LONG OVERDUE UPDATE POST AND RECENT VIDEOS ON MY NEWBORN BABY HAUL, DISNEY HAUL AND DISNEY MYSTERY BOXES

Hi everyone! This blog is looong overdue for an update it seems. I can’t believe, as I type, it’s been about a month since I last checked in with you all and for that I deeply apologize. This past month has been a busy one to say the least but mainly I have been busy keeping busy with all the last minute preparations for baby #2 to arrive, both mentally and physically.

Since I last wrote we packed a diaper bag for the hospital plus duffel, I purchased a new nursing pillow after discovering that our old one had several hard-to-remove drool stains embedded into the design, I re-cleaned our child’s nursery probably a few times (deep vacuuming and dusting, yes!!!) and reorganized our master bedroom closet for my own sanity, and put together a haul video of everything we had purchased or been gifted thus far for the baby.

Duffel bag, diaper bag, personal pillow and breastfeeding pillow – all ready to go to the hospital!

So as I plan to go to the hospital for the delivery of my second (literally leaving in a matter of hours as I have been experiencing contractions all day and my doctor insisted we check in tonight), I wanted to share some of the video posts I have recently recorded for my sister YouTube channel for Play Dates & Travels. As a reminder, the YouTube portion of this site serves mainly to cover my obsession with all things Disney so will focus on that type of content even more than this blog such as Disney mystery box unboxings and items purchased from the Disney Parks, but I also occasionally post items related to being a new mom/pregnant over there as well such as the various registry bags and gift boxes like the Noobie box I received (I promise to post my Amazon box soon!!!!) as well as my newborn baby items haul. Note: that haul features all the essentials we gathered for our second child up until 38 weeks pregnant (with our first child, we had already purchased some of the larger ticket items such as a single travel system stroller, changing table and crib; so this is mostly supplemental items to provide some new items for our baby boy).

Here are the most recent video uploads to my YouTube channel and next time I check in, I will hopefully have a beautiful little boy to brag about!!! Please wish me luck 🙂

EVERYTHING WE BOUGHT SO FAR FOR BABY #2!!

ITEMS I RECENTLY PURCHASED FROM DISNEY WORLD, MY TOKYO DISNEYLAND TRIP, SHOP DISNEY AND SHOP DISNEY PARKS

MY FAVORITE DISNEY MYSTERY BOX I RECEIVED SO FAR — A REVIEW OF GIFTS FROM MICKEY AND ALL THE FUN, HARD-TO-GET DISNEY WORLD ITEMS THEY SENT ME

What I loved about this subscription box company is that the curator actually goes into Walt Disney World for you and picks out items according to your preferences. So beyond the usual customization that other companies claim to do, such as personalizing your box based on gender (do you want items geared toward a female or male) and age (are you an adult or child or want items for both?), they go the extra mile and send you souvenirs and snacks that actually remind you of the parks and are tailored to your personal tastes. So if you send in notes with actual items you want to see in your box (let’s say you are into home decor items or Jim Shore collectibles or want a specific snack from a particular park), they will do all they can to make it happen. Despite being a first-time customer I requested a pair of Figment ears that I knew could only be purchased in person from Epcot during their annual Food & Wine Festival. It was the first time this item had ever been offered but it was not available to purchase through the Shop Disney Parks app nor the Disney Store or anywhere besides ebay for exorbitant markups (some were going for upwards of $40), and given I knew I wanted it, I specifically requested that she include it as one of the items in my box. The curator happily obliged, even alerting me to the fact that the Festival was closing that weekend so if I wanted her to pick me up the ears to get my order in that week. The level of communication was outstanding with prompt replies and feedback received back from her within minutes of my asking her questions on Facebook, almost like working with a personal shopper without the added fees, and the box I received was filled with items I might have purchased myself, had I had the chance. This month, she is even offering to buy special items from the gingerbread house that the Grand Floridian resort on Disney property does every Christmas season — another merchandise item you can normally only get if you are actually visiting the resort in person. Now that’s personal attention!

For more info on Gifts from Mickey and the various boxes they offer feel free to check out their website here!

MY LATEST DISNEY MYSTERY BOX – WATCH AS I TRY OUT THEMEPARK MONTHLY, A COMPANY I HAD BEEN EYEING FOR AWHILE (NEXT I’M THINKING OF TRYING OUT THEIR SNACKS BOX AS THEY WILL CUSTOMIZE THAT FOR YOU…VERY TEMPTING)

I was very impressed with the caliber of the items I received in my first box from Themepark Monthly. It had long been an item I was wishing to try and initially expected to wait until Christmas to try out my first box — but then couldn’t resist trying them out in the month of November as well. They are a company that specializes more in giving the type of quality items that I like from the Disney Parks including larger home items such as the cookie jar canisters that they were selling a few months back or the gourmet casserole dish in the shape of Mickey’s head which I had seen at Disneyland last year and wished I had purchased when I had the chance but never saw it again, or even pillows, towels and backpacks. So basically, fun larger items than you might find in some of the other Disney subscription boxes who simply send their recipients smaller items such as a notepad and one or two tsum tsum toys (a retail value of only $5.99 each versus upwards of $30 with the larger items). The boxes I noted from fellow bloggers or vloggers (in the case of video uploads) always seemed hefty and perfectly geared toward an adult vs. boxes that included mostly filler items or items that might be better suited for my three-year-old daughter, and this was the reason I tried them out…and was not disappointed. I even scored a fun holiday countdown calendar and Mickey trivet in the process! Watch the video link above to see what other fun goodies I received!!!

AN IN DEPTH LOOK AND COMPARISON VIDEO OF EVERY CURRENT DISNEY SUBSCRIPTION BOX OUT THERE – LATE 2017 EDITION

For an even more in depth look at all the various Disney subscription boxes out there, feel free to watch the video below which outlines the prices and worth of the boxes you would actually receive if you subscribed to any of these companies. Full disclosure: this is a lengthy review so feel free to open in YouTube and click directly on the actual start times for each company listed OR grab a drink and snack as you learn all about the Disney boxes – both officially from Disney and those unofficial boxes.

That’s it for recent posts. Hope you enjoyed this quick look at my latest video posts and if anyone has any comments on these videos in particular, feel free to leave a comment below! Until next time…talk soon after I become a second-time Mommy!!

