Our Top 9 Newborn “Must-Haves” for New Parents

Although I am a physician and deliver babies for a living, I was a newbie parent. Going from zero to two newborns at one time was no small feat and honestly, the first year was kind of a blur. I remember when we were registering for our baby shower, we probably spent a good solid hour at the front of Babies-R-Us looking at breast pumping parts and bottles and got VERY overwhelmed. We received lots of suggestions from many friends and family with children, and I read SO many reviews on everything from best car seats to strollers, but in the end (and over four years later now), we only really remember 9 items that helped us survive those first 6 months. I am sure there are more out there now but these necessities below should not be just passing trends!

• Hands-free pumping bra – my twins were born 6 weeks early (34 weeks exactly) and I had to start pumping immediately. I remember trying to hold the pump flanges in just the right position with the bedside hospital pump and thinking “there has GOT to be a better way!” I had carpal tunnel in pregnancy and even holding the flanges for 20-30 minutes was painful.  I forget who told me but THANK YOU to whoever told Dan to go buy me the hands-free pumping bra at our hospital gift shop the day the twins were born. Not only did it save my hands and my sanity, but I truly think it helped me pump for twins for an entire YEAR (breastfeeding twins at the same time is a whole other story). I got 3 pairs of pumping bras for good measure and less washing. Remember, this item was not even on my radar for my baby registry.  The brand I got was Simple Wishes Signature Hands Free Pumping Bra, Patented, Soft Pink .

• Fisher Price Rock’n Play Sleeper– this was absolutely a MUST for the twins. I remember when we first got home from the NICU and we laid them down in the the Pack ‘n Play. Dan and I stared at each other and asked  almost simultaneously “So…..what do we do now??”  I distinctly remember placing our daughter Abby in the Rock ‘n Play for the first time. It was an immediate comfort for her – she stopped crying and we were relieved. Whoever invented this is a genius – it keeps the babies at a slight angle, keeps them feeling tight and secured, and you can rock them back to sleep. It was magic. They now have fancy ones that that have relaxing music and a hands-free auto rocker! Mind blown.  We were always sleeping right next to them when they napped, but all must understand, however, that these sleepers do not meet the safety standards for overnight sleep.

• Happiest Baby on the Block DVD– I remember someone recommending this book to me, and I bought it right away. However, when I noticed that it came in a companion video, I tossed the book aside. Who had time to read?  It was SO much easier to watch and apply right away. This book/DVD was written by Dr. Harvey Karp that discusses the 5 S’s to mimic the calming environment of the womb (Swaddle, Side-Stomach Position, Shush, Swing and Suck). Although we went to a prenatal class and learned how to swaddle, this video REALLY helped Dan understand how to do the best and tightest swaddle. It was amazing. Dr. Karp also has expanded his products and now has a very fancy and safe sleeper called the “Snoo” – it is pricey and limited after a few months but supposed to boost baby sleep. We would have totally purchased it if it was available back then!

• Swaddles – Now that you have learned to swaddle, which ones should you buy. For some reason, we had about 1000 small receiving blankets, most of which we didn’t use. They were too small to swaddle after we got out of the preemie/newborn stage. Speaking of swaddles, there are so many different brands and types of out there. My FAVORITE brand, however, were the famous Aden and Anais Muslin Swaddle Blankets. They were SO soft and big enough to swaddle the babies for a while but also act as a light blanket as well. I wish there was an adult-sized version of this swaddle blanket! Now there are a lot of new swaddles out there to purchase, but these were the most versatile in my opinion and had great patterns for boys and girls.

• White Noise Machine – This is everything. If you don’t have one, get one.  Again, this helps with the third “S” for shushing and recreating the womb-like environment. My mom was always concerned about the volume of the shushing but as the Happiest Baby on the Block video demonstrated , the shushing has to be significant (not too soft shushing) but not damaging to their hearing of course. We purchased a simple sound system by Munchkin, but now there is a popular one called the Baby Shusher: The Sleep Miracle that I’ve seen great reviews. Another tip that did we was when we were not at home or on the road was to download a White Noise app on our phones. That way, we can turn on the sounds of crashing waves or the sound of a fan or vacuum at any time. To this day, the twins will not go to sleep without their old school Munchkin sound system playing the ocean.

