The Must Haves
2. A safe sleeping area for your little one. We had originally planned on using our Pack N Play for the baby to sleep in our room, but our little one wasn't a fan in the beginning. After a few sleepless nights, we sent out our parents to buy this Soothing Motion Bassinet - it was a life saver. It plays music, vibrates and projects lights onto the ceiling (which our now one month old loves to stare at). We keep it upstairs in our room for him to sleep in at night and the Pack N Play stays downstairs for daytime naps.
3. Boppy Pillows if you are breastfeeding. We got the Bare Naked pillow, the waterproof protective cover, and 2 slipcovers. After 2 weeks of carrying the pillow upstairs for night time feedings, downstairs during the day and loading it into the car for our outings, I caved an purchased a second pillow and 2 additional covers. It's not necessary, but it was totally worth it to me. I know have one for upstairs and one for downstairs/the car.
4. SwaddleMes. These were a life saver! Unlike the nurses at the hospital, my hubby and I were not experts at swaddling our little man as snuggly as he wanted to be in those cute little receiving blankets (I'll talk about those in a minute though). We have 5 of these and sometimes have used all 5 in one night (our son spits up a lot in his sleep, so some nights we have to use a new SwaddleMe every time he woke up). 
5. Receiving blankets. I honestly didn't understand the purpose of these blankets until our son arrived. The answer is EVERYTHING AND ANYTHING. Cleaning up spit-up, swaddling him, extra coverage for him while he's in the car seat/stroller, laying down for a diaper change, covering the Boppy when all of the covers are ditry, and so much more. We have about a dozen flannel blankets and another half dozen of the light muslin blankets and it still seems like there are never enough. We also had 2 packs of these cloth diapers that we use for the same purposes. 6. Wubbanubs. We have so many freebie pacifiers that we got and we don't really use any of them. We almost exclusively use these adorable Soothies. Not only do the little animals make it easy to keep track of the pacifiers, but they also make for a great distraction during diaper changes!
7. Snuza Hero. This is probably my favorite baby item! It is a little expensive, but totally worth the peace of mind that it provides. The little device clips on to baby's diaper and monitors their breathing. If they go too long without breathing, the clip vibrates to remind them to breathe. If that doesn't work, then an alarm sounds so that you can check on them. During a night time diaper change the other day, the warning light was red, which meant that at some point the clip had to vibrate to remind our sweetie to breathe. This device potentially saved our sons life and we make sure to have it on him at all times.
8. A baby carrier for baby wearing. I know that this isn't for everyone, but my hubby and I are both huge fans. It's a nice way to get around with our son when a stroller is inconvenient and is also awesome for keeping baby near you while doing things around the house. Depending on the situation, I think it's nice to have both a structured carrier as well as a fabric one. We have the Baby Bjorn One and the K'tan Active and are happy with both. The Baby Bjorn is quick to use and provides a lot of support for my back, which was important to me. The K'tan Active is very lightweight, which means when we wear baby out for a walk around the neighborhood and it's hot out, I don't have to worry about him overheating.
9. Bravado Dream Nursing Tanks. At $50 a pop, these are a little expensive , but totally worth it. I tried several different tops, but nothing gave me the support I needed (I was a D cup prior to pregnancy and I'm now an E, so support was extremely important to me). I have 2 of these at the moment and have been living in them. Around the house they're about all that I wear and when I go out I just throw a nursing top over it. No additional bra necessary.10. Breast pads. Your boobs are going to leak - it's unavoidable. And if you don't want to change your bra and/or shirt multiple times a day, you'll want breast pads. I went with Bamboobies - they are nice and soft and didn't irritate my nipples while I was adjusting to breastfeeding.
11. Lanolin cream if you are pumping. I place this on the inside of the flanges of my pump to reduce friction and make pumping a little more comfortable.
12. Changing pad liners. These make the middle of the night blow-outs suck less. Instead of having to pull off the whole cover to the changing pad and put a new one on, we just had to switch out these liners. We have 9 of them and that seems like a good amount.
13. Sleep N' Plays. At one month old, these are pretty much all our little man wears. Those cute outfits people will buy for you are great and adorable for outings and pictures, but not realistic when you are doing diaper and outfit changes every few hours. You will want lots of Sleep N' Plays and you want to make sure they are the ones with zippers, NOT snaps. Trying to match up the snaps at 2AM when you've only had an hour of sleep is not fun. We also preferred the footed ones, that way we don't have to worry about putting on socks.
14. Baby first aid kit. You can buy an actual kit, but I just bought what I thought we'd need. This included nail clippers/nail file, a thermometer, gas drops, infant Tylenol, a nasal aspirator (the hospital sent us home with one) and Band-aids. We have already used the nail clippers, the thermometer, and the gas drops. It was great to already have these things on hand and not have to make an emergency run for them.
