I put together a list of things to buy for a pregnant friend of mine and then she sent it to another friend and then I passed it on to two women I didn’t know but who posted on my local parents FB group and who said it was really helpful so I thought I would share it with the world 🙂
I used my experience and that of friends to put this together as well as the many hours I spent reading about all the stuff you can buy babies! So I broke it down into a few Bs.
Your baby will need nappies and clothes as a basic necessity, you can’t do without these but you can definitely do without a lot of the other stuff!
Regarding clothes you don’t know how big your baby is going to be, you can use the predicted weight but its’ not very accurate. My advice would be to buy 10 vests and 10 sleep suits to begin with. A mix of “newborn” and size 0-1 months and maybe one or 2 “tiny baby” just in case. BUY THEM FROM A SUPERMARKET. I wasted money on nice babygros, they come in packs from supermarkets and are totally fine! Have one or 2 nice ones for when people come over but more is a waste of money. True cliché: they grow out of things quickly and stuff gets poo stained!
However some cute clothes are definitely needed:
And a Chrismas Elf outfit is de rigueur for a winter baby:
I used water wipes at the beginning as they are gentle enough to use on newborn skin:
http://waterwipes.com. Then moved onto huggies pure and now use Tesco wipes. Coconut oil is great for dry, flaky skin. Sunflower oil is supposed to be great too. Another tip is put a pop sock of oats into the bath if they baby has dry skin. I have baby moisturiser that I have never used so I wouldn’t bother with that.
We have the ergo baby 360 (
http://store.ergobaby.com/baby-carrier/four-position-360) and it’s great but fabric slings are better for tiny newborns and good for in the house. They love sleeping in slings, they feel safe and secure. A sling library is a great place to go and try slings on before investing
I could go for hours about my love/hate relationship with
breastfeeding but all I will say is go on kellymom.com, it’s a great website about feeding. Be aware of the symptoms of tongue tie, if something doesn’t feel right, trust your instincts and speak to a professional lactation consultant ASAP!
If you want to express and use bottles, a double pump is the best, they are really much faster. I had the
Medela Swing, which is good but wish I’d had a double one. You can rent the Medela hospital grade one or this
one is supposed to be good:
MAM bottles are really good when combining breastfeeding and bottle feeding so they don’t get too much “nipple confusion”, which is a whole debatable subject!
If you don’t want your baby to sleep in a draw, then this is what I recommend 🙂
We rented this:
http://www.bednest.com, A slept in it until she was 4 months old. The great thing with the bednest is YOU CAN GIVE IT BACK. I don’t get moses baskets, they are cute but they can be noisy (they squeak), you can’t clean them and all babies seem to grow out of them within a month or 2.
The bednest is unescapable!
A REAL GREAT PRODUCT is the
Cocoonababy. A actually slept in it until she was 4 months old, we put in on our bed, in the bednest (this is not recommended according to the bednest guidelines but we did it anyway), on the sofa, on the floor etc. It’s easy to transport from room to room or even if you go away, babies are super cosy and in a natural position it in and it avoids “flat head syndrome”. It can also really help with reflux as they are not flat on their back.
Newborns can’t control their arms and legs and the movement often wakes them up so swaddling is important, you can wrap them yourself in beautiful
swaddling blankets like we did (but probably didn’t do it enough):
but I would recommend buying a swaddle with Velcro or a zip like this:
Here is the Cocoonababy and the beautiful swaddling blankets in action:
This bath seat is indispensable (you can also buy it here), if not you have to hold the baby and wash it at the same time, which is really hard! 10 pounds well spent, I don’t know how people manage without one!
I would either buy the Uppababy Cruz or Vista because they both have massive baskets and a good pull down sunshade. You can’t go wrong with either and the Vista can even become a double buggy. The second best thing is probably a Bugaboo. We don’t have a car so how easy folding the buggy is doesn’t matter to us but if you’re going to use a car a lot then think about that (the mamas and papas Armadillo Flip XT is easy to fold for example).
You don’t need to buy a specific changing table unless you want to, we just have a changing mat on top of a cheat of drawers. We even use this kitchen trolley (from Ikea) to store muslins, wipes etc. I would buy good quality muslins (less is more) as the cheap ones are not very so or absorbent.
http://www.ikea.com/gb/en/catalog/products/30216536/
We have a nappy bin but its not indispensable. Changing bags that come with a changing are mat are really useful but you could just use any bag as long as it fits on the buggy.
I bought this baby gym from Mothercare and she still uses it, another 10 pounds well spent!
A bumbo can be useful before they can sit up, but it’s definitely worth buying a second hand one.
A bouncy chair is also very useful:
I would really advise mums to be to buy THINGS SECOND HAND except for a mattress and a car seat (unless you know for sure it’s not been in an accident), make a list for friends so you don’t only end up with clothes.
It’s myth that they wont let you leave the hospital without a car seat, you can carry babies on your lap or in a sling in a mini cab: it’s the LAW: https://www.gov.uk/child-car-seats-the-rules/when-a-child-can-travel-without-a-car-seat.
That’s all I can think of for now!
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