Moms Off Script
Megg & Mere | Two Moms, One Podcast, Zero Manual | A Community for moms who don't always have it figured out and are writing the script as they go.
Moms Off Script
MOS E22: "I need help with my registry"
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Welcome to Moms Off Script, a podcast for moms who are just trying to figure it out. This week Megg & Mere help you build your baby registry. They take a look that Babylist top recommendations from 2026, what they used, what they loved and maybe what they'd leave off the registry.
CREDITS: Original content: Megg Abelein & Meredith Finch
Set design, videography: Megg Abelein & Meredith Finch
Music: Matt Beebe
Photography: Michelle Montinieri
Graphic Design: Alexia Dulieu
Editing & Production: Megg Abelein
So you ready? I'm ready. All right. Honorable mentions, baby products, take it or leave it. Okay. Playmats. Take it. Yeah, take it for sure. We put our kid on that thing all the time.
SPEAKER_01We had one that had like the milestones on it. So, like, oh, month zero, this is what you're looking for. Month one, this is what you're looking for. I love that.
SPEAKER_02We had one with like the rain, the like the arcs. Yeah, we had that too. Yes, you ready to do this? Yeah, I'm excited for this. Yeah, hey guys. I'm Meg. And I'm Mary. And we're the host of Mom's Off Script. And we have a great episode for you guys today. This is like a classic mom's off script.
SPEAKER_01I can't believe we haven't already done this.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, this is gonna be a good one. We're gonna connect with you guys on baby registries, but not just baby registries, but like what the world is telling you to register for versus like kind of what we use as products. So it's kind of like a product review. Our experience. Our experience with baby products. We have gotten a lot of opportunity to like dive into what it's been like as moms and then like our personal lives, but we're really excited to dive into like products and a little bit of like what the world is trying to get you to do with these products. But before we kind of get into that, Mayor, how are you today? I'm good. I missed you at yoga this morning. I know. I'm solo parenting this week, so I did not make it, but how was it?
SPEAKER_01It was lovely, it was a lovely, lovely class. It was a million billion degrees, so I sweated like crazy. I got some new yoga pants and a new yoga top. So I felt I felt very yoga girl today.
SPEAKER_02Love it. Um, hot yoga should be a million degrees.
SPEAKER_00So I'm glad to hear that it was um oh, they also installed bars for bar class. Oh, yeah, I saw that on their Instagram. Yeah, I'm excited. So we're gonna have to check that out when it's a thing. For sure.
SPEAKER_02How are you? How was your week of solo parenting? And it was good, and I ran my half marathon last weekend, and it was fantastic. Oh my gosh, I'm so proud of you. Yeah, it was a really, really cool event. So I ran the New York City Half Marathon, and the course was so cool. So um definitely not a PR, but hey, you did it. I did it, and like the course itself was like worth you know, soaking in. So happy about that, and just getting through the thick of solo parenting, and I'm in the home stretch, so good for you. But of course, my husband's gonna come home and then go right to playing Dungeons and Dragons. That's my fault. It's okay. How's it going?
SPEAKER_01Dungeons and Dragons is so fun. This is like my ideal Friday evening. I cannot believe I have not played it before this. I will say, we had our third session relatively recently, and my character almost died. And I didn't realize this is not like a video game where it's like, oh, you you know, you you come back. You have lives. No, you're literally your character is gone if it dies. In Dungeons and Dragon, which I did not know. And my character got down to zero hit points, and you have to do this like death-saving throw to save yourself. And if you screw it up, you your character is gone.
SPEAKER_02Yes, I did, I did hear about your near-death experience.
SPEAKER_01Well, Alan saved me.
SPEAKER_02I also heard that.
SPEAKER_01She saved me, so I didn't I didn't die, but it was a really freaking close call. So the moral of the story is don't run into rooms that you haven't scoped out ahead of time without the rest of your party. That was the mistake that I made. Yeah, don't do that. It's probably we shouldn't do that in real life either. Yeah, the good good lesson. Stay stick together.
unknownYeah.
SPEAKER_02That's the lesson there.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. But sorry, I'm stealing Alan away from you. No, it's okay.
SPEAKER_02I'm happy that he's out doing things and he asked before he filled out the doodle pole.
SPEAKER_01What do you what do you do when we're dungeon and dragoning? Is that when you take your ice baths and your new fancy ice bath?
SPEAKER_02Oh my gosh, my ice bath. I'm so happy about my ice plunge. It is amazing. I got it set up in my basement. Amazing. Um, I do enjoy it at night, more so in the morning, but I get in it whenever I can. I try to do it once a day, if not once every other day. So we'll see what happens this Friday night while you guys are playing Dungeons and Dragons, if I hop in that thing or not.
SPEAKER_01I'm gonna give a plug for your personal TikTok where you've documented your journey of setting up the ice bath and all of that. So it's it's been a saga, but I'm happy that you've got it. I can think of nothing I would rather do less than get into an ice bath first thing in the morning.
SPEAKER_02No, but you have to try it. Hey, you ready to get into this? I am ready. All right, so today's episode, we are gonna go through the top items that Babylist has to put on your registry. These are in no particular order. We're gonna go through the top items that they have, and then when within most of these categories, we're I'm gonna list off the top brands that Babylist recommends and that parents are currently recommending in 2026. Now, with that in mind, a lot of these brands are name brand and they're coming off of Babylist, which is where, like from a marketing standpoint, that's who is listing all of these items. So they're probably getting a kickback or some something. So these are not the most affordable items in every category, but at least in my in my case, I'm pretty sure in your case too, like we did have quite a few affordable items. So we're gonna talk through those as well. For sure. Um, so along with kind of that list of what Babylist has, I love to hear your input, Mayor, on like what you used and what you loved.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I'm gonna do the same. Exactly. I can't wait to hear it. I felt like I don't know if anyone else felt like this, but when I made my baby registry, I was so stressed. And I could have absolutely used this episode five years ago because when I made my wedding registry, it was just like fun, what plates do you want? What blender is your favorite? And when it came to making my baby registry, it was like if you pick the wrong stroller, your baby will die. And I was like, you know, it's like the the parsi is so important, and like I just felt so stressed about it. And I wish I had this then. So our goal here is to share with you what we used, what worked for us, what's not worth spending the money on, and hopefully it like sheds a little bit of light on this for you so it doesn't feel so stressful.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, it's so interesting that you felt that way because I kind of felt a little bit of the opposite of it doesn't matter, like it's okay. Whatever you, you know, whatever you get for your baby is what's gonna be right for your baby. I also feel like this podcast would have been super, super helpful. Um, but what I did in that scenario when I didn't have this podcast to listen to was like lean on my friends who had recently had children. And so at that point, I was, you know, going through the popular items then with my friends who are doing that. So um, while I we hope this podcast is very helpful and useful for you, having those conversations with people in your community about what they're using or like what they don't love is also very, very valuable. So um, with all of that in mind, starting with the stroller, um, because that is, I think, one of the most important items. We have from Baby List the top strollers of 2026 are the Up A Baby, Nuna, Greco, Chico, and Mockingbird. And I've honestly, I mean, I've heard of two, actually, I've heard of all these brands, but Up A Baby is the big one that I hear.