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Part Three of My Free Baby Items Series: What Comes in The Free Pregnancy Box from Noobie Box

And now for Part 3 of 4 in my free registry bag series!!! I previously covered what came in my free registry bags that you pick up in-store after creating a baby registry at Target, Babies “R” Us and Buy Buy Baby so if you missed those two posts feel free to check them out here for Part One (all about the Target bag) and here for Part Two.

In this post I would like to cover what came in my free pregnancy gift box from a baby company called Noobie Box. This is actually a new(ish) company – formed around 2015 or so I believe – and was actually my FAVORITE box to receive of all the free baby items I have picked up so far this pregnancy, as it appears to be highly curated and came in probably the cutest packaging of all the boxes and/or bags I received (in my humble opinion). I received the free box back in September.

I first learned about the Noobie Box browsing through YouTube pregnancy videos and one mom had posted what contents came in her free pregnancy box. The video was posted probably six or seven months ago but the mom seemed thrilled with the items inside and I decided to look into it. Plus I saw the magic word – FREE!!!

Lo and behold, I visited their website and saw that their home page advertises their free pregnancy box upfront, suggesting that each box is filled with “high quality products, valuable coupons and important health information for both you and your baby.” The one-time box boasts a cute design and as the sample image on their website showed products I had yet to receive in any of my other registry bags, I wanted to give them a try. However, while their website suggests only one box will be sent per pregnancy, it also clearly states that this box can only be shipped to 12 states located in the Northeast. Oh no – I learned it’s a Northeast United States-only box!!!

I was bummed!  I used to be a Northeast girl but have since moved out of their delivery area, and to receive this box in the mail, you have to live in either Connecticut, Washington DC, Delaware, Massachusetts, Maryland, Maine, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island or Vermont. My free box hopes definitely plummeted.

UPDATE AS OF JANUARY 2018: The company recently announced that they have gone national so now boxes are being shipped throughout the U.S. This is no longer a Northeast U.S. only-box. However at the time I wrote this post, it was still a Northeast only box so the following chronicles my experience and efforts in getting this free box shipped to me in a non-Northeast U.S. state.

The free pregnancy box from Noobie Box

What attracted me to the box, besides its cute packaging and the seemingly custom curated items included in the sample photo on their website, was the offer of fast and efficient shipping. Their website states the item ships within two business days, which is even faster than my Amazon box arrived – more on that in a future post. So if you’re like me, and like to receive items quickly in the mail, this box definitely sounded promising. [Note: I also signed up to receive a free pregnancy welcome box from Walmart back in early September, which is advertised on their baby registry home page, but have still yet to receive it and when I reached out to their customer service I was told that the Walmart Box is only available while supplies last and they are currently “sold out of this free promotion” for the next few months…why they keep the free Welcome Box offer advertised on their website is another story but at any point, with less than six weeks remaining before baby arrives, I don’t think I will be receiving the free Walmart Welcome Box anytime soon).

If you don’t live in Noobie Box’s delivery area, they still encourage moms to sign up for their email list to receive their newsletter and offers from brand partners. That wasn’t going to cut it for me though so I thought about what friends and family I had who still lived in one of the eligible states and reached out to my sister who actually loves going to the post office and arranged for her to receive my free box and then ship it right back to me!  She probably thought I was a little nuts but did oblige. So while the box did ship out in 2 days as promised I received it in about five, allotting for the extra transit time for my sister to take it to her local post office and ship the box across the country.

I actually uploaded a video of my unboxing of the Noobie Box on YouTube so if you’d like to check that out first view the link below.

While the Noobie “Free Pregnancy Box” is free, you do still have to pay $6.95 for shipping. The company appears to have been founded by three European women who now live in New York City and wanted to create a mommy box in the style that is popular in Europe where new moms receive items in a specialized baby box to help transition them into motherhood. They also offer four other paid options, their “milestone boxes,” which come with five full-size products apiece that are targeted around a specific theme and stage of your newborn’s life including the Noobie Nest box for babies that are age 0 to 3 months and includes items designated to help you adjust to a sleepless schedule, the Noobie Eat box for babies 4 to 6 months with products included to help get your baby started on solid foods, the Noobie Play box for once your baby hits 7 months old and is most interested in engaging with his senses and finally the Noobie One box for ages 10 months and up, designed to help a baby prepare for important celebratory milestones such as first time rolling over, first steps, first tooth etc. as they approach the one year mark. Those boxes cost $24.95 each and ship within two weeks, though there is also an option to subscribe to a full year of boxes at once from Noobie Box for $99.75 and receive a free tote bag.

However, while they do offer these larger and more expensive boxes, the company allows you to make the decision whether to sign up for their other boxes or not so I simply stuck with their free pregnancy box. Since signing up and placing my order, I have only received one email offer to date so it is nice that they are considerate about spamming their customers (plus, the offer I received was actually useful with a 40% discount and additional 20% online discount toward clothing from Carter’s).

What Came in My Free Pregnancy Noobie Box:

Welcome card announcing Noobie’s other boxes as well as the welcome letter sent to moms-to-be

• A welcome card describing the 4 other milestone boxes available from Noobie Box
• A welcome letter that suggests the box’s contents were curated by the owners and each item was used with their own newborns (honestly I loved this personal touch as it showed a level of thought and consideration goes into each box)
• Personalized prenatal vitamins from a company called Care/of
• a sample pack of 10 chemical-free wipes from WaterWipes, a brand I had never tried but had seen before
• Month milestone cards from Chatbooks, a photo book company, to document each month of your newborn’s life for the first 12 months
• a sample pack from Lansinoh with 2 disposable nursing pads and 2 breast milk storage bags
• one Mam anti-colic bottle
• And a long-sleeve, warm and fuzzy footed onesie from Carter’s that included a cute gender neutral design with an owl, fox and elephant on the front with snaps along the baby’s legs and was good for 3 months and up — this was the reason I wanted this box so badly as I had seen another reviewer online specify that her box included a onesie (though her design was different for a warmer season) and I loved the idea of receiving a cute baby onesie in the mail as no other registry bag/free box does this!!! This was actually the first baby onesie I received or purchased for my newly anticipated baby so this was a real treat – who doesn’t like looking at small baby onesies?! They’re so cute.

Products received in my Noobie Box

The Noobie Box I received also included a number of curated offers and coupons including an ad to create a universal registry with Babylist.com (which also gives users a 10% completion discount as a perk of registering with them), a guide on how to breastfeed from Lansinoh complete with tips, an ad for a babymoov Dream Belt pregnancy pillow to assist mothers-to-be with sleeping more comfortably, a coupon for $1 off a future WaterWipes purchase good from now until the end of this year, a 20% coupon from Carter’s to go along with the free onesie included in the box, a pamphlet on newborn stem cell storage from Cord Blood Registry and a 20% coupon off maternity wear from Stowaway Collection, another Noobie Box partner.

