I had a round cork topped glass bottle that I wasn't using for anything else and so I just filled it with cornstarch and I just sprinkle directly out of it every diaper change. We call it "tickle powder" because as a baby she always laughed because it tickled when we put it on her. We've been very lucky and only had to deal with 2 bad rashes since she was a baby, and they are NOTHING compared to bad rashes I've seen on other kids. I really do think the corn starch has helped with drying her from the wipes and wetness before putting a new diaper on. I just sprinkle it on and then do two pats with her diaper which sort of disperses it (I hope that makes sense) and attach the tabs after the second pat. When she was a tiny baby I used to apply it with a cotton ball, which I still do when she has red bumps that I specifically want to target.
On another note, I received 4 tubes of various diaper cream as gifts. The first time she had a bad rash I used diaper cream on it, after two days when it wasn't clearing up at all I just used corn starch on it to keep it dry and it was gone the next day. I haven't used diaper cream since and finally gave it all to her daycare to use up. I don't know if this will work for everyone, but it has worked well for us so I thought I'd share it.
, it's the ultimate non-essential that made my life easier. Before babies are sleeping through the night you are getting up often to change and feed them. Everytime I wiped my baby girl the cold wipe would startle her and she would start crying. It would take an hour to change her and feed her and settle her back to sleep. As a new first time mother I thought all this was normal and just did it. I received the wipes warmer for a baby shower gift. We started using it and no more startle or crying, and what was once an hour ordeal took 20 minutes at the most. It has a night light, which is all but useless. If you can improvise with a warm water bottle or something else, try it, see if it makes a difference for you. If you live down south where it's always warm you are probably laughing at me. I live in North Dakota and it's cool or downright frigid here a lot! All I know is if ours breaks, I'm buying a new one.
, I just step on a pedal on the bottom and drop the diaper in. Whether you just use a garbage can or a system, once baby gets squirmy one-handed operation makes life easier. We had an old Genie that we had picked up from a garage sale and sterilized, but it requires both hands to pull the top parts off, put the diaper in and twist. She rolls and squirms and skooches (totally a word!) around now, so I'd be moving her from her changing table to her crib or a blanket on the floor then disposing of her diaper every time. This just makes my life easier.
that I bought used, and hubby calls it her off switch. This is 100% non-essential, but having somewhere to put her down for a while where I knew she was safe and didn't make her start fussing made it easier to be a normal somewhat functioning adult her first few months. She was very congested and would fuss a lot if put flat on her back anywhere, I'd prop her and set her down but then I didn't feel comfortable stepping away for anything. I wouldn't buy this new, and I'd also consider 
for less of a footprint. These are BIG and take up a lot of room. We did use the cradle motion when she was smaller and have now switched to the swing motion a couple of weeks ago.
. I also downloaded a 
MP3 from Amazon, we burned it to a CD for our bedroom, it is on my laptop, phone and MP3 player. Some babies like swaddling, some like white noise, some like vibrations, some like combinations. So, the white noise is an essential for me, it might be swaddlers for someone else. The MP3 is 89 cents, it's a cheap way to find out if that's what your baby would prefer.
. For the first few days she slept in her crib, slept is using the term very, very, very loosely. Her newborn congestion was so bad that she didn't sleep well at all. After two days we set up the playpen with bassinet insert in our room and used it as a co-sleeper of sorts for 2 months. Now she is back in her bedroom in her crib, however the Pack 'n Play still gets use for camping and visits to family. Also, when my family visits if someone is sleeping in her room we can use the Pack 'n Play in ours and it has a changer built in so no need to interrupt family for diaper essentials.
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