baby essentials / month 1

Jacks is 9 weeks now and I still can't he is two months old. We have fallen into a nice routine and things are going as smooth as they possibly can with a newborn. As we head into month two I wanted to share a few of the items we could not have survived month one without.

kimono tops / These are my go to for newborns. My babies are always in just a diaper and one of these. I love that they are perfect for skin to skin time, which is so important in those first few days when you're waiting for your milk to come in. They are so convenient! You can literally just un button an get that baby on your chest all without hating to fully undress your baby. I love the colors from this Carters set but also really love these from June + January.

Dockatot / I'm sure you've read about how much we love this item countless times but it really is the best. We co-sleep with our babies, so having a safe space for them on our bed makes sleeping a little easier on all of us. We first got the deluxe when we were having trouble transitioning Jules into her own bed. She slept in our bed with her dock for about 2 weeks, then we moved the dock into her bed and it worked. She slept that first night, in her own room, the whole night. Kourtney was 2 months when we got hers and she slept for 7 hours that first night. Was it a coincidence? Maybe. But she loved her dock and slept in the grand until she turned 1. Jackson loves his too. I use it at bedtime only so he associates it with sleep. He's like clockwork, fussy at 7:30, nurses, gets wrapped and placed in his dock. The second he lays in here he's out. $10 coupon here.

bedtime swaddle / All my kids loved being swaddled. I make sure to wrap them at the hospital so they get used to that tight cozy feeling. Once I'm home from the hospital I like getting a bedtime routine going because it really helps get them into a sleep pattern. I try not to swaddle them in the velcro wraps during the day & use them only at bedtime so they associate the wrap with night time. Jackson is 2 months now and picked up on this very early on. He fusses at night to get swaddled and sleeps 4-5 hour stretches once he's all wrapped up. Swaddling has been a lifesaver for me and is what has helped my kids sleep great at night. I have used the Halo swaddle on all my kids are really really love it. But I got the Ollie swaddle for Jacks and he really enjoys this one plus diaper changes are super easy in these. 10 % off coupon for the Ollie swaddle here.

daytime swaddle / You can call me a blanket hoarder. I have these swaddles in every room in my house, the car, the stroller, we all love using them, especially the girls. Thse Aden + Anais are some of my favorites. I love the prints and the larger size they offer because they are so convenient and can be used for so many things. They are perfect for throwing over the stroller or carseat. I also like using them as a nursing cover because of how airy they are.

pacifiers / Make sure you have a couple of options for baby. I really love Natursutten for all the health benefits (read more here) and desprately wanted Jacks to take it but he hated them just like Kourt did. I ended up trying another style and he hated that too. We finally ended up with the Phillips Avent just like we did with Kourt. I think the shape of the nipple on these work very well with breastfed babies & highly recommend them.

car seat / We decided to go straight for the convertible carseat for Jacks and I love it! I hardly ever took the infant carseat out of my car because I found it easier to baby wear our use the bassinet attachment on our stroller. I am only 5" so I always had a hard time reaching over to pull it out plus they were always ridiculously heavy for me. We ended up going with the Clek Foonf for all of the safety features and the smaller width which made it easy to fit three of these across my back seat. The height and weight maximums also played a very large part in our selection. With the Infant-thingy insert's weight minimum at 5lbs and the 65lb forward facing max weight it was a no brainer. I can't recommend this carseat enough, I really love it. I'll have a blog post with lots of details about these soon, they're that good!

mamaRoo / another baby item that all three of my babies absolutely loved. Jules actually needed lots of soothing to go to sleep so we used this the first couple of weeks at night. I like how it can easily moved into different rooms without hassle. Jacks likes to sit with the girls in the living room while they watch cartoons & I move it into the kitchen when doing dishes or cooking dinner.

boppy / a definite must have. Not only is it super convenient for nursing but we use ours most with the girls. It's fits perfectly around them so they can easily carry their brother.

diapers / We have been using Parasol since Kourtney was a baby. I splurge on them because I love them and the wipes so much. You can read more about them here.

tub / We used this for our kids. I tried an actual tub once and hated it, it was bulky, it hurt my back from bending over and it was a hassle to store away. The puj is perfect for our super small bathroom sink but what I love about it most is how easily it stores. It is so compact and opens up flat that I am able to hang it on the hook behind our bathroom door.

breastmilk storage / I just discovered these this third time around and don't know how I did it before. They replace the bottles and easily attach directly to your pump which makes storing so easy. You literally pump milk directly into the bags, take them off and store them in the freezer. One less thing to wash, because who likes washing all those pump parts?

como tomo bottles / I highly recommend these. After many, many,  bottles these were the only ones Kourtney took. I didn't even bother buying Jacks different ones to try, I stuck to Como tomo and he loves them. They are great for transitioning breastfed babies to a bottle plus they're made rom hygienic silicone, free of BPA and other toxic chemicals.

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