Ads and coupons

VERDICT: Many of these brands, besides the more mainstream ones like Cord Blood Registry, Babylist.com and Lansinoh, I was unfamiliar with so it was nice to receive some new and different products in the mail that I may have previously been unaware of. I thoroughly enjoyed what came in the box and for any moms-to-be who are located in one of their 12 designated states – or are like me and love receiving baby products and have someone they know who lives in one of the specified areas who is willing to ship the box to you – I definitely recommend receiving this free pregnancy box as the shipping at just $6.95 is fairly nominal and you do receive a good bang for your buck given the onesie included alone. (Hopefully they don’t change that offer in the future as it brings such a nice touch to this expectant mother box.)

Let me know in the comments if you would have gone through hoops like I did to receive this box and/or if there are other companies that offer something similar. Also stay tuned for the final part of this free registry bag/free pregnancy box series that will conclude with the items I received in my Destination Maternity in-store bag as well as my free welcome box for Prime members from Amazon.

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Mickey To Your Door: Disney Subscription Box Review of their New Tink Box and Snacks Box

UPDATED OCTOBER 12, 2017: Mickey To Your Door sent me a replacement box in the mail to make up for the one item arriving broken in my Tink box. Check out what new Disney contents I received in my make-up box in this new video upload below.

ORIGINAL POST:

The last few posts have focused on registry bags and while I do plan to continue that series and show what came in a few more “free boxes” for pregnant women, I wanted to switch gears today and focus on another phenomenon altogether: Disney subscription boxes! It recently came to my attention that there are companies that will personally shop for you at either Disney World in Florida or Disneyland in California and send items to subscribers on a monthly or bi-monthly basis. Disney has at least SIX official collectible subscriptions that I’ve found ranging from a “Disney princess”-themed box aimed at young children sold by Pley to Disney Park Packs sold on Shop Disney (formerly DisneyStore.com) which contain coin and pin collections with handpicked items from the parks as well as a new tsum tsum and/or ornament subscription service, a Funko collectibles subscription called the Disney Treasures Box and even the Countdown to Fun box, a one-time box sold on both Shop Disney and and the Shop Disney Parks app filled with six surprise boxes to countdown the time before your next Disney World vacation. Phew-ee! And THAT is only the OFFICIAL Disney subscription services that are currently available.

There’s also an official Star Wars collectibles plan for Star Wars lovers, two officially licensed Marvel products plans and at least 12 different companies I have found as of this writing which are unofficial Disney Parks subscription services that specialize in providing mystery boxes each month containing either items directly purchased from the parks or selected from Disney licensed merchants. I am working on a comparison post outlining the benefits of each of these different companies but to kick this off, I recently subscribed to one of the unofficial plans called Mickey To Your Door.

From what I’ve gathered, Mickey To Your Door (not to be confused with Magic at Your Door, another unofficial subscription service) is one of the newer and perhaps lesser known companies judging by the lack of YouTube videos dedicated to its unboxing of products. However, they are one of the few companies that pretty much guarantee you will receive at least 100% of the value of the box you are paying for and which also specializes in products handpicked directly from Walt Disney World (so you are guaranteed mostly all theme park products!). Some other subscription services state that their boxes contain a mix of theme park products and officially licensed items with a promise of just one or two items from Disney Parks, which honestly means you could get something sold at Target or even Dollar Tree as long as it an “officially licensed” Disney item and they would count that toward your product total. I was not interested in receiving licensed products I could potentially find easily on my own so specifically looked into which services would provide those hard-to-ship items shopped directly from the theme parks…and that is when Mickey To Your Door entered my radar.

Boxes from Mickey To Your Door Received October 2017

Their signature is a typically all-white or brown box with their logo stamped across the front in red lettering. Each of their boxes contains items purchased directly from the Walt Disney World resort in Florida and can be cancelled at any time, though they do allow you to purchase their regular monthly subscription boxes one time if purchased as a gift. Additionally, they sell special one-time boxes on their website valued between $35 and $75 plus shipping.

Of all the subscription services I found, Mickey To Your Door offers the CHEAPEST monthly subscription box at just $12 (the smaller box pictured below) and that box includes free shipping in the U.S. This was a new box offered beginning the month of September 2017 so I could not resist signing up to try it out!

Posing with the new Tink box from Mickey To Your Door

There are currently eight different boxes you can subscribe to, in addition to the two one-time boxes, including three pin trading boxes starting at $8, one snacks box priced at $35 and four mystery boxes with an assortment of souvenirs and Disney Parks snacks. These boxes can be customized by specifying in advance what age group this box is targeted for (whether child or adult) as well as gender (unless you prefer to keep items gender neutral). The smallest mystery box – the Tink box – cannot be customized but is also the box guaranteed to save you the most by only costing $12 a month.  The next lowest priced mystery box is their Wishes box, priced at $25 with a guarantee of up to 3 items – but notice with the wording, you could still just receive only 2 items valued at a total of $25. So with that said, I thought opting for the Tink box with a guarantee of one OR two items might give me the most bang for my buck for receiving a few Disney Parks items (vs. paying $25) and would be a cheap introduction to try this new service.

Combination of what arrived in my Tink box as well as World Showcase Snacks Box from Epcot – primarily goodies selected from among the Japan and Mexico pavilions as well as Mickey Mouse balloon figurine (unfortunately which arrived broken)

Here is a video review and unboxing of both the $12 Tink box as well as their World Showcase Snacks box, which guaranteed up to 10 treats and snacks plucked from around the world in Epcot’s World Showcase for $35 plus shipping. With 11 countries to choose from I thought this would be an excellent way to see what treats were sent to me from “around the world” as well as loved the concept of this box, given all the items were guaranteed to come from Epcot, my favorite Disney park.

