Registering for a Second Baby

Dear All-Knowing-Amy,

First I must say that I absolutely love your blog and that your children are absolutely adorable! Alright then, I am expecting my second baby the very end of July (one week before my daughter’s 2nd birthday!!!!). My husband and I like to keep the gender a secret until the birth and besides coming up with names I’m stressing over the baby registry. I don’t expect to even have a shower but know that my family and friends will want to throw one. I have kept everything that I got for my daughter; car seat, stroller, bassinet, mini crib, crib, bumbo, boppy, slings/carriers, tons of unused bottles, ALL of her clothes, etc.

I just worry that since I feel I don’t really need anything, besides boy stuff if this little one decides to pop out with a package, that I will freak out once the baby is here and realize OMG I need *this* or *that* like now! So Amy can you please help calm the nerves of a hormonal pregnant woman and possible give advice on what you feel I might need to add to my baby registry for this one? Right now I’m figuring just asking for diapers and gift cards (store and restaurant) when people ask and maybe a new crib mattress since my daughter will be keeping hers for her new toddler bed. I swear I didn’t stress this much with her baby registry, it was just so much easier it seemed.

Thanks,
Frazzled Second Timer

Relax! I think you’re doing just fine. I think your plan (diapers, gift cards, crib mattress) sounds solid.

By the time a friend of mine ever-so-casually suggested that I should reallllllly toss a few things on a baby registry or wish list, COUGH COUGH SURPRISE SHOWER, I was thoroughly convinced that there flat-out nothing we needed. We’d already replaced a few items from Noah’s babyhood that hadn’t held up as well as we’d hoped. We’d already found out that we could go ahead and reuse all those blue clothes.

But you know? I found stuff to register for. Some of it was just…well, stuff to put on the baby registry for the sake of having stuff on the registry, but for the most part I was able to focus on REALLY USEFUL STUFF. And in areas where we were pretty well covered on the useful stuff, I indulged in some plain-old fun stuff.

Second Baby Registry Checklist

A few suggestions of stuff to add to a second-baby registry:

1. Cloth diaper burp cloths
Remember how many of these you went through at first? Trust me, IT’S EVEN MORE THAN YOU REMEMBER.  Find them here, at our affiliate Amazon.

2. Bath supply sets (shampoo, body wash, lotions, rash creams, etc.)
Even if, like us, you still use baby products on your older child, it’s handy to have extras, or to try a different brand in case of skin allergies or sensitivities. Gift sets, like this one, are good for that.

3. Extra waterproof mattress pads
Since you’re registering for a new mattress, don’t forget the crib waterproof pads. We reused all our sheets but the pads stayed with the toddler bed. I asked for an extra three-pack for laundry purposes. GOOD CALL.

4. A good unisex or daddy diaper bag, if you don’t have one
I’ve sung the praises of the Diaper Dude messenger bags before, I know. With TWO babies, there’s a lot more jostling and swapping and negotiating out in public. You’re going to want to pass off the diaper bag to your husband a lot more this time around. He deserves his own cool bag.

5. Double stroller
We were so sure we wouldn’t need a double stroller for at least six months to a year, if ever. And sure, Ezra probably spent more time at first in a sling or Ergo than the Phil & Ted’s (that we caved and purchased less than two months in), there were just times when a double stroller was really handy. Could we have done without it? Probably. Would it have been really awesome to have had Other People buy it for us? HELL TO THE YES.

6. Cute socks
This was my big goofy indulgence for Ezra: We had clothes and onesies and bibs and hats…but baby socks don’t exactly hold up too well. They get lost and pilly and stretched out. Or at least…that was my justification for adding a dozen different gift sets of Trumpette baby socks and BabyLegs legwarmers to my registry. People LOVE buying cutesy stuff like this, and I loved getting it. Ezra wore those Trumpette socks every dang day until they no longer fit over his fat little feet, and still rocks the legwarmers on a regular basis. (They’re my favorite for extending the life of one-piece romper outfits that are too short in the legs. SNEAKY!)

Things that makes you go hmm

Even though your daughter isn’t yet two, I guarantee that a stroll through a baby superstore or specialty boutique will reveal all kinds of NEW and IMPROVED and INGENIOUS gear and gadgets. Some of it might be the stuff you’d never buy for yourself ($9 European pacifiers! reusable bamboo wipes with warmer! fancy crib mobiles! extra diaper changing station pod things! your favorite sling in a new awesome fabric!), but I admit: it’s FUN to get gifts like this, particularly for a second baby who seems doomed to a life of never-ending hand-me-downs.

And really, a lot of stuff that I put in this category turned out to be incredibly useful: Miracle Blankets, the aforementioned wipes/warmer combo (which we use for the convenience of a tub full o’ ready-to-use wipes, not really for the temperature), baby food cookbooks, a variety of different fancy bottles for a baby who rejected the ones Noah loved. Some of it? Not so much. (Cough NEW EXTRA FANCY SWINGS cough.) But live and learn.

BUT ALSO: We bought a lot of that stuff AFTER my second son, Ezra, arrived. He arrived and didn’t fit into any of Noah’s clothes. He arrived and would only sleep when swaddled. He arrived and just did a whole MESS of different stuff and liked different things and some hand-me-downs worked and some didn’t. So…we used those Amazon gift certificates and Target gift cards and bought the stuff we needed. And somehow WE ALL SURVIVED.

So don’t stress out. You’re likely extremely well-prepared for this baby. Do a test run on reassembling all your existing gear to make sure parts aren’t missing, and (this is important) spend some time on Google to make sure nothing you’ve saved has been recalled by the manufacturer. (Incidentally, a favorite cloth book of BOTH of my boys has lead in it. I AM THRILLED.) Add a few useful things to your registry, a few fun things, hoard the gift cards for later. You’ll be fine.

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If you’re considering an online baby registry, we recommend our affiliate Amazon’s Baby Registry, which offers free 90-day returns on baby store purchases. You can even add items from other websites onto to your baby registry.