Before baby comes home...

This is a list of items I wish I had bought before the baby came, It is very difficult running around with a newborn trying to find a breast pump or nursing pads.

*Nightgown for the hospital stay ( one that is loose and preferably buttons from the top is perfect)

*Sleep nursing bras ( I would purchase at least 2, they are comfy and perfect for the hospital as well as sleeping"

*Regular nursing bras ( I had about 6, but I'm sure you do not need that many depending on how often you do laundry)

Motherhood Maternity has great nursing bras and I bought several of the inexpensive ones in varying colors.

*A Bella band or several camis (tank tops)


This is perfect for nursing in public, or covering your post baby belly while nursing.

Bella Band

I purchased my bellabands of of eBay, and purchased tank tops to go under my regular tops.

*Nursing tops (try one before you commit to buying a whole wardrobe of nursing clothes, I hated them!)

Motherhood maternity has a lot of cute nursing tops, some even have control material for the post baby belly.

*Nursing pads (cannot stress these enough! I did not purchase them before baby came and realized quickly they were a necessity for me!)

My all time favorite nursing pads were Lansinoh. I also tried Johnson and Johnson as well as cloth, but definitely stuck with the Lansinoh as my regular everyday nursing pad.

Lansinoh

*Lanolin cream (perfect for sore cracked nipples!)

Lansinoh sells a great ointment, but I used the generic brand and it worked just as well.

*Nursing cover (optional: for public feeding)

*A high quality electric breast pump (I used the Medela:Pump in Style)

Medela
I would suggest not going cheap on the pump, I despised pumping but this machine made things a lot easier. I previously purchased a manual pump and it fell apart the second day of using it.

*Generic BPA free bottles for expressed milk (The Evenflo 4 oz bottles were a perfect fit for my breast pump)

Evenflo Bottles

*Milk storage bags and a sharpie marker ( These come in handy when storing milk for future use)

I used the Lansinoh milk storage bags, but have also used a generic brand and they worked fine.

These are the essentials I wish I knew about before I brought home my first born. If there is anything I may have forgot feel free to comment, or to add anything you would believe to help a nursing mama.