Let me know what you thought of what I received in my first-ever Disney subscription boxes. Were they worth it? Worth trying again? I would love to hear any thoughts on these or other Disney subscription boxes as overall I LOVE the concept of receiving a dose of Disney Parks in the mail for those times when you can’t get yourself physically to the parks, and I can see myself trying these again come Christmas time 🙂

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Registry Goody Bag Series – Part Two: What Came in My Free Bags from Babies “R” Us and Buy Buy Baby

A few days ago I posted Part One to this series on what comes in your registry goody bag, and I wanted to pick up where I left off, showing the inside of the free baby registry gift bags I received from a few more stores. The stores that I am aware of where you can pick up a free in-store goody bag include Target (which was highlighted in Part One of this series), Babies “R” Us and Buy Buy Baby. I go into detail on the pros and cons of each baby registry program in another recent post titled “13 Reasons Why You Should Create a Baby Registry” – if you missed that post and want to view my helpful side-by-side comparison chart of all the registry program perks then click this link.

Free gift bags received during the month of September just for signing up for a baby registry – pictured are bags from Target, Buy Buy Baby, Babies “R” Us and Motherhood Maternity

I would have mentioned another national store known for giving a free in-store gift was Giggle (which gave a $50 gift card upon signing up in their store and registering for at least 25 items) but I just received a few emails last week that all of their retail stores are closing and upon checking out their website, it appears that the website has also been SHUT DOWN so they are no more! This news comes on the heels of Babies “R” Us filing for bankruptcy so hopefully that doesn’t mean too many changes are underway to their own in store registry program as Babies “R” Us’ program has always been one of my favorites, but of course time will tell.

All that said, I went ahead and filmed a video for each of my registry bags that I picked up in September so if you are interested feel free to watch those video links or view the images I will post below. Also note that with any registry program, the contents you will find in your bag can change from month to month so there is no guarantee anyone will receive all these same products — but this is just to give an idea of what generally comes in each store’s bag and what you can expect.

What Came in My Babies “R” Us Registry Bag

Inside of my Babies “R” Us free registry bag from early September

Of all the free registry bags I received last month, Babies “R” Us was by far the most informational in terms of providing additional resources for new parents. A typical bag from them includes a thank you card with a $5 off coupon on a purchase of $25 or more (with some restrictions including diapers and wipes), but in my registry bag I actually received two of those coupon cards along with a ton of fliers/guides meant to help a new mom and/or dad prepare for baby’s arrival such as a list of what to pack for the hospital, nursery bedding safety tips, steps to achieve breastfeeding success, what to stock in your diaper bag and baby bath time basics. I also received print-out announcement cards in a thick card stock that I could conceivably hand out to friends and family, letting them know I registered at Babies “R” Us – though I feel these days, people generally just include a link to their online registry and leave it at that as the “official announcement.” Aside from these guides and cards, a typical Babies “R” Us free registry gift bag also includes a number of coupons, advertisements, free sample products, baby registry guide book with checklists divided into must-haves and good-to-haves and a reminder card on the “top reasons to love” their registry with a brief mention of some of their registry perks including the chance to receive up to 10% back on all registry purchases through their endless earnings, access to their employees and other “expert” resources, an on-the-go app to keep abreast of your registry at all times, a price match guarantee where the store will match competitor’s prices as well as their own cheaper online prices and an extended one year return policy on all registry items.

Full view of everything in my bag

A closer look at the products and main registry guide included inside

Products I received:

• A $20 gift card from Shutterfly
• One Kinde Twist Breastfeeding Starter Pack with a direct-pump breast milk collection, storage and feeding system for your baby included with instructions, a 25% off coupon toward a future Kinde system purchase at Babies “R” Us and information on how to register the product online to receive a 40-pack of twist pouches for free (with $6 paid shipping)

Kinde Twist breastfeeding starter pack box

• A 4.5 ounce newborn baby bottle from Mam and pacifier (I mention in my YouTube video that the bottle is only 4 ounces but upon opening the sample product, I discovered it included a free pacifier inside along with a card indicating the bottle is actually 4.5 ounces)
• A baby’s first photo magnet from Babies “R” Us with a message reminding registrants that most health insurance companies will pay for moms to receive a free breast pump
• A Lansinoh breastfeeding sample pack with 2 breastmilk storage bags and 2 disposable nursing pads
• One new Toys “R” Us Rewards card to join their free in-store rewards program

In addition to the above products my bag included a coupon toward a Babyganics Essentials gift set (an introduction to their product line including hand sanitizer, wipes, lotion, baby shampoo, bubble bath and bottle soap) to save $10, two additional coupons from Sprout to use toward their organic baby food pouches, a sign-up card for Enfamil Family Beginnings program to receive free formula discounts and join their email list as well as 11 ads for other products sold at Babies “R” Us stores ranging from Kinsa ear thermometers to Graco, Brica, Halo Bassinest, Aden + Anais and Philips Avent bottles and pacifiers.

UPDATE: I went back to my local store in mid-September requesting another thank you card with $5 coupon as the two I received in my first free registry bag expired 8/31/2017 before I even had a chance to use them (I picked up my bag the second week of September). The store gave me a new registry bag which unfortunately still had the expired coupon though they did tell me to come back later in the month when their thank you cards should be updated. However, I can tell you that the items I received in my new Babies “R” Us registry bag differed somewhat from my first bag in that I received more products (plus no informational guides in this one) and those new items are posted below:

Products included inside my duplicate Babies “R” Us bag including two different bottles, a pacifier, baby laundry detergent, scent booster, sunscreen and lotion samples

• a Noodle & Boo sample kit with newborn 2-in-1 hair and body wash and super soft lotion
• one sample load of Dapple baby laundry and coupon toward $1 off any full size Dapple product
• an updated, larger-sized Pampers registry gift tote with striped design including the standard newborn diaper and six-pack of wipes found in their older kits but also a special $5 coupon when you buy a box of Pampers diapers with a value box of wipes (392 count or higher) and free book of five additional coupons including a $1.50 off coupon on one Pampers Swaddlers diapers, a $1 off Pampers wipes kit, $2 off Vicks VapoRub, $2 off one Dreft liquid laundry detergent and $1 off one Crest toothpaste
• one 4 ounce Playtex Baby Nurser bottle together with 5 pre-sterilized DROP-INS liners
• one 4.5 ounce Mam newborn anti-colic bottle with one starter newborn pacifier
• one sample of Dreft Blissfuls in-wash scent booster for a long lasting baby fresh scent
• one sample of Babyganics mineral-based sunscreen (50+ SPF) with a $1 off coupon

A look inside the updated Pampers registry gift tote with new striped design and more coupons

What Came in My Buy Buy Baby Registry Bag

As with Babies “R” Us I received two goody bags from Buy Buy Baby — I will go more into that later. I have found that in the past, their goody bags tended to give you a LOT of products to try but perhaps not as big of a sample as you might get with other companies (for instance, they give a lot of single-use lotion and detergent samples vs. individual travel size bottles you might find with other companies like Target). In 2014, I recall the one big-ticket item I received from them was a full sample can of baby formula but I noticed that none of the registries gave out formula to me this year, and when I called two formula companies inquiring about samples, they mentioned that they’ve done away with the frequency of giving out samples lately as there has been a recent promotional push toward breastfeeding in general. Interesting. However, this year each bag contained between 11 to 13 sample products and a good number of them were actually travel size bottles lending themselves to more than just a one-time use! They also have one of the most comprehensive free baby books included in their registry bags with various product suggestions on what to put on your registry, a registry checklist and even a section for you to draw in your nursery’s room dimensions to help plan and design your perfect nursery (I show this page in more detail in my duplicate registry bag video).

