What to Put on a Baby Registry, by Month

Walk into a baby shop and you will be offered two hundred things. You need about two dozen before the birth and a few more over the first year. The trouble with most registry checklists is that they hand you all of it at once, so the high chair you will not touch until month six sits next to the car seat you cannot leave hospital without.

This checklist is sorted by when you will actually use each item. That does two things. It tells you what has to be sorted before the due date and what can wait, and it gives guests a spread of gifts at every price, from a pack of washers to a share of the pram. It mirrors the baby registry checklist that EasyRegistry builds into every new baby registry, with the quantities and Australian safety notes from that guide. If you have not created the registry yet, how to create a baby registry in Australia is the step-by-step, and the baby shower registry etiquette guide covers sharing it.

How to use this list

Essentials first. Items marked essential are the ones you will use in the first fortnight. Put those on the registry first and buy whatever is left yourself a month before the due date. Everything else is genuinely useful but survivable without, which makes it a good gift rather than an urgent purchase.

Quantities beat brands. Eight cheap muslin wraps do more work than one expensive one. Put the number you want in the item description so guests can buy a pack without checking whether someone else already has.

Big items are group gifts. A pram, a car seat and a cot are more than any single guest will spend. List them anyway. On a registry where guests can contribute part of an item, six friends cover a pram between them, and you buy the exact model once the total is in.

Check the safety standard on anything your baby sleeps or travels in. Australia has mandatory safety standards for infant sleep products (in force since January 2026) and for child car restraints. Buy those new from a retailer who shows the standard on the listing, and read the Product Safety Australia guidance before you shortlist. Our baby gear guide for Australia goes through what the standards mean in practice.

Before the birth: the non-negotiables

These are the things you need at home before you bring the baby back from hospital. If a guest doesn't cover them, you buy them.

Travel

Car seat (essential). Hospitals expect a properly fitted restraint before you drive a newborn anywhere. Choose a rear-facing capsule or a convertible seat that starts rear-facing, and book a professional fitting if it is your first. Avoid second-hand seats with an unknown history or a passed expiry date. Our guide to the best baby car seats in Australia compares the current picks.
Nappy bag (essential). Any bag with a fold-out change mat does the job.

Sleep

Cot (essential) and a cot mattress (essential) that fits it with no gaps. A firm, flat mattress and nothing soft in the sleep space are the rules. A bassinet is optional; plenty of babies go straight into the cot.
Fitted cot sheets. Four is a workable minimum. Put the cot's mattress size in the description.
Muslin wraps. Eight. Swaddle, feeding cover, burp cloth, emergency change mat. The most reused item on the list.
Sleeping bag or swaddle bag. One in the season the baby will be born into. A wrap should never be draped over a pram for shade; use the canopy.

Clothing

Singlets and zip suits. Six to eight of each. Newborn sizing starts at 0000, but many babies wear it for weeks rather than months, so ask for most of the wardrobe in 000 and 00. Zips beat press studs at 3am. Our baby clothes sizes guide for Australia explains the sizing, and think about which season the baby will be in each size, not the season they are born into.
Beanies and socks. A couple of cotton beanies for outdoors (hats come off for sleep) and more socks than seems reasonable.

Changing

Change mat (essential). The floor is the safest place to use it. If you use a change table, it needs barriers on all sides and a hand on the baby the whole time.
Nappies and wipes. Put a "nappy fund" on the registry as its own item rather than listing boxes, so guests can contribute any amount and you buy the size you need when you need it.

Feeding

Bottles. Two or three of one brand. Babies are fussy about teats, so trial one before anyone buys a full set.
Bottle steriliser. A microwave steriliser is the simplest way to keep up.
Breast pump. A silicone catch pump is cheap and collects the milk that would otherwise be lost mid-feed. Hold off on an expensive electric pump until you know how feeding is going.
Burp cloths. The wraps can double up. If you want dedicated ones, a pack of six.

Bathing

Hooded towels and washers (essential). Four towels and a dozen washers. For the first weeks a clean towel in the laundry tub or kitchen sink is a perfectly good bath.
Grooming kit. Newborn nails grow fast and scratch faces. An emery board may be all you need at first.

Months 0 to 3: settling in

The newborn weeks are about sleep, feeding and getting out of the house without a two-hour production. Most of these are classic shower gifts.

Pram. Buy for your actual life. Check the folded size against the boot first, then look for a one-hand fold and a seat that lies flat or takes a bassinet for the newborn months. One good pram is plenty; skip the accessories until you know which you would use. If a second baby is on the cards, our double pram guide is worth a read before you choose.
Baby carrier. The optional extra that earns its place fastest. Keep the baby's face visible and airway clear the whole time they are in it.
Baby bath. A convenience rather than a necessity, which makes it a good registry gift. Never leave a baby alone in water, even for a moment.
Play mat. A clean padded spot on the floor for tummy time (awake, with you watching) anywhere in the house.
Bouncer. Somewhere safe to put the baby down while you stay in the room. Always supervised, never for sleep. The safe-use rules matter more than the model.
Baby monitor. Genuinely optional in a small home, and a convenience rather than a safety device. Audio-only is cheap and reliable; video is nicer once there is a toddler to watch. If it uses wifi, change the default password. Our best baby monitor in Australia guide compares them.
Night light. Earns its keep at 3am feeds.
A meal fund. Not a product, but one of the most useful things on any registry. A "dinners for the first month" fund, or a friend who organises a meal roster, is the gift new parents talk about years later.

