinet instead. I like it better because it can pull and stay all the way down and its much easier to grab him at night. It doesn’t move out of the way as easily but I would rather be able to see him clearly, and grab him easier.

    Halo Pros:

  • Easy to move out the way

    Halo Cons:

  • don’t need the light or sound machine. the light is super dark

  • don’t need the sheets or mattress pad- they make it lumpy

  • side pockets don’t fit anything

  • can’t see the baby through the mesh at night

  • it was hard for me to pull down the side although that’s what is supposed to be great about it. Maybe it was the size of my bed? Overall it was more difficult for me to use.

We love the Dr Brown’s bottles the most! We wanted the comotomo bottles because that seems to be what all the rave is about right now but we actually really didn’t like them. Maybe they just didn’t work for our baby. We tried all the different nipples- fast, medium, slow flow and he just never seemed to be able to suck the milk out! I also didn’t like the nipples because I never knew which one was which. It was hard to see if it was fast flow vs medium. The only way to tell was the holes at the top of the nipple, which is hard when you’re already exhausted!

We ended up getting these Dr Browns bottles and they’re GREAT! They’re the number one pediatrician recommended bottle and can be found in NICU’s/hospitals too! Thats always a great sign. Here are some great things about the Dr Browns bottles:

  • Clinically proven to reduce colic

  • Decreases spit-up, burping, and gas

  • Shown to better preserve nutrients in breast milk and formula

  • Aids in digestion for a good night’s sleep

  • Offers a flow rate that supports breastfeeding

  • BPA free, dishwasher (top rack) and sterilizer safe

    We’ve also found that it really helps prevent air from getting into the bottle. With these I never “hear” him sucking in air like he does with other bottles.

Boppy

We haven’t really used the boppy, maybe when he’s bigger. For breastfeeding I feel like the My Breast Friend would be better and what was recommended to me by lactation consultants in the hospital!

Gripe Water!

He’s obsessed with Gripe Water! It’s BABY MAGIC! He stops crying literally ever time we give this to him haha! Talk to your doctor, but this is the brand that we use!

Diaper Caddy/Rolling Cart

We love having a rolling diaper caddy to move from the living room and into our bedroom at night! We keep things that we use daily on it. We have it packed with wipes, diapers, gripe water, diaper cream, changing pad, my pump, extra swaddles, and an extra outfit.

Humidifier
We like the fridababy humidifier. I would say the only con to this is that it has to be cleaned often-like 1-2 times a week. The night light isn’t really necessary especially if you have a lamp or the sound machine below.

Sound Machine
The hatch sound machine is great. I like how you can just tap it for different settings. At night when I need more light I have a brighter setting that still keeps the sound machine on. I have a setting for him when he’s asleep that is more dim. One thing we’ve noticed is that it looses connection a lot. Only major con there. But overall I like the different settings for brightness and sound and how it connects to my phone!

Baby Carrier
We’ve been using these 2 baby carriers! The Boba is nice and lightweight but it takes a little longer to put on. I love the ergobaby carrier! It’s also light and easy to use.

Swaddles
We’ve tried the following swaddles in order of favorite to least favorite! I’ll just say our son gets his hands out of every single one of the swaddles below. We use the happiest baby pretty much every night! We still haven’t found one that he can’t break out of haha

Happiest Baby swaddle- We use this one every night, easy to use and breathable mesh
The Ollie baby swaddle-We like this one too! Super easy to use and baby seems to like it
Swaddle Me Swaddles- Again, easy to use, overall great affordable swaddle!
Halo Bassinet swaddle- We don’t like this one much, its harder to use and there are just better swaddles out there. It’s also really bulky.

Hatch Changing table with weight scale We wen’t back and forth about getting this and I’ll say that I don’t really think its necessary. We have only used it a few times. If I was breastfeeding I would for sure use it, but since we change him in the living room right now instead of the nursery it isn’t really necessary and we don’t really feel the need to check his weight often right now.


These towels instead of PeePee TeePee!

The pee pee tee pees were cute but hard to use and you had to keep your hand on it while changing- just another added step while changing a diaper. I ended up purchasing these towels and we just keep them on him when we change! They are super absorbant and there haven’t been any messes with these!

Baby Bath
We were fortunate to receive both of these baths and we like the sling one better! The sling is great and I like being able to fill it up with water!

Baby Brezza Water Dispenser

We LOVE this bottle warmer! It’s kind of like a Keurig for bottles. We didn’t want to buy the one that has the formula dispenser because I wanted to make sure we were personally adding in the correct amount of formula ourselves. This is a great option because you just press a button, add in the water then add in your formula and thats it! It has settings for the temperate you want. We keep it next to our bed and it makes life so much easier!

Doc a Tot
I HAD to have the doc a tot, haha. We really don’t use it much right now, but it has come in handy a few times I need to lay him down somewhere quickly. I’m hoping he uses it later on more. But definitely don’t think this is something that is super necessary.

Diaper Genie

This was another product we were told we didn’t need but for sure a necessity for us! We use it daily and it’s a huge convenience.


Other items we’ve loved!