Thank goodness for product reviews and Moms who share their secret finds! There seriously are SO many choices/brands for every baby item on the market. When I built our baby registry it took me a month because of all the research and review reading I did to prepare the best registry for us. I did a pretty good job but there were a few items I missed! {If you are an expecting Momma be sure to check out my blog post about packing for the hospital}. Now that I have a few months of parenthood under my belt, I wanted to share my TOP TEN favorite must have baby items. Some of these items just make life a little easier and some have actually given me a few more minutes back in my day!

Kade is no different than most babies… he picks things up and then drops, tosses or throws them. This is of course a game to him, he drops it and then Mommy picks it up. But sometimes I just don’t have the time to play or Kade wants to play in an area where the items dropped need to be washed before returning them to Kade. We decided the solution to saving us time from picking up and having to wash so many items were clips. I was very particular that I would only allow Kade to use plastic clips. It was a bit more difficult to find than I expected … for some reason most clips are metal… that just doesn’t sound like a good idea to me… metal clips on a baby?? But I eventually found these PB&J clips. We have had these clips for about two months and that have been perfect! We us them to hold soothies and some toys and they attach great to bibs, clothes, blankets, and car seat/stroller straps.

Kade has been sleeping in his crib for over a month now but randomly wakes in the middle of the night. Sometimes once or twice and sometimes not at all… like I said pretty random. We try a variety of things like sneaking in to give Kade his soothie {this rarely works with out him seeing us and then he wants picked up}, letting him cry himself back to sleep {I have a five minute cry threshold so this work 50% of the time}, rocking him back to sleep {this always works but it’s hard on us getting broken sleep} or even bringing him in our room for a bit {of course this always gets him right back to sleep}. We recently bought a few wubbanubs and we are trying to teach Kade to reach around for it at night so he can use the soothie to help get him back to sleep.

8. BACKPACK DIAPER BAG

I am not typically a back pack person and it certainly took me a while to find one that I was willing to give a try. But the truth is there are just some occasions where a backpack is much more efficient. At a recent motherhood event I was introduced to the brand Twelve Little . They make a variety of products and specialize in diaper bags. I was checking out there designs and spotted camouflage!!! I immediately went straight over to it, gave it a thorough examination, tested it out a bit and decided to give the Courage Backpack a try. It is built to be a back pack diaper bag but can easily convert to just a backpack later. The diaper backpack style aesthetic is simple and polished with the camouflage print and leather detailing. I have been extremely happy with the twelve little diaper backpack and already have used it way more than I anticipated. While it is a unisex bag I have to be honest and admit it was a bit too fashion forward for my husband. Thanks to Tactical Baby Gear I was able to get my hubby the most masculine diaper bag on the market.

Choosing a baby bag was a difficult task for me… none of them seemed to fit my style or personality. I even looked at diaper bags from Tory Burch, Kate Spade and a few other designers but didn’t love any of them. Then along my search I came across the Tote Savvy and was like YES! It was absolutely perfect for me! The Tote Savvy is a diaper bag organizer that drops into any Tote. Being a lover of larger totes I have a quite a few in my collection that now can covert into my diaper bag at any point by inserting the Tote Savvy! This saves me a bunch of time because I don’t need to pack and repack several diaper bags to match my outfits… just need to have the Tote Savvy packed and ready to go!

I can not stress enough how much I love out monitor. My husband and I agreed we need a monitor that worked with our lifestyle. We always have our mobile phones with us and really didn’t want to have to carry a monitor around the house with us. {Honestly, my husband probably did not want that because I notoriously put things down and completely forget where I put it! That really wouldn’t be ideal for me to constantly misplace the monitor}. So we searched for a monitor that would work with our phones. I came across the Nanit, new to market this year, the Nanit gives you a birdseye view of your baby, has a sleek and non-obtrusive design, offers a built-in night light, can play sounds and take photos all from an app on your phone. And no need to worry about cyber hackers as Nanit has the highest level of encryption and protects all of your baby’s data. The Nanit is the only app on the market that, with a small monthly fee, can analyze, record and recommend tips to improve your baby’s sleep pattern. They give you the first month of Nanit tracking free and you can start it at any time. Our Nanit arrived in June but we just started our free month of sleep tracking now that Kade is sleeping in his crib regularly. The Nanit is a bit of an investment but in my opinion very well worth the splurge!

We tend to go through bibs pretty rapidly around here, especially now that Kade is teething. I had seen other Moms using silicone bibs when feeding their babies and thought we should give them a try. I bought this two pack to start out… thinking I would order a few more if I liked them. Well I love these bibs and don’t need to order more. They are great for catching all the food that doesn’t make it into Kade’s mouth and clean up with a few wipes of of sponge or wet paper towel. I always have them clean because they are SO easy to clean! These bibs are definitely a must have for meal time!

4. ODOR TRAPPING DIAPER PAILS

We were advised by some of our friends who are parents to save the $$$ and not to register for diaper disposal cans because they really don’t work to contain the smell. I disregarded this advice mainly because I knew I wanted something enclosed for the diaper trash, I was still hoping they would mask the odor but if not at least we wouldn’t have an open trash can full of diapers in our rooms. I researched and read as many reviews as I could and decided to register for the Ubbi Diaper Pail and Dekor Diaper Pail . Thankfully we received both as gifts and I promise you they work!!!! They each hold tons of diapers too! Even in the beginning when we were changing diapers all the time we only needed to empty once a week. The Ubbi diaper pail has a slider top opening, is narrow/vertical in orientation which is great for fitting into a small area. The Ubbi comes in a variety of colors and is a bit more expensive but you can use normal trash bags which is a savings verses having to purchase special bags. The Dekor diaper pail has a flip top opened by foot pedal and inside the flip top there is a spring-loaded door adding a second level of smell containment. The Dekor is wide/horizontal, also comes in a variety of colors, is a bit more cost efficient but does require a special bag design. I recommend both, we use the Ubbi in our family room tucked next to the pack-n-play and the Dekor in Kade’s bedroom next to his changing station.

BEST GIFT EVER! We received this portable high chair as a gift and I was literally pumped with excitement! This is one of my favorite gifts we have received for Kade and we use it all the time! I grew up camping and we have tons of camping chairs… I can’t believe I didn’t think to look for something like this. It’s just like a camp chair except so much cooler! The height is for a normal size table and it has side locks that prevent it from collapsing when the baby is sitting in the chair. I like to keep the chair in my car at all times because we use it everywhere. It is perfect for restaurants, parties, any outside event and we even use it in our house. Forget about needing a permanent high chair eye sore in our kitchen, we just need to pop this out when we want Kade to sit at our table. It’s great to take to others houses too! I love this chair so much I plan on it being my go-to gift for future baby showers.

I wanted to make some of Kade’s baby food, at least in the beginning {I am still making 90% of it today}. I had read great things about the Baby Bullet and I am extremely impressed! There are so many items included in the kit: large and small baby food attachment, storage and freezer containers. Someone really put some thinking into the little containers… they are the perfect serving size and have a built in dial at the top where you can select the date made or the current date if sending to a school/daycare. I highly recommend the entire kit however you can purchase the little containers separately.