I had my first baby six years ago. Back then, I was living in a New York City apartment, short on space and clueless about what a baby might want or need. These days, I’m a veteran mom of three (ages 6, 3.5, and 19 months) and live in a much more spacious house in the Connecticut suburbs. When I initially built my baby registry — way back in 2017 — I registered for items based on the recommendations of friends and family, plus a lot of time on a site called Baby Gear Lab reading car-seat reviews into the wee hours (I didn’t even have a car). But, as is almost inevitable for new parents (see the existence of this series), many of my purchases just ended up not fitting our lifestyle. For example, the stroller we registered for — one that is probably perfect for someone living in, say, woodsy New Hampshire — was a terrible NYC stroller. These are the things you can only learn by trial and error.
Also, the baby-product space has exploded in the past six years. The products that were available by the time my son was born in late 2022 were worlds better than what existed for my eldest, and even my middle, who was born in 2020. I find myself wishing I could have had many of these innovations as a first-time mom. So with that in mind, here’s what I wish we registered for — and what I wish we had been able to register for.
This doodad has become my go-to baby gift — I loved mine more than anything else I got for my third child. The small countertop device — it looks like a mini-fridge — dries and sterilizes pump parts, bottles, pacifiers, and more using UV lighting, getting you bone-dry, sterilized baby gear in as little as 30 minutes. (I still use mine for things like medicine syringes after an illness and toothbrushes that may have gone rogue.) This is a low-maintenance device (unlike the steam sterilizers I had tried in the past), which was crucial because with my third I exclusively pumped and had a lot of stuff to wash and dry every day. This saved us so much time — not to mention counter space. It looks neat and organized and holds a lot of stuff. It’s expensive but so worth it.
As I mentioned, our highly recommended stroller (the Bumbleride Indie) was not a good fit for our urban lifestyle — it was huge and didn’t fit through narrow New York City doorways and crammed store aisles — a big problem when your stroller is basically your car. But when we moved to the suburbs, I didn’t actually like it that much more — it was bulky and clunky to fold, and I hated the transfer in and out of the car seat. When my second was born, we switched to the Doona. I have frequently lamented how much simpler it would have been to randomly hop in an Uber or cab in NYC with the Doona, which is incredibly easy to install in a car without a base.
It was a remarkably versatile stroller and car seat that made going out to dinner, heading into the grocery store (check out those TikToks on how to hook it to a cart), or just strolling around town a thousand times easier. Traveling with it was also great — no need to bring two big items on the plane. Preschool pickups and drop-offs were a breeze to bring a newborn to instead of a hassle. The day my youngest grew out of it was a sad day indeed.
People will tell you not to register for a lot of clothes because you’ll be gifted a lot, and that’s true. However, what they don’t tell you is you won’t want to use the items you’re gifted (for example, cutesy three-piece sets that say “My First Fourth of July”).
I wish I had registered for the actual items I was willing to put on my babies each day: double-zippered onesies with footies. Simple, wearable, easy to change in and out of. Every day another one, like Steve Jobs and his black turtlenecks. My oldest was a long, narrow baby, and these ones from Aussie brand Cotton On fit so perfectly and had flip-over mittens in the smaller sizes. Plus they were organic cotton and pretty affordable to buy in every color (especially when on sale).
We must have looked at 50 high chairs when we were registering, and my husband hated them all. No matter how hard I pushed for the Stokke Tripp Trapp, he told me he thought it was ugly (in the end, after so many rejections, we got a Phil & Ted’s counter-clip-on lobster chair and called it a day, which worked well in our NYC apartment). But after our second was born, we got the just-launched high chair from Lalo. It looked nice in our kitchen and was a dream to use: The one-piece tray popped off for easy cleaning, the wide base meant it was sturdy when our wiggly dog hovered under her baby friend hoping for scraps, and it has lasted through two kids.
I’ve written at length about wearables, and I’ve tried a lot of them. The jump in technology from the Willow 1.0 — what I was using and testing when I had my oldest — to the Willow Go, which I used from September 2022 to May 2023, was massive. While I still think most pumpers should take advantage of their insurance-backed pump offerings and get a Spectra, a wearable is a nice-to-have thing well-suited for a baby registry and generous family members. I’d register for the Willow Go if I could, which I found to be the most comfortable and user-friendly of the wearables I tried.
In our space-starved NYC apartment, we had been advised to have a “baby depository” in every room. The pack-and-play we got for our family room/kitchen took up approximately one-sixth of the floor space, and while we did use it a lot, it was so big. When our third was born, my husband found this adorable mini-version of the larger Nuna Aire crib we had, complete with a bassinet attachment. I loved the smaller size and wished we could have had it in our apartment too. Plus it was great for early-days travel.
I started following a pediatric physical therapist called @Kinactive_Kids sometime after my second was born, and she posted a lot about how she disliked many of the baby “seats” because they don’t encourage ergonomic positions. But she did like the Bumbo multi-seat, which I bought for my third, and I liked it too — the infant insert and high back helped my son sit straight up starting around 5 months. We’d suction-cup a toy to the tray and he’d be happy for … well … minutes. I would have loved to have it for all three of my babies.
Room sharing was really hard on me — I did not like spending those early weeks tiptoeing around a bassinet hoping not to wake my baby. Of course, when my eldest was born, the Slumberpod had not yet been invented. It’s a tent that encases the baby’s crib or play yard, keeping them in good-sleep-hygiene darkness even if you’re not ready for bed yet. They’re also indispensable for travel with older babies and kids — if you’re sharing a hotel room with your baby, you definitely want one, unless you enjoy a 7 p.m. bedtime, too. (And no shame if you do.) I wish I’d had one from the beginning!
No matter how you choose to feed your baby — whether baby-led weaning or purées — it’s messy. For the first few tries at solids, though, these really cut down on the mess. You put a piece of soft food — like a chunk of banana or some very ripe avocado — inside the silicone tip, which has small holes so that when your baby gnaws on it, it will release self-puréed food. I discovered them with my second-born, and they were so helpful for letting her get the hang of bringing things to her mouth and getting a delicious reward, plus you can use a pacifier clip to keep them attached to a bib. (It’s a big win to not have to constantly pick them up off the floor.)
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