Best bottles and other baby must haves?

It's been 12 years since I was pregnant. There have been a LOT of changes!

So what has been your experience of bottle brands you loved the best and why? I will try my hardest to BF, but if my last was any indication I might have some difficulties and need to resort to pumping/bottling. Just want to get all the info I can on them before I need them!

Any other super useful baby items you could not have lived without or at least made your life easier?

*Watching!*

I really like Dr. Browns bottles they help reduce reflux and colic and the one item that is a life saver is the 2 in 1 swing bouncer combo. Oh yeah plus a boppy pillow comes in handy for bf. Congrats and goodluck.

Quoting Unique Mama:" It's been 12 years since I was pregnant. There have been a LOT of changes! So what has been your experience ... [snip!] ... before I need them! Any other super useful baby items you could not have lived without or at least made your life easier?"

my little girl isnt here yet but i went crazy with cloth diapers ! i probably have 50 now ..... there just so darn cute!

My daughter really likes the breast flow bottle made by first year.

I EBF now, but I used to pump and feed her.
I tried Dr. Brown's for a while, she took forever to finish even a 3 ounce bottle, plus after a while they leaked, BAD. Plus, you have to wash SIX different parts. And honestly, they do NOT decrease gas. Atleast, not for my child, she burped MORE on those bottles.
I also tried Avent and Avent Naturals. They both leaked, and the naturals were either too fast or too slow, there was no in between.
I tried Gerber Essentials, and they were the worst of the worst! Ugh, just pure terrible.

Finaaaally I tried NUK and omg, I love them when I give her a bottle. They don't ever leak, the flow is JUST right for her and they're cute.  
She doesn't take an hour to feed on them either! lol.
Every baby is different though...

And, if I didn't have her swing, I would probably lose my mind! She will only take naps in it, if I put her in it to do something shes happy, it has a mobile, plays music and keeps her entertained! I love it!

Also! I stock up on sleepers, she barely wears anything else ;)
Swaddleme's are good for the newborn days too   I was always worried she would break lose and suffocate in a receiving blanket, until I got these.

bottles: dr brown's and playtex vent-aire. love them!!! with my 1st daughter- a swing and the swaddle me was her fav thing- wrap her tight, set her in the swing, put on finding nemo on repeat and she was the happiest baby ever!!! with my 2nd... she hated the swing and was colicky so nothing special worked for her at all. my boppy pillow is my best friend! bfing or not.

We did not use bottles but the best thing I had and still use was "The Baby Book" by Dr. Sears It has so much great info in it. I think it helped us into being better parents and making better decesions.

we also loved the zip up sleeper things that are like a blanket foe the baby

papers swadlers

arm hammer diaper pail

we used lanolin for diaper rash(worked the very best)

that is about all we used

I could return my expensive crib, swing, bouncer,pack n play and all that crap becuase we didn't use any of it.

Quoting DifferentDay:" bottles: dr brown's and playtex vent-aire. love them!!! with my 1st daughter- a swing and the swaddle ... [snip!] ... she hated the swing and was colicky so nothing special worked for her at all. my boppy pillow is my best friend! bfing or not."

I only have one baby but he cried any time I put him down for about the first 6 months... I could not use my wrap well becuase he was a huge baby! Now that my LO is older he is such a good little man. I think he just had a very sensitive tummy. A dr finly agreed with me that he had bad reflux(cause he use to cough a lot) and gave me a Rx but I never filled it... that was right at the 6 month mark when hestoped coughing.

glad to know i am not alone in a baby who woan't use a swing or anything

Honestly you can go buy the most expensive and recommended bottle out there, unfortunately you will just have to wait until the baby gets here to see which bottle they will take. The best advice is to go buy different bottles with different shaped nipples, but only buy 1 of each instead of a pack of them. If you are going to breast feed and pump, or carry formula on the side just in case, there are bottles that have a nipple that is shaped similar to a womans nipple. Sadly formula is the same way, you never know which one your child will like, and which ones they might have problems with. Sign up with Similac, enfamil, and other formula sites. They will send you sample packets! We spent close to $100 on different formulas until we found one that our son would take and would not have problems with. This time around I have signed up so we can get the samples. Car seat, I LOVE the Baby Trend infant car seat that has the triangle handle. You can hold it from any angle, which makes walking through doorways, going up/down down stairs, or when you have to turn the car seat while walking through narrow places. like between cars in the parking lot or in a crowded place. I hope at least some of this helps. :-)

