Baby Registry Tips + Registry Essentials

As tedious as it is, I loved making our baby registry 🙂 I’m a big list-checker-offer so making registries is right up my alley lol! From talking to friends though, I know making a baby registry is not an experience most people love and it can be really overwhelming for most {believe me, I definitely got overwhelmed at times too!}

So I wanted to round up some of the things I learned through the process to help you as you make yours, plus share the product of my weeks & weeks of research in what I found were essentials for our baby registry!

Tips for Creating a Baby Registry

• Start early – start your registry once baby is about 12ish weeks. Sounds early right? Believe me, you will be happy you did! Babies need A LOT of stuff lol, and if you’re a first time parent, you likely don’t have a clue all that you need or which option is the best etc. I know I personally never really paid attention to the specifics of what high chairs friends used or diapers or swaddles…or anything really lol. Starting early gives you the time to do research on allll of the baby things including asking friends with babies, watching YouTube videos, reading blogs like this one 🙂 etc.

• Join a Facebook Mom’s Group – I kind of fell into this one because I ran into a mom in my town when I was newly pregnant & she mentioned that I should join this group, which I’m so happy I did! There is likely a Facebook mom’s group or something similar for your town or county {mine is actually for my county} so just search in the groups area of Facebook and join one…or a couple! These groups are sooo helpful specifically when making your baby registry because you can ask a whole bunch of moms at once for their recommendations & real life experience on products and more! {They also are so helpful preparing you for baby because you see others ask questions you haven’t even thought of or gotten to yet & you can pick up so many tips!}

---

View our Baby Registry here for some inspiration & registry essentials {and the product of my obsessive research lol!}

---

• Use Babylist – this is NOT sponsored lol, but Babylist is great because you can compile gifts from anywhere even if a retailer doesn’t have their own registry system. Plus, it’s one easy place to tell your shower guests to look for all of your registries in one place. I linked our main baby registries like Amazon {I highly recommend adding an Amazon registry as well because people just love to buy from Amazon lol}, Buy Buy Baby, Target, & Pottery Barn plus things from small boutique style online retailers, Etsy, Nordstrom, Urban Outfitters…you can link from anywhere your heart desires!

Here’s a preview of how Babylist displays your other registries & your additional items…

• Utilize YouTube – video reviews are a lot more helpful I found than just reading reviews. I specifically found the Babylist review videos on YouTube super helpful compared to many others, but I watched a ton of different types of review videos from parents specifically on the really big purchases like high chairs, car seats, baby carriers etc.

• Know what you want & what you’re not willing to compromise on – I reallllly wanted GREENGUARD Gold Certified furniture for our baby room, but also wanted a specific color wood furniture which was hard to find & didn’t want it to cost a fortune, so it’s kind of about balancing what you want most. There are some things I really wanted to be organic for our baby as well, but other things where it’s not really as important {the changing pad for example: the organic one could not be wiped down, which means we would likely end up needing to replace it a bunch of times after the inevitable diaper blowouts {$$$}, and I could easily get an organic cover that can be washed and save us a lot of money in the long run…plus, our baby isn’t on the changing pad all day long for example so I didn’t feel it warranted being organic}. Do your research and find out what are your personal need-to-haves and the areas where you are willing to compromise.

• Use Buy Buy Baby – OK, I know this is a no-brainer lol…you were most likely going to do this anyway since they are kind of the go-to these days. But even if you don’t want to register for a lot from BBB, they have an amazing online guide {check it out below!} that will help you so you don’t forget anything {believe me, if this is your first baby, there are a lot of things you probably didn’t even know existed or that you needed lol}. It also gives you a general idea of how many of each thing you need. I didn’t stick to it as a rule per se, but it helped me have an idea of how many bibs, onesies, swaddles etc. was appropriate for a first time parent and from there I asked friends and used my own judgement for what I thought we would need personally. There were also some things on the guide I felt we could do without or had heard are unnecessary and some things that I wanted to add that weren’t on the list as well {I kind of have an obsession with cozy blankets so we have a few extras of those on our registry lol}.

• Enlist your hubby or significant other – let’s be real, picking out baby things will most likely not be as exciting for your significant other as it is for you lol. But that doesn’t mean you should feel stuck doing it all on your own! If your hubby or SO isn’t as into wandering around Buy Buy Baby or Pottery Barn Kids, consider delegating a couple specific things to him to research and choose. For example, I am not really into techie things, but Marc is, so I asked him to research the best baby monitor for us…and I worked on picking out cute little bibs and onesies in the meantime lol.

• Don’t forget the nursery – you’ll want to think about what furniture & decor you might want to register for if you aren’t planning to finish the nursery before your shower. You may want to register for some or all of your furniture {you can register in a way that lets your friends and family group gift easily for these large items!} Even if you plan to purchase your furniture or are lucky enough to have a family member purchase these large items for you, you may want to register for smaller things like a wall shelf or mirror, pictures for the walls, stuffed animals, picture frames…even a lamp or curtains to pull the whole room together!

• Keep in mind that every baby is different! – even if you are on your second or third, they most likely will have totally different preferences than your previous babes. Some babies love certain bottles/nipples while others won’t drink from them at all {so don’t make a huge investment in 20 of one kind of bottle at first…get one or two of a couple types to try out until you know your baby will take that one}. Some little ones love to swing, but I’ve heard that many don’t and a swing isn’t necessary. Some babies might sleep great in certain types of swaddles or sleep sacks while others don’t. You get it, bottom line is to ask around and do your research, but know that your baby is very special and unique. You may need to try a few things before you know what works best for him or her, so don’t go crazy getting a million of one type of things until you are certain they will work for your little one {or you can return any unopened ones}.

I hope these tips & tricks help you as you build your baby registry, and our very well-researched registry serves as some helpful inspiration for the essentials you need! Let me know if you have any other questions or tips to add below, and most importantly, congratulations on your little bundle on the way!

1