But these are the things that either just take up space, you can do without, or are more of a hassle than a help. I've found this to be the case, anyway.
Baby towels/washcloths.
This was the biggest waste of registry space. Sure, the towels are cute and washcloths are useful when the baby is less than 10 pounds. Then it just gets annoying when the towels quickly become too small and the washcloths just take up space in the laundry basket. By the time Wells was 5 months old, I was using regular towels and washcloths.
Footies that snap.
Any pajama-type clothing that snaps is a waste of time. It's frustrating as soon as they learn how to kick and becomes impossible as soon as they start rolling over. In the middle of the night, snaps are not your friend. Zippers are much easier. In fact, Scott spent a morning with Wells last week and said to get rid of all the snaps after that experience.
Burp cloths.
In the beginning, you will go through four burp cloths a day and always be looking around for a clean one. Then...they just became superfluous. He stopped spitting up everywhere by 2 months old and I realized that receiving blankets actually made great blankies for him to hug and play with..and could double as a burp cloth if necessary. By the time the baby is 10 pounds, you're not going to use a receiving blanket to wrap them up anyway. Those thin blankets are not quite big enough by that point.
So I advise just using all the receiving blankets you get as burp cloths from the beginning. Because I'm currently packing up a dozen burp cloths to put into storage and he still loves the receiving blankets as toys.
A diaper pail.
First, you do not need a Diaper Genie because those use special bags that are expensive and they're made of plastic, which can hold odors. I got the Ubbi, which is steel and uses regular trash bags. I do love it. It doesn't hold odors at all. I actually cleaned it out with baking soda before I packed it for the move and it's been as good as new.
However, we were without a diaper pail for a month while Wells and I were moving east and staying with my parents. I found that a regular trash can worked just fine. Only wet diapers go into our diaper pail anyway. Messy ones go straight outside to the trash. We've been doing that for months and months. If you use the same system, you could probably bypass the diaper pails altogether and just go straight to a regular trash can.
Too many clothes of any one size.
A lot of advisors out there will tell you not to buy newborn clothes because they're often too small for any baby at 8 pounds or more. I found that, since Wells was just under 7 pounds when he was born, we needed more newborn clothes, actually. He wore newborn clothes and 3 month clothes for the first 3 months.
However, I found that the 6 month and 9 month clothes were, honestly, exactly the same so I kind of lumped those together. He was in a lot of 12 month clothes by 6 months. If-I-were-you, I'd skip the 9 month clothes and go straight to 12 month. 9 month have fit him just fine, but I'd like to get more wear out of some of those cute outfits.
What would you add to this list???
For us, we're still using baby towels, but that's mainly because with a small washer and no dryer, I will use the small and thin towels as long as I can before going up to big grown up towels that don't dry as easily and take up more room in the washing machine. Our cotton blankets definitely did double duty as burp cloths and blankets. We also really needed the newborn size clothes for a good six weeks, and he only had 10 onesies total for newborn clothes, which probably wasn't quite enough when he was going through about 4 every 24 hours, haha! Every other size I felt like we had enough, just not newborn, because everyone tells you not to bother buying newborn clothes. It is good advice in many cases. My nephew, who is five weeks younger than Cyrus was born weighing about 9 pounds, which is just what Cyrus weighed at the time, only it took Cyrus 5 weeks on the outside to get there, haha!
ReplyDeleteYou have to think of all the things that are new & just created.... most of those things are nice, but how many years have babies been born & grew up just fine without them!
ReplyDeleteI love his Penn State hat! Very informative post. I never thought about the Diaper Genie being plastic. I bet that would start to stink after a while!
ReplyDeletebottle warmer, diaper warmer, actual little people clothes (even though they're so cute, they grow SO FAST), actual shoes - like, they can't even walk so what's the point)
ReplyDeleteThere are so many things that aren't necessary but at the same time it's different for everyone. There are things people swore by that I just didn't use.
ReplyDelete100% agree! I HATE clothes with snaps - WHYYYY are they in the world? Zippers 4 life ;) Also, I learned I prefer to spend a bit more money for quality products than get cheaper stuff and be frustrated with them.
ReplyDeleteFrom an auntie's point of view, I'd agree abotu the diaper genie. My sister has the one you do that uses regular trashbags and it works just fine!
ReplyDelete