SPEAKER_01I hear Upa Baby all the time, but Chico and Greco are like the tried and true.
SPEAKER_02I feel like Greco and Chico is gonna come up a lot in this because they just like that's what they do as like baby products. And I feel like they do like affordable, but like on the higher end of affordable.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, that's fair.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. Um, what kind of stroller did you have? Did you have a stroller system or did you have a standalone?
SPEAKER_01Our stroller worked with our newborn car seat. Yeah. My parameters for a stroller were that it had to be lightweight and I had to be able to fold it with one hand. Oh like I wanted to be able to unfold and like toss it in the car seat with one arm. So we ended up with a Chico stroller. Okay. I think it's like the City Walk Ultra Light something. It's very light. It is a one-hand pull and it fit our car seat. My only complaint about it was that the cup holder was too small. I had to get like an attachment cup holder for my giant oh for your stuff. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. That makes sense. And then when we had my second, we got the double stroller, the side by side, and that one is baby jogger. Okay. And I love that. Oh, that I've seen great things about the baby jogger brand. I love that stroller.
SPEAKER_02But it's misleading because it's not there, they don't make like jogger strollers for runners. I think they do.
SPEAKER_01No, I don't opine. I could not opine on the actual running quality of the stroller. I thought I've only ever walked with mine. Yeah. My one complaint about that is it does not fit through doorways because it's like a side to side one. So I've got to get it outside, folded up, and then unfold it to take them out. But once that is set up, I love that thing. Yeah. What about you? What kind of stroller did you end up with?
SPEAKER_02So for strollers for us, this was the splurge. This was what I was recommended that, like, if you are going to splurge on one thing on your registry, it should be the stroller because the stroller systems they come with the infant car seat or they work with the infant car seat. And then what we prioritized was a growing family. So we knew we wanted multiples and we looked at the UPA baby. We actually went to Bye Bye Baby and tested out the UPA baby and the peg Parago, and we ended up with the Peg Parago, which has an infant car seat that you can attach in, and then it has the companion seat, so it has the bucket seat for one kid, but it then it also has attachments so that you can stack your kids. So in your situation where you were talking about like it doesn't fit through doorways, ours fit through doorways really well because it was that system. It also like flip folded and it does have like the standing board on it. So that if we had a third or if we have like if we had a third kid with us, could fit three kids on the stroller. And that was a huge, huge priority for us. Um, because we knew we wanted to have kids quickly and that they would still be in the stroller at that point, and we loved the peg Parego. I think the Ubba Baby for us, because we went and tested both, was too clunky. And the peg Parego was just a little bit slimmer, a little bit lighter. And my husband's Italian. So when it was a tried and true brand that has been around for a long time, he was really excited about it.
SPEAKER_01So I love that you thought about the future because we didn't do that. We got a single stroller and we were just like, we're just gonna worry about the one. And then when we were having our second, we splurged for the double stroller, but we definitely splurged on the double, and our single was kind of like the basic lineup. And we still I still use that single one. Just the other day, my son wanted to ride his bike and my daughter didn't want to, and I was like, all right, we'll take out the single stroller. So it's nice to have both, but I think it's smarter to think ahead and get something that's going to work in the long term.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, and well, what's nice about ours is it can be a single or a double. Exactly. So if if we do have that scenario, we can kind of flip it. Now, do you have multiple strollers? I mean, obviously, you just said you have the single and the double. Do you have multiple strollers outside of those?
SPEAKER_01Only the wagon is our other thing that we have that I highly recommend. We love our wagon. Yes. We have the same wagon.
SPEAKER_02Yes. I would say the one thing that I don't love about our wagon is it we so we have the Fisher Price one. Yeah. You have the same one, right? Yeah, the red that side zipped down. And it has like the canopy. Fantastic. Great for your money, too. Fan I was just gonna say fantastic, affordable, like best bang for your buck. My big struggle with it was that it wasn't the one that had the had the harness in it. So I had to wait till my kids were a little bit older to use it.
SPEAKER_01I remember putting my youngest in it with the Bobi. Like she had the belt strap and then she had the boppy in front of her to like kind of hold her around. The um, like the nursing boppy. Yeah. That was how we got around it. That's really easy. Don't don't don't don't do that. But that's that's what we did. That's so funny.
SPEAKER_02I have so many strollers. You do because you run. Well, so I have the Peg Parago. I also have an umbrella stroller. My mom lives in New York City, so traveling around the subway system is so much easier with an umbrella stroller. It's not as like mechanically efficient, but it is very efficient for folding up and getting on the train. Um, and then we have I have two joggers. I have a single and a double bob jogger, which sounds like I've splurged, but I got them all on Marketplace. Marketplace! Yes, joggers are great if you are a runner, but I don't think they're registry worthy. Moving on to car seats, which we've kind of talked a little bit about. Babylist has the Nuna, the Greco, the Chico, the UPa Baby, and the Duna listed in that order as their top five car seats of 2026. And those are the infant car seats. And the Duna is that one that folds up into a stroller. Yes. Have you seen those? Yes. They're very cool. They're very cool. I don't know. They're expensive though. They're expensive, and I don't really know how like efficient they are. I don't know. I don't have one. You could not use them for like six months, nine months. Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_01That's the thing with the car seat. I would say you I know you said the stroller is like one of the most important things, and I I do agree with that. I think arguably the most important thing on your registry is the car seat because it's the one thing you need the day you come home from the hospital. You can't leave without a car seat.
SPEAKER_02So when you say it's the most important thing, are you saying it's the most important thing to physically have like in your possession or like to research and get the one that's right for you?
SPEAKER_01No, it's the thing that's most important to have in your possession because you literally cannot leave the hospital without it.
SPEAKER_02Great. I was gonna agree with you, but I just wanted to clarify because the thing about car seats that someone told me, and I thought it was an outstanding piece of advice. While these car seats are fantastic, um, and we'll get into the convertible ones as well the Greco, the Nuna, the Evenflow, Chico, and Britax, those are the top babyless convertible car seats, which is what your toddler then goes in after an infant car seat. But the thing about car seats is they all have to pass the safety standard ratings. Yeah. So if you're looking for more affordable items and less of a splurge somewhere in these big ticket items, a car seat has to pass the same safety ratings. They're all gonna be safe. They're all gonna be safe. But to your point, Mirror, like you do need to have it.
