My Baby Stack

In tech-speak, a stack represents the tools that a person uses to do their job. When I was pregnant, I had lots of questions around what “stuff” I’d need, and since then, I’ve had a few friends ask for opinions on things I used, so I thought it would be easiest to put everything I used in one place and share my “baby stack”.

Pregnancy

Wardrobe

I very incorrectly thought that since my wardrobe was largely comprised of jeans and loose-fitting shirts, I’d be okay to buy maternity jeans and wear my regular tops through most of my pregnancy. Sometime around four months, I realized this was not going to work out, and started buying maternity clothes.

My maternity capsule wardrobe (doesn’t that sound fancier?) came mostly from Target, Macy’s, and Pea in the Pod. It consisted of:

Other Pregnancy Items

I loved my c-shaped body pillow so much that I brought it on our babymoon. There are a bunch of similar ones out there so I’m not sure the brand matters, but this one was well-reviewed, $40, and I’d buy it again in a heartbeat.

I had some trouble sleeping during my first trimester because I got a case of restless leg (pregnancy, amirite?), and rather than taking melatonin, a friend recommended Calm magnesium, which seemed to help. Note: I’m not a doctor, so take with a giant grain of salt.

Hospital Bag

My OBGYN told us to pack like we were going away for the weekend (which I loved as a very funny way to describe the trip the hospital to deliver a baby), so that’s what we did.

Things I was glad I brought:

Things I brought and did not use:

Newborn Stage + Maternity Leave

It’s hard to overstate how much time I spent on the couch during the newborn stage, and the things that were most helpful either made me more comfortable or made my life easier. Things that helped:

Apps

We use two apps daily that I highly recommend:

General Gear

Diaper Bag Essentials

Before baby, I had no idea what to put in a diaper bag (besides, well, diapers?), so in case it’s helpful, we have this diaper backpack and it’s worked great for us. Here’s what we keep in it:

Stroller + Carseat

We went with the Uppababy (Cruz) stroller and carseat. It’s super convenient that the car seat just clicks into the stroller so that we don’t have to take baby out to transfer her from stroller to carseat.

There are definitely other stroller systems that do this too – if you live close to a store like Buy Buy Baby, you can “test drive” a few and decide what you like. They’ll even put a sand bag in to simulate the weight of a baby, which cracked me up but was helpful to get a feel for how heavy everything gets once a baby is in there!

A couple of notes on Uppababy and strollers/carseats in general:

At Home

A few things we use around the house:

Breastfeeding + Pumping

Here’s the gear that I used for breastfeeding and pumping: