A Practical Guide to Making a Baby Registry
And A Newborn Essentials Spreadsheet
Hi! Hope you’re well! I’m excited that this is my 6th Sam Report and we are almost at 1,000 subscribers! Thank you for supporting my work and sharing this with friends.
Over the past 6 weeks we’ve been breaking ground on several rotating, color coded topics. There are posts on real time parenting situations with my 20 month old daughter (in black), self and wellness journey topics (blue), organization and tidiness posts (green), and now I am stepping into pregnancy and the pressing questions in the prenatal world (orange!). My posts derive from real conversations with real friends, and The Sam Report is a central place to share my thoughts and my real answers to these very real questions. REAL!
Let’s get into today’s topic: The Baby Registry
You’re pregnant with your first child, or your partner is pregnant! OMG! The first trimester is consumed by concealing a secret then revealing a secret, shock and awe, nausea, anxiety about defects or miscarriage, scrambling to make any glaring life adjustments — it can be anything from “Do we need a house with more bedrooms?” to “Do I want a relationship the father of my baby?” It took me all of the first trimester just to get the hang of being pregnant, the actual baby had yet to become more than a vague concept.
Shit got really real when I tried to put together a baby registry. I started looking at strollers and it dawned on me — I am going to bring a human into this world and be eternally responsible for it! I was very overwhelmed (hormonal?!). There’s just so much stuff you need for a person you don’t know yet and a job you have no experience in. My brain ping pong’ed from “what does a baby actually need” to my “carbon footprint guilt” to “storage issues.” Where do you even start?
I set out to craft a baby registry that was practical, efficient, and space saving for a person with minimalist intentions. What follows is how I created my baby registry and a few strategies that worked for me!
First, I Found My Advisory Board
Ask friends who have just had a baby shower to share their registry with you. You can use that as a blueprint and study for patterns and popular picks. Here at The Sam Report, I can be that friend. I have a spreadsheet of my newborn essentials for all of my paid subscribers at the end of this post!
Follow YouTubers who seem most similar to your lifestyle. I learned a lot from creators like Susan Yara, Dad Verb gear reviews, and some videos with the title “minimalist newborn essentials.”
Then, I Set Up My Babylist
I had a good experience with Babylist, especially for adding links to small businesses and Etsy items that weren’t available on Amazon or Target. I found it helpful to start my registry early, keep it private, and add to it as I continued my research. Babylist has a good mobile app, I could review, adjust it, and share it at any time.
Diaper Fund
As I built out my registry, the minimalist in me was SCREAMING. Babies need SO MUCH STUFF it’s actually insane. One of the biggest space saving strategies for me was using the “diaper fund” feature instead of asking for physical boxes of diapers. You end up with 72 giant boxes of different brands and different sizes, some of which you won’t touch for at least a year, and they take up so much space.
Gently Used
Then I thought about my carbon footprint and marked certain registry items with a note, “Gently used is welcome and appreciated.” I learned that there are many second hand baby items that are perfectly safe and a fraction of the cost. Other moms will ask you what you need because they might already have it for you, and are dyinggggg to find a cute parent-to-be to unload all of the baby gear they’ve amassed. I sent my registry to mom friends ahead of my baby shower, and was able to check quite a few items off with their hand me downs. Everyone and the earth wins.
Additional Minimalist Strategies
For clothing, I stuck to NB, 0-3, and 3-6 month sizing. Mostly sleepers and plain white onesies, thats all you need in the first few months.
Opt for a registry with fewer but more expensive items and list them as group gifts.
Curate. I think it’s perfectly okay to be specific. I included a note in my registry that said “Lovingly, we would like to stick to the items on our list as we are in the process of moving and are looking to save space.” Because it was the truth! And this was my courteous and very gracious code for “Hey! Great Aunt Sally I love you! I’m taking the time to make this very considered, very researched, very aesthetically curated list while carrying a human inside my body! I will not be responsible for returning, or worse, housing ugly 18-24 month clothing and stuff that I did not ask for! I’m hormonal! I cannot eat sushi or tie my shoes, don’t play with me Great Aunt Sally!”
Newborn Essentials List
Finally, I want to share my newborn essentials spreadsheet. It is in my opinion the bare essentials, what I think you absolutely need on day 1 and through the first 3 months. The sheet includes quantities, the brands I bought, links to purchase, and my personal notes. The brands, technology, and trends may change over time, but the items in the checklist are pretty standard to use as a starting point. Feel free to add on or modify it as you see fit! Link is below.