What You Need for Your Newborn

It's easy to go a little nuts when you're pregnant and walking the aisles of your favorite baby stores. Everything looks so enticing and you're just so ready for your baby to be here. It's easy to forget that for the first few months, your baby needs little more beyond feeding, clothing, diapering and bathing supplies. Heather Corley breaks it down like this:

• You need this stuff
• You don't need this stuff (at least not yet)

I did get one thing on the "don't need" list that I didn't think I'd use until later — an umbrella stroller. I didn't use it for my son, though. I used it to cart things around and for grocery shopping. I wore him in a sling a lot and found that the shopping cart was often in the way. And when you're already carrying a baby, you don't want to be carrying anything else that you don't have to. I'd throw my purse and the diaper bag in it and hook a couple of bags over the handles for the groceries.

It was just easier than lugging the giant stroller and trying to set that up (I'm not very mechanically inclined or coordinated) and then handles were at just the right height that they didn't interfere with the sling. You gotta do what works for you, you know? I know lots of moms that would be lost without their big strollers, but we used ours maybe twice.