here’s a list of all the things we’ve loved having for the first six months of KK’s life. again, take this allllll with a grain of salt, since what works really, really well for us may not work for you and that’s okay. as always, take what you love and leave the rest. you know your needs, your family’s needs, and your baby’s needs the best!
side note: see this post for my full list of favorite postpartum and recovery must-haves.
our baby favorites for those first six months:
a changing station near where you spend most of your time. our house is only one story, but having a changing station in both our room and the kids bathroom was so nice. that meant when she slept in our room the first month of her life, we could change midnight diapers easily. and that afternoon poopy diaper, say, now? let’s grab KK and take her to the nearest changing station. BAM! easy peasy.
speaking of, we love…
this wipes dispenser to grab wipes one handed (the weighted plate in this gizmo makes ALL THE DIFFERENCE)
the blessed diaper pail that traps alllll the smells
aquaphor. all the aquaphor. for everything.
the baby spatula for spreading that aquaphor
and see my instagram “baby prep,” “baby,” or “bedroom” highlights for a visual of this!
designate several nursing spots (not just the nursery). especially one in the room you normally spend the most time in. like for me, before and during pregnancy, I was always in our den. had I not made a space dedicated to nursing in here, i definitely would not have felt as normal, so only utilizing the nursery for nursing would’ve felt isolating and lonely to me. trying to maintain little, tinyyy things I did before KK showed up reallyyyyy helped my spirits during this new time.
i made three nursing stations:
a rolling cart next to a great big electric recliner (yes, those ugly ones - more on that next) in our den
a basket next to my side of the bed
a basket in our nursery
(for this next baby, I’ll add another basket next to the couch, too)
put everything you might possibly need at each nursing spot. (this means owning multiples of several key items. mandatory? no. super convenient? yes.) yes, you could ask your partner to bring you things, but for me it’s so nice to have one less thing to rely on Brett, especially when he’s busy on a meeting or carrying the brunt of housework.
but at a bare minimum, each one had plenty of burp cloths, plenty of aquaphor, plenty of my favorite boob cream, chapstick for me, baby wipes, and extra nursing pads.
Let me pause and say this. We worked hard to immerse baby things we needed into our home. We made stations, we made baskets. By doing this, not only did our home feel prepared and set-up, but also these necessities were relatively concealed. Meaning, our home did not feel taken over by baby stuff like it may have had if we had random piles of it everywhere. There wasn’t that sense of overwhelm. I say taking the time to do a slight baby-overhaul of our home and acknowledging what there were things we definitely needed now that we had a bebe, I was able to find baskets and carts and such that worked with our home decor, and therefore the baby things worked within our home decor, making a cohesive - yet prepared - home.
a great big ugly electric recliner/rocker for one of the nursing spots, if at all possible. i kid you not. the high back means i’m not straining my neck. the lumbar support makes my back so happy. the reclining position and ability to raise my legs makes nursing a dream. our chair was a handmedown from a neighbor, but I also see these babies allllll the time on Facebook Marketplace. KK is nine months old now, and we’ve used this baby since not only she was born, but also the later days of my pregnancy. I love love love this chair. (the rest of my home decor cringes, but I just throw a blanket over the back, put a sassy garden stool and basket next to it, and call it a DAY.)
a container store door rack for our pantry as a spot to store all of KK’s feeding things. bottles for now, plates/etc later on. I love that they’re all neatly corralled, and I love that they all dry here without taking up room on my god forsaken counter. this was a dreammmm!
speaking of feeding, we love our baby brezza. we have an additional funnel, thanks to the wise words of a gemstone of a follower - and that’s 1000% recommended to have, since you have to clean the funnels alllll the time, so having a spare is so nice. and we love our bottles.
long story short, I knew before KK was even born that I wanted her supplemented with formula. and conveniently, since she was born as such a big baby, she needed a supplemental bottle of formula in the hospital - to which we were like “perfect!” so from day 1, her last feed of the day was always a bottle of formula with brett. and I’d pump.
side note: god, I didn’t pump that often, but when I did, I LOVED my hands-free pump. worth every penny. i only went with this one over others because my insurance covered a lot of this one.
i had no bf’ing goal - just that I wanted to do it as long as it felt right. no pressure. at five months, I started weaning KK. (I did have a smalllll freezer stash from those evening pump sessions, and so that lasted her until around six-ish months.)
and we love our bottles (we had both sizes - I can’t remember when she bumped up to the bigger size) + costco formula
i keep extra formula on hand so that I don’t have to run out late at night when I realize I’m out. also comes in veryyyy handy for disasters - like that week where Texas froze over and lost its mind. I was so thankful to have both extra formula and diapers - read all what we keep on hand here.
