The list of what you actually need for your baby when the baby is born will depend to a degree on where you choose to give birth. Your birth attendant will probably give you with advice on what to have at your home (if you plan to give birth at home) for the birth, or what to bring with you to the birth center or hospital if you plan to give birth outside your home. If you own a car, you almost certainly need to buy a new, rear-facing car seat. While you might be able to get one second hand, designs do improve over time, and car seats that have been in a crash, like helmets, are all used up whether they look okay or not.
However you decide to feed your baby, you will probably need some kind of gear to support feeding the baby: bras which do not constrict, breast pump, bottles, formula, etc. If you intend to feed other than directly from the breast, you’ll probably need a diaper bag that stores food safely; otherwise, you can probably get away with adapting a bag you already use. The baby will need diapers, which precipitates the decision of cloth vs. disposable. If you go with cloth, you might try a diaper service. The lifecycle studies suggest the tradeoff lies in which is more scarce in your community: landfill space (in which case cloth is preferred) or water (in which case disposable is preferred). The margin in either case is minimal; disposables have been designed to take up little landfill space and to degrade readily. If your baby proves sensitive to whatever you choose, you may have to switch. One of the stronger arguments for cloth is it may make toilet training easier as the baby can feel moisture in cloth better than in the highly absorbent disposables. The baby will need clothes and several changes of them.
Recently, there have been books and articles written about early potty training. This evokes fears of the bad old days of beating babies for doing what they cannot help doing. However, this trend is based on cross-cultural child-rearing practices combined with attachment parenting. The general idea is to pay close attention to the baby and notice when it is peeing or pooping, remove the baby to an appropriate potty (sink, etc.), get clothing out of the way and make a distinctive sound the child will learn to associate with elimination. As the baby's sleep and feeding consolidate, pooping and peeing may also consolidate, making this process less arduous and more predictable. Our style of clothing and furnishings make this a lot harder than it would be with, say, dirt floors. Advocates note this reduces the number of diapers ultimately used, whether cloth or disposable, and say babies are happier having their needs met than sitting in their own wastes (however well absorbed by diapering technology).
The baby needs a place to sleep, but you may already have a place for the baby to sleep if you intend to co-sleep. There are some things to consider here; it’s worth researching the tradeoffs associated with the family bed. One way or the other, babies should not sleep on their stomachs until they are old enough to roll from their stomach to their side and back. Babies must also be protected from suffocation in the covers (or by other people in the bed) and from overheating. The easiest way to avoid inadvertently rolling over onto your baby in the family bed is to make sure no one ever, ever gets really, really, really drunk (or altered) and sleeps with a baby. A bassinet, crib, cradle or basket near the bed are other places the baby can sleep (until the baby can roll over and get into trouble, which starts to limit some of your choices) and still be close for nighttime feedings.
A stroller is assumed necessary. If you get a stroller, make sure it is in good condition and has not been recalled. Consider getting (in addition to or instead of the stroller) one or more slings, snuglis or Bjorns – baby carriers you tie or attach to you. This will free you to take the stairs or travel off-sidewalk, and save you endless hassle and dirty looks attempting to wedge a stroller into an environment that was not explicitly designed for it (pretty much everywhere, when you think about it, never mind the ADA).
Our Experiences with Baby Carriers
In the event, we did buy a car seat carrier, and we received a much-desired jogging stroller as a gift.
Our Experiences with Teddy's Sleep
Copyright 2005 by Rebecca Allen
Created May 20, 2005 Updated March 30, 2006