When I was a first time mom, I totally fell into the trap of thinking I needed everything under the sun and more! I did not know what I was doing when I registered for my first baby, and put some pretty useless things on there (it’s what inspired me to blog about My Ultimate Baby Registry). I thought it would be interesting to do a cost breakdown of how much my first child cost compared to my second. I’m pretty embarrassed to show how much we spent that first year, but luckily we learned our lesson for baby #2.
Since I ordered practically everything on Amazon (except clothes and cloth diapers), I went into my Amazon account and logged every baby related item I purchased that first year. I also estimated the costs of a few other items I knew I purchased from other places. Then I categorized every item, and came up with seven major categories: Gear, Breastfeeding & Formula, Diapers & Wipes, Health & Hygiene, Toys & Books, Sleep, and Solids. I also included categories for Clothing, Nursery, and Childcare. Wherever possible, I estimated UP because I more than likely overspent than underspent.
L A B O R & D E L I V E R Y
With baby #1 we had PPO, and with baby #2 we had HMO… the difference between those two plans were significant.
Baby #1 = $2000 out of pocket
Baby #2 = $200 out of pocket
Oh sleep, glorious glorious sleep! You eluded us so with baby #1, and we tried everything under the sun to get our baby to sleep! We tried so many different swaddles – the swaddleme, aden & anais swaddle blankets, woombies, miracle blanket, magic merlin’s sleepsuit, and various sleep sacks. Let’s not forget the blackout curtains, white noise machines, and video monitors. All this cost us a pretty penny.
Baby #1 = $327 (was gifted a video monitor, so not included in this price)
Baby #2 = $228 (bought a 2nd marpac white noise machine, and motorola video monitor)
D I A P E R S & W I P E S
We did a combination of cloth diapering and disposables with baby #1. I really wanted to make cloth diapering work, but it was hard getting my mother-in-law and husband fully on board, and doing a combination seemed to complicate things at times. If I could turn back time, I wish we had just done one or the other. Cloth diapering was also not good for Noelle’s super sensitive skin, and we found that her rashes disappeared when she was in disposables. So here is the cost breakdown based on what we spent on cloth diapers and disposables, along with some of the extra accessories we bought to make disposables work for us (diaper pails, wet bags, etc).
Baby #1 = $650 (after selling my cloth diapers)
Baby #2 = $400 (we’re using all disposables now, and we had some leftover diapers in various sizes from Baby #1 that we were able to use up with Baby #2 – there are also some fabulous deals on disposable diapers sometimes.)
B R E A S T F E E D I N G & F O R M U L A
Although I had an easy time breastfeeding Noelle, we ended our breastfeeding relationship at the 11 month mark and switched to Baby’s Only Organic Formula. With all the nursing clothes, nursing bras, lanolin, breast pump supplies, etc. that was needed… it actually cost a pretty penny. When I had Noelle in 2011, the ACA was not around so no free breast pump for me! Included in this number is the cost of the breast pump, a manual pump, nursing pillows, 2 months worth of formula, nursing attire, nursing cover, bottles, bottle warmer, bottle rack, storage bags, disposable nursing pads, and supplements to help boost milk supply.
Baby #1 = $1068
Baby #2 = $60 (all I bought were some more breastmilk storage bags and disposable nursing pads)
H E A L T H & H Y G I E N E
Noelle had eczema and some reflux her first year of life, so we had to buy some specialty items like gripe water, Elidel, hydrocortisone, non-fragrant creams, body wash, and detergent to help her sensitive skin. This list also includes stuff like fish oil, sunscreen, infant Advil, Hyland’s teething tablets, a rectal thermometer, and the nose frida.
Baby #1 = $350
Baby #2 = $75
S O L I D S
We did purees for the first month, and then we did a combination of purees & baby led weaning. This list includes the ice cube trays, storage containers, Fisher Price booster seat, straw/sippy cups, Bumkin feeding bibs, bowls/plates/cups from IKEA, and a baby cookbook. We used our blender to puree everything so we didn’t have any specialty items in this arena. We also purchased fruit/veggie pouches and mum mums at times too, so the cost of those are also included. Since we did a lot of Baby Led Weaning, we usually just gave the kids portions of our meals. The amounts they ate didn’t affect our grocery budget too much, so I didn’t include our regular grocery costs in this breakdown.
