Complete newborn baby essentials for first-time moms (minimalist)
In this blog I share a complete list of all the newborn baby essentials for first-time minimalist moms. Read along as I share what you really need, what is good to have and what you will not need (yet).
People used to say to me that babies don’t need much more than some diapers and much love. Well as I searched through lists of baby essentials I was overwhelmed how much newborn essentials there are, even for minimalists. If you don’t have space, money or need of many things keep reading. You might need a little bit more than just diapers and love but it does not have to be overwhelming.
In order for you to make your own newborn essential list as minimal as you like I categorized everything in four categories:
- Newborn essentials for first-time moms I couldn’t do it without
- Newborn essentials for first-time moms I used every day
- Newborn essentials for first-time moms I used often enough that I would buy them again
- Newborn essentials for first-time moms that I used rarely or not at all
If you want to have my complete newborn essentials list you can download it for free below.
Things that I couldn’t do it without
It will depend a lot on your parenting style and decisions if you use things more often or not. But in my opinion some things are necessary for every single parent.
Newborn essentials for first-time moms: Transport
One of the most important things you need to get is a car seat. There are many different models with all kinds of features on the market. If you want to go cheap and minimal buy a simple car seat that you can fix with a seatbelt. You can move the car seat on a different seat or a different car easily if necessary.
If you want to go minimal on transportation items I recommend you not buying a stroller but simply using a structured carrier. That is cheaper and uses less space than stroller plus it is amazing to have your newborn snuggled up with you when out and about.
Newborn essentials for first-time moms: Baby clothes
For clothes it depends in which season your baby is born and how warm your house will be. If you really want to go minimal you will need about 6 onesies, 4 set of pajama’s with feet, one jacket and 2 newborn hats. That’s it.
Newborn essentials for first-time moms: Sleep
You need two baby sleeping bags size 56-62. If you choose to bedshare that is everything you really need for sleeping. This is a save way of sleeping in some cases so check this article out so read all about it.
Otherwise you will need some kind of a baby bed. For the matras I would advise you to buy three rather than two covers in order to be on the save side.
Newborn essentials for first-time moms: Baby care
Now we finally arrived at the one thing everyone knows you need: diapers. But to my surprise this category was one of the largest ones on the can’t do without list. Those items are definitely a must for baby care in order to keep them healthy and save:
- Diapers
- Wipes
- Baby oil
- Diaper cream/vaseline
- Baby thermometer
- Nail file and later nail scissors / clippers
- Baby soap
I prefer a 100% oil as avocado, coconut or almond oil instead of regular baby oil. Most baby oils contain alcohols as well as parfums. Baby nails are very soft especially the frist few days. Imagine soaking your nails for nine months into water! Therefore it is best to use a soft paper nail file rather than a metal one. In the beginning you will even be able to pick the nails with your hands.
If you want to cloth diaper read my blog about the honest pros and cons of cloth diapering.
Newborn essentials for first-time moms: Feeding
If you are planning on breastfeeding you will need a breast pump and something to store your breastmilk in. Even if you don’t plan on pumping regularly you are better prepared with a pump than without. According to research more than 2 out of 3 new moms pump especially in that newborn phase at least occasionally. You can do without a nipple cream using breast milk that dries up on your nipple and forms protection and nourishment.
You also want to have a package of nursing pads or washable nursing pads.
No matter your choice of feeding you will need a bottle and if you formula feed you will need formula.
Newborn essentials for first-time moms: Playing
Newborns don’t need a lot to play with. If I would have to pick a few things that you can use to entertain them I would pick a high contrast book, a book that makes this rustling sound when you touch it and a biting ring or two. Those items will train their visual abilities as well as their gross motor skills.
Something that helped us a lot for tummy time was our baby’s playing mat. This can be a playing blanket or anything soft where you can lay your baby on the floor.
Things I used every day
I am sure that with the things listed above you can make it work. If you would have to. There are many things that I used daily and would not want to miss additional to the list above. Here are my newborn essentials as a first-time mom I didn’t need to survive but definitely used every day. There weren’t things in the category of transport and baby cloths. I mean I used more baby cloths than listed above but I didn’t need them and definitely not on a daily basis.
Newborn essentials for first-time moms: Sleep
When it comes to sleep however there were several baby essentials I wouldn’t want to miss as a first time mom.
One thing that saved my live was a rocking chair. It was the chair with which my grandmother rocked her babies to sleep. You might need a chair to nurse your baby but it sure helps if it can rock in order to help them going to sleep quicker. As soon as we installed this chair in the nursery I didn’t have to walk our baby to sleep which was sure very convenient!
The other item we used every day was her little baby nest. She loved it for day and night sleep. There are sites that tell you that nests are not save for babies to sleep in even with a breathable cover. After some research I could find that some manufacturers claim that their breathable cover is save for sleeping unsupervised but there is not enough research done on the breathable covers in order to tell if they are safe for sure. We figured that a breathable cover would be sufficient for us and our little one loved laying in her baby nest.
Even though I always used baby sleeping bags for sleeping I loved our baby blanket. You can use it when you leave the house or you hold that lovely bundle of joy.