SPEAKER_01You need it, you can't leave. What car seat do you have? We have the Chico Key Fit 30. Okay. And it was because a girlfriend of mine said, literally, everybody has the Chico Key Fit 30, don't bother getting anything else. And I said, Okay, easy enough. It was cheap, it's safe, it fit the stroller that we wanted. Yeah, it's you know, there's no fancy bells and whistles about it. I also want to say about car seats. We obviously only got one car seat because we were planning on having one baby at a time that we were gonna use for both of our babies, but splurge on extra bases. So you can have one in each car, one for the grandparents, right? So you might want some extra bases, even if you only need one car seat to actually clip the baby.
SPEAKER_02100%. We had the extra base on our registry. Yes. Um, so we had two bases. Okay, so baby's here, baby's moving around a lot, baby loves contact naps, mom wants to be mom and do all the things with her hands. Baby carriers. I know that's where you're going. Baby carriers. The top baby carriers of 2026 per baby list are the Ergo Baby, Baby Bjorn, a mom cozy, the Sali baby wrap, and the Infantino four-in-one flip. I have some honorable mentions on the list: the Moby Wrap and the Baby Catan, um, because those are wraps versus carriers. Did you use a wrap or a carrier, or did you do like a combo situation?
SPEAKER_01Three different things. So I had one of those long wraps that my doula taught me to swirl around my body, which I liked, but was not terribly practical in the in the early days. Yeah. I had the baby katan, which I loved.
SPEAKER_02I also had the baby catan and I loved it.
SPEAKER_01Loved that thing. It's so easy. It gives you the wrap feeling without the finagling of a really long wrap. Yes. And then I also had the infantino, which I purchased like on a whim months later at Target because I wanted something just a little more structured as they were getting older and getting a little bit bigger. Yeah. And both my kids used that and loved it. So I liked all of them. I think they're good for different purposes. I like the wrap when they're really tiny because they can like really cozy up close to you. And I liked the more structured infantino for like longer walks, when they're a little bit bigger, when they're forward-facing and they want to like move all their limbs out in the world.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, I liked the baby katan as well. I didn't use it very often just because I I had the Ergo baby and I had the midline one. So I don't remember the name of it, but it was the middle of the line Ergo baby. And we used that thing for everything. Like na like walking naps, like if I needed to get stuff done around the house. We loved to get out for walks. So, like townhouse that we had when we had our son was right next to a CDS. So we would like walk to get candy or like snacks before movie night, or like we would walk to get ice cream and like literally just strap him on and like walk all over the place. So that was fantastic. The the Catan just never kind of. I think I usually Catan the most out of all of them. I love that. Yeah. When they weren't napping in the Ergo Baby or in a wrap or on your person, napping, sleeping in bassinets. So for bassinets, that's a big one for your registry. You can get these super high-end or very, very affordable. Babylist has the Halo bassinet, the Greco Pack and Play, the Happiest Baby Snoo, and the Baby Delight as their top four for 2026. I'm pretty sure you guys used the Snoo, is that correct? Loved. So I have heard not great things about the snoo. I have very mixed feelings about the snoo, and we did not use it, and I'm grateful for that. But tell us about your experience with it.
SPEAKER_01I would have paid any amount of money for this passionette. We loved it. We had a my cousin had a baby before we did, and she told us like it is worth every penny. So we splurged on it. We got it on Black Friday. So hot tip if you are getting a snooze Black Friday, you can get it on sale. And you can also get them refurbished and stuff. But that thing saved us. We got great sleep early on. I love that you could control it from your phone. So if the baby's just starting to fuss and you're like, no, they just need a little movement, you could turn it up and it would move a little bit more or turn up the sound and it would get a little louder. There were so many times where I did not even need to get out of bed to adjust and get my baby falling back asleep. I think the c the um I think the criticism that I hear of this new is that, well, they can't have movement forever and then they have to go in the crib, and what are you gonna do then? We had no problems transitioning. They needed the movement when they were little, they needed the sound right by their ear when they were tiny, and then they grew out of that and were ready for a bigger, more stationary space, and it was totally fine. They needed it when they were small, and it was a godsend. It was that was our splurge item on our register.
SPEAKER_02So it sounds like you used it as its intent with its intended purpose rather than a crutch.
SPEAKER_01Oh no, yeah, a thousand percent.
SPEAKER_02And I think that's probably where the criticism comes in. It's like if you're using it for everything soothing, then everything soothing is going to be hard to transition out of.
SPEAKER_01And I should say our second did not like the movement at first. When she was a baby baby, like newborn baby, she didn't like it. And so we didn't do the movement until like month two or so, and then she loved it. So you just have to like learn your baby, figure out what works for them. And just because it doesn't work on day one doesn't mean they're not, they're never gonna like it. Maybe we'll grow into or out of it. But don't worry about, in our experience, I would say, don't worry about oh, my baby's gonna get spoiled by the movement and they're never gonna be able to sleep in a normal bed. Yeah, that's not the case. Yeah, at least for us.
SPEAKER_02Interesting. So we went with a Target brand, I think it was like $70. Um, it was not a splurge for us, it was on our registry. So at the base of the triangle base, you could flip it so that it could be a rocking, or you could flip them back so that they would be stationary. It was a very like standard technique of like there was a curved bar that, like, if you flipped it, it wasn't touching the ground. And if you flipped it back, it was touching on. So the like the mechanics of it were very, very basic. But that we we really liked it. I mean, it was just a basic, basic bassinet, nothing fancy. Does the snoo have special um sleep sacks?
SPEAKER_01It does. So we it had a special sleep sacks that have these like wings that slide into the side that keep your baby from rolling over so that it keeps them on their back. We used to call it the baby burrito. I love it. There was a little bit of a learning curve with that when you first have a baby. Like I remember trying to put Teddy in it and be like, oh my god, what is this? It's like a baby strait jacket. And like the transition from nursing and diaper change and burping to getting them back in there like quickly and efficiently, as you like, Velcro would zip them up and slide them in, turn it on before they wake up, is a little bit of a learning curve. Okay. But I mastered that by the end.
SPEAKER_02Love it. Love it. So, on the topic of sleep sacks, was that kind of what you went with, obviously, when they were infants?
SPEAKER_01When they were infants, we did the snoo sleep sacks because they were in the snoo. Once we started transitioning out of the snoo, I know they don't say weighted sleep sacks anymore, but they weren't saying that at the time. We did weighted sleep sacks, and then we switched to the kite baby sleep sacks. Oh, yeah. That we that we used to do. Do those have zippers? Yeah. Okay. We used those like until they didn't use sleep sacks anymore.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, yeah. Weighted sleep sacks are like a big no now.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. And I don't know if it if I didn't, if I just didn't know that or if it wasn't really a thing for four years ago, but I know now you're not supposed to do it.
