More Advice for New Moms: Supplies to Lay In for the Newborn Period (aka the Fourth Trimester, Months One through Three)

Boss' boss at work just adopted a little girl; this is the advice I scribbled out for her in the dead of night. 

• Get a swing and an "activity gym" (playmat) when you think of it. Both will give you a break and if you're lucky she'll fall asleep in the swing. The playmats are great for both tummy time and for looking at something more fun than the ceiling. If I had to do it all over again, I would buy the entire Fisher-Price Rainforest suite of gadgets, because my kid positively loves them—the Rainforest monkey teether/rattle is pretty much his go-to toy right now. We loved the playmat and we just got the jumperoo off Craigslist; we missed out on the bouncy chair window, and we had the Little Lamb swing instead. Note: You can remove the toys from the activity gym once they outgrow it and just use them as rattles instead.
• When she's ready to sit up in a few months, get the Prince Lionheart chair instead of the Bumbo. It's a million times better.
• L'Occitane's baby soap is wonderful, California Baby soap smells a little more citrusy but is good too.
• Get Gerber's deluxe cloth diapers, just to use as spit cloths and to keep under her on the changing table for when she pees/poos while you're changing her. And get the thickest baby washcloths you can find—and yes you do need baby washcloths, as ridiculous as it sounds. Regular washcloths are too big and too rough for the little ones. And get one of those pour-buckets in the baby bath aisle at Babies ‘R' Us if you don't have one already—helps tremendously when you're rising them off in the tub.
• Get a bottle of Resolve Spray ‘n' Wash or a Tide Stain Stick and keep it next to her laundry basket for when you don't have time to wash out stains right away.
• SLEEP WHEN SHE SLEEPS. If you're not just sleeping next to her crib on the floor (ha!), consider getting a Moses basket, bassinet or cosleeper that you can drag around the house and keep next to your bed so you can leap up at night as needed. James McKenna's Sleeping With Your Baby is a great read about cosleeping too, not that you have time to read!
• If you don't have a rocking chair/glider, consider getting one—they seem like a luxury, but man, they feel like a necessity when you're heading into hour two of trying to rock the kid to sleep. :)
• When you have time, consider taking some of the “hot topic” classes at the Pump Station. They're seriously awesome and you'll learn more faster what's relevant if you hear it from a human person than from a book or the internet. (Plus, you won't have time to read once the baby comes.) If nothing else, Cynthia Epps' first foods seminar is invaluable, I hear great things about Sleepy Planet, and I know you'll love Preschool Panic.
• The Halo SleepSacks (blanket + swaddle = baby sleeping bag) are AWESOME for newborns.

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