First registry bag received from Buy Buy Baby – first impression, heavy on the single-use items

Duplicate registry bag received from Buy Buy Baby

Here’s a list of the products and coupons I received in my first bag:

• One Chicco NaturalFit soft silicone orthodontic pacifier good from 0+ months
• the same Lansinoh breastfeeding sample pack that came in my Target and Babies “R” Us bags
• two samples from Belli Beauty including belly oil and anti-blemish facial wash
• one travel size bottle of Aveeno Baby daily moisture lotion
• one Pampers sample tote with a pack of 6 baby wipes and one newborn Swaddler diaper
• one $20 Shutterfly gift card
• a sample natural saline wipe from Boogie Wipes with a 50 cents coupon
• one sample of Blue Lizard Australian sunscreen for babies (30+ SPF)
• one sample bottle of Mustela gentle cleansing gel along with coupon to save $10 toward a purchase of $40 or more of Mustela products
• one sample of Dapple bottles and dishes liquid with $1 off coupon
• one baby nail file from Rhoost along with a $2 off coupon toward a Rhoost grooming kit

Products included inside the first Buy Buy Baby bag

Coupons:

• one Buy Buy Baby $5 off coupon off a purchase of $15 or more (some exclusions apply)
• three coupons toward Picture People, located in over 60 Buy Buy Baby locations where you can receive a free maternity portrait same day, spend $20 for 25 birth announcements or receive 20% off your portraits
• a save $10 coupon from Babyganics toward their Essentials Gift Set (basically the same coupon from Babies “R” us but their version is worded slightly differently)
• save $1 coupon from Aveeno Baby
• three coupons for Philips Avent to save either $3 on a multi-pack of bottles, 50 cents on a trainer cup or 10% off a bottle warmer or steam sterilizer
• one $2 coupon toward a Lansinoh mOmma bottle

View of the contents inside my second registry bag from Buy Buy Baby

I actually ended up visiting another Buy Buy Baby location in my area on a hot September day and requested a bottle of water. While talking to the store associate she asked if I had registered already, noticing my belly and when I replied yes, I think she must have figured I had registered online so she gave me a duplicate registry bag.

The products in both my bags were pretty similar but there were a few differences, such as:

• in addition to the Pampers sample tote with newborn diaper and wipes pack, I also received a second diaper kit from The Honest Company with 2 diapers and 10 plant-based wipes meant for a baby between 8-14 pounds
• one sample of Palmer’s Cocoa Butter Formula massage lotion for stretch marks
• one free Baby on Board sign from Safety 1st and Buy Buy Baby to put in your car
• one sample of Babyganics bubble bath with $1 off coupon toward any Babyganics purchase of $4.99 or more
• not one but two Mustela gentle cleansing gel bottles with their respective coupon
• and lastly, a $2 off coupon toward $10 or more of Mam baby products

Inside the Honest Diapers and Wipes pack

Each Buy Buy Baby bag also included one free copy of Fit Pregnancy and Baby magazine in addition to an ad inviting you to join their credit card program.

Stay tuned for the last part of this registry bag series where I will disclose what came in my bag from Motherhood Maternity (their bag works a little different in that you don’t actually register but join their email list when you make an in-store purchase) as well as special pregnancy boxes from Amazon and a company called Noobie, which require either a registry purchase or shipping payment so not 100% free technically.

For now, feel free to leave a comment if you registered elsewhere and received a registry gift bag or if your bag’s contents differ dramatically from what I received from these stores in September. I find it fun to compare from store to store and judging from my last baby, I am sure most of these products will be used quickly as I learn what products work best for my new baby!

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Registry Goody Bag Series – Part One: What Comes In the Free Target Registry Bag

Free gift bags received during the month of September just for signing up for a baby registry – pictured are bags from Target, Buy Buy Baby, Babies “R” Us and Motherhood Maternity

Earlier this month I included a post on the top 13 baby registries where parents can register to receive baby gifts for their newborn (or for any special occasion such as first birthday, Christmas wish list etc.). If you haven’t had a chance to check out that post, here is the link which includes a comprehensive, side-by-side comparison chart weighing the pros and cons of each registry. There are many registries to choose from, but given one of the best perks of being pregnant is the free swag that comes with it, I wanted to dedicate a special post on which registry programs you can count on to receive a free gift. This post will be the first in a series where I post what came in my goody bag from some of the top baby retailers. All of my registry goody bags were picked up during the month of September, but just remember, that each retailer’s free sample products and coupons are likely to change from month to month, or even store to store. I will go into that in more detail with both Buy Buy Baby and Babies “R” Us – two of the biggest baby registry programs.

But first – to kick off this series – let’s start with what came in my free Target registry bag. I put together a video highlighting the unveiling of my Target registry bag and will create additional videos for my other registry bags as well. Feel free to click on the video below and/or view the coverage directly on my newly created Play Dates & Travels YouTube channel:

What Comes in Target’s Free Registry Gift Bag 

The first glance inside my Target registry bag received September 2017

Target’s free bag was my favorite goody bag of all the in-store bags I received this month, simply because they provided the most sample products without excess fluff (i.e. shameless product ads). I received a total of 11 product samples!! This is much more than I received in the past from them when I registered for my first baby (in 2014, I received five products including a Philips Avent bottle, Mam pacifier, Aquaphor lotion, Lansinoh breastfeeding kit and Huggies sampler pack with 2 newborn diapers and one pack of baby wipes). In 2015, when I was registering for my daughter’s first birthday wish list, I recorded a video of my different registry bags and received 6 total items from Target compared to 7 from Babies “R” Us and 14 from Buy Buy Baby (I hit the jackpot with that bag – what happened to all those samples this year?!!). That video is available on YouTube or copied below if anyone wants to see how the Target bag has changed over the years.

