Baby Registry Guide from a Financial Planner (Updated 2024)

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Here at Marotta Wealth Management, we tend to be frugal super savers who prefer not to spend money unnecessarily. Unfortunately, this often extends to items that may improve our quality of life.

My husband and I became new parents at the end of 2023 and after a few weeks of “making due” we decided that now was not the time for us to pinch pennies and spending a little more to make our lives easier would be worthwhile.

While creating our own baby registry, our goal was to find items that did everything we thought we would need for the lowest price and now that we’ve been parents for a few months, I can confidently say all of the following items vastly improved our journey into parenthood.

Free Samples (my personal favorite place to start)

The baby industry is one category of items in which there are a surprisingly large number of free samples available to consumers.

I used the What To Expect guide for free baby samples and signed up for the following samples:

  • Amazon Baby Registry Welcome Box
  • Target Welcome Kit
  • Walmart Baby Registry Welcome Box
  • Babylist Registry Hello Baby Box
  • Enfamil Family Beginnings Pack
  • Similac Rewards
  • Hey, Milestone Pregnancy Sample Box
  • Nanobébé Free Sample Kit

Note: Some of these sample require you to make a purchase or pay for shipping. That being said, I thought they were all worthwhile.

Nursing Supplies

I highly recommend using Aeroflow (aeroflowbreastpumps.com) to find out if you qualify to get a breast pump free through your health insurance.

Through Aeroflow, I was able to get the Motif Luna with Battery Double Electric Breast Pump (valued at almost $200) completely free. I also received compression socks, a lumbar support band, and access to breastfeeding webinars all free through Aeroflow. They were easy to work with and I would recommend them to anyone who plans to breastfeed.

My favorite breastmilk storage bags have been the Motif Medical, Milk Storage Bags, 8 oz Milk Freezer Bag with Easy Pour Spout. They seem to have a decent thickness and the “easy pour spout” makes it exceptionally easy to pour the milk into baby’s bottle without spilling. I was also able to receive many of these bags free through Aeroflow.

A quality nursing pillow helps to make breastfeeding more comfortable for mom and baby and I have loved the QUENESS Nursing Pillow and Positioner. It fits easily around my waist and provides a soft and plush place for baby to lay while nursing. Plus it’s cover is removable and machine-washable which is key for all things baby related.

Babies are messy eaters so I recommend getting regular sized burp cloths (20″ x 10″) for wiping their mouth during feeds and large burp cloths to cover yourself while feeding. We have loved the Comfy Cubs Muslin Burp Cloths for wiping baby’s mouth and have simply used old bath towels to cover ourselves while feeding.

Often times, milk leaks out of the breast, even when you are not actively breastfeeding. To help catch that leakage, I recommend wearing some kind of nursing pads in your nursing bra whenever you are not feeding your baby. The Enovoe Organic Bamboo Reusable Nursing Pads have worked well for me. Also, when you are breastfeeding on one side, the other will let down some (or a lot) of milk even though no baby is there to drink it up. Breast shells, like the Mommyz Love Breast Shell, catch that leakage so you don’t soak through a nursing pad. Then, after feeding, it is easy to dump the milk out of the breast shell and replace it with a fresh nursing pad.

For nursing bras, I found the Lataly Women’s Sleeping Nursing Bra Wire-free Breastfeeding Maternity Bralette to be the most comfortable for everyday wear and the Simple Wishes Supermom Pumping and Nursing Bra in One to be effective for pumping.

Diapering

We have loved using the Jool Baby Changing Pad as a soft place to change baby’s diapers and lay them down on the floor (such as while we are hanging out in the living room). It is large enough that baby can wiggle around without fear of falling off and has a removable and machine-washable cover (again, this is key for all things baby related).

Diaper changes seem to be one of the messiest things involved in caring for a baby. For this reason, we found the BlueSnail Quilted Thicker Waterproof Changing Pad Liners and the Dynarex 1341 Disposable UnderPad to be helpful additions to our changing routine. We keep one of the changing pad liners on the changing pad at all times as an easy layer to remove and replace when diaper changes get messy. We also keep the disposable underpads nearby so that we can quickly throw one on the changing pad as a clean surface for baby to lay on when things get really messy. Both the changing pad liners and disposable underpads are also great to keep in the diaper bag for changes on the go.

We have liked using the Ubbi Steel Diaper Pail for dirty diapers because it doesn’t require you to use one specific type of trash bags. Any trash bags can be used, so we have used medium size trash bags in the generic brand from the grocery store.

