Thank you for the baby shower crap, I mean gifts!

Is it just me, or did anyone else get WAY too much crap at their baby shower?
Don’t get me wrong. I registered for all the crap. I’m grateful that people bought all the crap for me.

But did I really need a wiper warmer? Actually that item, yes. Wipe warmers get a bad wrap, but I did use it and did enjoy warming the wipes to scoop up tiny poopies from my newborn’s tiny hiney.

But seriously, did I really need that Boppy pillow thing? I think I may have used it about 4 times, 5 tops.

What baby shower registry items actually came in handy? I’m kind of drawing a blank. Just kidding, there were a few choice items that did come in handy.

Large scale items that I couldn’t live without:

1: A car seat. Of course.

2: A stroller. For sure.

3: A baby monitor. Clutch.

4: A Pack-n-play/bed. I set up a Pack-N-play next to our bed for a while, then when they seemed ready, we went to a crib.

Bonus: A walker. Once my babies could hold themselves up, they LOVED running around the house in the walker. Many moms have their life saver gadget. The walker was mine.

Small scale items that I actually found useful:

1: Bottles. Duh.

2: Binkies. I always thought both my kids would discover their thumbs. Neither did. Binkies to the rescue.

3: Breast Pump (if you’re breastfeeding)

And of course, there are standard items that you’d want to have available and ready to go: clothes, blankets, diapers, wipes, burp cloths.

Totally unnecessary items, in my book:

1: Wipes that are specifically for wiping boogers. No. No need for these. It’s totally okay to use a regular wipe, tissue, or even your own sleeve. You do not need to buy booger wipes.

2: Pacifier Wipes. See above.

3: Diaper Genie. I registered for one and never got it. But then it dawned on me that I didn’t really love the idea of having 50 plus poopy or pee pee diapers in my house at any given time. So we bag them up and dispose of them on contact.

Specialty items. Yes, there’s a lot of cute and funny things out there for babies right now.

Specialty items that stick in my mind that I would buy again:

1: The mustache binky

2: Heelarious baby shoes

3: #TBT ultrasound onesie

Now, if you are on baby #1, you will inevitably register for, and get most of the crap. And it will take about 2 years to discover what is useless and what is useful. It’s all part of the process. Then when baby #2 rolls around, you’ll discover that you really only need diapers, a few gender switch items and new nipples for the bottles. And with baby #3 onward, well those kids are lucky if you stick with name brand diapers. Heck, they’re lucky if they get names.

And while you are thinking about newborns, check out our contribution to Talk Nerdy’s post about eating out with a newborn!