Preemie Items After NICU

First Month Recap: Our Top Amazon Item Picks

This list is simply our personal purchase list  (we bought it all with our own money – nothing was sponsored or gifted) anticipating our arrival home with our preemie.

DISCLAIMER: This post contains affiliate links, so we may earn a small commission when you make a purchase through links on our site at no additional cost to you.

Kaylee came home with us at 35 weeks gestation weighing 4 pounds 7 ounces and was 18 inches long.

I found “Preemie” specific items are hard to come by so I created this recap list to help the overwhelm of gathering items for bringing home sweet preemie baby.

While sitting in the NICU learning from our amazing NICU nurse team I started ordering items for our home to have on hand.

Preemie Bottles and Nipples (Ordered 10):

Our NICU highly recommended the small bottles with slow flow nipples and reduces the intake of air during feedings. I have found Dr. Brown’s have been successful in our case in between nursing our preemie.

Dr. Brown’s Accufeed baby bottles with Preemie Nipple: The ones we ordered hold up to 60 cc’s of milk.

Here is the Dr. Brown’s website for more information.

https://amzn.to/3CnB23R link to bottles

I learned it’s important to have plenty of bottles on hand since baby eats every 3 hours we are in a constant rotation of feeding and washing bottles. The air vent system in these bottles have little pieces to keep track of and get used to. The pieces are important to wash as well and again, keeping track of all the parts that go into the bottle for a successful and routine feeding around the clock!

Sleep Sacks (Ordered 2)

There are a few different Preemie options for the sleep sacks. We purchased a two micro fleece sleep sacks by HALO (no shoulder snaps) since it’s winter and we want the extra warmth, there are also 100% cotton options.

Halo SleepSack Preemie Multi-way Micro fleece swaddle preemie: Our favorite sacks to have her in at home, this keeps her very warm. It is a thick substantial amount of fabric so we keep an eye on her temperature while she is in this. The fleece wrap secures with velcro. I’ll note I enjoy carrying Kaylee while she is in her fleece swaddles, as the thicker fabric makes it easy to hold her tiny body. We bought pink and blue for home.

HALO 100% Cotton Sleepsack Swaddle, 3-Way Adjustable Wearable Blanket, TOG 1.5, Jungle Cotton, Preemie: Found this on Amazon noting HALO’s page if you copy+paste in search it should come up preemie (pack of 1) specific

TrulyPreemie Halo Sleep Sack Swaddle: We did not purchase this but upon researching sleep sacks for preemies I found this perhaps it’s new or specific to hospital orders. I don’t see a purchase link on HALO’s website but here is what I found with the sleep sack to thread monitor lines: HALO website The HALO website mentions sleep sacks with shoulder naps to thread the hospital monitor lines.

Preemie Pacifiers (Ordered 5)

The pacifier is very comforting to our little preemie Kaylee throughout the day. We will give her paci while preparing bottles and she is trying to suck on her hands, or to calm her when she is fussy.

I read encouraging information online that supported this comfort observation:

“Pacifiers can be really comforting for preemies—but the plus points go further than this. As this study shows, preemie pacifiers have all sorts of benefits, from helping premature babies transition to oral feeding to stabilizing their vital signs.”

Our NICU nurse team shared pacifiers may help calm preemie’s heart rate and breathing. Our nurse warned that pacifiers can attract bacteria, so we spent time researching further to help protect our preemie from lurking germs and also helpful tips found on www.getparentingtips.com and this article The Do’s and Don’ts of Pacifiers was extremely helpful to me.

I ordered a few different brands to try. We have the Wee Soothie Preemie Pacifier, and the nipple is shorter than the regular size newborn paci which is important for comfort.

We ordered plenty of our preemie binkies to have on hand around the house and in proper rotation as we wash pacifiers throughout the day along with bottles.

Burp Cloths for Preemies (Ordered 20)

I learned preemie skin is very sensitive, and a simple wipe of spit up can irritate little Kaylees precious forming skin. We ordered tons of burp cloths to have on and and in laundry rotation. Our favorite burp cloths have coral fleece for sensitive skin. The muslin burp cloths are soft but no where near as soft and fluffy as the coral fleece. The texture is velvet and we love them. Search on Amazon brand Cosy Family: Burpy Cloth

Eye Wipes: Our Preemie has Sticky Eye or Eye Goop (Ordered 1 pack to try this week)

I read as much as a I could about eye goop in newborns and I called my pediatrician to ask about this yellow discharge in my newborn's eye. It shows up throughout the day, most frequently when she wakes up from naptime. Our Pediatrician told us to wipe with a damp warm cloth, in most cases it's simply the result of a clogged tear duct. She also mentioned to do little light massages in the inner bridge of her nose a few seconds a day to perhaps release the clog. We asked her about what wipes to order and she said any wipes that are sensitive for newborn eyes. We have ordered Lil Peepers Natural Wipes and will report back on what we think!