Minimalist Baby Shower Registry

Baby Shower, as a concept, was new to me since I’m only familiar with traditional Indian Baby Shower. For those of you who know know about Indian Baby Shower, here’s a small insight. Indian baby showers are meant to bless the mother-to-be and the baby. Although gifts are shared, people usually don’t buy gifts for the baby. The pregnant lady is given lots of love, attention, and gifts for herself in the form of jewelry and saris (Indian attire). Traditionally, people don’t buy gifts for the baby until the birth of the child.

However, giving birth in the United States calls for lot of preparation and planning. It is impossible not to buy things for the baby since the very first requirement is a baby car seat! Without a car seat, hospitals don’t let you take your baby home. This is a safety requirement!

My first step was creating a Baby Shower Registry. After tons of research and browsing through blogs and online resources, I finally figured out that I want to be as minimalist as possible. Although, I know for sure that I will need a zillion products, I’m still trying to only get the essentials for now. (Stressing this point, since I know it’s so easy to get carried away while shopping for your little bundle of joy! I’m trying my best to control my shopping trips)

For my baby shower, I choose two registries – Target and Babylist. I found out about both of these during my second trimester. Although online shopping is the easiest way to go (the reason I picked Babylist), I still like to go to a store and check out latest products available.

Target Registry

I like to get a feel for things, rather than just look at pictures online. Target was the perfect stop for an in-store experience! All you do is, go to a Target store and ask them for a scanner to create your registry. If you are not already a Target member, you will have to create an account on the scanner/ app. Target has a ton of products and you can look at online reviews on their app immediately. I added a lot of items to my registry because I wanted to keep a list of all items in one place.

Babylist Registry

Babylist is a great app and it makes online shopping so much easier. Using the app/ online website, you can add any item from any website on your registry. If you happen to create a registry in store, you can transfer over the registry to the app to make sure everything is in one place. This is such a great tool for organizing and making sure you have all items listed in a single app.

You can look at my Babylist registry here.

These are the things I have till date:

1. IKEA Crib : I’m not a huge fan of convertible crib, so I bought the IKEA crib. I like that it’s simple and matches my decor. I was initially planning to buy a Bassinet, but I heard that the bassinet is useful only for the first few months and then the baby has to be in a crib. I’m going to try and manage with a crib for now.

2. Graco Foam Mattress : In case you were wondering, there are spring mattresses and foam mattresses available in stores. After researching a lot, I finally zeroed on a foam mattress. I’m hoping my baby likes the mattress and isn’t too picky about it. Let’s wait and watch.

3. Graco Stroller / Uppababy Vista Stroller : The Uppababy Vista Stroller is the best stroller for this year, but the Graco stroller is also good and this is what I’m using.

4. Graco Pack n Play : I like the concept of a pack and play. It’s the easiest way to make sure there’s a changing station, changing pad, and a bassinet all in one place. It’s super easy to carry around and will definitely come in handy when I have things to do around the house and I want the baby to be in the same room!

5. Skip Hop Diaper Bag : After looking at a ton of diaper bags, I bought the Skip Hop Diaper Bag in Pink. It comes in a ton of colors and is listed on my registry. It’s stylish, and convenient to carry around. This was the top pick and I love the color/ material of the bag.

All items are listed on my Babylist registry and you can take a look and see what I bought! I would love to hear suggestions/ feedback if you think there are things I would need.