O/S Maternity Leave

I'd really discourage stockpiling nappies. Some people find that certain brands don't work for their baby's body shape at all! Just tuck some money away instead or, even better, consider cloth nappying. Saves a fortune.

Emsky* wrote: »

HOWMUCH – We are the opposite way around hubby is the higher earner so I’ll be taking the full year rather than us splitting the leave. We are lucky though as he works funny shifts so we’re hoping he will still be able to see baby quite a lot. We’ve been quoted for a local childminder for £6 an hour is this average? She has said we could work it around school holidays as my mum would be off and has said she would mind baby on these days for us.



Nothing to report this weekend regarding stockpiling, but we did get a free M*M bottle & soother from B**ts as we’ve joined the parenting club & the M*M bottles are the ones we have bought for when I hopefully start expressing so hubby can feed baby as well so a nice bonus.



Hope everyone is ok J

Not sure where you live but in our part of Yorkshire they charge £3.50 average per hour, per child. And do special weekly rates for full time children. I was lucky I used my parents and DD is lucky she has us close by. Sorry I can't help you more if you post the area you are in maybe someone may be able to help.

Hey. I'll join in here as well as I'm 36 weeks now.

I've been buying stuff second hand as its the best value I've found. I didn't buy a lot of newborn stuff or first age stuff as I know that baby will probably grow out of them so fast it won't be needed.

I've managed to get some stuff like M&P changing table and bouncer second hand. Yes, some stuff you don't have to buy but it is nice to have things that may help.

The only thing I bought at full price so far has been our pram which was on offer when we bought it so even at that it hasn't been too much.

I've a stock pile list and money that me and hubby have saved up so next week we plan on going to cash and carry and buy lots of stuff!

Things like : tomato paste, honey, herbs, pasta, rice etc

I am on maternity just now (took leave from Feb, healthy baby born March, passed away from meningitis april).
You will probably have the nesting instinct and clean clean clean before baby arrives, i know i did. I would say the main help to us was the frozen meals in the freezer. It meant we ate properly with little time required. Otherwise we may have resorted to takeaways which isn't ideal when breastfeeding. I had 4 little premade formula bottles in the cupboard. I never used them but they were good to have, i knew they were there to reduce the stress in the middle of the night. When I had her I expressed and stored my own milk incase of a non-latch emergency.

Unfortunately I didn't get the chance to go to any but our local area did breastfeeding groups and mum & baby meets for free which looked good. The good thing about maternity financially is that you are so caught up in your little bundle of joy you don't get a chance to spend much. Enjoy!

I'm afraid that I think the advice about cotton wool is very wasteful! I am from the cloth nappy generation. I washed all my kids' bottoms with white flannels and threw them in the nappy wash.
Even if you are not using cloth nappies, you can do the same: bucket of napisan / mild bleach, then rinse and they can go through an ordinary wash.