Top Seven Gifts for a Soon to Be New Mom

The list goes on and on. For a new mother-to-be it can get quite confusing. Once you become pregnant you think that you have months to prepare. It goes by very quickly though and for some of us, preparations are overwhelming.

When creating a baby registry, some people take weeks researching and planning, while others go to the store grab the registry gun and go wild!

If I could give any advice at all to new moms based on my own experience with must have baby items, it would be the following list.

Without knowing much about the product, I added the Fisher-Price 2-In-1 Precious Planet Projection Mobile to my baby registry. I lucked out because it ended up being one of the most useful things I got for my baby.

This mobile does it all! It has a projector that light up and displays moving pictures. It plays your choice of a melody, nature sounds, or a heartbeat sound which soothes newborn babies that are used to hearing their mothers heartbeats.

There is no winding needed, large buttons on the front of it control each function. There is also a remote control which is great when you are across the room rocking or feeding your baby and you want to turn the mobile on without getting up.

When my daughter got to the point where she would stand up in her crib and try to rip the animals off the mobile, we switched it to just be a ceiling projector. I thought for sure the images would be unclear on the ceiling however the picture is crystal clear!

My favorite things about this mobile are:

• The sounds play for twenty minutes as opposed to the one minute wind up mobiles.
• The nature sounds are so relaxing they have put me to sleep right after the baby.
• The mobile makes for a soft relaxing nightlight, great for putting your baby to sleep and even peeking in at your baby without turning on a bright light.

We probably went through 7 different types of bottles before we found the perfect ones. After having severe feeding issues one of my daughters nurses suggested we try the Dr. Browns bottles. They worked! I used them again a few years later when I had my son and he had reflux issues. These bottles worked like a charm with helping him!

If you have never seen a Dr. Browns bottle, then you might be surprised. There are several parts that go to one bottle. That is because Dr. Browns bottles have a patented internal vent system. This helps babies with colic and reflux problems, which most babies have to some degree.

The downside to these bottles are that there are a few small pieces to clean. However, when it comes to your babies health and comfort, a little extra cleaning shouldn't be a problem. The only real problem I have had with the bottles is that sometimes the small rubber vent pieces do warp over time and excessive cleaning, but you can buy replacement pieces in stores at reasonable prices.

The bottles are sold in different sizes as well as standard, wide-neck and glass.

You may think that this is unnecessary, but these bags are a must of you care at all about keeping your baby safe from germs and bacteria. There's no need for an expensive steam system or to bust out a giant pot and boil bottle and breast pump pieces and parts!

These microwave steam sterilizer bags are effective and affordable, and something that most new moms do not think about. Luckily I got a free sample of them from the hospital and I have been using them since. Each bag can be used up to twenty times and has a label on the bag so you can check off a box after each use and keep track of how many times you have used it!

When it comes to baby monitors the selection available is quite large. It's hard to decide which is the best monitor for the price. Do you need a video monitor or is a sound monitor satisfactory?

A product I would recommend to any new mother is a movement monitor. If the baby were to stop breathing, this monitor would sound an alarm to alert parents. I know it is not something people want to think about when planning for a new baby, but it's better to be safe than sorry.

The only downfall to this product is that sometimes if your baby rolls to the edge of the crib the sensor pad might not pick them up and will set off a false alarm, but again rather safe than sorry.

Don't look at this as an unnecessary expense, the peace of mind I have gotten from it is priceless!

Note that there are several types of these monitors available. I recommend the Angelcare brand baby monitor with video and breathing sensor pad. I bought this brand for my daughter ten years ago, used it for my son two and a half years later and now have a friend with a newborn who I gave mine to. This brand is such a great quality it has lasted ten years and is still working perfectly!

Anybody with kids can tell you that it starts the day you have your first, batteries galore!

Often times people are asked to bring extra diapers or baby wipes to a baby shower to help out the future mom-to-be. I say, have everybody bring a pack of batteries. Most likely parents will spend more on the batteries to operate a toy or baby product (the swing was our biggest money-pit) than the actual item cost!

Ask for batteries, give batteries, stock up on batteries it wont be a mistake!

Buying diapers can be a pain in the butt! However, Amazon makes it super easy with their subscription program! I wish I knew about this when my kids were smaller as it would have saved me so many frustrating, screaming baby toting trips to Target!

The hospital started me out with Pampers brand diapers, which were fine at first. That is until I tried Luvs. Luvs are much cheaper, so right off the bat that is an excellent selling point. I am the type of person who will try anything once if I have a coupon for it, so I tried the Luvs brand when I found a good deal on them.

The smell alone was all it took for me to fall in love with Luvs! I remember using Huggies and thinking how terrible they smelled, even before the baby made a mess in them! Luvs smell like baby powder so if your baby just gets it a little bit wet, it wont stink like other brands do. With the ultra leakguards in the Luvs diapers, a little bit of wetness will not bother the baby's skin at all. That being said, they do tend to get a bit droopy once they are significantly wet but, that is a point when most people would change their babies diapers anyway.

Luvs also allow the most room for growth. Babies tend to grow fast and it can be very aggravating when you buy a box of diapers only to realize you need the next larger size before you are halfway through your current box. Luvs have more elasticity on the sides, which not only make it more comfortable for the baby to move around but, also helps with helping the parent hold off on buying another box of diapers until the current one runs out.

Luvs also have special tabs that can be unfastened and refastened, which is very convenient. Especially if you open a diaper to check it only to find out that smell was just gas and the diaper is still usable!

If you really want to help out a new mom, even an experienced mom, give her some time to sleep! Offer to babysit long enough for her to take a hot shower and a nap. I have been a mother for ten years now, and whether it is my birthday, valentines day, Christmas, all I ask anybody for is a nap. Being well rested is priceless, and this gift, won't cost you anything but time!