Top Products for Surviving the First Month with a Newborn

Sounds a little dramatic, doesn't it? Surviving.

But it's true! Between the lack of sleep, determining why your baby is crying (and what to do about it), learning how to change a diaper, bathe your baby, or clothe her without breaking off her arms or legs. What is that snorting noise she's making? Is that a lazy eye? Can I just let her cry like that? And I thought babies were suppose to sleep, like, all of the time?

As part of our decision to live more simply, we try our hardest to get by with only things we really need and use. There are a whole lot of baby products out there, most all of them look fabulous, cute, useful and all that jazz, but what do you really need for a newborn? 

Happily, not much! 

I've made a list of the simple products that we found to be the most useful to have for our newborn. Below are the few things that really helped us keep our sanity. 

This lullaby sound machine and projector.

It has all sorts of noises you can choose from, we always have it on rain. I especially love it because I always needed a box fan on to sleep, but since we have her sleeping in our room right now, this easily replaced that noise. Plus the projector doubles as a perfect night light, so when we get up to feed or change her, we don't have to turn any other lights on. 

Aj lived in these white newborn onesies. So simple, and simple is all we needed those first few weeks. Plus, they have the mitten cuffs for when her nails were getting too long or if her hands felt too chilly at night. 

She was always wrapped in a flannel receiving blankets over her onesie. They also double as a great burp cloth in a pinch!

At night, we wrapped her in these Swaddleme velcro swaddle blankets. We loved them because they take the guesswork out of swaddling, you just lay your baby on the open blanket and fold the flaps until you can velcro them together. Perfect! We also learned that our little one didn't like having her arms swaddled, so we just started with it under her armpits, leaving her arms free and clear.

The hospital actually gave us this bulb syringe. The first time I ever thought to use it was when, one day, she was snorting almost like a pig when she was breathing. Even though I couldn't see anything up her nose, I gave it a try anyways and man let me tell you the ick nasty whopper I sucked out of there! And then...voila! Her breathing was fine. I've since become a booger-sucking pro :)  

This newborn-to-toddler tub was perfect. We just lay her in the little hammock up top and can fill the little tub up until the water hits her back, she loves it. Of course she's too little to play right now, but the warm water comforts her and she just relaxes for her little spa sessions :) Bonus, take the hammock out and she's got her own little bath until she grows past toddler stage!

Butt wipes!! Now, you're probably thinking obviously, but I'm recommending these two specifically because they were the best for her skin. Babyganics Fragrance Free Wipes and Pampers Sensitive Wipes are the only two types of wipes that left her without a rash, so that's all we used (and continue to use) for the time being. 

A slow flow bottle nipple. I'm breastfeeding, but we avoided a huge fiasco (story for another time) by having a bottle so that we were able to use what I had pumped to feed her. Make sure you have a slow flow nipple, as that's the closest to the natural flow of momma's breast. It can still be too fast for a newborn, so make sure you just feed small amounts at a time between burping, plus it will give your baby's tummy time to catch up and realize that she is full.

I hope this list was helpful. If you've been there, what are some things that really helped you when your little one was in the newborn phase?