Everything We Used & Bought In The First 2 Weeks With Our Newborn

Flora is now 3 weeks old! I can’t believe next week she’ll be 1 MONTH! Time is flying by with our family of four and I thought today I’d share a few products that I either ordered on Prime in the past few weeks or already had that have become invaluable to us.

SLEEPING DEVICES

We are rotating between the Halo Bassinet, Dock-A-Tot and Rock & Play for sleep right now. All three are invaluable at this point! I’m so glad I purchased the newborn insert for the Halo. I’ve had a bunch of people ask if it’s worth it – and I’ll say if you have a spare $50 it is but if you’re on a budget with your baby gear I’d skip it. I think it’s made a difference AND it’s why Flora will sleep in her bassinet but it’s pretty small and I only think we’ll be able to use it for a few more weeks. Starting this week I’m going really focus on getting her to sleep in her bassinet the majority of the time. I love the Halo because you can swing it right up next to your bed which is so wonderful for an anxious mama like me, the first week I had that thing glued to the side of the bed and even fell asleep resting my hand on Flora to be sure she was breathing. The one thing we hate about the Halo is how much space the legs take up on the floor. We just re-arranged our room a bit (I’ll be sharing soon) and now we have the perfect spot for it.

I’ve also had a lot of questions about the Dock-A-Tot and if it’s worth it –and I’ll say we love it! I heard so many great things about this product before we had Flora and was really eager to try it out. We don’t use it as much as I thought we would right now — but it’s been working great for naps and I love that you can easily move it from room to room. It’s also been great for Piper to be able to cuddle up and get close to Flora, but not too close. And I use it in the morning after Flora has her early feed around 5am and will stick her in it after.

Also SWEAR by the SwaddleMe brand swaddles. We have used these exclusively for night sleep and put Flora in it around 10/11pm. I think she really associates it with night/sleeping longer?? Or maybe its just a coincidence :)

DIAPERING

Flora had horrible diaper rash her first week and she also hated diaper changes so much. She’s such a good baby and really rarely cries so we know the diapering time was pretty traumatic with her blood curdling screams. It broke my heart so I tried everything in my power to make them easier on her. I ordered this wipe warmer which has made a difference and discovered that her skin does not agree with Pampers diapers — so Honest and Seventh Generation have become our go-tos. We also used Triple Paste for the first time (we never tried it with Piper) and it really helped clear up her diaper rash! I’m also SO glad I have the Gathre mat for her changing table. She also peed on us nearly every diaper change the first week (it’s since gotten better, thankfully) and I love that you can easily wipe it clean!! I can’t recommend it enough!

CLOTHING

For some reason I only had 4 or 5 newborn size sleepers so we had to run out after our first few days at home. 90% of the time Flora is in one of these Gerber onesies layered under a sleeper that has a zipper and hand covers. I picked up a few Carter’s brand but these Cloud Island ones from Target are my favorite because they have a reverse zipper so your baby stays warmer during diaper changes. I’ve also found layering the onesie helps with keeping Flora warm too. I also picked up several Carter’s/Target fleece sleepers for outings, but none of them have hand covers so she doesn’t wear them usually unless we are leaving the house.

BREASTFEEDING

Love, love, love My Brestfriend pillow. I use it when I nurse anywhere but the bedroom, in our room I have a Boppy stationed on the bed. I’m also so glad we stocked up on Burt’s Bees burp cloths.

I have been wearing this Belabumbum bra & these from Gilligan & O’Malley and using Lanolin and these reusable nursing pads.

I also got this Haakaa breast pump as a gift and it’s been AMAZING – I haven’t started pumping yet but have been using this when I nurse to catch the milk from the opposite side and have already saved a stash of over 6 ounces. Highly recommend it!

I just ordered my Milk Maid tea — and made a batch of these lactation cookies.

OTHER

I’ve loved wearing Flora in my Solly wrap – it’s been life changing and allowed me to do laundry, cook, play with Piper etc.

Sprout App. I use this religiously to track my feedings and nighttime sleeping for Flora. I’m working on a post with a round up of several other baby apps and more details on why I love this one!

NESPRESSO! We got out our Nespresso machine (this is the one we have) before Flora was born and stocked up on pods which we are now almost out of. I love brewing a pot of coffee, but the convenience of being able to pop in a Nespresso pod when just one of us is awake in the morning is so wonderful — and I’ve really come to enjoy late afternoon lattes that I make with our milk frother.

I haven’t used it too much since I haven’t been working until today but I’m SO GLAD I got this laptop stand  when I was pregnant because I can easily work while Flora sleeps on me :)