one of my favorite baby things in the history of ever (although I swear this entire list are all my favorite things) will forever be our highchair. i love how easy to clean it is, I love that I was able to get the color white, and I love that with the newborn insert (definitely buy!), KK was able to safely sit at the table with us while we ate dinner.
plus, everyone raves about this chair. I won’t bore you with all the reasons, but one was definitely how esteemed it is in both the BLW community and the Montessori community, two topics I love learning about. worth EVERY penny. we’ll definitely be buying a second one for baby #2.
when KK got older, we also liked our portable highchair on our bar: it’s not as lovely to clean (but still super easy!), but we like having it as a safe spot to set KK. and for when we eat at our bar. and when she wants to watch me prep dinner. and it’s nice to have for restaurants and adventures.
see this post for more on KK’s BLW journey and alllllll about her eating.
from six weeks until six months, I think we used our bouncer every single day. i moved that thing allllll over the house - to our bathroom, to the kitchen, to my closet, to wherever. kk was so happy in that thing, watching me cook, get ready, fold laundry, whatever. i also loved using it as a safe place to put her after her bath - i’d sit the thing right next to the tub with her towel draped over it, and I’d safely set her wet, wiggling body in it.
i did buy this for a third of the price on Facebook Marketplace when I was newly pregnant. quite a few of our baby things that I wanted to try we bought on Facebook Marketplace because 1) I didn’t know if our baby would even like it and people on there were always selling things they were either done with or their baby didn’t like and 2) I knew I didn’t want a baby shower, so I was trying to save money.
and i bought it in khaki so that it’d match my decor.
for the first four weeks we did use our Mamaroo a lot - KK was just so soothed in that thing. but after that we only used the bouncer. so did we love both? yes. but if we’re looking for my “must-haves,” I’m going to go with the one we used for a longer period of time: the bouncer.
similarly, we also had and loved our Dockatot, but we didn’t rely on it enough to label it a “must-have” for us.
let’s talk about what I loved for sleep. because KK was the BEST sleeping champ. I’m not sure how much of it was her, and how much of it was the following magical items, but I’m not willing to experiment. I will swear by these things until the day I die…or until another one of my babies proves me wrong.
really we followed her schedules until 5-ish months - we absolutely thrived on this program. and i needed a schedule/routine just as much as KK did. I think I watched this at 37 weeks, then watched it again as a refresher in the first few weeks of KK’s life. cara made me feel so capable, and for that I’m forever grateful.
this white noise machine (and this travel version kept around our house, in our car, in my purse…wherever. so that she could nap in the car, at my parents’, at a restaurant. wherever. BLESS.)
these are the white noise machines Brett and I sleep with, so naturally these are must-haves for us
again, I bought this secondhand on Facebook Marketplace so that if it didn’t work out for us, I could sell it for exaclty what I paid for it. and I didn’t want to rent one.
I wanted to find one half price and I finally did…almost six months after I first started looking. I drove an hour and a half to get it, it was inexpensive because she was missing the swaddles (I bought new swaddles + an extra set of each size anyway), and it was totally worth it. this will forever be my most favorite baby item.
also, highly recommend buying extra swaddles + snoo sheets. made messy situations muchhh easier.
when KK was brandddd new, I had our Snuggle Me Organic pillow in the Snoo. definitely not “legal” but it worked for us. (I can’t remember why for the life of me we did that, but I’m sure we had our reasons.)
the only bad-ish thing is that the snoo swaddle could not keep kk’s arms contained once she hit two-ish months, so she’d wake herself up by getting her arm uncomfortably stuck. so we’d double swaddle her with another swaddle underneath the snoo swaddle. and then she’d sleep for 12 hours straight.
transitioning her to her crib was SO EASY. i followed the blogposts they offer, and she did so well. we transitioned her to a crib at six months - i was not willing to do it before then. :) :) :) i will forever be so grateful for our snoo - it allowed us to navigate new parenthood (and my relatively rough recovery) with lots of rest.
when we moved KK to her crib, I lovedddd this sleep sack, thanks to the recommendation of my dear friend Holly.
and, similarly, when she moved to her crib, i loved having extra sheets, extra mattress protectors, and extra sleep sacks. made messy situations muchhhh easier.
let’s talk toys.
first and foremost, the lovevery toy subscription is and was completely worth it to us. really for the first six months we didn’t buy any toys outside of this. I found if KK didn’t like a toy, she might really like it, say, three months from now.
if you’re looking for something similar, my friend kelly makes an amazing resource of month-by-month activities to do with your infant, and in it she includes her recommended items - items you can find in your home or a quick Amazon click away. consider it an excellent, well-researched resource like Lovevery, but at a muuuuch nicer price tag. (and, honestly, I find Kelly’s documents easier to follow than Lovevery’s.)
months one to three (I think?), KK LOVED her otteroo. i’d put it on, put her in a swim diaper, and we’d swim in the bathtub. she’d take the best naps afterwards, and oftentimes this would help her burn any of that excess energy during witching hour.
