What does a baby need?

Babies are expensive, right? I was asked today, "What does a baby need? What did you get the most use out of?" So basically, here are my must-haves:

A GOOD carrier.

By "good", I mean NOT the crap you buy at Walmart. Ergo, Beco, Boba, Babyhawk Mei Tai, Girasol woven wrap, Maya ring sling, even a Moby wrap for the first couple months... These are good carriers! Personally, I'm a Ergo girl. I love my Ergo so much I've pretty much given up strollers for it, and not a day goes by that I don't use it. Babywearing is so much more convenient than using a stroller since you don't have to look for ramps, don't have that cumbersome moment where you can't quite open the door to someplace and simultaneously maneuver the stroller through it, and there's no concern about if it will fit in the car. Babywearing is awesome. Why did it take me until my third child to figure this out? Because I didn't have a good carrier before this. When I got my Ergo, I began to love babywearing. Coincidence? I think not.

Two awesome boobs. I have fed formula in the past. It scared the crap out of me to do it, because formula is pretty bad stuff compared to the real thing. Only 3% of women in the world physically cannot breastfeed. Even if every person you know has failed at it, at least try. Come to a La Leche League meeting, too. We have such an awesome group here in El Paso.

Also under the topic of feeding, you need great nursing bras. I like Hot Milk nursing bras. They are so pretty, good quality, and fit nicely. They're expensive if you pay full price, but you can get them on sale for about $30 apiece, which isn't bad for what they are.

I also have found my breastpump to be worth its weight in gold, and then some. I have a Medela Pump In Style. Yes, it is worth every penny. When you consider that organic GMO-free baby formula costs upward of $200 a month (trust me on this one), a $300 breastpump seems downright reasonable.

Obviously every baby needs a good carseat. Sure, you can buy an infant seat, which they'll outgrow in a few months, and then you'll have to buy a convertible seat after that. Plus, if you babywear, you won't even use the infant seat as part of a travel system. For my buck, a good convertible carseat is where it's at. I like the Sunshine Kids Radian XTSL, or the Diono Radian RXT. Again, this is another $300 purchase if you can't find one on sale. It is worth it, though. This is one of the few convertible carseats on the US market that actually fits from birth. Not to mention it's got the highest rear-facing weight limit, and a tall enough shell to go along with it. It forward-faces to 80 pounds (again, nice tall shell helps), and has an 8 year (for the XTSL) or 10 year (for the RXT) life before expiration. You get a lot more for your money with this seat than any of the cheaper ones. We love our Radians.

Some manner of cosleeper is great to have, too. We used a pack-and-play with a bassinet attachment, but it's even better to have an Arm's Reach Cosleeper. The mattress is better than that of the pack-and-play, and it sidecars to the bed more easily, too. Breastfeeding and cosleeping go hand in hand for us.

At least 2 dozen cloth diapers. There are so many kinds, I can't tell you what you'll like best. Every baby is different. My boys are complete opposites. Orren was great in pocket diapers. Chai is horrible in pocket diapers. We use pretty much just prefolds with Chai, whereas we used almost nothing but pocket diapers with Orren. All I can tell you is to try stuff, and see what works. Although I will tell you that prefolds are the most versatile. I don't know a single baby who can't use prefolds. The fact that they're so cheap is just an added bonus. You want at least two dozen diapers so you can wash every other day. My stash is way bigger than that, but I have diapered with as few as a dozen before, and can tell you it can be done with a small stash. At least two dozen is best, though.

Clothes, toys, blankies....

That's really it. Also, for those on a budget, you can actually limit this even further. Just the diapers, a sling, some clothes, some blankies, a few toys, and a carseat will do totally fine.