Baby Items I Regret Buying

As a first time pregnant mom, I got caught up very quickly in wanting to buy all the baby things before my baby was born. I did tons and tons of research and most of the items I ended up buying were good purchases, but there were definitely a few misses! Here are the items that upon retrospect, I would stay away from!

1. Diaper Pail – we actually used a diaper pail for about 8 months with Reagan but one day I didn’t buy the liner refill pack and I realized that we didn’t actually need it! Reasons I don’t like it: the liners are EXPENSIVE, you still have to take the diapers out several times a week, and letting old diapers sit in a bag for several days makes them smell SO bad when you do take them out. Just collect the diapers in a bag and take them out at the end of the day.
2. Baby Swing – some babies love these (like Elliott) but Reagan absolutely hated the swing. My advice would be to wait on making this big purchase until you have a better idea of what your baby does or doesn’t like. See if your friends have a swing or bouncer that they can let you borrow to get a feel before you go out and buy one yourself!
3. Lots of Bottles – I bought a ton of bottles for Reagan before she was born based on reviews from other moms. This wasn’t a bad idea but Reagan only took a bottle for a few weeks and she didn’t even like the ones I bought. Instead, buy a couple different brands and kinds of bottles and once you find out the one that baby likes you can stock up.
4. Changing Pad – I bought two changing table pads thinking I would leave one in the nursery and one in the car for changing diapers on the go. We literally never used the one in the car, and the nursery one was used for about two weeks! It was just easier to change diapers on the floor, and we started keeping diaper baskets in every room so we could change a diaper wherever we were in the house.
5. Baby Shoes – I know I know, you guys are probably rolling your eyes at this one but I really bought so many pairs of little shoes for Reagan. She didn’t even wear half of them and Elliott hasn’t worn them either. Baby shoes are SO cute but there were so many other things I should have spent that money on!
6. Bottle Drying Rack/Boon Grass – I have both a bottle drying rack and the cute little Boon Grass and they’re both back in their boxes in the storage closet. They took up counter space in our already tiny kitchen and I just leave the bottles out to dry one at a time. I will say, if you are exclusively bottle feeding then you would probably use one of these very often, but if not then I would definitely skip!
7. Electronic Toys – we have accumulated quite the supply of electronic singing toys over the past 2 1/2 years and they all drive Jared and I crazy! Babies are just as happy playing with a book, teething toy, stuffed animal, rattle, etc. as they are with something that lights up and is annoying. Save your sanity and stick with the old school toys!
8. White Noise Machine – we bought one of the cute little stuffed owl white noise machines that has four different sounds and a timer, but instead we use a little desk fan for white noise! The owl’s volume doesn’t go very high and the longest timer setting is 45 minutes. The fan will go all night and is much louder which helps keep the babies asleep even when there’s a lot going on in the rest of the house.

Let me know your biggest baby purchase regrets in the comments below! Anything you agree or disagree with from my list?