We also loved swaddling our baby. If you want to swaddle, having two swaddles is enough. I loved the ones with a velcro fastener because they are put on really quickly and stay at their place.
Newborn essentials for first-time moms: Baby care
For baby care I really enjoyed having a baby bath. First I tried without but bathing our little one in the sink or under the shower was not working for us. We eventually really invested money into a baby bath and bought a new foldable one. If you have the space or you can afford a foldable one, choose a bigger one. Your baby will be bigger sooner than you think.
We have a changing pad and used it so many times that it is definitely worth the money and space it uses. We have a plastic one with 2 covers.
Many newborns lose skin on their heads (it is called cradle cap). It is not dangerous but doesn’t look too nice and I loved to brush it away with a baby comb and some oil. I also loved the little plastic nose pincet and booger picker to clean my baby’s nose if necessary.
I also have a simple diaper bucket that is closable. We inserted a regular garbage bag into it and that worked just fine. Buying a complicated diaper pail can cost a lot of money and doesn’t really add much in my opinion.
Another practical thing is a changing table. Even if we changed our baby a lot downstairs on the regular table we used it to store all baby clothes, bed sheets and diapers. In order to organize our changing table I used organizers. They sure helped me to stay on top of baby laundry since there was no need to fold them.
Newborn essentials for first-time moms: Feeding
Let’s talk about pacifiers. The recommendation is to establish breastfeeding first. When baby is 4-6 weeks old you can introduce a pacifier if necessary. My tip is to buy two pacifiers: the round and the flat one. Some believe that the round one stimulates breastfeeding. Your dentist however will tell you that it is very bad for the developing baby theet. If you plan to keep the pacifier in for longer than 6 months I would recommend you using the flat one especially when breastfeeding is established. Our baby didn’t want the round one and we ended up using flat ones even though the pacifier had to go with 6 months anyways. She never struggled with nursing.
If you choose to breastfeed I can recommend Silverettes to you. Those silver cups will help your nipples to stay intact and heal. I used them in the first week or two after birth just as long als we established a good latch. They worked perfectly for us and I heard so many mamas about how they saved their breastfeeding journey.
Another item I used which you probably wouldn’t necessarily need are breastmilk bags. They pile up more easily and making storing your breastmilk more efficiently.
Some kind of absorbent cloth comes in handy as well. You can use it to burp your baby and catch up spit. It is also very useful to dry your baby after a bath.
Newborn essentials I used often enough that I would buy them again
There are a few things that I didn’t use daily but I sure would buy them again.
Every now and then we used a white noise machine. You don’t need a fancy one with all kinds of features, one that makes the white noise is enough.
Another thing is a baby phone. Especially in the beginning we didn’t use the baby phone on a regular basis because we were with our baby all the time. However it can be very nice if baby decides to do a beautiful nap all by herself to have one on hand. We liked our baby phone that connected through radio waves a lot! Everywhere we went it was set up within seconds. No complicated settings whatsoever with a 100% privacy.
Another thing we used fairly often was the stroller. We did use it for church and visits with family. In the beginning we used the car seat adapter a lot to transfer our sleeping baby from the car inside. But most of the times we did use our structured carrier rather than the stroller.
Things I used rarely or not at all
Because I tried to be minimal with my baby essentials as a first time mom there wasn’t much I didn’t use. There were a few things though that I didn’t use or I used it so rarely that it wasn’t worth the money or space.
I never used my breastfeeding pillow. Already in the hospital I figured that I didn’t like those huge breastfeeding pillows. I would use regular pillows to support my arms when holding my baby and never even took mine out of the closet at home.
We bought an amazing crib for in the living room. It looked beautiful and that was about the only thing that it was good for. We did lay our baby into the crib to be fair. Mostly it was with playing time because she would not sleep in the crib at all let alone next to us in the living room with all the noise.
As a present I got different baby creams and soaps. I used one soap the entirety of my baby’s newborn stage and never used any other cream than pure oils. Other than a diaper cream you will need nothing to cream your baby other than oil or vaseline.
Funnily enough we got a lot of newborn shoes. They do look cute and we used one pair occasionally but it definitely is not worth spending your money on.
We bought a bouncer but it didn’t really kept our baby entertained for long. It also isn’t the best position for your baby to be in so all in all it was not worth the space (and that is a lot of space!) it takes.
Link to products I love
Here is my list of products I love to use for our baby. If you use my links to purchase you support my blog without any costs to you.
- Weleda Diaper cream
- Vaseline
- Baby carrier that actually works for newborns as well as bigger babies with hip band
- Thermometer rectal thermometers are most accurate, and this one is very fast in measuring
- Breastmilk pump that I loved for occasional use
- Reusable nursing pads
- Biting ring of natural materials
- Baby nest with breathable cover
- Foldable high quality baby bath
- Baby brush and comb
- Booger picker and nose pincet
- Cheap and simple diaper pail
- Silverettes
- Breastmilk bags
- Simple white noise machine
- Baby phone with no need of WIFI
- High quality stroller from Bugaboo that I would recommend you to buy second hand
What are your favorite new born essentials as a frist time mom? Write a comment, I would love to read all about it!