SPEAKER_02I feel like we were on the tail beginning. Is that a thing? By the time I had my second, weighted sleep sacks were out. We never used the weighted sleep sack. I think for us, our thought process was like use the basics until you need to add on versus like start with the start with the like the hyper focused products and then try to wean them. Off. What did Babylist say for these? So for Babylist had the Halo Sleep Sack, Love to Dream, Swaddle Me by Ingenuity, and the Aiden and Anis, as well as the Happiest Baby Sleepy. Halo was the brand that we used. And we loved we started with Halo and like used them all the way up until like the top, like they were done with sleep sacks. And like obviously, like the sizes changed. The one thing we did have wasn't weighted, but our house was very cold in the winter. So we did get like a thick, like winter tug. Yeah, like a quilted sleep sack for him. But the big tip I want to make sure we talk about with sleep sacks is the Velcro swaddle. The Velcro swaddle is key. So the Aiden and Anis ones are fantastic. I use them a lot like as blankets. I ended up using them as like covers for breastfeeding. Um, we like those as like blankies. Essentially, we we barely swaddled them because once we discovered the velcro ones, it was like game over.
SPEAKER_01I was one of those moms that was like, I don't need a velcro, I'm gonna do it with a blanket. Like for the my first that I was like insistent upon using a normal blanket to swaddle. I don't know what was wrong with me. By the time I discovered Velcro ones, I was like, what have I been doing? Did you end up doing Velcro for your son? Yes. Okay. Oh my god, once you get the Velcro one, you're like, why haven't been messing with anything else?
SPEAKER_02It's the same like with buttons and zippers on clothes. Why do they still put buttons on clothes? Who decided this? It's so stupid. Like pajamas with buttons. If you are going to a baby shower, do not there should be no buttons in sight.
SPEAKER_01On this topic, I need to mention the zippers that go both ways so that you can zip up from the pants so you can leave their jammies on their top half when they're doing the diaper change.
SPEAKER_02Yes, absolutely close. Yes, the dual zipper, insane. That is a must for uh pajamas if you can find those. Um, while they're sleeping, sound.
SPEAKER_01Oh yes. The snoo came with sound built into it, but we also had the hatch sound machine. We also had the hatch sound machine. We love hatch.
SPEAKER_02I love I can't say enough about I feel like I've talked about hatch machine. We have already talked about it, yeah. Um the hatch sound machine is Babylist's number one choice for 2026. The mom cozy, the nanit, and the yoga sleep has a brand. The yoga sleep looked extremely affordable. It looked like it was like 20 bucks, which is phenomenal. The light is fantastic. And now, as toddlers, like our kids know when the light turns green, they can leave their room. We've recently weaned our son off of the sound. We've actually also weaned him off of the red light, which is great. He falls asleep and uses the hatch as a night light. So he reads to the hatch light, and then when he falls asleep, we turn it to like 10%, and we we don't put the sound on. And I have an adult hatch. I literally like can't talk enough about that brand.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, we have one for both of our kids. We have not weaned them off, nor I'm I'm in a little bit of a different camp than you that I'm like, eh, they can keep them as long as they want. I'm not gonna attempt to wean them off of it. I wish that the old hatch was the standard. The new one is fine. My daughter has the new one, but I liked the old one. It was simpler and easier.
SPEAKER_02I love the new one. I wish that the old one would update how they use the app. Um, what I love about the second generation is that it has sleep stories in it. My son likes to listen to his Tony sometimes in bed, and he does like to listen to stories and read. But when we travel, we can put on a sleep story for him, and then it switches to the red light with sound when the story's over, which like triggers that like, oh, it's time to go to sleep. Yeah. I like the features that they added because there's other, like, so there's stories, there's fun sounds, there's like kind of more some more like fun creative things you can do with the second generation that you can't do with the first. I haven't even explored those. I'm like, I just give me the sounds, give me the colors, and that's all I want. And I wonder if I've explored that because I have the adult one and I maybe I utilize those features, but I do like the app feature of the way the app functions for the second generation better. Maybe I just need to get used to it.
SPEAKER_01Okay, so we talked a little bit about bassinets. What about cribs? Yes. We have one crib in our house. My son used it, and then my daughter used it, and I love it. It is from Delta Children. It is a three-in-one, so you start as a crib, it converts to a toddler bed with like the rail on the side, and then it can convert into a twin bed, it's like the headboard. So we have used it as a crib and a toddler bed for my son. And then when we got his twin bed, we used a different twin bed because my daughter needed the crib. Yeah. As we know, if you've listened to the podcast, we tried the toddler bed with her and she's back in the crib, but eventually she'll be in the toddler bed again. And then we'll see with her twin bed, but we have gotten so much mileage out of that thing. I absolutely recommend getting a crib that will convert into different formats because you'll get so much longevity out of it, especially if you're having multiples.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, I think the crib is another tricky one as far as space. True. What kind of space you have. When I was pregnant with my son, we only had room in what was going to be the nursery for a crib and a dresser. Like we only had room for two pieces of furniture. So we actually got a combo crib changing table situation. So the end of the crib has a changing table with storage underneath it, and then under the crib has storage, and that converts into a toddler bed. It does not convert into a twin bed. We used that crib for my son, and then when he got like his big boy room because he was having a sister, we gave her the crib and he got a new crib. It was another crib. But we made it exciting for him. So he got his own room and he got a new crib, and then that one turned into a toddler bed, and that one was a marketplace find. I actually think it was a buy nothing find, if I'm being completely honest. And that one transitioned into the toddler bed. We recycled that on buy nothing when he was done with that, and we bought him a toddler bed for his birthday. But I want to go back to the conversation around the pack and play, because I think that's a big one that should go on your registry. I know we mentioned it as a bassinet, we mentioned it as a, we're not really talking about it as a crib, but it is incredible as far as like just something to have on hand. I agree with that. I know I'm pretty sure it was listed under bassinets with babylists because some of the more high-end pack and plays you can buy with like the bassinet attachment. We had that. Or like the higher attachment. That's what we had.
SPEAKER_01Okay. And did you use it? Yes. Yeah. So as I said, I'm we're not big travelers, but there were times where we weren't home at night, whether we were away for a weekend or we were visiting family and we needed somewhere for the baby to sleep. The pack and play is your perfect travel option, right? Especially because we had the snoo. I'm like, oh, pack up the snoo. No. The pack and play was great that we had it. Yeah.
SPEAKER_02We used it. Yep. It was a registry item that was lower on our list. We didn't get it on our registry.
