I remember waiting for my 20 week anatomy scan before I started buying any baby items.

It felt superstitious to buy something for someone I didn’t know yet. To pick stuff out and guess his favorite colors or theme he would want for his room. I had no idea where to start. My lack of confidence made it hard to even text a friend or family member with children to ask for advice. I felt completely out of my element. What do I even ask, “Hey, what should I buy for my baby?” I had no idea where to begin.

I then realized I could browse through friends’ baby registries and copy the items that seemed to be necessities.

At the time I felt like a phony who was plagiarizing someone else’s work. On the outside, it looked as if I was a pro! On the inside, I had no idea how to use 99% of the items on my shiny new baby registry.

While blindly copying and pasting, I got a little too confident and decided to start adding clothes and some cool sneakers for my growing baby boy. To this day, there is a pair of sneakers in toddler size 7 in my son’s closet just collecting dust. My excitement when they arrived quickly turned to embarrassment as I realized I had no clue what size a baby’s feet are let alone what size clothing I had even added to my list! I was just adding and adding without even checking sizes. This was the moment I reached out to my sister-in-law.

She explained her registry to me, told me which sizes to add, and that I could even specify on my registry the color and size I wanted the item to be so it was very clear to the purchaser. As I continued to refine my registry, I started talking to even more friends about which items they added to theirs and why, and also received recommendations on products they loved now that their children are a little older. It became clear that not only is your baby registry important, but these ladies are a wealth of knowledge when it comes to product recommendations after the baby is born! This was eye opening.

The idea of baby products before a baby is actually born is like preparing for a short sprint, but just as important are the marathon of items required as your child reaches new developmental milestones, develops interests in different toys or books, and as your own needs as a parent change.

Google led me down rabbit holes of too many items and too many conflicting reviews. My friends became my biggest influencers and have carried me through my journey to parenthood. I would be lost without these recommendations and honestly, would have wasted a lot of money.

Favorite recommendation lists have now become a staple on the Bumpdate app for this exact reason.

You can create as many lists on as many topics, include direct links, and share with your friends right on your profile – via text, e-mail, WhatsApp, or your preferred mode of communication. Additionally, these lists will stay on your account, so you can not only share them with your friends, but now you can remember which items actually worked for you and revisit them in the future. You even have the option to make each list private to just you, or public to your immediate connections. The items that saved you in those challenging yet wonderful few months of early parenthood can now be preserved in time.

I look back on those early moments of doubt when hesitating to reach out to a friend for advice and think of the hundreds of conversations I have had since then sharing baby registry ideas, parenting stories, lessons learned, and feel grateful for these shared experiences.

Share your journey with your friends and family, because this time is special.

We get by with a little help from our friends.

Curious what a Favorite Recommendations List looks like on the Bumpdate app?

See below for some inspiration!

Example List:

Example Recommendations:

Share with Friends: