Minimalist Newborn Essentials What Do You Actually Need For Baby 0-3 Months?

I am far from being a minimalist, but when it comes to babies and living in a small space, you need to be intentional about what baby REALLY needs. Keep reading for my Minimalist Newborn Essentials must haves.

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Tips for a minimalist registry

As politely for everyone to stick to your list! This is very important so that you do not end up with a lot of something you do not need or even want. But always be grateful.
Do your research and find out what you think you want or need, and edit and re-edit your registry often
Babies and especially newborns do not need much at all so do not over think it.
Do not buy any clothes or blankets. Those are items everyone will gift you and before you know it you will have an over flowing closet. I only buy one special blanket and one special outfit for each baby.
Ask for homemade items. My mother always makes each grandchild’s crib bedding along with bibs, burp rags, and homemade blankest.
Remember everyone’s life styles and priorities are different. For me, I like to try to live as naturally as I can, which means for me, I make a lot of my own baby products, cloth diaper, and try to only use natural/organic items with my babies
I always try to have quality instead of quantity when it comes to newborns and babies. I get a high quality item once instead of multiple lower quality items.
Think small or double use!

Newborn Essentials Checklist – Clothing

When it comes to clothing first think about your family. Does your family have big or small babies? So far between my kids and my brothers kids they has all been in the 6 pound range. our babies tend to be smaller and they stay in newborn sizes for quite a while depending on the brand and if you cloth diaper or not. HINT: I have found that Carters brand tends to run smaller while Burt’s Bees runs big. Now how many outfits and footed pajamas you have will depend on how often you want to do laundry. We do mostly footed P.J’s for baby the first few weeks and a few cute outfits for holidays, church, special occasions and of course pictures. Some of my favorites are Burt’s Bees and Touched by Nature as they are organic cotton and reasonably priced!

Newborn Essentials Checklist – Feeding

This is another topic that is dependent on your personal life style. I breast feed 99.9% of the time so there’s not much need for bottles aside from the .1% of the time the baby is with grandma or if there’s an emergency. We decided on a set of Philips Advent glass bottles. Both my breastfed babies have taken this bottle just fine the few times they have had one!

With breast feeding there is a lot of leakage the first few weeks as your body tries to regulate. Even if you are not breastfeeding you’ll most likely still need breast pads to keep your clothing dry! I chose a reusable organic bamboo pack.

You’ll also need burp rags. I love the pre-fold ones for both burp rags and to keep me from soaking my clothes and bed at night! They are also great at being diapers!

One more thing I like to use for feeding is a haakaa breast pump. I never actually breast pump…my body just doesn’t like actual breast pumps. But with the haakaa I can catch the let down on the side I’m not nursing with and get at least 4 oz every time! this is how I build up my stash without the extra work of pumping.

Newborn Essentials Checklist – Diapering

We cloth diaper at my house. There’s many different types of cloth diapering systems out there but today I’m just going to share my favorite! I love Esembly Baby cloth diapers for many reasons. They are almost 100% leak proof (in my experience) and make it so simple to use! Esembly has many guides to help you learn the ins and outs of cloth diapering and have everything you need to start! They even have starter kits if you just want to try them out before buying the whole system!

You’ll also want a diaper pail that can accommodate for a wet bag if you cloth diaper. This one i have works great for both cloth diapering and disposables!

Newborn Essentials Checklist – Bedding

For our small home we decided to go with mini cribs. My 2 year old still fits comfortably in her mini crib and my newborn’s mini crib is currently in our room doubling as a basinet! This is the crib we got for our second baby. It takes up minimal space, gender-neutral and absolutely gorgeous. We did buy and replaced the mattress with a firmer less flimsy one though.

These are the sheets we bought for this crib!

Newborn Essentials Checklist – Gear

Most gear isn’t some thing everyone will absolutely need but can be very helpful for caring for a newborn and others can wait till the baby is a bit older to get!

One of my favorite things that get used almost everyday for this baby is my wrap. I didn’t wear my baby much when I just had one, but now that I have 2 under 2 it’s a Must! I have 2 different wraps, the Moby and the Boba, but I tend to use the Boba more often.

Of course you need a car seat and/or a travel system. This is the one I chose after reading many reviews and safety ratings.

A swing/bouncer isn’t a need but it can definitely help you out! I have a swing that is also a floor rocker and can be a little rocking chair for a toddle as well. I also have a bouncer but I use it along with a Babocush and serves a different purpose that I’ll explain more in a later post! But the Babocush is also a must in my house and is great for colic relief!

Also not necessary but great to have is some sort of tent or play yard. This one is high quality and I use it for outdoor activities to keep the baby out of the sun, as well as indoors to keep toys contained Like blocks or ball pit balls! You can Also purchase a mattress and mattress cover for it as well and use it for a traveling bed! The mattress is quite comfy.

Lastly, in the gear section, is my favorite play gym. The Lovevery play gym is amazing and grows with baby. My 2 year old still loves it! Get the sensory strands to go with it. My newborn loves them!

Newborn Essentials Checklist – Wellness

The NoseFrida is amazing and does a way better job then the bulb you get from the hospitals.

I have also used the Windi with lots of success for a breast fed gassy baby!

As you can see babies don’t need much at all! But it is also fun to have all the cute baby clothes and latest gear! As long as your baby is fed, changed, warm, safe and cared for they will be perfectly fine.