SPEAKER_01We we bought it when we were traveling for the first time. And I was like, put it on your registry. No. Okay. I was like, oh, I guess we need this the first time we were traveling, but we did not register for it.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, we registered for one, and I don't think we would have purchased one had we not gotten it. It was so far, it was it was far enough down our list that it wasn't like a priority. Yeah. I'm glad that we got one, especially then once we had the two kids, because wherever we we actually had to end up borrowing pack and plates from friends when we would travel so that both of our kids would have a place to sleep. So continuing along with sleep, baby monitors. So I know when we were kids, it was like walkie-talkies or like one-way walkie-talkie type situations. Now everything is a camera. Yep. Babylist says that people are split on this one. People are split 50-50 between using a Wi-Fi monitor and using a traditional like video monitor that has its own separate console. I'm very interested. I think I know what we both use. I think we both used a Wi-Fi. We did. We used Owlet, and I believe you used Nanit. Is that correct? Babylist has the VTech, Hello Baby, and Infant Optics as your traditional video option. Um, but I don't think either one of us can really speak on that. Why did you choose to go with the Wi-Fi versus the console?
SPEAKER_01Honestly, I liked the idea of having it all in my phone and not having another thing that I have to carry around. I remember in those early days. I remember thinking to myself, I wonder when people stop just watching the monitor the whole time the baby sleeps. Like I would be walking around with my phone on the video just watching it, like not being able to stop looking. And I didn't want to have to carry on another thing. Obviously, I'm not still doing that, right? I'm at the point where they can sleep and I can, you know, mostly ignore it. But I didn't want to have to carry another, another device around, and I liked the simplicity of having it on my phone. Even though, from a security standpoint and a privacy standpoint, I love the idea of the console, but the convenience won out for me. For sure.
SPEAKER_02That was kind of our same thought process was the convenience of the phone. We liked the outlet. It really crossed our minds to purchase the sock because we already had the camera. And I think that was one of the reasons we settled on the camera, the outlet versus the nana, was because there was this sock feature that we weren't gonna go with. But if we changed our minds and we wanted the option, it was there. We ultimately made the decision to not go with it because of his NICU stay, which might you might think is odd because if he was in the NICU, why wouldn't we then get the sock? We were afraid we were going to be like constantly checking on it, or if any alarm went off that we were gonna go into panic mode. And so we opted out of the outlet sock. I've heard great things about it. I heard I hear that people love it. Um, and if your kid needs it and it's something that you need, I think it's worth investigating for yourself. But as far as the outlet camera, it works fine. We have both kids in their rooms on the outlet camera. Um, we now talk to them through it because we don't want to go up to their rooms sometimes, and now they kind of know how to communicate with us, which is kind of fun. So I don't know. We liked the outlet, we did not, we opted out of the sock.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I would have done the same thing with a sock. We we did not have one. We also have we had the nanit camera that didn't have that. Um, but I did what I would have said the same thing as you, where it's like I just would have been stressed. Sleep was already a very stressful thing for me. So having an additional layer of data around it, I think was just gonna be overkill. We love our nanit camera. We it was a gift off our registry from my co-workers at the time, and we loved it. We used it for my son, we used it for my daughter. I like that it comes with the full stand attachment as well as travel attachments. It was really convenient to use. It has that microphone back and forth, and so you can communicate. It has a nightlight feature.
SPEAKER_02Oh, that's cool. So, those are some extra features that the outlet doesn't have. It may have updated since we bought ours, but we never traveled with ours. It really didn't, it wasn't portable. It didn't have a nightlight on it.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I I like all those features about it.
SPEAKER_02All right, so we have covered sleep. Top to bottom, top to bottom. We have covered sleep, baby's awake. Yeah, baby needs to eat baby needs to eat. Breast pumps. Yep. Okay, so if you're planning to breastfeed or interested in trying to breastfeed, having a breast pump is probably a really nice thing to have, and they are covered by insurance. A lot of them are fully covered, but then they also have the option to upgrade. I know I upgraded for like I got the basic dollars. I like went through my insurance and then I upgraded for 50 bucks. The top breast pumps from Babylist are the Spectra, the Mom Cozy, and the Mandela. And then we also have options for hand pumps or wearables. I don't think I think the mom cozy is wearable. And I know the LV is a wearable brand and the Willow. So I like I said, I upgraded to the Spectra S1. Is that the pink one or the blue one? The blue one. Okay. And the blue one, I'm telling you, is worth every penny to upgrade. I only had to pay $50 to upgrade. I ended up getting um another one, like I got a hand-me-down from my sister-in-law, and having both was phenomenal because I would just leave one in my office and I would have one at home because I was a pumper. I ended up nursing and pumping and having a backup supply. So having a pump that I could like walk around and be portable with. That's what I was gonna say.
SPEAKER_01The blue one doesn't plug in, right? The blue one charges. Yes. That's the difference. Did you have the pink one? Yes. I hated the pink one. I hated pumping, period, though, so I'm a bad representation. The pump was perfectly fine, but it did have to plug in. Uh, what I liked about it is that there was a little round cavity in the back that was the perfect size for Oreos, so I just used that as an Oreo carrier. Um, it worked perfectly well for me, but I hated pumping, so yeah, I just I hated that thing. I was so happy to get rid of it when I was done with that. Oh, yeah, I still have mine because I'm like maybe someday.
SPEAKER_03No, that thing is gone.
SPEAKER_02Did you have a pumping bra? Yes. Okay, pumping bras are key. There's a couple different ones. Like you can get like a full-on like pumping bra that has a lot of extra like stuff in there. I had one that I would snap on in the back and then like lift up and hook into my nursing bra. Yes. It was amazing. Yeah. Because then not only was I portable from my pump, but I was also portable to move around. So like that was like the So key. Yeah, it was clutch.
SPEAKER_01I also think they've come a long way with the wearable ones. I remember when I was pregnant, our my doula and our lactation consultant were both like, oh, the wearable ones are not that good. You're not gonna get good supply, it's not good for you, blah, blah, blah. I think they've come a long way since then. As far as I can tell, I I mean, do your own research on that, but I didn't have any wearable ones because our lactation consultant had kind of advised against it, and I didn't like pumping it anyway. So I'm like, I don't want to have anything that makes it easier to pump because I literally don't want to. But I've seen good things about the wearable ones.
SPEAKER_02I do, I do agree though, that when we were pregnant, people were kind of like, eh, they they're they don't they're just good, yeah. Yeah. And then did you use a haka?
SPEAKER_01I did use a haka and I had a hand pump as well.
SPEAKER_02Okay.
SPEAKER_01I didn't love the haka because it wouldn't stay on. Both my babies would kick it and grab it and it would just uh tumble off and whatever.
SPEAKER_02I loved the haka. I used the haka to collect milk and that went into milk bags regularly.