as a handmedown, we had the loveevery playmat. and at first, I was like, I don’t get the appeal. but then, it’s like one day, KK woke up and LOVED that thing. she was enthralled and it was so dang interactive.I think we used it every single day between months three and six. (I know it can supposedly be used for longggg after, but once she started rolling over and scooting, I put it up and let her loose in our home and on our Nuggets.) definitely a must-have for us.
and somewhere in months four through seven when KK was alert but not quiteeee yet mobile, KK loved this jumper. LOVED. (I know there’s controversy, but homegirl loved this thing.) once she learned to scoot, she lost interest and we put it away for the next baby.
but let’s call our Nugget our toy must-have. because although it’s marketed towards older kids, I find it to be THE BEST thing to have for a baby, especially since the main area of our home is completely tile. it softened the floor for tummy time and was awesome for her (and adults!) to play on, yes. but the BEST thing was when KK was learning to sit up, I’d sit her on the Nugget or put one of the foam pieces behind her, and not worry about her falling back onto the tile. THE BEST THE BEST.
(actually, scratch that. THE BEST thing was that we as adults had comfy pieces to lay on and sit on on the floor. because having a baby means HI YOU’RE NOW ALWAYS ON THE FLOOR. worth every penny for that alone.
also, hi. y’all know how much I love my stroller. so I won’t bore you with more details here.
i’ll give you the cliff notes version: it grows with your family, it’s the smoothest ride ever, it has awesome amounts of storage, it travels so easily, and it handles our copious amounts of walking/farmers market-ing like a CHAMP. i love love love my stroller.
(our infant car seat is great, too. i love that it would click right into our stroller. and it is SUPER easy to install in the car and switch out and all that stuff. between brett’s car, my car, and my parents/sisters’ cars, we have three bases and two car seats. and moving KK around is so stinking easy. and, and! it’s so easy to clean. but I’m sure other carseats have all these perks, too.)
I will say, though - I know it’s a personal preference, but I love starting with an infant car seat I can take in and out of the car, and being able to use it with our stroller, and then later moving to a convertible carseat. but again, this is completely a personal preference.
we also have the doona at my parents house, but never really got to use it. (thanks, Covid!) hoping it’ll get more use next kid.
my prefer method was wearing KK. and this carrier was THE BEST.
when she was ittyyyyy bittyyyy, like clockwork, she’d become so upset around 4pm. and the onlyyyy thing that would soothe her, was being worn. so - with her being my only baby - I’d put her in the carrier, sit down, and read a good book. i have the fondest memories of this time.
i still use this carrier all the time (and I’m writing this when KK is almost ten months). I’d wear it to doctor’s appointments, Costco, mechanic, everywhere. and given that we were in the middle of a pandemic with all sorts of regulations, wearing her made it all much easier.
i’d also wear her to cook dinner. it was awesome. she was so soothed in this thing, and my back never hurt. this carrier is the absolute comfiest and most supportive.
one of our tip top baby favorites? a stocked changing station in the car.
there was a hot minute that being in the car made KK poop EVERY TIME. and like, omg-there’s-poop-everywhere kind of poops. or, when that normaled out, it was nice to know that we didn’t have to use changing stations inside, say, Costco. I can just run to my car.
there are lots of ways to do this, but what I do, in the back of my car (I have a Subaru Outback with a hatchback), I keep this lovelyyy changing station. In the pockets I have tons of extra diapers, aquaphor, baby bum brush, poop bags, plenty of baby wipes, hand sanitizer, antibacterial wipes, extra clothes for me, and extra clothes for KK. best thing I prepped while pregnant.
and this is a super personal opinion, but I love the simplicity of plain or small-printed onesies, and a cute bow. while I did score a bunchhhhh of good, cheap clothes at Goodwill (LOVE their baby section!), I really could’ve skipped alllll the cute outfits and stuck with some plain onesies/pants, and a few cute bows. that ended up (and still seems to be) my favorite go-to clothes for her, and what I consider one of our baby must-haves.
but let’s be real. KK was born in June in Texas. I’m fairly certain I never put her in anything more than a diaper until, like, September.
my favorite plain-colored clothes come from Carter’s, Primary, Target, and Old Navy - either gifted, thrifted, or on sale.
my favorite bows come from:
Little Poppy Co (my friend Holly gifted us a subscription for KK’s first year of her life and while it has created THE BEST bow collection, it’s also the sweetest gift in the mail each month).
Nayvie & Co (KK got four or five pink/white bows in her basket from Mr. Valentine, and we’ve been wearing them on repeat ever since)
Think Pink Bows - we have the sweetest velvet bows from this shop
See this post for my baby favorites: 6-12 months (and kk’s first birthday gifts!).
See this post for alllll our other favorite things for other ages!