Target’s free bag still comes in a reusable tote, but since 2014-2015, where I received a green and white recyclable bag, it appears Target has updated their registry bag’s design. The bag is now gray and white and comes with carry straps and a button snap enclosure, making it even more convenient to reuse.

Contents inside my Target bag from September 2017

As I mentioned earlier, Target upped their product count this year with 11 free sample products and their website suggests the bag is valued at $50. Laid out in the photo above (and below) is everything that was included.

What I Received:

• One large 8 ounce bottle from Dr. Brown’s – one of their Options bottles, it is marketed as the first convertible bottle that can be used with or without the vent system that defines the Dr. Brown’s bottle line. Most free bottles given by baby registries tend to be the newborn size so this bottle was unique in that it allots up to 8 ounces and retails for about $6.99.
• One congratulations for registering at Target pamphlet with one buy one, get one free coupon on a Starbucks beverage (only valid at an in-store Starbucks location) and two coupons toward maternity apparel sold at Target as well as certain nursing bra brands including Gilligan & O’Malley, Basics by Bravado Designs and Medela – each coupon was redeemable for 10% off. The pamphlet also included a quick reminder of some of the top perks of creating a registry at Target including a 15% completion discount to complete your registry received eight weeks prior to your event date, free shipping for you and your gift givers over $25 (online now says the threshold is $35 however) and easy returns for up to one year after your event date to return or exchange items from your registry.

• I also received four different lotions – massage lotion from Palmer’s Cocoa Butter Formula for alleviating stretch marks (along with a save $1 coupon on future Palmer’s products), one sample size of Aquaphor Baby Advanced Therapy lotion for dry, irritated skin and the reduction of diaper rash (packaged together with a $1.50 coupon), a small sample size bottle of Johnson’s head-to-toe baby lotion and one bottle of Mustela gentle cleansing gel meant for use during bath time. This last product also came packaged together with a coupon offer to receive a free $5 Target gift card with the purchase of any Mustela products worth $30 or more.
• One travel carry case from Pampers along with one newborn diaper, a pack of six baby wipes, a $1.50 coupon to be used toward any Pampers Swaddlers diapers purchase and invitation card to join the Pampers Rewards program
• A yellow newborn pacifier from Mam
• One sample size laundry detergent triple-concentrated and fragrance-free load from Babyganics (along with $2 manufacturer’s coupon toward any Babyganics purchase of $4.99 or more)
• A small travel pack of 20 unscented baby wipes from Target’s up & up brand (and save 75 cents coupon)
• A Lansinoh breastfeeding sample pack with two disposable nursing pads (for preventing leaks) and two breastmilk storage bags. I used several different brands of breastmilk storage containers with my first baby and these were by far my favorite so I am happy to have new samples on hand for the next baby!
• As an extra bonus, I found an extendable cloth measuring tape from Munchkin good for measuring baby as he or she grows or even taking mom’s own changing body measurements! I thought that was a unique sample to include as it is more versatile and can be used beyond the newborn stages.

As I received this free Pampers pack in virtually every baby registry bag I received, here is a close-up of what comes inside:

1 newborn Pampers Swaddlers diaper and one pack of 6 Pampers Sensitive baby wipes, along with a coupon for $1.50 savings and one free Pampers code to join their rewards program and trade in points for baby products and gifts

I have enjoyed being a member of Pampers rewards program over the years as you can redeem your points toward free gifts. Sadly, they recently did away with their popular Grow On program which gave members free bonus gifts every three months, on top of the regular rewards, but you can still find a large line of baby products available on their website that can be purchased with your points. Case in point? The Melissa & Doug Band-in-a-Box set that I recently reviewed in my favorite baby toys from the first year of their life post was redeemed 100% with Pampers points, saving me the trouble of paying its retail cost of $25. (The only problem is, you constantly have to remember to manually enter your codes online – to help with this, my husband likes to remove the stickers with the codes and places them on the edge of my computer monitor as a reminder before we throw away the plastic wrapping and boxes!)

As for what a Lansinoh breastmilk storage bag looks like up close, here is a photo I took from an old sample I had, which included two of the storage bags. They have a section to mark the date that the milk sample is collected as well as room to mark how many ounces you are storing in each bag.

Breastmilk storage bags from Lansinoh

As you can see, the sample products from this one registry bag were more than generous, and the best part is unlike some of the other registry programs which include a ton of ads that may or may not be useful depending on your needs, the bag was filled with products useful to a new mom as well as relevant coupons toward the products presented in the bag. The only other additional contents in my registry bag were two more coupons that could be redeemed solely at Target including $5 off a Boppy Total Body pillow and 20% off baby apparel from Target brand Cat & Jack. Every one of the coupons found in my bag are also valid for a long period of time – I registered in September 2017, yet every coupon is good through June 30, 2018.

I will say this – even though Target was my favorite in-store bag for the sheer number of convenient and thoughtful baby samples provided, it was also the biggest pain to secure. I recall in 2014, when I registered for my first child, my local store forgot to give me my free bag so I had to make two trips in store. This time around, I walked purposefully to the customer service desk after beginning my registry online but my local store — and another one nearby — were both completely out of stock and the employees warned me that when their free gift bag goes out of stock, it takes a while for the store to replenish. So keep that in mind – luckily there are so many Target stores around that all I needed to do was visit a third store before I found a location with a bag in stock. Kind of a pain, but I felt it was worth the hassle once I finally took a peek inside.

Leave a comment to let me know if you also registered at Target and received something altogether different in your gift bag as it is always fun to compare! Also stay tuned for part two of this series where I will describe what came in my registry bags from Buy Buy Baby and Babies “R” Us.

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Which Toys Will Baby Enjoy Most in His or Her First Year?

I recently have been “spring cleaning” in a sense. No, it’s not spring but with baby #2 coming soon I realized I should reorganize my daughter’s room to make room for my son’s half of the nursery. One of the things I came across were her old toy bins stuffed far back in the closet.  As I began sorting through them I put aside her favorite toys — those that really made a difference in the first year. What follows is my overview of the top toys your newborn baby will probably get the most use out of in his or her first year of life.

[Disclosure: Some of the following links are referral/affiliate links from Amazon or Target, which means if you purchase the item directly from the link, I will make a small commission. However, the price costs the same whether you access the link through this site or elsewhere. For more info check out my Disclosures page.]