Baby #1 = $235
Baby #2 = $75 (additional bibs and straw cups, and more mum mums and pouches)
T O Y S & B O O K S
This list includes toys like our Radio Flyer Wagon walker, V-tech walker, music table, board books, wooden blocks, ring ‘o links, Sophie the Giraffe, activity gym, various board books, and the books I purchased related to sleep, such as The Baby Whisperer, The Wonder Weeks, and Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child.
Baby #1 = $400
Baby #2 = $60 (we didn’t buy anything new for him besides a few extra teethers, and a used zany zoo)
N U R S E R Y
We didn’t spend much on our nursery beyond the glider (hand-me-down), crib, mattress, and blackout curtains. Mr. Heels’ dad was a painter so he painted our nursery for us, and we just got some Winnie the Pooh decals and posted it on the wall. I did commission an Etsy vendor to hand paint Noelle’s name on wooden letters to put them above her bed though, and that cost about $100.
Baby #1 – $500
Baby #2 – $0 (all hand-me-downs from Noelle, and we didn’t decorate his room at all! Poor fella).
C L O T H I N G
We got quite a few hand-me-downs for both babies. Still, it was hard to resist all the cute outfits out there catered towards girls. Having a daughter first was so dangerous for my wallet. The cost breakdown for this includes bibs, sleepers, jackets, onesies, tops, leggings, socks, and accessories. My poor second child, and son, only got new bibs and a couple of jackets and pants that first year!
Baby #1 = $900 (I looked at our budget and we averaged about $75/month)
Baby #2 = $200
G E A R
Included in this are the big items like strollers (A BOB, a First Year’s Ignite umbrella stroller, and a Britax B-Agile), our infant carseat, carseat bases, snap n go, convertible carseat, crib, diaper bag, baby proofing items (gates, outlet covers, etc), baby carriers, and the baby bathtub. We did not own a bouncer, swing, or rock ‘n play with baby #1, but were given these items to borrow (thank you, friends!) with baby #2.
Baby #1 = $1,796
Baby #2 = $482 (For a Britax convertible carseat, Bob Duallie, and a new diaper bag. We were able to sell our single BOB back for almost the same price we purchased it for, so this number reflects that.)
C H I L D C A R E
We were extremely lucky that my mother-in-law helped watch both kids for the first year of their lives at home. I was a SAHM for the first 7 months of Noelle’s life, so we didn’t need childcare except for the last 5 months of the first year.
Baby #1 = $800/month x 5 = $4000
Baby #2 = $500/month x 8 = $4000
* * * * *
Are we ready to see the final numbers?? Here we go…
The TOTAL COST for…
BABY #1 = $12,226
BABY #2 = $5,780
Do you think you could have cut down on baby expenses the first year? What about for your second child?
honeydew / 7444 posts
Yikes, that’s a lot when you tally up everything! What a huge difference in your out-of-pocket medical costs. I have to say we were really lucky to get a TON of hand-me-down clothes, and gifted our BOB and receive a ton of gift cards to cover things like a breast pump. Our biggest purchases were probably our video monitor, cloth diapers, and an umbrella stroller. I know there were some unnecessary purchases like organic creams/shampoos but i think we were pretty good about reining in the spending. I’m hoping that we won’t have to buy much for baby #2!
grapefruit / 4731 posts
Babies are expensive!
I will admit that I probably spent more than you… and IF I had a girl I would have probably spent even more…. girl clothes are soooo cute.
bananas / 9973 posts
You put me to shame lady! I do not want to even begin thinking about how much we spent on K just the first year. Plus, I think our co-pay for the hospital was over $6K alone.
How long of a period is the solids cost for Jaren counting? I think I must spend at least that much a month for food to make or buy purees.
blogger / nectarine / 2600 posts
I have no idea how you did this as I wouldnt have a clue where to start (plus I spent probably way more on books alone!) I know we didnt spend as much on Juliet but I still think we spend a good chunk in the end
blogger / apricot / 335 posts
Wow that’s incredible to see the breakdown like that! It’s kind of a relief to see how much you can spend less with #2. I feel like we’re spending an arm and a leg with #1 but I guess you really learn how to curve your spending with #2! Thanks for breaking it down like that!
blogger / clementine / 998 posts
this is kind of amazing. you are awesome for tallying all this up.
blogger / eggplant / 11551 posts
@shopaholic: We only did purees for a month, so it’s only a month’s worth! I didn’t include the cost of BLW because it was just them eating bits and pieces of our food.
@Mrs. Chocolate: We were gifted a lot of books – I ended up putting a lot of books on my registry! We didn’t start really buying more books until their 2nd year of life when we ventured away from board books and more hardcover books.