SPEAKER_01I had enough instances of the haka tipping over and spilling that I was like that I stopped doing that to myself.
SPEAKER_02So back to the spectra. One of the great things about the spectra was that the pumps themselves fit on the Phillips Advent bottles.
SPEAKER_01Oh, I didn't eat I didn't ever I never pumped into bottles. So what did you pump into? Bags. I had the Lancino bags. I always pumped into a bag and it went straight in the freezer.
SPEAKER_02Interesting. Okay. So I pumped into bottles and because I had an oversupply, the specter bottles are kind of small, but the specter bottles and the Phillips Advent bottles are interchangeable with the lids. Okay. So I could pump into a bottle and use the the lid and the nipple that my kid liked on the Spectre bottle. Or vice versa, like when I was starting to pump a lot, I could put one of the larger bottles on the pump.
SPEAKER_01Okay.
SPEAKER_02And it would take that.
SPEAKER_01That's nice. Yeah. So what bottles did you use? We used the even flow bottles. My son had a really bad case of bottle refusal at the beginning, and we had to work through that with our lactation consultant, but we got there in the end.
SPEAKER_02I guess with bottles, there's like different size like holes in the nipples. Yeah. Which we really didn't know or did any sort of like change.
SPEAKER_01Oh my god, we messed with that so much because of the bottle refusal. Yeah. They were like, oh, try a newborn nipple, try a faster nipple, try a one, try a two, like with different flows, blah, blah, blah. We tried everything with him until we settled on something that worked. But especially for breastfeeding mothers, it's good to be aware of if you're feeding directly from the boob, your flow may be different than the nipple that you're giving your kid, and that may cause that may be good or bad. And like you should just be aware of that the fact that there are different flows for nipples.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, I had no idea. That might have helped with his latch because it took my son four months to latch. Yeah, maybe. I don't know. But you let you learn. It took him four months to latch, and then we switched him to formula at 10 months because I was pregnant at 10 months, and I was like, I'm not having two humans leech off of my body and not valid. Two, two, I don't need two parasites in my life. Babylist has Dr. Brown's Phillips Advent, Evenflow, Lancino, and Comotono. I've never heard of that. I've never heard of that either. Um, but those are the bottles that Babylist recommends if you are in the market for putting bottles on your registry. Moving along, once they're done with bottles, they are moving into baby-led weaning or some sort of toddler-esque feeding style, and we're putting them in high chairs. And Babylist recommends the mockingbird IKEA, Stokey, Peg Parago, and Greco. And I've heard incredible things about the IKEA, and there are so many ways to doctor it. So it's like a it's like a $20 high chair, so it's like it's insanely affordable. Maybe it's $50 now. I don't know. It's somewhere in that like $20 to $50 range. But then, like, you can go on Etsy and literally search like IKEA high chair upgrades, and there's all sorts of stuff you can do to it to like make it fit your home. I've never heard of that. Yeah, it's really cool. Check it out. What kind of high chair did you have? So we have it's either a Greco or a Chico. I don't remember. So we went with affordability over functionality for this one. I don't know why. We love we we liked it, we had no problem with it. We were looking for affordability, and the peg Parago that's on here was like my dream high chair. One because it was the same brand as our stroller and then like you know, brand matching or whatever. But it was sick. If you are looking for a splurge high chair, it is really cool. So throw that one on your list.
SPEAKER_01We had the Oxotot high chair. Oh, yeah. And the only complaint I had about it is that it didn't fold up. Yes. But I love that thing. Was that a three in one?
SPEAKER_02Was that one that's like yes? My sister had that one, I think.
SPEAKER_01I liked the convertibility of it, right? So you have the tray that it can clip in or clip out, so you can have that or not, just pull them right up to the table, and then the foot rest is adjustable, and then the height of the chair is adjustable as well. That's cool, and we loved it. My favorite feature about it is that it was all wipable, so there was no like cloth that you have to take off and put as a washer. Like you could wipe it down with a Clorox wipe, and it would be clean. My only complaint about it, like I said, is that it didn't fold up, but we used that for both of our kids. Super wipable, super cleanable. They both liked it. That's pretty much eating.
SPEAKER_02There's probably other things like bibs or get so many bibs. The silicone is. We like the silicone ones as well. We also loved the easy peasy products for once we they got into baby lead weaning. Literally, easy peasy is the brand, and they have like cups and their the brand was fantastic for baby lead weaning, and we actually still use their like mats. They come, they they make travel mats, so we would like take those to restaurants and stuff like that. Their products were really good for eating, but that's really it for eating. But what about diapers? Because we haven't really gotten into the product of eating. Um they poop. Um diapers, did you use cloth or disposable? We did disposable.
SPEAKER_01Did you do any research on cloth? I loved the concept of cloth. For me, I didn't want to have to be washing them. Yeah. I know I've heard some mothers of like our parents' generation talk about how like when they did cloth diapering, there was a service that would come around to your house. And you I think uh Matt and CC talked about this on their episode. Oh, yeah. And I said, you know what, if there was a service that came and took away all the dirty ones and brought me clean ones, I would have done it. Yeah. But I don't want to have to be responsible for washing cloth diapers. There's already so much laundry. Yeah. So we went with disposable. We did Huggy's brand for forever until we joined Costco, and then we did Costco brand.
SPEAKER_02We also did disposable. We did our research. We kind of looked, we looked pretty deep into um cloth diapers versus disposable diapers. In our research, we didn't find that they were like significantly more eco-friendly than disposable diapers. While disposable diapers are not eco-friendly at all. For us, the it just didn't, it just didn't weigh out the convenience one out on that one. But we use pampers until we moved and got a Costco membership and switched to Kirkland. There's a lot of different diaper brands out there. There's some like really high-end diapers. Some high-end diapers. Yeah, I mean poop in. I know, I know. But I mean it's your kids' butt, you know. Yeah, I don't want to judge. I shouldn't judge. And like, there's you know, you want to keep everything safe down there. So if using high-end or high quality diapers is what you need to do for that, like I think that's great. Costco was great for us. We also were a big aquifer house. Oh, we were triple-paced. Okay. Die hard triple paced. Yeah, we tried decetin once or twice, but then we were like, nah, Aquafore is where it's at. Aquifor worked for us.
SPEAKER_01We we use aquafore adrenaline in our house. We didn't really use it for diaper, though.
SPEAKER_02Everything. Yeah, aquapore is the best. Everything. Put aquafore, like gallons of aquafore in your registry. You don't know how many gallons, but you'll use it for sure. I think everybody's like skin's a little different. So when we were prepping for this episode, you talked about butt spatulas. Did you use a butt spatula on your kids? I used a butt spatula. What the fuck is a butt spatula? Did you not use a butt spatula? I don't I Do you not even know what it is? I don't even know what a butt spatula is. I mean, I can I think that I how did you realize what a butt spatula is?