We like to keep our diaper changing supplies in a diaper caddy so that they can be moved easily if we are changing baby somewhere other than the nursery. The Parker Baby Diaper Caddy has worked well for us, but any diaper caddy would likely do the trick.

Before our baby was born, we ordered a small pack of newborn size diapers from Huggies, Pampers, and Luvs and a small pack of size 1 diapers from Huggies and Pampers so that we would have a few different types to try regardless of baby’s size. After trying each of these types, we have decided that Huggies Little Snugglers is the best for our baby because they seem to have the biggest pouch to catch the mess.

We tried Pampers Sensitive and Water Wipes for our baby and have liked them both for different reasons. Pampers Sensitive seem to have a larger surface area and are easier to pull out of the package. They also seem to be a better bang for your buck. Water Wipes seem to be more wet, but are harder to get out of the package which is more important than you may initially think. For these reasons, we have been gravitating towards the Pampers Sensitive wipes lately.

No matter which brand of wipes you decide to buy, we have found that a quality wipes dispenser is a necessary addition to the nursery. The OXO Tot Perfect Pull Wipes Dispenser works well for us because it holds a lot of wipes and has a good seal to help keep wipes wet. It also includes a weighted plate to help make dispensing wipes one at a time easier.

We tried a few different brands of traditional diaper cream and found that the CareALL (3 Pack) 2oz Zinc Oxide 20% Skin Protectant Barrier Ointment worked the best for the best price. We also purchased CeraVe Diaper Rash Cream | Baby Healing Ointment which is a petrolatum based ointment that has seemed to be more effective in the few instances when diaper rash has flared up.

A quality diaper bag is an example of an item we considered skipping since we could have simply used an old backpack from our school days. However, we were gifted the iniuniu Diaper Bag Backpack and have loved it because it has multiple pouches for holding bottles and milk bags upright, includes insulated pockets for keeping milk cold, and has a lot of space for fitting changes of clothes, blankets, and burp cloths. It also came with a thin changing mat which has come in handy on several occasions.

Sleeping

Our baby slept in the bassinet attachment of our pack n’ play for the first eight weeks which we kept in our bedroom for easier night-time feedings. We have the Baby Trend Lil’ Snooze Deluxe II Nursery Center which includes a bassinet and a changing table attachment, both of which we’ve gotten a lot of use out of. It also folds up easily and can be put away in a closet or other storage area when it is no longer needed.

We were gifted the Delta Children Heartland 4-in-1 Convertible Crib which we set up in our baby’s nursery. It was easy to put together and seems very sturdy. We also like that it allows you to change the height of the mattress so you can easily reach baby from the uppermost height early on and then lower the mattress once baby can sit up and stand. The convertible feature means it can be converted from a crib to a toddler bed, daybed and full size bed with the purchase of additional attachments that are sold separately.

Our baby loved to be swaddled tightly when she slept, so we used swaddle blankets to wrap her up at night until she started rolling over. The Rajlinen 100% Muslin Swaddle Blankets are very soft and have held up nicely. They are also light weight and can be packed up easily in the diaper bag.

Once our baby no longer seemed to want her legs tucked up to her body (which was best achieved with a swaddle blanket), we started using easy swaddles at night which were much more convenient. The SwaddleMe Luxe Easy Change Swaddles worked well, but we only used them for a few weeks before our baby started rolling over, so I would recommend swaddle blankets over the easy swaddles if you had to pick one or the other.

After our baby started rolling over, we started putting her in a zip-up sleep sack at night which seems to provide enough warmth without creating a risk of suffocation that a traditional blanket can pose. The Yoofoss Baby Sleep Sacks are soft and are holding up well so far. They also seem big enough that they will fit baby for a while which is always a plus since babies grow so quickly.

We preferred using an audio monitor over a video monitor for our baby and have loved the VTech DM111 Upgraded Audio Baby Monitor. The parent unit has a rechargable battery so that it can be used while plugged in or not, and it can hold its charge for multiple hours when not plugged in. I especially like the visual sound indicator on the parent unit which indicates the sound detected from the baby unit when the parent unit is muted.

Misc Items

Other items we have frequently used and love include:

I hope this list helps other new parents navigating their journey into parenthood.

Screenshot of product images from Amazon listings.

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Wealth Manager

Libby Horbaly is a Wealth Manager at Marotta Wealth Management. In addition to writing articles, she is one of our primary editors and image selectors for Marotta on Money. In her spare time, she enjoys reading, sailing, and spending time with her family.