@Mrs. Pencil: Yea, I feel like #1 is a lot of trial and error, and by the time #2 comes along you just wing it or already own everything since you had it for baby #1.
@Raindrop: It is so so hard to resist buying girl clothes! It’s so much easier not buying clothes with a boy. I did splurge more on clothes when they began to walk though, which didn’t happen with both until they were 13.5 months old.
@Freckles: I knooow – the difference in oop medical costs makes me cringe. Wow, sounds like you were really great about not spending too much on #1!
@Mrs. Chipmunk: Thanks lady!
wonderful pomelo / 30692 posts
This is fantastic! Thanks for sharing!!
I’m lucky in that baby #2 is another boy and born roughly the same season as Xander, so I can hopefully reuse almost all his clothes and stuff! But we are going to be buying baby #2 his own crib since Xander will probably still be using his (and if he wasn’t, I’d have to buy a bed for him, so…).
My biggest fear is just the costs TOGETHER. Multiple babies in diapers. Multiple babies in daycare. Eeek!
pomegranate / 3225 posts
Wow, I’m sure my total is up there too.
blogger / pomegranate / 3491 posts
So so fascinating!! So cool how you broke this all down and it’s reassuring how much lower the total was for #2
guest
wow! I don’t even want to calculate how much I’ve spent on bub number 1 and he’s only 9 weeks old!
blogger / pear / 1563 posts
Eek!!! I don’t want to think about about it!
but we definitely didn’t spend nearly that much (I hope) because we got pretty much everything used. Although I can’t believe you spent so littler on diapers the second time! You must have found some really amazing deals! 
ETA: So I realized you also added labor and delivery costs in there, so if we add in how much we paid to get Little P home we’d be well over $20,000 just for that. Thank goodness for the adoption tax credit and generous friends and family members who helped us make that number much more do-able!
persimmon / 1179 posts
And just when I was worrying about money being tighter this time around when we TTC (we had no daycare or child expenses draining our account back then!). So glad it’s much more affordable subsequent times around the block.
We will however be in trouble if our next is a girl. Won’t be able to help myself with all the adorable clothes!!
guest
This is so helpful! Thank you so much!
Did you have a baby shower? If so, how many of these items did you receive as gifts? Or, how much do you think you saved by having things gifted? Is that reflected in the itemization that you gave us?
coffee bean / 46 posts
It’s so crazy to see hard numbers! I imagine I spent about the same on our 2 daughters. We were gifted all of the big stuff with #1, so my biggest purchase was really my cloth diaper stash. But our disposable income had substantially improved with #2, so I ended up buying EVERYTHING I wasn’t able to with the first (Aden&Anais swaddle blankets, Puj tub, Dolcino woven wrap, Beco carrier, a 2nd washer specifically for cloth diapers, etc). Needless to say, my husband is not as excited as I am about all this stuff haha.
blogger / kiwi / 675 posts
this is such a detailed analysis I love it! We have definitely saved a ton the second time around especially having another girl. We did have a better PPO the first time than we do currently though and that cost us a lot last year having S. thanks for this post it was cool reading all of it!
blogger / eggplant / 11551 posts
@amanda z: I didn’t include anything that was gifted in my costs. I only counted the stuff I bought myself! I don’t think I saved that much with my registry because I had a small registry and baby shower (that’s what led me to write my ultimate baby registry post linked above. I wish I could have a registry do over. I really had no idea what to register for at the time since I was the first of my friends to have a baby and hellobee was nonexistent at the time!).
cherry / 187 posts
Wow! I don’t know how you calculated this as for us there were so so many random things that it would be almost impossible. We totally spent WAY more on #2 than you did….and still are since she’s only 5 months. We could only use a small portion of #1’s clothes since they were born in different seasons AND were totally different sizes (baby #1 was 7lb11oz and grew at an avg/low rate and baby #2 was 9lb0oz and has grown like crazy!). We even ended up having to buy more bottles since #2 refused to drink from the bottles we used for #1!
blogger / eggplant / 11551 posts
@tipperella: I accounted for the little random things in my calculations, and rounded up too because I know those “small” things totally add up! I just felt like so much went to waste with #1 that I really scaled back with #2… the most we bought for him was one new pack of ventaire bottles (we reused the other bottles from baby #1), and extra onesies – we got a lot of hand me downs, at least to cover that first year. I had a girl first and then a boy so I couldn’t really reuse a lot of her clothing even though they were born in the same season, but luckily we had a lot of gender neutral onesies we were able to reuse!