Luna Loves: 10 Newborn Essentials
It’s hard to believe it’s already been a month since our little Luna arrived - time flies! We are finally getting into a good routine and Luna is starting to get those chubby baby cheeks… I just can’t handle the cuteness. Over the past 4 weeks there’s been a handful, well two handfuls of products that have made life SO much easier: swaddles, toys, wraps, pacifiers… you get it. These 10 products are Luna approved newborn essentials! I also included a few other items we turn to every day for one reason or another:
(click on the product to shop)
The Deets:
Tommee Tippee Bottles: I am breastfeeding all but one feed a day so that Andy can get a little QT with Luna. He takes the 6/7am feed and they get some real good bonding time while mommy gets some extra alone time in bed before pumping; it’s a win win. It took two tries to finally find a bottle that Luna would like - she was not a fan of Dr. Brown’s - and Tommee Tippee was the winner. After researching bottle nipples that most resemble mommy nipples, TT was the obvious winner and thankfully she loved it on the first try.
DockATot Deluxe: gf has had many many hours of hang time in the dockatot over the last 4 weeks including VERY supervised daily naps. It’s great to have on the couch, in bed, or outside on the patio. Honestly don’t know how we would’ve gotten through the last month without it.
Baby Electric Nail File: it’s pretty insane how fast babies’ nails grow and this nail file is a life saver. One of my mommy friends got it for me and I’m pretty sure it’s our most used gift. I’ve heard horror stories about regular baby nail clippers and even our pediatrician begged us never to use one. This takes all the scariness out of taming nails and is even easy enough to do solo.
Copper Pearl Swaddle Blankets: stretchy swaddle blankets are where it’s at! I mean, the muslin ones are nice for lounging around but if you want to get your little one swaddled tightly into a peanut, these make it so easy. I’ve found that the velcro ones are still too big for Luna (she’s 8lbs now) - plus the stretchy ones come in much more aesthetically pleasing prints and colors - hah!
Lovevery Play Gym: a great one to put on your registry! We use the play gym mat and learning elements more and more every day. It’s great for tummy time and comes with activities to do for every age range which is very helpful when you’re on day 17 of what feels like tummy time groundhogs day!
Tommee Tippee Pacifier: not surprisingly Luna was not a fan of the hospital pacifiers or those cute ones that are all over pinterest. As soon as she took to the TT bottle I headed to amazon to buy the matching pacifier. She loved instantly!
Snoo Smart Sleeper Basinet: definitely going to do a larger review on this once we’ve used it for 4-5 months but I’ll tell you that at 2 weeks Luna was sleeping 4-5 hour stretches at night and at 3 weeks 6-7 hour stretches. I have to think some of this is due to the Snoo. On top of that, knowing the Snoo is the safest basinet on the market gave me such peace of mind when we got home from the hospital. When I put her down at night and after her one middle of the night feed she is drowsy but not totally asleep - the Snoo does the work and rocks her to sleep. I remember back in my babysitting days (my sister is 16 yrs younger than me) I would rock and rock forever to get her to go to sleep and then once I finally put her down she would wake up and we would do it ALL over again. That is pretty much non-existent with the Snoo!
Solly Baby Wrap: both my husband and I wear Luna in our Solly wraps at least once a day. The fabric is buttery soft and Luna LOVES being held tightly against us. If you have a newborn you know that all they want to do is sleep on you but there are moments when you just need your hands; this is the best of both worlds! My daughter will sleep for hours in it if we let her.
Comfy Bath Sponge: this came as a rec from my bestie who had a daughter 3 weeks before me! We have the Angel Baby bath tub from our registry but when babies are just a few weeks old that thing is ginormous. This sponge is great for little newborns. We put it in our bathroom sink (fold a towel under the head to give extra support) and it craddles her little body perfectly.
Gerber Onesies: literally the only thing my daughter has worn the last 30 days except for nighttime (she was actually wearing them at night the first 2 weeks when we double swaddled). I’ll be the first to say that I wanted to dress her up in the cutest outfits straight out of the gate but when babies are newborns they live in swaddles most of the time so that is the “outfit” - you just need a base underneath!
Bonus Products:
Uppababy Vista 2: a great stroller is a given for a baby but I have to say that we really love the Uppababy Vista 2 because it came with a basinet. We have been LIVING for walks since we aren’t really going anywhere else with COVID and the basinet makes it easy and comfortable for Luna to really enjoy our twice a day walks. A huge perk is that the basinet is approved for sleeping so if she falls asleep during our nap I have no problem leaving her in it when we get home. I know a lot of mamas who actually use this basinet as their newborn basinet in their room!
Moms On Call Book: I will probably write a bigger post on this later but this the book we’ve been using to get Luna on an eat, play, sleep schedule that is definitely playing a role into her long sleep stretches. It came highly recommended from my other mom friends and it’s super straight forward and easy to implement.