10 Best Baby Gear (2023): Diaper Bags, Baby Wraps, and Sound Machines

So many baby products come with several parts and steps, but not the Hatch Rest. We forgot to set up this smart sound machine until the baby arrived, but all it took was a quick app download (Android, iOS) plus a Bluetooth connection, and we were ready to go. The Hatch lets you save a handful of favorite combos of sound and night-light colors that you control with the app or a tap on the top ring on the device. My hack for a newborn was to have two favorite presets with the same sound, one with a night-light on and one with it off, to easily switch between during those middle-of-the-night wake-ups.

The various mom groups I joined online constantly tried to sell me on the cheap NoseFrida, where you suck snot out of your kid’s nose. Major ick, sorry. I splurged for the $45 FridaBaby Electric NoseFrida as soon as we sent our son to daycare, and it was a lifesaver within a week during his first cold. Babies can't blow their noses, so this little sucker will suck the snot out for them. It was completely worth it, as it’s hard enough to hold your kid down while also getting the NoseFrida into the nostril, and I can't imagine doing the sucking yourself at the same time.

Let's keep the gross train going. This nose and ear cleaner wasn't something we asked for but has become one of our most-used baby gear. It's amazing to me how fast my baby's ear would get caked in earwax (especially since he favored his right side once he started rolling) and how much snot his little nose would have even when he wasn't sick. Enter: the OogieBear. It has two different ends—one for sticky boogers and one for dried—that you affix to a little wand. You can turn on the little light to see what you're doing, and it's really handy for carefully cleaning ears. It also made this gizmo very appealing to my son.

My husband insisted we didn’t need to buy a swaddle—we could just keep using the wrap method we learned in the hospital. But the bigger the baby got, the quicker he broke out of the swaddle and then woke himself up. I finally ignored my husband and purchased the Woombie Air swaddle. Even though we had to stop using it four weeks later when our baby learned to roll, my husband still raves about how those were the best four weeks of his life. Make sure to buy two, so when the baby spits up on one, you have another ready.