12 Baby Essentials for the First 12 Weeks
The first 12 weeks with a baby? What a whirlwind. One minute you're leaving the hospital wondering why they let you take this tiny human home, the next you’re knee-deep in Amazon nappy subscriptions, googling "what is active sleep?" at 3am. (The 3am online shopping habit is real.)
While nothing truly prepares you for the ride, we've tried and tested a bunch of products along the way. Having a few everyday essentials definitely helps. So, here’s my list of 12 fab finds that got us through the beautiful, messy, magical fourth trimester — from game-changing gadgets to everyday must-haves.
1. Ducky
We were gifted this little guy, and we honestly use it daily for bedtime and night-time feeds. He's touch-activated too, which is super handy when holding the bub — no need to fumble for switches.
2. Love to Dream Swaddles
We love our Love to Dreams. The trick is to get the right tog (thickness/thermal grade) in the right size. We had a two L2Ds to start (less washing for the win) and then upgraded to a few more in a couple of TOGs. (For us this was 0.2 TOG for those scorcher summer days and 0.5 for some night times).
3. Dummy + CLIP
We tried a few dummies, and these multi-packs that you can literally get from Coles were the ones bub prefers. Can't blame him — I'm a fan of the cute prints too. Going to tag onto this and add that a clip for a dummy comes in handy, clip it on bub, you, the carrier, anywhere really and you won’t have to keep replacing a fallen dummy.
4. Huggies SEnsory cards
I saw this hack on Instagram, and Ollie went from absolutely hating the change table to being mesmerised by these printable pictures from Huggies. He still stares at them, and we talk to him about the shapes while changing him. Distraction is key.
5. Natralis Barrier Cream
We received a sample of this barrier cream in a baby hamper, and just like it says on the package, the result is one happy bottom. It's definitely our preference out of all the creams we've tried. We've never had nappy rash, so it's doing something right!
6. Ubee Wipes Container
Pulling out wipes one-handed while changing is a nightmare when the packet goes flying. This Ubee wipes container is weighted, holds all the brands, and makes grabbing a wipe quickly a dream. It seems pricey but its well worth it for something you use a thousand times a day (slight exaggeration). Ubee also makes a bin, but we didn’t invest in a nappy bin and got this motion sensor one instead. It’s way cheaper (offsets the wipes container) and It’s been great, the no touch feature makes dealing with 8+ nappies a day so easy. Yep, two tips for the price of one!
7. Skip Hop Whale Bath
A bath that's a whale — need I say more? Bub loves it, and we even got the matching whale pouring cup. We got the ‘Recline and Rinse’ which has been great for those early days baths in the sink, but we are just about ready to upgrade to a bigger bath now!
8. Tommee Tippee Bottles
Similar to the dummies, we tried a few brands of bottles, and the Tommee Tippee bottles have been the ones that stuck. We love the slow teats and the small size. Ollie loves them too.
9. Little Eyes Wipes
Babies know how to cry from the get go, but they don’t actually cry. Not real tears anyway. They do get sticky eyes where their tear ducts haven't formed yet. Little Eyes Wipes were so good to have on hand. Top tip: rip them into smaller sections so each wipe goes further.
10. Bonds Wondersuits/COOLS (ZippYs)
A pyjama essential. Bonds win in the soft, stretchy zip-up department and are a total lifesaver for night-time nappy changes — you can zip up from the bottom without having to remove the arms! We found Wondercools suited to most nights because it’s been so hot and quickly switched to the short sleeve versions too for those scorchers.
11. THE Snoo
While technology is controversial — "how will they wean?" "how will they get used to sleeping by themselves?" etc. — we decided to go all in and give it a go. Anything for extra hours of sleep in the early days, and we’ll cross the bridge to the cot later. Honestly, I don't know if it's the Snoo or if we have a good sleeper, but we've had great sleeps since day one, and at 12 weeks, he’s sleeping 8:30pm to 6am!
12. Pram Fan
I saw another mum with this fan keeping her bub cool and thought, yep, we need that. Summer is hot, and prams actually retain heat, making them up to 5 degrees hotter than the temp outside. Do your bub a favour and pop one on the pram. I've also used it in the car on really hot days while waiting for the aircon to kick in.