1. Sophie the Giraffe –I boycotted this toy at first. I thought, “There is no way this toy is just that good and my baby doesn’t need one.” Plus it’s expensive for what it is, retailing at around $25. Well, eventually we were gifted one – I think my daughter was a few months old at the time – and she too jumped in on the phenomenon. The reason this is one of the most popular go-to baby toys is because it is just that effective. Every baby seems to take to it immediately. Why? It’s made of rubber so is a natural teething toy and easy to grip for little hands to grab hold of. This product just works and I will have no hesitation about using it with my second baby. (Note: there were some recent reports earlier this year about a mom’s giraffe containing mold after using it for two years so I will probably just buy a new one for my second to be safe – as a teething toy, this giraffe does require maintenance from time to time).

2. Alphabet and Numbers Foam Floor Puzzle Mat  –   

With 36 interconnecting foam tiles, this large floor mat covers a lot of space and is the perfect accessory to any baby nursery, or living room if you have hardwood floors. There are many variations of this product sold all over – I just saw one at TJ Maxx earlier today on sale for $9.99 and occasionally this will go on sale at Babies “R” Us. The link above redirects you to Amazon. But wherever you purchase it, this foam mat makes for a comfortable, soft surface for your baby to practice rolling over or tummy time while you watch close by. As an extra bonus, it is a fun introduction to the alphabet!

3. Bestever Baby Mat by Mary Meyer – When I saw this in store I immediately fell in love. This makes for the perfect shower gift and we have gifted them to a few of our friends and family expecting newborns because they really are the cutest, most cuddliest mats ever. (There’s a matching one with blue tummy for boys as well as a range of different animals available like lambs, lions etc.) I think this bear reminded me of an oversized Care Bear (something that is nostalgic for me) so I was super thrilled when I found this online and even more thrilled when I saw one of my best friends purchase this from my registry. The perfect tummy time mat, it also makes for cute photos and is something we have kept in my daughter’s nursery for continuous playtime.

Cute baby bear mat by Mary Meyer

4. Balls, Balls and More Balls of all Kinds – It doesn’t really matter which one you get for your baby, but my daughter and all her baby friends absolutely LOVED playing with balls. In fact, ball was my husband’s first word, or so he tells me. Pictured below is the Oball with rattle, as well as the Oball Classic ball toy – with holes perfect for little hands to grip and play. We also have an assortment of ball pit balls, the Oball Rattle & Roll car (we purchased on Amazon), a small plushy basketball and various sensory balls – great for tactile development and practicing hand eye coordination and what have you. At 3 years old, my daughter still likes to throw these around from time to time.

Balls of all kinds for baby and rattling car

5. Stroller Toys, Crinkly Toys/Books and Play Key Set – Not sure why babies love keys so much but they do! Our daughter still brings these out to play with. As a baby, she used to take the keys from room to room and, yes, eventually try to put it in her mouth. These particular ones were meant for teething and include an option to play music when you press the music note. We purchased them from Babies “R” Us. In addition to the teething play keys, you can never go wrong with various stroller toys to dangle above your baby for those long stroller walks outside or even to place hanging from their car seat for longer car trips. We liked the ones with crinkly plush accessories and/or crinkly soft books as babies get a kick out of hearing the little crinkle in their hands, and used the owl for the car. The easier it was for the toy to dangle within reach, the more effective these were at distracting our baby and keeping her entertained. The sensory development toy had a suction cup to place on the stroller itself – we used it more indoors on top of her Superseat, something she began using after 6 months old when they can sit up and literally spin toys all around them on a play tray while the seat itself can later transform into a booster seat to take with you to restaurants or just for helping baby to scoot around the house.

Stroller toys, sensory development toys and play key set with musical chimes

Crinkly butterfly toy, fish stroller toy and ‘Fuzzy bee and friends’ crinkly baby book

6. Baby Rattles – They make noise, they are cute to look at and fairly safe (with the hard ones we just had to be careful she didn’t bang it around). We had an assortment of rattles including the crinkly kind and soft plush kind (the giraffe ring) but our baby honestly took to them all.

7. Stuffed Animals and Soothing Light Up Toy – I began collecting plush stuffed animals for myself long before I ever had a baby (ahem, let’s see, I had my college bear, my collection of Care Bears which I kept in pristine condition, a plush Bambi toy from the Disney Store and my husband’s old tattered Mickey Mouse from his own childhood for starters). However, even if you don’t have a working stuffed animal collection to begin with, I recommend you start one for your baby. They are soft and cuddly and attractive – and while I don’t recommend you put them in your baby’s crib while they sleep as you want to prevent any suffocation risks or SIDS, they make for great additions to a toy chest. My daughter really took to the slithering snail toy (I think we purchased it from Ross for $5 or some other store like that), as well as plush butterfly pillow and Tilly, her rag doll from Ragtales, which we found in London at their popular John Lewis stores (we loved their baby department!!!) but it has since been made available online. Tilly became our daughter’s favorite doll and is still pulled out of the toy chest from time to time. However the NUMBER ONE favorite item of hers from when she was a newborn included in the below photograph was the Fisher Price Soothe & Grow Seahorse toy. We have purchased this for our cousin’s new baby as well because it was a lifesaver! My daughter was not the best sleeper as an infant but the music from the light up seahorse would calm her down and she loved to listen to it on repeat. When she got a little older, she learned how to press the seahorse’s stomach to play the music herself and if you press it twice the music automatically stops (perfect for when your baby eventually falls asleep and you want to let them doze in peaceful silence).

 8. Specialized Disney Toys – If you are a Disney fan like me, then the nursery has to have some touch of Mickey Mouse infused somewhere. We have a replica of Cinderella’s castle on one of the nursery walls in addition to a pillow with animated characters that we picked up in Tokyo Disneyland, but to add to the Mickey Mouse home decor, our daughter easily took to a barking Pluto toy that comes with a string to walk him around the house. I saw this at Disneyland in California shortly before her first birthday and she has been a fan of it ever since. The Mickey Mouse stuffed animal was on sale at Babies “R” Us and the soft baby blocks we purchased from Disney Studios in Burbank, CA when one of my friends, who happens to work for Disney, was kind enough to let me in — you can only enter if you know someone onsite. It was there that I went on a shopping spree at their onsite store which had plenty of discounted merchandise usually reserved for cast members, Disney employees and the like. However I recently saw these same baby blocks available for purchase at Disney Baby’s one retail location in Glendale, CA.

