Registries are often wasted on soon-to-be parents. In this series, cool new (-ish) moms and dads tell us about the stuff that’s actually worked for them in the time since they had a kid. In other words: If they could do their baby registry all over again, here are the items that would top the list.
There is often less anxiety with a second child — you feel a bit more prepared, now that you’ve been there before — but coordinating two different sleep schedules is a new kind of challenge, especially if your kids are sharing a bedroom. “I didn’t realize how hard it would be for the younger one to fall asleep,” says Hannah Bronfman, an investor and influencer, noting that her second child, who is now a year and a half, “has a lot of FOMO.” A modified bedtime routine for her 4-year-old and a blackout tent for his younger sister eventually helped solve the problem. For everything else, she’d add to her baby registry, now that she knows better. I talked to Bronfman, who is based in New York and travels with her family often, about the products that help make it easier, from the cozy and stylish bassinet she wishes she’d had with her first child and the Transformer-like crib that made switching to a toddler bed less of a big deal.
We are obsessed with the Nanit baby monitor and Nanit sound machine. Both of them use the same app, which is so convenient, like a little nursery control center. Our daughter, who is a year and a half, loves the bird sounds that come with the sound machine. It just completely soothes her. We also use the microphone setting on the monitor a lot. It’s been a total game changer. If she’s having a bad dream and is kind of crying in her sleep, I can soothe her before she wakes up just by making a shushing sound. I don’t have to be in the room with her. I just get on the microphone and shush for a minute until she’s sleeping soundly again. We use the sound machine as a visual alarm clock for my son, who is 4. It’s just like a regular alarm, but instead of playing a sound, the light goes green, signaling to your child that they can leave their bedroom and come see you. You can turn the green light on or off at any time using the app, like if you want them to get up later one day if you decide to sleep in.
The SlumberPod is amazing. But we used it in a very different way with my second child than we did with my first. When we had it for our son, we mostly used it for travel. That way, no matter what type of hotel room we had, we could put the crib anywhere in the room, plop the SlumberPod over it, and he would have his own little blackout moment. But now, we actually use the SlumberPod in our house. The transition of having kids sleep in the same room together can go either way sometimes, and there were a couple of weeks where Preston really didn’t want her in his room, and so we literally set up the pack-and-play in the living room and put the SlumberPod over it for her to sleep in. It might sound a little kooky, but that’s what we needed to do. Now, she’s gotten so used to sleeping in the SlumberPod that even though she’s no longer in the living room, we still use it. Since she’s still a baby, she goes to sleep at seven o’clock, whereas Preston goes to sleep a little bit later than that. In her little blackout pod, she’s not getting distracted by his bedtime routine. We’ll start with stories outside their bedroom. Then, when we move into the room, we do a kind of whisper story. But regardless, she is dead asleep and not being distracted by anything that’s going on because she’s in her blackout pod.
I wish I had known about Bobbie sooner. There’s so much pressure around breastfeeding, and I think it would’ve taken some of the pressure off my body, which actually would’ve probably encouraged me to breastfeed longer. It’s easy to use and modeled after breast milk, using ingredients like organic grass-fed cow’s milk and organic whey protein. Thinking back, it would have been such a comfort to have this incredible organic baby formula (from a female-founded brand) right from the start, just in case.
I had the white version of Nestig’s the Wave Crib with Preston, but now I would definitely put the walnut one on my registry instead. I think it is so beautiful. Back then — Preston was a pandemic baby — we were in a sort of temporary apartment, so it was kind of just, like, whatever worked. But if I had had my ideal baby room, I would’ve gotten the walnut. The company is really amazing in general, but what I love about this newborn crib is that it is physically pretty small, but then it ends up growing as your child actually grows. So it expands and becomes a toddler bed. We were really excited to move Preston into a toddler bed, but we didn’t want to put a huge emphasis on the transition. This crib just makes that transition a bit smoother and less of a thing. It’s almost like a Transformer, which is how we ended up explaining it to him.
We had the Yoyo stroller, too, which was amazing for traveling with Preston, but I always pined for the bassinet because it’s so cute, like a cozy little cocoon. Whenever we would travel to Europe or Japan, I’d notice that everyone seemed to have one. So I felt like it was taunting me, especially the all-black stroller and bassinet, which is really chic. The Yoyo was such a great stroller for us when my son was 2 and 3 years old, and it would’ve been nice to use during the newborn phase, too, and then be able to switch it up later.
This Hatch changing pad is so cool because it’s also a scale. In the early days, especially as first-time parents, you want to know that they’re growing and gaining weight. Obviously, you don’t need to weigh them every time you change a diaper. But having something like this at home is so convenient so you don’t have to rely on doctor visits every time you want to weigh your baby. I had a friend who found out that her breast milk wasn’t filling her baby up enough, and he was starting to lose weight. So she ended up supplementing with formula while she worked on her supply. In those cases, this would have been so helpful. By the time we got this, we were on our second kid, so everything was a little more relaxed, and we were checking her weight maybe once every ten days. Still, it was a comfort to us.
So I had never heard of these diapers before and then I did a little social-media post for the nonprofit Baby2Baby. They provide essentials like diapers and clothing to children living in poverty across the United States. Afterward, this diaper brand that works in association with Baby2Baby sent me some diapers, and I became absolutely obsessed with them. First of all, I feel like everyone dies for a specific luxury brand of diapers. I think they’re fine; they’re better than Pampers. But I just found that these were much better. As soon as I started using them, I was like, Wow, I am really into this diaper. Then I started ordering them just because I was kind of obsessed. They feel really nice, and the scrunchy part around the legs really holds everything in.
This Frida Baby shusher was perfect for car rides with both of my kids, especially my daughter. The drive out to our country house is a two-hour drive. So we try to do it during her nap time or his nap time. This machine helps make sure they actually fall asleep without me having to do the shushing myself. That is absolutely exhausting, and I feel like I end up going lightheaded every single time. This is such a convenient and easy thing to have that has saved us so many times.
This isn’t something you need until your kids are probably 3 years old, but it is an expensive item, so I can understand someone wanting to put it on the registry for their second kid. My son is at this age where he is obsessed with knowing the schedule, and he sees it from us; we’re always talking about our schedule and our calendars and what we’re doing. He wants to know what’s going on. Like, on Tuesdays, he’s going to gymnastics — or Thursday to his little French pod. Then, also, there was a moment where it felt like small things were becoming big asks, whether it was making sure he’s brushing his teeth at night or other stuff. Eating dinner was always a challenge in terms of feeding himself. Charmspring has been a lifesaver for this particular moment in his life. It’s a board that lays out all of the things that are in our daily routine. It has all these little pieces that you can manually put on the board that show what the routine and schedule is for the week. Then there’s little pieces that describe chores for helping around the house, which is also really nice. Every day, he can reference the board and know what day it is and what he’s doing on that day. The one thing I will say is that my daughter gets into everything, and she’ll take all the things off and then mess up the schedule and whatever. So we had to mount it higher to keep it from getting pulled apart.
The Strategist is designed to surface useful, expert recommendations for things to buy across the vast e-commerce landscape. Every product is independently selected by our team of editors, whom you can read about here. We update links when possible, but note that deals can expire and all prices are subject to change.
