Best and Worst of your registry?

I registered for my baby, but did not deliver him yet. Here are my tips for your registry:

1. Mind Your Seasons: If you are in a state that kids all of our wonderful season acknowledge that!! You want to register for long sleeve onesies in NB and not short. Get sleepers or sleep stacks. You need ALOT of hats. Make sure you are registering for WHERE you live and the conditions you live in.

2. Get the essentials: The stroller, car seats, additional car seat base, bouncer and swing are your ESSENTIALS. You NEED these things. When people ask you what you want let them know!

3. Towels, Wash Cloths, Burp Cloths, Blankets & Receiving Blankets: You need alot of the above. You will receive alot of home-made blankets, but register for EVERY blanket that is appealing to you. You will need alot of them. Either register for burp cloths or cloth diapers, many use cloth diapers or receiving blankets as burp cloths. You need alot of wash cloths.

4. Nursery Decor: Save yourself from another big ticket item. The essentials above are enough. SKIP the crib set. You don't need it. Especially since crib bumpers only add to the risk of SIDS. You will get SO MANY blankets toward your theme you don't really need the set. Register for the valances, lamp, wall hanging, blanket and night light that you like. Skip the set it's unnecessary. I returned mine, simply didn't need it!

5. Place: Im not sure where you are registering, but I ONLY registered at babiesrus. If people don't live near one they will buy clothes or blankets for you. I received a swing that wasn't on my registry. Keep in mind ALOT of people will buy what you want somewhere that its cheaper. I freaked out the morning of my shower because online it told me only 11 of my registered items were purchased. I received EVERYTHING I needed and registered for people just forget .

6. Ask for books instead of cards: I asked in my invitations to get a baby book instead of a card. People are to sign the card and write a message to your baby!

Good Luck!

We are really practical, so we didn't register for much.

The WORST THINGS:

I would say that a $60 diaper bag was the stupidest thing.

1. We got a free diaper bag from enfamil at the hospital, and rarely even used that.

2. A babyfood warmer.

3. Any baby clothing that has: a collar (after one washing, the collar flips up in baby's face, and no new mom wants to spend all day ironing little baby collars); FEET in the legs (babies' feet get stuck up in the legs, and they start screaming); buttons on the back (the baby can't sleep with buttons pushing into their spine).

Last, if your baby is a girl, DON'T register for any dresses between 6-12 months. They get all tripped up and tangled when they try to crawl in a dress.

Changing table. You'll find that you always change the baby on the couch, or elsewhere.

The BEST?

1 Bouncer seat.

2 Dr. Brown's bottles

3 the cages that you put all the bottle pieces in to wash in the dishwasher.

4 Bottle brushes

5 Socks...they get lost easily, and show dirt, so we went through a lot of socks..way more than what we anticipated.

6 Onesies for every age...at least 5 of each size.

7 Zutano booties (on babycenter store website) for the 2 smallest sizes. (I think it is now 0-6 and 6-18 months?). They are nice and warm, and the only booties that stay on.

8 Leggings for every age.

9 Graco pack n play with bassinet insert (we used this til baby was 15 pounds, instead of a crib.)

10 Books, books books! Little board books...no matter how cheap they are. Start accumulating them now.

Aside from obvious essentials:

Best thing EVER: The Sony Baby Call 27 channel Monitor. The biggest reason why is because it has a voice/noise activation feature so you don't HAVE to listen to music playing in baby's room or any other white noise.

Also useful was Sheet Savers to put in the crib under baby so that if there was an accident, we didn't have to change the sheet at night.

Changing Table = useless. I wasn't about to go to his room every single time to change him. And once they start rolling around, it's just so easy for them to roll off. Besides that, I'd rather sit in front of baby to change him than changing him from the side.

We loved the boppy. I usually put a blanket over it so having extra covers wasn't necessary.

We found that 2-3 crib sheets were plenty.

My son was born in Oct in Northern Michigan and we had too many blankets. We only needed a few and ended up with a ton.

No such thing as too many onesies for a newborn. My son was inbetween preemie & newborn diapers and that meant a lot of accidents.

We also found the bassinet very useful for when he was first home. He was accessbile for feeding at night and it had wheels so I could drag it into the living room with me during the day. Only kept him in it 6 weeks or so.

The exersaucer was great but he never used an actual walker. Instead he used the Fisher Price toy that they walk behind.

Last thing. BURP CLOTHS. Most of them sold today are flimsy, thin and small. They don't catch anything and don't cover up your shoulder adequately. There is a burp cloth on the market that is made like a cloth diaper without the extra padding in the center and made with cute boy/girl designs on them. The only place I've been able to find them is walmart.

Because so much of our family lived far away, we got a TON of giftcards. Therefore I can't really think of anything that we really wanted and didn't have.

The best was a sling that I registered for at a small shop for Mothers and babies.

The worst was the diaper pail as it has yet to have been used. The changing table is set up in the play room which is so close to the main trash that we never once have placed the diaper in the pail. Maybe I will return it tomorrow.

And for the one who said that registries don't work, I loved it. I had a friend who works at babies r us do mine for me and I registered at a local boutique. I received much of what I registered for and then some. I think invite all of your mom and dads friends helps. They have been there and done that so they want to bless you with what you need. I did get a lot of clothes that we don't need and will never use but I just wrap them up and give them as gifts to out of state friends when they have babies.

I do not think registers work people will get what they want to get you.

bottle warmer was never used and walker was used very little. Johnny jump up was not used. Swing is a must have. Front pack was hardly used. Monitor was the best .

Best: swing and bouncer

worst: diaper genie (stopped using it after about a month) and Bumbo chair (at 6 months we still haven't use it much)

wish we'd registered for: wipe warmer (wonderful in the winter), more diapers and wipes, baby sling (instead of the bjorn)

Best thing I registered for: the crib.

Worst thing: changing table. Never touched it.

I registered for everything I needed, but 95% of people never heeded it and bought tons of cutsie outfits that were in the wrong size and/or season. I also got 23 bibs. Good grief.