Choosing nursery essentials is an exciting part of getting ready before your baby arrives. The problem is that you may feel overwhelmed by the tons of items available in the baby market. You might even buy things you certainly do not need.
Here we will spell out exactly what necessities to care for and buy for your baby. We will start with the essentials that make your baby sound asleep. Listed down are seven must-haves in your baby’s nursery.
Bassinet
Although your baby cannot use bassinets for a long time due to their weight limit, their portability, protection, and storage system are a godsend. You can keep an eye on your baby in all rooms of your house because you can easily move this baby bedroom furniture around. The best part of it is that you can have your baby close to you during their multiple wake-ups.
Since it is portable and lightweight, bassinets are also great for traveling. It has protective, removable hoods that cover your baby from sunlight, helping them sleep better and longer. Bassinets also have storage systems to keep almost all your baby essentials near your arms’ reach.
Change Table
Changing your baby’s nappies is no easy business. It is very messy, smelly, and constant, around 10 to 12 times a day (or more on a bad day!). Changing nappies on a coffee table, floor, sofa, or bed is okay, but most of the time, you may hurt your knees and back.
Having a changing table is the best practical solution. It is safe stand-alone furniture for changing nappies, bathing babies, and even storing nappy-changing supplies in one place. It is purposely built at a suitable height, so mommies would not have a hard time. Additionally, most change tables nowadays have wheels, so they are now more portable.
Rockers
Babies having no sense of night or day and feeding around the clock can make mommies crazily exhausted. The good thing is You can easily calm a fussy baby when sitting on a rocking chair. Also, rocking babies in rockers is safer and easier for worn-out and half asleep mommies than doing it on their feet back and forth for hours.
Rocking can also promote babies’ social, emotional, and motor development. The rocking motion stimulates babies’ balance mechanism of their inner ear, which eventually improves their ability to be alert and attentive. In addition, opting for a rocking chair helps mommies recover faster and lose weight since rocking burns about 150 calories an hour.
Night Light
A night light is another baby bedroom furniture that is scientifically proven to improve your babies’ biological development. Many doctors have been recommending this to boost babies’ vision and brain development, specifically from birth to four months of age.
It is also practical and indispensable furniture during middle-of-the-night night feedings and nappy changes. Its dim light is gentle on blurry eyes, enough for you not to fumble while doing your pre-dawn activities, and good to keep your babies in sleep-time mode.
Nursing Pillow
Babies tend to feed 8-12 times a day, and one feed may last for an hour or so. However, doing this can be very taxing on mommies’ bodies. With a nursing pillow, your baby’s position is at the right height for breastfeeding and bottle-feeding, so your back, shoulders, and neck are supported and can relax. Having babies in position encourages good latching as well.
You can also use nursing pillows to practice tummy time, where you turn your baby upside down and make them lie on their tummy during their waking hours under your supervision. Tummy time can strengthen your baby’s core muscles like arms, legs, neck, and back.
Play Mats
Another baby bedroom essential that promotes tummy time is play mats. They are spacious, safe, and soft enough for your baby to play on their front, back, right, and left back sides. Moreover, allowing them to move around strengthens your baby’s core muscles, which will lead to the development of their gross motor skills, including reaching, grasping, crawling, and sitting.
Babies have nearsightedness at birth, so things with highly-contrasting colors like play mats may improve their depth perception. Additionally, play mats of different colors, textures, and sounds can stimulate and develop babies’ awareness of sensory stimuli like visual and auditory.
Baby Monitor
Baby monitors allow parents to pay attention to their babies continuously. It can allow you to get multiple sneak peeks, entertain, and calm your babies in just one click from afar. As a result, you can improve your sleep and ensure your baby’s safety and health. Having this gives you peace of mind, especially if you are a working parent.
Final Thoughts
Make sure that the nursery essentials you will buy are necessary and helpful for your baby. Babies are typically simple, so it is also definitely fine if your nursery is simple as well. In general, it is a matter of must-haves and not nice-to-haves.
