You’re probably days away from actually having the baby but you’ve left no stones unturned in ensuring that the nursery is ready to greet your newborn. And while you may have already purchased everything your mom/sister/co-worker told you you’d need when the baby arrives and you’ve probably also already received everything else imaginable at your big baby shower, there still are a few low-key items that every nursery should have. These are items that most baby décor catalogs don’t advertise and almost no one tells you you’re gonna need after you bring the baby home. Here’s a list of some surprising essentials that can save you a lot of work once you’ve got you’re hands full with new baby things.
1. A night light
Most grown ups don’t really understand how real the monsters under the bed can be for kids. Your newborn won’t learn to be afraid of the dark unless you tell her spooky bedtime stories when she is a little older, but the fact remains that leaving an infant in a dark room can be quite an intimidating experience for them and some experts even suggest that doing so can cause the baby to experience sleep disturbances which can be troublesome for both the child as well as the already-sleep deprived parents. A mellow night-light, thus, can be a real life-saver for everyone involved. The mellow light won’t disturb the child as she sleeps and if she happens to wake up during the night, she would be able to entertain herself by looking at all the colorful images around her room.
2. A ‘mom zone’
The time you spend feeding your newborn might well be the only few moments of absolute peace you’d get from the otherwise maddening schedule that is leaves little room for your other favorite pastimes. So when you’re decorating your baby’s nursery, set up a little corner for yourself around the rocking chair or glider. Set up a stool nearby that can hold a water bottle or a book so while you are nursing the baby, you can catch up on your reading or quietly re-hydrate.
3. A customized crib mobile
A crib mobile is one of the most gifted items at baby showers though most of them have cartoon figures and stuffed animals hanging from them. To get your baby started on remembering other faces apart from your own, you can make you own crib mobile using a set of clothespins, family photos, scribblings from an older sibling, greeting cards etc., the colorful pictures will help develop the baby’s vision and she will also be able to entertain herself by looking at all the colorful images.
4. Open bins and baskets
As grown ups, most of use spend a lot of time and money on building and buying storage compartments that keep our stuff out of sight. However, once the baby arrives, you’re probably gonna spend every moment of your time off from the baby to rest and recuperate and stocking and organizing closets and cabinets would be the last thing you wanna do. This is where having open baskets and bins could really help you save a lot of time and energy as you can simply slide out and organize one basket or bin at a time.
5. Ambient sound
Most adults think babies need pin-drop silence to sleep and tend to tread on footsteps when the baby is asleep. However, studies have shown that babies that are used to sleeping in a moderate level of background sound tend to sleep more soundly, since they develop a tolerance for low-to-moderate decibel sounds and hence, aren’t disturbed by sounds around the house. But if you live in an ultra quiet part of town or tend not to have a lot of activity in the house, you can simply install a quiet running fan, an ambient sound simulator or even a music box to allow your baby to adjust to noises.
6. A bouncer seat
Cribs have traditionally been the best holding spaces for babies, but for the children they can be really distressing at times since they are used to curling up inside their moms’ wombs and the crib mattress can appear to be really, well, flat. A bouncer seat can thus serve as a really great alternative to the crib as it can hold the baby in place securely and you can take it wherever you go so you don’t have to bring all your chores to the nursery.
7. Cute boxes to archive baby memorabilia
Even if you are not a real sucker for nostalgia, chances are you’re gonna hold onto everything that reminds you of the days before and after your baby is born. And while scrap booking is a great way to preserve all your precious baby memorabilia, you will need real expert help to stick your baby’s hospital booties and other knickknacks into a store-bought scrapbook. This is where a nice memorabilia box can come in handy. If you can’t find one, simple get a nicely decorated gift box or you can even decorate a nice shoe box yourself and use it to store everything you want to preserve.
8. A journal
This is one thing you will never get in baby stores and baby showers, but a journal can really ease those first few months after you bring the baby home. The initial few months after a child is born, parents have to adjust their routines around the baby which means they are often sleep-deprived to keep up with midnight feedings and pacing the floor soothing a screaming baby countless hours in a day. In this apparent chaos, it can be hard to keep track of your chores, baby’s feeding times, shopping lists etc., and a journal can come in handy when you have a lot on your mind and you need to keep track of a lot of things at the same time. Plus, a journal can also help you record your baby’s milestones like her first smile, her first word and all those little things that might fade away with time.