Mickey and Minnie soft baby blocks from Disney Baby and a rolling Minnie Mouse car toy

9. Stacking Toys, Sorters and Building Blocks – Babies love to stack objects on top of each other and these toys below, including the Fisher Price Rock-a-Stack and Baby’s 1st Blocks toys, helped my daughter learn all about shapes and sizes and matching the correct size in the proper hole (something that became useful later when she was learning to put the chunky puzzle shapes back in place to her animal puzzles at age 2). She also liked to play with the Infantino Activity Triangle – looks like they updated the version a bit from the one we actually purchased, but as an infant my daughter liked to slide and spin the objects back and forth and shake the toy to hear the balls circulate.

Sorting toy

Stacker, building blocks and activity triangle

10. Blankies/Security Blankets and More Plush Soft Toys – My daughter was not the biggest fan of these as a newborn but eventually grew more attached to her snuggly blankies as she got past the 6 months old mark. My mother-in-law found the giraffe blankie from Angel Dear from a local baby store in Maryland, but it appears to be available on Amazon as well. The Maggie Simpson blankie we found at Universal Studios (gifted to my daughter courtesy of my father-in-law) and the elephant plush has crinkly ears and a rattle inside – though I don’t recall where we received it from. However you can never have too many soft plush toys – just move some aside to make room for more!

11. Tech Toys – In this day and age, tech toys have become the norm. My daughter had an over-abundance of tech toys so maybe not all of these are necessary. However, I am including photos to give you an example of what is out there. My daughter loved her lap tops (all three!) as well as play cell phone, musical piano from Baby Einstein, “Tick Tock” clock, and flashlight. The camera I honestly don’t recall her using much but maybe because as an infant she was wondering what it was (kids are so used to seeing us take photos with our phones that I think the traditional camera toy threw her for a loop). I will say this though – with tech toys, get used to the annoying songs they sing because you will be hearing a lot of them!! My favorite ones are the ones where you can adjust the volume for obvious reasons 🙂

She had the LeapFrog My Own Leaptop in both pink and blue/green, as well as the Fisher Price Laugh & Learn Smart Stages laptop in pink and loved them all (my only complaint with the Fisher Price version is the numbers on the keypad eventually rubbed off with continual use).

12. Learn to Walk Toys – My daughter and pretty much ever other baby we know loved the VTech Sit to Stand Learning Walker most. It was most helpful around the 10 month stage when she was attempting to go from crawling to standing and walking on her own, and the toy allows them to distribute their weight so that they can easily move around the house. However, from time to time, she still takes this out of the closet and pushes it around! Guess the toy just doesn’t get old!  Like other VTech toys, the songs get stuck in your head but it is very interactive and babies love it. As an alternative, we also got her the Playskool Step Start Walk ‘n Ride which doubles as both a walker and ride on toy (currently positioned in the ride on mode) but while she did play with this here and there it was mostly for the ride on aspect. For learning to walk, she preferred the VTech toy. She was also a big fan of any pull-along toy such as the pink corn popper pictured below or the more eco-friendly version made by Plan Toys. Another great alternative to your baby learn to walk is the Fisher Price Laugh & Learn table – they sell various versions including a newer product, but whichever one you get should suffice as our daughter spent many hours interacting with the various elements, sounds and textures on this table. Luckily it’s pretty gender neutral so we plan on using the same one (currently stored in our closet) when baby #2 arrives!

13. Musical instruments – If your child is musical, best to encourage their musical development at an early age! We received two different play guitars and my daughter loves pulling on their strings and pretending to play herself. Meanwhile, I was able to buy the Band-in-a-Box set from Melissa & Doug using my Pampers Rewards points (if you enter all the codes from your diapers and wipes, they can be redeemed toward toy purchases), which came with a kazoo, castanets, xylophone and harmonica. When we visited Disney World last January, my daughter also requested we purchase the purple maraca from the Mexico pavilion so this was the beginning of her musical instrument set!

14. Picnic Basket Toy – We were gifted this picnic basket for my daughter’s first birthday and she still likes to use it to play picnic. It comes with a cute picnic blanket as well as cups, plates, 6 food pieces, two forks and a musical picnic basket that plays different sounds as well as encourages interaction in the form of finding all the various shapes (circles, triangles and squares) and counting 1 to 3. Honestly it has been such a popular toy for her that I had to include it on this list.

15. Finger puppets – Last but not least, the first year toys list would not be complete without including these silly little finger puppets. They make for great accessories in your carry on bag for plane trips or just for sitting around the house. We have received a few over the years in gift bags at parties and they never get old. Sure, the entertainment value only lasts intermittently (five to ten minutes for my daughter at most) but they are cute and a fun diversion to come back to.

That’s it for our round-up of favorite baby toys used within the first year of life. Let me know in the comments if there were any other first year baby toys that really made your child’s day!

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13 Reasons Why You Should Create a Baby Registry: A Side-By-Side Comparison of the Top Baby Registry Programs

The last time I looked at baby registries in depth was about three years ago when I was expecting my first little one. For my daughter’s recent birthday, nearly everyone – friends and family, near and far – asked me if I had created a birthday wish list (gulp, I hadn’t)… That got me realizing that even though I am now preparing for my second baby, registries are super important to provide those closest to you with the opportunity to purchase items you really want or need. Additionally, they are convenient for reducing the risk for duplicates, though of course those still happen whether you have a registry or not (something to do with a slight delay in which items are purchased and when they show up as purchased off your registry).

From my research, what I have gleaned is that in the past three years baby registries have considerably upped their game! Completion discounts are higher or available earlier (allowing parents to get those last minute purchases in BEFORE baby arrives), return policies have been extended and there are so many more perks to be had from creating a baby registry.

Since there have been many recent changes in late 2017, I decided to put together this comprehensive, side-by-side look at not only the major baby retailers but lesser known companies across the U.S. I plan to go into depth on who gives the best goody bags in a later post, but for now, here is an overview of each baby registry which outlines my personal observations and info taken directly from each registry website. In some cases, I even called stores directly to verify facts that seemed ambiguous. Keep reading below for my personal registry recommendations, based on all the facts!! Also, look out for the bottom of this post where I include 9 bonus registries and stores with baby products that you can shop for online!

A side by side comparison chart comparing the top go-to baby registries.  Click here to view as a PDF file.    Click here to view as an image file (.png).