I pause in the middle of breatfeeding, burp, swaddle, feed, burp. Son falls asleep and I lay him down or place in Fisher price cradle swing(use rechargeable batteries, invest in charger). He sleeps well over 6 hours since just after 2 weeks old.

Also besides the cloth diapers as burp cloths, I love bibs. I found some medium sized very colorful terry ones at Babies R Us. Between spit up and drool, it saves having to change clothes or unswaddle most of the time.

Bottle warmers-if it was winter and we were bottle feeding, it’d be nice to be on my second story, take chilled prepared bottle from cooler bag with ice, pop into warmer to take chill off, done in seconds vs going down and then up 10 or 15 stairs in my house to fridge, while exhausted and not awake, to microwave mug of water, wait for bottle to warm, while listening to baby cry, waking whole house, especially the first couple of weeks

I also the like nursing cover sold at Babies R Us with wire at the top.

Remember we all done have the same needs/lifestyle

Bottle liners can be pumped into with certain Medela pump, would be great for traveling and like someone else said they wash them. I got the bottle free and bought cheap generic liners for traveling. I live in the SW and travel with hubby for work. On occasion, like when there is no running water to rinse, easy. If you can pump while driving and feed while buckled into car seat, it saves like 45 minutes every feeding and it adds up if the kids is cluster feeding!

I like cloth diapers for burp cloths as they are absorbant. I use disposible diapers but I keep diaper pins attached to the diaper bag, so I could use them if in a pinch or the pins to make impromptu bibs in restaurants.

I TOTALLY agree with you about Medela breast pumps, especially for more than one baby.

Bottle Warmers-Microwave kills beneficials and can make hot spots but sitting in hot water works.

My Jury still out about wipe warmers.

I LOVE My Brest Friend pillow. Great when out and there is not seats with arms as there is more of a shelf and I can rest it on my legs. I admit I didn’t like using it at first but tried it again after a couple of weeks. Where would you stack the pillows when using a single chair when out? I can’t hold my son for 40 minutes, 8+ times a day in a perfect position.

As for diaper disposal… I have a dog that gets into trash cans and strew the contents all over. I invested in some expensive stainless steel cans from Lowe’s for $90. Yeah, not cheap. But they seal, dog can’t get into them, use regular garbage bags bought at Costco. I can reuse them after we are done with diapers which will be several years as we hope to have at least one more child ie 4.5 years straight of diapers. The cans have a mechanism to step on to open but I just lift with my hand. Others we bought made similarly broke but since I usually just lift I don’t expect it to be a problem. Oh, and there is an inner pail though we haven’t had to wash it out yet.

By the way, most everything I’ve bought I’ve not paid full price!

I do love my Boppy (still – and my kid is 2), but I don’t consider it an essential baby item. Actually, very little was essential: some sort of diaper/wipes, a few clothes, a couple blankets, and a place for the kid to sleep (which was, for us, a very versitile pack and play). And also, for us, about 3 bottles and a breastpump when I went back to work. That was ALL we really needed; the rest was bonus. (The bouncy chair was a pretty good bonus, nearly a necessity. YMMV.)

Also, I think there’s a certain level of cheapness that you can live with with a breast pump… if you’re only using it occasionally. I bought the $60 Medela single pump, and it worked great for me. I only used it for the occasional time that we went out in the evening, though, so it wasn’t getting a ton of use.

Oh yeah, and I haven’t known anyone who’s diaper pail contraption didn’t smell at least a little bit. Just put the diapers in the kitchen trash can. It gets taken out enough that you’re not going to smell them much.

Receiving Blankets = very useful, but only 5 or 6.

Diaper Genie = Waste of money.
We just put the diapers in the regular trash, and take the trash out more often.we do seal up the diaper as much as ew can before putting it in the trash.

There is a lot of stuff marketed to new parents. Buyer beware! Fortunately you’ll receive a lot of this as a gift!

I also love receiving blankets. Not so much for swaddling, but for burping. I think burp pads are ridiculous — when my kid puked up, it was a torrent, and even if you managed to have the burp pad on the exact spot the kid puked, it wouldn’t be big enough. I also liked them for light blankets in the summer, rolled up for support as needed, laying on the couch for baby at the relatives house of a million cats (easier to throw the receiving blanket in the wash than the quilt), and any other reason you might need a cloth. Easy to fit one or two spares in the diaper bag.

Congrats!