• Soothie pacifiers (Green, 0-3 months) – whether you are a proponent of pacifiers or not, these were essential for our 34 week preemies. We learned from the occupational therapist that in our case, these Philips Avent Soothie (0-3 months) pacifiers were a way to teach our babies to suckle and eventually breastfeed or take bottles.  The preemie twins at this gestational age were still learning to feed and grow. The twins took to these green ones right away, and I was surprised that any time these pacifiers were out of their mouths or had fallen to the ground, the NICU staff had to throw them away. I understand the sterility concern, but why not keep them? Of course, we quickly scooped them all up for our own personal collection and then sterilized them all at home. I mean, it would be such a waste. Now I see all the new babies with these WubbaNub pacifiers with cute little stuffed animals attached to it but we didn’t get those unfortunately.  The interesting thing is after 3-4 months, the twins didn’t want anything to do with it anymore and spit them out and learned to self soothe. I guess they served their purpose but they were amazing when it lasted!

• Snap-on shirts – there is a funny story to these shirts. One of my Ob/GYN residents who recently had a baby insisted I buy these snap-on shirts that looked like kimonos. I thought to myself, how hard could it be to change a baby’s onesie?? I didn’t really think much of it until the first major poopy blow-out occurred in a onesie. We HAD to cut that onesie and throw it out – no way were we putting that over the baby’s head and body.  Once Dan discovered the snap-on kimono shirts, he quickly proceeded to buy the entire rack of these shirts at Target. They lasted a little while, but like all their clothes at this stage, the twins grew out of them quickly. They were GREAT while they lasted!

• Merlin Magic Sleepsuits– this was a late find when I was looking for something to transition the twins out of their swaddles and into their cribs. Of course, this popped up like magic somehow and thought….it wouldn’t hurt to try! This product was created by a mother of four who also is a pediatric physical therapist. This magic sleepsuit provides babies a cozy and safe sleep environment (no blankets in the crib!) and minimizes the startle reflex and movements. The material was not too warm, it allowed their hands and feet to be free, and there were easy two zippers to get the babies in and out of them. I have to say when we first got them, the babies looked like pink and blue marshmallows but they were MAGIC. I kept them in those magic sleepsuits for as long as I could and recommend this to all new parents!

• “The Sleepeasy Solution: The Exhausted Parent’s Guide to Getting Your Child to Sleep from Birth to Age 5”– I think I started googling “how to sleep train your babies” and this popped up on Amazon. There were a LOT of books and opinions out there on sleep training. We definitely did not want to co-sleep until they were in high school but we also didn’t want to fully do the “cry it out” method.  This method was created by two psychotherapists and sleep specialists who said they perfected their sleep training method and most were successful in just a few nights – often fewer than 3 nights. I was skeptical but it was worth a quick read! Long story short, we decided to do it one week after the twins were four months old. It wasn’t easy the first night and my husband made sure we FOLLOWED the plan exactly, but after the THIRD night, the twins were sleeping through the night. The twins sleeping through the night from 6:30pm to 6:30am was GLORIOUS and a game changer for the rest of their newborn period. I will write a more extensive blog on this whole experience later but this truly was the first step in having good sleepers to this day. Sleep is crucial for everyone, including newborns, toddlers, AND parents, and we are SO thankful it worked.

You will find items that work best for you but after all these years, the above stuck in our minds. I hope you find things that work best for YOU and your babies!

Disclaimer: The views and comments expressed are my own personal views and experiences, and do not represent any affiliated organization or entity. Any narrative accounts are compositions of my own personal experiences. My goal is to provide education, inspiration, and empowerment to other moms and physicians.