10 Baby Products I Actually Used During the First Year That you can Find on Amazon
Here are my top 10 baby products you will actually use during the first year
1. Owlet
My number one product I always recommend for soon-to-be parents is the Owlet Sock Monitor. This is my absolute favorite baby product. This is an adorable little sock that your baby wears when they are sleeping. It monitors their heart rate and oxygen levels. The sock is connected to a base and your phone that alerts you if your baby’s heart rate is too high/low or if their oxygen levels are too low. Our son’s Owlet went off a handful of times and most of the time we would just wake him up and the levels would go back to normal.
But, one time the sock alerted us to his oxygen/heart rate being too low and I went to gently wake him up like I always did and he didn’t wake up. My husband and I had to really move him to get him to wake up. I honestly believe we would have lost my son to SIDS had we not had an Owlet. It is a little pricey (obviously any price is worth the health and safety of your child) but if you can’t afford it like I couldn’t, you can have one of your registries on Amazon and register for it.
2. Baby wipe warmer
My son was a terrible sleeper. He sleeps great now (check out my post here on how I got my son to sleep through the night without crying it out) but in the beginning, he was only sleeping 45 minutes at a time until he was about 4 months old. It was rough. (You can read my post here about how I dealt with being a new mom with postpartum depression and sleep deprivation. I’ll give you a hint, in the beginning, it wasn’t pretty but it is a happy ending). Anytime we would change my son’s diaper he would cry so hard every time a cold wipe touched him and he would take forever to get back to sleep.
So, my mom went out and got us a warmer. Every list I read said they were a waste of money but I wholeheartedly disagree. While yes you can hold a wipe in your hand for 10 seconds and achieve the same effect but that adds a lot of time to your diaper change. When I was changing diapers at 2:00 in the morning it was so worth it to me to speed up the process so we could get my son back to sleep.
3. Halo Swivel sleeper
This is a sleeper for next to the bed. It has mesh around the outside with a collapsing wall making it extremely easy to get the baby out of the sleeper without waking them up. The mesh walls make it easy to see into the bassinet without sitting up, or if you are an overly protective dog it makes it easy to just stare at the baby all day and night. I got my dog Jack when I was in college and he is very protective of me so I was nervous about bringing our son home. But, Jack has been amazing we started calling him nana (like the dog from Peter Pan) because he is so attentive and protective of our son and he loved this bassinet. (See picture above)
This sleeper also swivels which allowed me to move the sleeper to be over the mattress or to be further away making it easy to lift him out for breastfeeding, soothe him to sleep and get some sleep myself. This sleeper allows you to co-sleep safely. It is as close to bed sharing as you can get while keeping your little one safe and doing everything you can to create a safe sleeping environment. There are a couple different types from the basic to a luxe at all different price points.
4. Butt spatula
Alright so as much as I hate to admit it, my husband was so right about this product! (Yes honey I admit it I was wrong) I was all “that is such a waste of money” blah blah and you know what? I LOVE this thing. It keeps the butt paste off of your fingers and makes it so easy to keep your baby’s bottom diaper rash free. I definitely use this little butt spatula every single day.
5. Munch mitt
This little glove is awesome for teething! (Check out my post on all of my favorite teething products, especially for early teethers). The Munch mitt is a silicone topped mitten that has a Velcro strap to help it stay on your little one’s hand. This little mitten is the perfect teething toy because it stays on their little hand and it combines their love of putting their hands in their mouth with a great teething remedy.
6. Books
For our son’s baby shower we added a poem asking each person to bring a book, new or used, instead of a card and write him a note on the inside cover. My son ended up with about 150 different books. Most people got him more than one book as part of his gift. I have no idea how but of all 150 books we only had two repeats! He loves books more than any another toy. He just sits and pretends to read them. It is so funny to watch him pull books off of his bookshelf searching for a specific one. We read Good Night Moon to him every night before bed and it is one of his favorites. It is part of his bedtime routine and has helped with getting him to sleep through the night. I go over the rest of our bedtime routine in my post about getting my son to sleep through the night.
7. Car mirrors
My mother-in-law bought me mirrors for my car and as a first-time mom boy do I love them. I really didn’t think they would matter that much but being able to see my little guy is such a comfort while I am driving. I still had to pull over 3 times in a 20 minute drive the first time I had to drive him somewhere. Okay okay I know I had a crazy first-time mom rookie moment but I was so worried!
8. mamaRoo
My godmother gave us the mamaRoo as a shower gift and we love it! It is a gentle rocker that mimics the motion of a mother. There are several different motions you can set from wave-like movements to a swinging motion. It also has several sounds it will play like ocean sounds or a heartbeat. If you’d prefer a sound that isn’t programmed into the mamaRoo there is an AUX cable port where you can play sound through your phone. Plus, as an added bonus it looks like a futuristic space pod or something similar.
9. Baby Einstein Activity Gym
As soon as my son could sit up while being supported he wanted to spend all of his time in this activity gym. I have hundreds of pictures like the one above he looooves this thing so much. My husband and I started calling it our son’s office. It was like he needed to check up on his clients Mr. Crab, Mrs. Fish, and Mr. Clam. There are different stages of this toy. The first is when your baby lays on his or her back and can kick at the dangling octopus and starfish and look up at the arch that has music, words, and lights. The second is the seat wear my son loved sitting and kicking his little legs and practice standing. It has a ton of different toys to keep your baby stimulated. My son loves this so much I am pretty sad he is outgrowing it. There is a mirror that doubles as a TV screen you can hook your phone up to and play shows/music through it. My son thinks it is absolutely hilarious to look at everyone in the mirror instead of directly at them. It is adorable.
10. Fisher Price SnugaPuppy aka “PupPup”
When my son was around 6 months old we decided to take our first family vacation to Florida. So, I started shopping around for new toys to keep my son occupied during the ride. The drive ended up being 18 hours check out my post on how we got through it stress-free! came across this Fisher Price vibrating/music playing puppy and holy moly does my son love it! It helped him sleep in his car seat during the ride and it is his lovey. He uses it to comfort himself and loves to carry it around by its ears.
We started calling it PupPup I am so happy I picked this little dog up on a whim. I ended buying three of them! One that is OG PupPup, one we affectionately call stunt PupPup (the PupPup stunt double when we need to wash OG Pup Pup) and one for my mother-in-law’s house for the days she watches him.
