New Dad Must Haves: Advice and Gear Recommendations from an Experienced Dad

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Hat tip today to my husband, Michael. I picked his brain (plus polled my readers) to bring you this post all about new dad must haves. The advice and gear recommendations have come from them. Thanks guys!

Labor and Delivery Advice For Dads To Be:

Try not to panic. Labor and delivery is physically and emotionally hard on the mom to be. It was emotionally taxing on Mike and taxing for him too. “Try not to panic when she goes into labor, you’ll likely see more blood than you ever have in your entire life.”

Advocate for her. Remember that birth plan she spent so much time working on? The things she obsessed about during her pregnancy are the things she wanted to make sure happened. But chances are likely that she’s not going to be able to remind the doctors and nurses of her wishes. You can help her by advocating for her (use of birth tub, delayed cord clamp, playlist etc).

Take photos. You’ll want the memory of seeing your baby for the first time!

Being a Dad Advice:

Changing a diaper isn’t as scary as you think. If you’ve got a boy, make sure the firehose is pointed straight down, otherwise you’ll spring a leak. Boy or girl, it doesn’t matter. EVERYONE gets peed on at least once.

If you feel like you can’t do anything to help the baby, take care of mama. If your partner is nursing, you might feel like you can’t really do too much to help with baby. Instead, focus on what you can do to take care of mama. Feed her, help keep the house clean and let her rest!

You can still pursue your hobbies. There are just more logistics and schedule considerations to think about. You can be dad and run a marathon (if that’s your thing… like my husband).

I know it’s hard, but think about the long game. Little babies turn into bigger kids who are super fun. And watching them sprout their wings and take risks is awesome.

Grab the camera.  Moms are often the ones capturing the memories, which means that often they’re not in the picture. Grab the camera (or your phone) and capture your children with their mom too. She’ll love you for it.

When I asked my husband about the baby gear he loved, I was surprised to see how much of his list mirrored mine!

Top Baby Gear Recommendations By A Seasoned Dad

Awesome jogging stroller. 

Our favorite jogging stroller has been through marathons, beach trips and hikes. If you are active at all make sure to get a jogging stroller in addition to an umbrella stroller. It is a lot easier to keep up with your fitness routines if you’ve got a stroller that can keep up with you!

A baby carrier with buckles. 

I personally loved some of the more complex baby carriers that tied, but Mike loved the baby carriers with buckles. He found them much easier to put on and move around with. He was more comfortable with them because they felt like a hiking back pack.

“Cheater” Swaddles. 

There are two types of swaddling blankets, giant square ones that you can fold and cheater ones with velcro. I mastered the big square ones, but Mike liked the cheaters. They were easier.

Top of the line baby monitor. 

With our kids, we had a baby monitor with night vision and a video screen. It had a long range frequency and we could take it out in the yard with us. Mike loves technology and this was his most researched purchase.

It’s been four years since we’ve had a baby. But if we were expecting, I know that he’d pick the VTech VM981 Expandable HD Video Baby Monitor with 1 Wi-Fi Camera, 5” Touch Screen

Our friends, Rachel and Joe are having a baby this summer, and we knew they’d love having this piece of baby gear.

What’s not to love about the VTech VM981 Expandable Video Monitor?

• It comes with a 5 inch parent unit with touch screen technology OR you can use an app on your smart phone (the MyVTech Baby app on your iOS or Android device).
• The system can be expanded as your family grows and you can add up to nine additional cameras.
• The MV981 comes equipped with night vision (my husband’s favorite feature of our old monitor).
• The camera can be manually positioned and has an HD screen.

Of course, just as I expected this gift was a big hit. You’ll have to pardon this dad to be’s shyness. He’s SO CAMERA shy (which was super adorable).

Rachel has two kids from a previous relationship and together, Rachel and Joe are expecting their first together this summer. It has been so fun to watch Joe embrace Rachel’s children and I know he’s going to be a great dad!

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Dads! What is your favorite advice or gear recommendations?