A little while back, a friend of mine did a huge comprehensive post of everything you could possibly need for a baby and what worked for her and her family. I was going to do something similar, but when I came down to it, there is so much that is nice to have, but not so many items I simply could not have survived the first few months without.
When I was putting together a shower gift for a dear friend and having a hard time because I couldn't settle on what to get her, my husband walked around BRU with me and rolled his eyes and then said "Why are we not getting her _____... and _____? We love these for Joe" and together, we compiled a basket of things we loved and she registered for (mostly things that fell into both categories). Kind of a new baby survival basket... It contained a lot of these things...
