My Favorite Baby and Mama Products
I do NOT receive any sort of compensation for sharing links to these products - I just want to share my favorites with you!
I may only be ten months into motherhood, but I feel like I have learned a LOT. And were I to repeat the first three months in terms of what items I purchase...these would be the things that I would keep!
I feel very lucky in that many, MANY items we ended up needing were gifted by sweet friends who passed along their favorites. We ended up clothing Baby M for his first 5-6 months almost entirely on hand-me-downs alone!
That said, thrift shops are an awesome place to look for clothing and even unopened packages of diapers! You can find furniture and more on Marketplace and sites like that, though my favorite is GoodBuyGear, as they vet all of the items they sell. They even have a blog!
A Note on Maternity and Working...
Let me tell you, taking an almost two month break from markets was the best thing I could have done for my body. I did NOT want to do that, but my healing journey was/is so complex that it required me to take additional time.
Listen to your body. Accept help and meals from friends who offer it. It can be scary to ask for assistance, but I promise you that you will not regret it and your friends will be happy to help when asked!
I would not have made it through the first month without two sweet couples that provided meals for us. They sustained us when we were too exhausted to cook for ourselves - or even order DoorDash!
My Favorite Items for Baby
Babies truly do not need a lot of stuff, contrary to what social media momfluencers may try to tell us.
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Baby bouncer - this one is way cheaper than a Baby Bjorn and works soooo well! The mesh fabric was easy to clean, a major bonus in my book. It provided many hours of entertainment so I could work and shower while baby played.
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Bottle warmer - baby took breast milk warmed...but now will only drink formula cold. I would recommend borrowing or buying one of these second hand.
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Formula pitcher - can also be used to store breast milk, provided you adhere to the guidelines on how long to store milk in the fridge. This pitcher has saved us many times when baby was inconsolable because his meal was 10 minutes late...
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Play mat with mobile - soooo many options, hours of endless entertainment!
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Highly recommend a play pen - pairs perfectly with the play mat so that they can roam free while also being contained.
My Favorite Items for Mama
No matter how your baby gets earthside, things are going to get a little...messy. These are the things that sustained me! Much like baby supplies, much of this could be found secondhand - clothing was a little more difficult for me, as I was short and super bloated for a solid six weeks after delivery, so I opted to buy new.
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A short robe - I LIVED in this during June - August in the Florida humidity, let me tell you.
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Nursing/pumping bras - self-explanatory, worth the investment.
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Nursing nightgown - because the last thing you want to deal with are unruly layers when your newborn is cranky at 1am because they are STARVING.
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Frida Mom products - the peri bottle is perfection and about 1000000000x more useful and effective than the one the hospital gives you. They have kits for both c-sections and vaginal deliveries (great for gifts, too!).
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Adult diapers - iykyk, and you WILL know. More comfortable than a pad, tbh. While my experience may differ, I did not think it was that bad!
Final Thoughts...
Motherhood is different for every person. My experience will not be your experience (and I truly hope not, I had some medical issues that I am still trying to mentally overcome), but I hope this provides a baseline for you as you navigate your own journey!
One of the best things I did for my mental health was unfollow allllllll the mommy bloggers - after my health scare that prevented me from being able to continue to breastfeed, I felt stigmatized by people demonizing formula.
Additionally, seeing people promoting their own "perfected" version of parenthood wasn't aspirational, it just became annoying as my feed was over-saturated by baby and mother reels. It's ok not to follow those types of accounts, I promise! Plus, most of them are trying to sell you just one more perfect product that you don't actually need...