SPEAKER_01It's it's a little silicone thing. It has a suction bottom so you can stick it to your dresser. And it's got a spatula top to scoop the diaper paste and slather it on your baby's butt so you don't have to use your fingers. Do you just use your fingers? Yes. And you have to wipe them off every time you like stick them all on their butt? Do you not wash your hands after you're changing this diaper? I do, but I don't have to wipe the triple paste off. Oh yeah, no. Aquifor, wipe, wash. Oh my god. No. Butt spatula. I'm amazed that you did not have one. My girlfriend, who I think listens to this podcast, was the one who recommended it to me. She was like, You need a butt spatula. And now I feel so passionately about it that whenever I go to a baby shower, I will without get the diaper bin. I get like the poop trifecta. Okay. I get the diaper bin, whatever diaper cream they want, and a butt spatula. I will get them a butt spatula even if it's not on the registry because I'm like, it's like $5. If you throw it away, I don't care. But I'll get their diaper bin, you know, the ones that they want, and the butt spatula. I'm like, here's for all your pooping needs. That's hilarious. I love that thing. I just didn't want to touch my baby's butthole. What? You know, you're like slapping it in there.
SPEAKER_02I don't want to like uh I didn't want to use my fingers. And the baby came out of right next to your butthole.
SPEAKER_01So the funniest thing we've ever heard of.
SPEAKER_02Oh my god. Unbelievable. Speaking of diaper pails, though. Yes. What kind of diaper pail did you get? I loved our diaper pail.
SPEAKER_01Oh gosh. I also loved our. I don't know the brand, but it's the one when you open it and close it, it like twists to seal it off. Is that the diaper genie? No, it was Munchkin brand. Okay.
SPEAKER_02So did you need special bags for it? You did. Okay, so that's why we opted out of the diaper genie because that felt like an unnecessary expense.
SPEAKER_01We got them in bulk. So they were, they like we purchased them in bulk and we were kind of all set with them. And it wasn't that bad.
SPEAKER_02We went with the Skip Hop brand and we loved ours because it had like a barrier, like a seal. So you would open it, put the diaper in, close it, and then like press the button and it would go down into a disposable diaper bag. So like we didn't get that poop smell because it was like sealed off. That's nice. And then we what also we liked about it was it had a little compartment in the front for wipes.
SPEAKER_01Oh, that's not what I thought you were gonna say.
SPEAKER_02So it had like, and then it also had a kickstand on it, so you could like slide it into a corner and like it wouldn't tip over. Oh, clause. So we actually have two of them. We put one in each kid's room. Oh, nice. All right, so sticking in like the bedroom and like safety stuff health related. Yeah. Um, snot suckers, bulb syringe. Did you use a snot sucker or bulb syringe? We used the mouth the one you stuck with your mouth. Yeah. Nose Frida. The the Frida baby one. Loved that thing. We loved it too. Oh man, people don't want to do it. We loved it. Um I mean, it is disgusting. It's not, I mean, it's so filtered and it's disgusting in concepts. In concept, it's actually disgusting. I also feel like that feels safer to me than the electric one. Yeah, we never used an electric one. I just felt like I had more control, and then when we would like put the saline in their nose and then suck it out, it was just like, oh, how much satisfying. How much did your babies hate it when you would suck their noses? It it would honestly depend on how sick they were. Because sometimes I've had my kids ask me, Can you suck my bogers? Okay.
SPEAKER_01That's really nice. Yeah. We had to headlock our babies to nose suck them. I believe that. I believe that. What about nail clippers? We never clipped them. I mean, now we do that they're older. We had the electric nail file. Okay. Loved that thing. Okay. Loved it.
SPEAKER_02We have just the little like embry boards that come in one of those like safety kits that people like a manual. We just like embry board them. And then eventually we got like the Frida Baby clippers that have like they're uneven. So yeah. So those ones are kind of cool. Thermometer.
SPEAKER_01I don't think we had anything fancy for a thermometer. We did the rectal thermometer. Nothing fancy though. I mean, we now have the Frida Baby like forehead one or like for the kids. I feel like every time my kids get sick, I need a new thermometer because the battery's dead or it's beeping weird or whatever. I don't know. We I I I if someone has a recommendation for a good one, not a forehead one, I want one that I can put in their mouth that like will last and hold up. I feel like every time they're sick, I'm running out to CBS because I'm like, the thermometer's dead.
SPEAKER_02Oh, we have the Frida baby one, but it is an inf like a head one. Yeah, I want the one or an inner ear. You can do an inner ear with that one. I want the one they can put in their mouth. And we that's actually my go-to um baby shower gift.
SPEAKER_01The thermometer?
SPEAKER_02The thermometer. There you go.
SPEAKER_01That's the fun fact. That's like your trivia fact. What is what are our go-to gifts? But smash one thermometer.
SPEAKER_02So those are like the big ticket items for a registry. But we did miss quite a few things that end up on the registry. Oh, yeah. Like all the little knickknacks, all the play toys. So today we're gonna do a little twist on the lightning round. I have a list of honorable mentions sitting in front of me from my prep for this episode. And I'm gonna quick fire them at you, and I want to hear if you're gonna take it or leave it. Okay. And this is take it or leave it, put it on your registry, or like I would say, like, say leave it if you did even put it on your registry, but then never used it. So, like, this is just like okay, for mayor, take it or leave it. I'm also gonna give my opinion. Yeah, I want to hear yours. So, you ready? I'm ready. All right, honorable mentions, baby products, take it or leave it. Okay, playmats. Take it, yeah. Take it for sure. We put our kid on that thing all the time.
SPEAKER_01We had one that had like the milestones on it. So, like, oh, month zero, this is what you're looking for. Month one, you're this is what you're looking for. I loved that.
SPEAKER_02We had one with like the rain, the like the arcs. Yeah, we had that too. Over the crib mobile. Uh leave it. Leave it. Nursing pillow. Oh, take it.
SPEAKER_01We didn't get one on our registry. And the first time we went to the pediatrician, she gave me one to use while we were there, and I was like, I had to cart while I'm sitting here. This thing is great.
SPEAKER_02Um, I'm gonna leave it. I ended up, I had the Bobby pregnancy pillow that I then used as a pillow. So um don't need an extra nursing pillow if you have stuff that you already have around the house. There you go. Bathtub, like uh an actual bathtub. I'm gonna also take that. And we had the the whale one, the Moby Pop.
SPEAKER_01I think we just got ours off of Amazon. It was like a very basic one, but it worked in the sink and in the tub.
