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Ladies, now that I’m on the other side and officially through Month One of motherhood, here are my Top 20 must-haves:

1. A supportive husband who keeps his cool when every other being in the house is simultaneously decomposing.
2. The Little Remedies Travel Kit – this has the best baby nasal aspirator, among other useful things.
3. The 10-Pack of Koala white terrycloth bibs from Babies ‘R Us.
4. Lots of swaddling blankets! Just roll them up and store them in a hanging shoe organizer. Besides keeping your baby all cuddly and happy, you can use them to keep the baby’s head or entire body positioned correctly in just about anything – his crib, carseat, swing…
5. Lots of plain white baby t-shirts. Skip the onesies. They just slow you down when diaper blowouts occur.
6. Swing. ‘Nuff said.
7. Lots of plain white terrycloth changing pad covers.
8. Lots of plain white sheet savers.
9. Lots of cloth diapers. Even if you aren’t into “CD-ing” as the insiders call it, they’re great for burp cloths, baby bibs, and to cover the war zone of your changing pad cover.
10. An ERGO Baby Carrier and Infant Insert. Definitely an investment, but very worthwhile. Levi loves it. I found a photo online of a guy using one to carry a 90-pound woman on his back. You can’t do that with a Baby Bjorn (not that you would ever want to.)
11. A temporal thermometer – well worth the $40-$50.
12. A glider rocker and ottoman. I resisted this purchase, desperately clinging to the hope of a cute-looking Pottery Barn-esque rocker. However, after a couple of 2 AM feedings, I finally succumbed to practicality.
13. An extra (adult-sized) blanket to fold up and put under the crib mattress to keep it at a 30 degree angle. I really wish you could buy a little baby cart like they use in the NICU! It’s basically a jumbo plastic shoebox (minus the lid) on top of a rolling stainless steel cart with shelves. On that one little device you can contain a baby and all of his or her earthly needs.
14. If you have a boy, you need to keep lots of Kleenexes and Vaseline next to the diapers. The Kleenexes serve as “pee-pee tee-pees,” though I’ve heard they also sell official products by that name that I haven’t yet tried. Vaseline is for the 1st 5 days after his circumcision (if he got one). Use it liberally – squirt a wad the size of his foot on there w/every diaper change!
15. We love our nursery monitors – Graco iMonitor Digital Baby Monitors.
16. If you have pets, I recommend the Summer Extra-Tall Security Gate to put in the doorway to your nursery. They let you come and go at will while keeping the animals out.
17. Save yourself almost $10 a pop and get Baby All instead of Dreft. Though I bet the occasional use of Tide Free wouldn’t kill the baby either.
18. A remote control for the ceiling fan. Very handy!
19. A great pair of stretchy jeans that you wore before you got pregnant so you feel a sense of accomplishment as soon as you get back into them after the baby arrives.
20. The Nursing Mother’s Companion by Kathleen Huggins, a few good nursing bras and tops, the awesome water mug you get if you deliver at Baylor, a good lactation consultant, Lansinoh lanolin, and a rented hospital grade pump – I’m forever indebted to my Medela Symphony. Plus if you want to go overboard, you can rent this awesome scale that tells you exactly how many CC’s of milk your baby consumed during a breastfeeding session. And if you want to get clinically OCD about it, you can keep track of it all by printing out blank forms in Excel and keeping them on a clipboard on the nightstand.

All you mothers out there, let me know any of your favorite things too!

I don’t know if men are intentionally shielded from certain words to keep from being totally terrified of having a baby, but I heard some words over the past few weeks that I never knew existed. Here are some words that I’ve learned during Levi’s birth and stay in the NICU that I had never heard before (guys, you’ve been warned):

• Bilirubin (NOT a type of reuben sandwich as I would have expected)
• Lanugo (NOT a beach somewhere)
  
• Colostrum (NOT the name of a stadium somewhere)
• Meconium (NOT a rare-earth metal)