Months 3 to 6: the stretch

Babies get heavier, more awake and more opinionated. Most of what you need is bigger versions of what you have.

Clothes in 00 and 0. The 0000 and 000 sizes are behind you. Ask for the next size up in the season the baby will be in it, which is the thing guests most often get wrong.
A second sleeping bag for the new season, or a lighter or heavier tog than the first.
Teething toys. A few high-contrast toys made for babies, with no small or loose parts, beat a toy box. The grandparents will handle the rest whether you ask or not.
A bigger nappy fund. Consumption goes up. Keep the fund open and mention it in the thank-you notes.
A sun hat and a pram sunshade if the baby will be out in an Australian summer. Shade and airflow, never a cloth over the pram.

Months 6 to 12: solids and sitting up

This is where the registry timing trick pays off: gifts arrive before the birth, but these are the things you will be grateful for at month six.

High chair. Not needed until solids start around six months, but it belongs on the list now. A wipeable seat with no fabric crevices and a wide, stable base. Buckle the harness every time.
Bibs. At least eight. Cheap, constantly dirty, impossible to have too many of.
Weaning gear. Soft-tipped spoons, a couple of suction bowls, a sippy or straw cup, and a splash mat for under the chair.
Convertible car seat check. If you started with a capsule, the baby will outgrow it somewhere in this window. A convertible seat that goes rear-facing then forward-facing can go on the registry from the start as a group gift.
Board books. Ask guests to bring a favourite childhood book instead of a card. It builds a library and the inscriptions become the keepsake.
Clothes in size 0 and 1. Bigger, and by now the baby is crawling, so knees matter.

What to skip (or list sparingly)

Cot bumpers, pillows and soft toys in the cot. Nothing soft belongs in the sleep space. Leave them off entirely.
Newborn shoes. Babies don't walk. Socks will do until they do.
A wardrobe of 0000. Many babies are in 000 within weeks.
Gadgets that solve a problem you may never have. Wipe warmers, bottle-making machines and formula dispensers are fine if you know you want them. Don't add them "just in case".
Matching everything. No newborn has ever cared about the print on a change mat, and a full matching set costs more than the pieces you will use.
A second bassinet, capsule or pram for the grandparents' house. Hand-me-downs and a spare set of basics cover this.

Our post on Australian baby must-haves goes deeper on the newborn essentials if you want a second opinion on each category.

Funds and services: the things that don't come in a box

Some of the most useful items on a registry are not products. Add them as named funds so guests know exactly what they are giving:

Nappy fund. Self-explanatory, and it keeps giving for two years.
Meal fund or meal roster. The first month's dinners.
First-three-months fund. For the things you don't know you need yet.
A cleaner for the first six weeks. Ask any parent of a six-week-old whether they would rather have had a cleaner or a third bouncer.
Pram or car seat fund. If you would rather guests contribute to a total than to a specific model, name the category and pick the model yourself.

A guest choosing between a wrapped gift and a contribution will use whichever is easier, so keep both on the list. For guests wondering what to give, our how much to give for a baby shower post has ranges by relationship, and practical baby shower gifts has ideas that get used.

Second baby: a shorter list

If the cot, the pram and the car seat are already in the garage, the registry shrinks to the things that wear out: wraps, sheets, bottles, nappies, a new sleeping bag for the new season, and clothes in the right size for the right season. A meal fund matters more the second time, and a small gift for the older sibling is a kind touch. Our post on whether you need a registry for a second baby weighs up when to run one and when to skip straight to a wishing well.

Laying it out on the registry

Once you have the list, three things make it easy for guests:

Group it by category (travel, sleep, feeding, clothing, bathing, play, funds) so a guest who wants to buy "something for the bath" can find it in one scroll.
Spread the prices. A few big group-gift items, a middle band of normal shower gifts, and plenty of small useful things for colleagues and acquaintances.
Write the quantity and the size in the description. "Muslin wraps, we'd love eight in total" and "size 00, winter" save a dozen messages.

If you are still deciding where to host the list, our best baby registry in Australia comparison covers the single-store and universal options, and the Australian baby registry checklist compares what each store's checklist includes.

Common questions

What are the must-haves on a baby registry?

Before the birth: a car seat, somewhere safe to sleep (cot and a properly fitting mattress), wraps and sheets, clothes in 000 and 00, a change mat, nappies, a few bottles and hooded towels. Everything else can arrive later.

How many items should be on a baby registry?

Around two dozen essentials before the birth, plus the month 3 to 12 items and a couple of named funds. Enough that guests have a real choice at every price, not so many that the list looks like a catalogue.

When should I make the baby registry?

Around 20 to 24 weeks, once the big decisions on pram, car seat and cot are close. Share it four to six weeks before the shower.

Should I put expensive items like a pram on the registry?

Yes. List them as group gifts so several guests can contribute part of the cost. You buy the exact model once the total is in.

What should I not put on a baby registry?

Anything soft for inside the cot, newborn shoes, a wardrobe of 0000, and gadgets you are adding just in case.

Start from the list rather than a blank page. EasyRegistry builds this checklist into every new baby registry, lets you add gifts from any store, and turns the pram and cot into group gifts your friends can share. Free to create. Create your baby registry.