SPEAKER_02Okay, that's awesome. A shopping cart cover. Skip it, leave it, leave it. They're gonna get stuff in their mouths no matter what.
SPEAKER_01It's fine. I just had them in the car seat or in the carrier in the store. Yeah. Bottle warmer. Skip it, skip it. It's a crunch. No, I'm just kidding.
SPEAKER_02Uh diaper bag. Take it. Yeah, we didn't really get into diaper bag much in this in that conversation.
SPEAKER_01We just retired our diaper bag because we have two body-trained kids.
SPEAKER_02We have not retired our diaper bag yet. But my tip for the diaper bag is pick a diaper bag that both partners will wear. A thousand percent. What about a toy subscription?
SPEAKER_01Skip it, skip it, rocking chair. Oh, take it. Like a glider. I lived in our rocking chair.
SPEAKER_02I'm gonna leave it, except for I then bought one secondhand once I had my second kid. There you go. Pack and play? Yep, take it. Take it. We already kind of talked about that.
SPEAKER_01A boppy or a docket. Different things to me. The boppy is like a nursing pillow, and I would absolutely take that. The docker I bought for my first kid and never used it. I was like, why do people spend $80 on this?
SPEAKER_02So for me, the Bopy means like the so we had the Bopi for your infant that was basically a docker. Um, so it was just a different brand, and I would take it a hundred thousand percent.
SPEAKER_01For my second, I used it all the time. I think it's because my first, I never put him down. I was just like, always all the time. Oh my god.
SPEAKER_02I that was where we put him. Yeah, no, all the time.
SPEAKER_01For my second, I was like, oh, I get yes, I get it now.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, no, I would 100% recommend one bouncy chair. Oh, yes, the poop pocket.
SPEAKER_01That's what we called that. If your kids are constipated, you put them in the poop pocket and they poop every single time. You know how many times that thing has gone through the wash air?
SPEAKER_02A million. That's so funny. I'm gonna also take that because we could bounce him, and that was the only thing that would calm our child was when that the vibration was on and it was being bounced. Oh, we didn't have vibration in ours. Yeah, Fisher Price. Fisher Price makes a great bouncer. The swing like the Mamaro or like an electric swing.
SPEAKER_01I would leave it. We got one as a hand-me-down and we did use it, but if we didn't get it as a hand-me-down, I don't think I would have bought it.
SPEAKER_02I 100% agree. I would leave it. We got a Mamaro on Marketplace, but we only got the Mamaro on Marketplace because I was taking my son to my office a few days a week. So I brought that to my office because it fit. Um, but I would not swings, you don't need them.
SPEAKER_00That's all I have. Love it. Yeah, that's items. Oh, yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_01Can I add one more to your to my lead it list? Yeah. Wipe warmers.
SPEAKER_00Oh.
SPEAKER_01We got a wipe warmer. I don't remember why or how we ended up with it. And I remember tossing it like a week into having a baby because I was like, this is a breeding ground for bacteria, these wet wipes that we're now making warm. Like, what are we doing? That's weird. It was, it seemed like such a weird thing. Like, I don't know what my brain was when we got it that I was like, oh, we need this. And literally after a week, I was like, absolutely not. So skip, skip the wipe warmer.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, we didn't have a wipe warmer. You don't need it. So, well, I hope that you guys got some use out of this episode. I hope that if you're building a registry or going to a shower or anything related to needing baby products, that this was helpful.
SPEAKER_01I think it's so easy to look at the registry and be throw everything on it, right? And be like, I need everything. And I hope this helped you narrow down kind of what are the important things, what are the things that you don't necessarily need to splurge on and get really what you need. Because I think it's so easy to go overboard and it's fun if you want to do that, but like don't feel like you have to.
SPEAKER_02I think another tip that I would throw out there is like what my husband and I did. We had an A, B, and C list. Like, we absolutely need this. We can take it or leave it, like we can put it on the registry, and then like we don't need this at all. We did have like our C list might not have made the registry, but we got to a point where we were like, okay, we're gonna have the C list just in case like people start to like really get active on our registry and like need things to buy. Um, but I would have like a negotiables and a non-negotiables list.
SPEAKER_01Like I in that vein, I would say like clothes and blankets, put those on your C list because you will get people cannot resist buying baby clothes and blankets. You don't need to put them on your registry, you'll get a million of them. If everything else runs out and everything is bought, then go ahead and add clothes. But you don't want people to be buying clothes and blankets when you still need like your stroller and your car seat.
SPEAKER_02100%. The other thing with clothes I would recommend is calculating out the months like of your baby. Obviously, they may or may not fit in the month specific clothes for the season, but having clothes further out, so if you have a December baby, having six-month clothes that are short sleeve are going to be beneficial. So, kind of doing some math there and like not just getting newborn clothes because newborn clothes they go through them in a second. Literally, like three weeks, and they're on to three-month clothes. Books don't need to put them on your registry, but if you're having a baby shower, books as cards, books in lieu of cards, it's a really cute idea. I love that that's a trend and that people are doing it because your bookshelf will always be stocked, and you'll have little notes from everyone that loves baby.
SPEAKER_01My dance team did that for me when I was pregnant with my first my my girlfriend likes he coordinated it, and all the all my dancers got books for me. So now when we read the stories, my son will be like, Who's this one from? Like he knows that they're from my dancers. It's a really, really cool trend, and I love, love that people are doing it. You know what I want to tie back to? One last thing you said at the top like talk to your community, talk to your friends, see what worked for them. I need to give a shout out to a few of the women that I went to college with, as well as one of my neighbors who doesn't live local to our neighborhood group, but lives, you know, kind of close to us, who provided me a document when I was working on my registry that had feedback from all of them that was like, That's cool, I loved this stroller, I loved this bass in it, and it just had their real honest thoughts about it. And then I added my thoughts to it, and I still to this day will share it with people. If they're like, I need help with my registry, I'm like, let me send you this document. It has four different moms' perspectives of like, here's what I used. It's probably a little dated now because you know we're we're we've all you know had kids and grown up a little bit, but shout out to those women who are so helpful to me when creating that registry. On that note, Mare socials, hit them up. Socials, we are moms off script on TikTok and Instagram. Check us out there for behind-the-scenes stuff, extra trends, just like if you want more Megan Marev, that's where you gotta go. You can also send us an email at moms off script at gmail.com. We'd love to hear from you all. We love reading Lester Mail on the air, so let us know what you're thinking. You can also send us a text, check out the show notes there, and I think those are all the ways you can find us.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, if you have any recommendations that weren't listed in this episode, feel free to comment on any of our social posts where we're talking about these things, or send us an email and we'll make sure that our listeners hear it. And that's all for now. That's the end of this episode. Thank you guys so much for tuning in. We'll see you guys next Thursday. Graphic design, electron developed.