The more you buy for your baby, the more it seems you need. After you purchase a baby bassinet, you might think that you have everything you want for you little one to drift off into dream land.

Unfortunately, not all bassinet sets come complete with every linen you may need or want. The following are some items you may want to purchase to go along with your bassinet mattress:

• bassinet pad
• bassinet sheets
• bassinet cover
• bassinet skirt

A waterproof bassinet pad is a huge time saver because when your newborn makes one of his many messes, you can take the pad off and toss it into the washing machine. Oftentimes, a baby bassinet might include one fitted sheet. I can tell you from experience that you will, at the very least, need three. That's how many I had, and after a couple weeks into my daughter's birth, I realized that I wanted to have double that amount, so that I wasn't doing laundry several times per week. You might want to pick up waterproof bassinet sheets for less mess and/or organic bassinet sheets.

But be sure that your sheets will fit your bassinet mattress, which can come in many shapes, sizes and variations. A bassinet cover simply covers over the outside of an entire bassinet. The only purpose I can think of for a bassinet cover is looks. So depending on your taste and nursery theme, this may or may not be for you. A bassinet skirt is pretty much the same as a cover, except that it mainly covers the bottom portion of a baby bassinet. Once again, if you want it, buy it. If not, you will be saving some cash.

When you do decide which type of bassinet you want, you have the option of trying to match all your pieces together like a puzzle or purchasing a set that includes everything you desire. Depending on the amount of time you have before your little bundle arrives and the time you want to spend gathering bassinet items, you can really go either way. I'd personally opt for buying a set, so that colors and materials aren't slightly off. However, if you don't mind that kind of thing, then I'd say go for it.

Just be sure you have bought everything you want before your baby is born because you won't have any time to think about it afterward!