Quoting applelove:" I only have one baby but he cried any time I put him down for about the first 6 months... I could not ... [snip!] ... right at the 6 month mark when hestoped coughing. glad to know i am not alone in a baby who woan't use a swing or anything"

she outgrew the colic at 9 months. it was the worst 9 months of night hell tbh. her pedi wouldnt listen to us about it being colic or reflux. we self diagnosed her ourselves and then "treated" it on our own. she weaned herself from the breast at 4mnths too so that didn't help at all. The ONLY thing that would calm her down was laying on my chest n letting her fall asleep like that. I don't co sleep but with her I had to. Soon as she was old enough to crawl ( 4mnths) she was done with the swing and anything else that strapped her in.

i prefer using the NUK bottles (i heard good things from a bunch of people while i was pregnant so thats what i bought for my son, and he loves them. wont use anything else). the nipple seems to me to be most like moms, he never had nipple confusion once he started on the bottle as well as breastfeeding. apparently they help reduce colic as well. they're more expensive though, it's like $20 for 3 bottles.

my son absolutely LOVES his swing. he always falls right asleep in it, and the times when hes fussy and just wont sleep its a life saver. hes got a play mat thats good for tummy time and helping with learning to use his hands - hes got a love/hate kind of feeling for it lol but i got him a new really nice one for christmas so hopefully he likes that one better xD
umm hes also really good with his bouncer chair thing. he likes SO's better than the one i have for him - that one can sit like a chair on you can flip the bottom bar under so it rocks like a rocking chair. and it vibrates. he loves it lol.

like the other momma said, swaddles are good. i had a much bigger baby than anyone anticipated (smallest person in my family AND SO's family and i had the biggest baby on either side lol) so the swaddle really didnt fit him for long, but i wrap him in one of his blankets at night and he falls asleep way easier.

Breastflow are the best for breastfeeding. hands down. they act like the breast and mimic the "let down reflux" they rocked and my son loved em. They helped him latch because he had latching issues for the first 3 months due to being early and having very minor tongue tie. I suggest not introducing a bottle for 4-6 weeks though in order to avoid nipple confusion. :] Binkies however are fine. Some hospitals recommend against them but they don't cause nipple confusion and give mom a short break. During studies, woman who breastfed and used binkis breastfed longer because they were able to relax some. Do a lot of research as well and make sure you have a good support group and you will be ok. Just be more stubborn then your baby and you got it :]

Oh and don't accept formula samples. Supplementing will kill your supply especially early on. Here are some myths of breastfeeding also known as "boobie traps" :] Don't get fooled. Good luck mama. You got this:

http://www.nbci.ca/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=27:myths-of-breastfeeding&catid=5:articles&Itemid=17

Here are some great tips for breastfeeding as well. Great facts:
http://www.phac-aspc.gc.ca/hp-ps/dca-dea/stages-etapes/childhood-enfance_0-2/nutrition/tips-cons-eng.php

What I couldn't live without? My child's vibrating swing lol. It was the kind with classical music and it rocked every which direction and even vibrated. Loved it. Ha. Also colic tablets. My son has AR and colic because he was born early and so it was hard but he outgrew it around 10 months finally. :]
Oh and formula is worse for babies with reflux. I forgot to add that above. Whenever I would give him formula( I tried a couple of times) it made him so much worse off. D:

Do what you can :] It is awesome you are getting revamped education wise for your new little one. I tried to do a ton of research when my son was born as well. I honestly think it helped me a ton.

Unfortunately with my daughter I didn't fail at BF because of her. My entire my pregnancy my stupid nipples were hard. WHOLE TIME. Then the second I had my csection, nothing. We tried pinching, pulling, ice, prosthetic nipple suction cups, you name it. Stupid things just would not get hard. They still barely do unless it's extremely cold. I broke my nips   lol But yeh that's what I did last time, they had me feeding her formula but pumping when I could and I just didnt produce much until I didn't produce any, but I did get her as much of my own milk as I could that two weeks. SO all of that was very helpful thank you   I've saved the links!