OS list of what you REALLY need for a first baby

janb5

You dont need a bath thermometer- an elbow stuck in is far more reliable and cheap! Similarly flick milk inside your wrist to check the heat of bottle milk- if using.

thriftlady_2

Irisheyes648 wrote: »

In my experience soooooo much is a complete waste of money

Very true :T

You need

Boobs
sleepsuits
somewhere for baby to sleep - your bed (not my preferred option tbh)/cot /drawer (don't close it !)
car seat -unless you never intend to travel in one.
nappies
blankets
cloths/cottonwool/wipes for nappy changing
muslins/towel for your shoulder

CazW_2

OK.. here are my baby 'must haves' (i have 2 children btw)

for a newborn

- Cot with bedding - don't bother with fancy bedding.. babies are sick alot! we had 3 sheets, 2 celular blankets, 2 fleece blankets and 2 sheet type blankets... i used the fleeces for out and about.

clothes - newborns don't need 'propper' clothes.. they are perfectly happy in sleepsuits.. get about 10 of these as as i said.. babies are sick alot!!

nappies - if useing disposables get a box in.. always buy in bulk.. it's so much cheaper!!

Wipes... don't bother.. use cottonwool with warm water.. use a tiny bit of bubble bath if you want (i.e if its a pooy one..lol)

food - if breat feeding all you'll need is a good maternity bra (or 2) and breast pads... i found the tommie tippie ones the best.. altho they are pricey i didn't need to change them that often and they didn't move/leak!

if planning on bottle feeding you will need formula, bottles (6).. and a way of staralising bottles... i found a microwave staraliser the most economic in the long run! i say get 6 bottles as this is how many most steralisers will hold so you can do all 6 at once and make your bottles up for the day in the morning.

washing baby - just get a bar of baby soap... it will last for ages and is alot cheaper than the liquid stuff.

pram/car seat - as this is your first i would recomend investing in a good quality travel system.. when i had our first i bought one from mothercare for aprox £220 which seems alot but it had the car seat that attached to the buggy so was convieient when out as we didn't have to faf about with baby getting in and out of the car and i used with the eldest untill the new baby came when the oldest was almost 2 and again used with new baby untill she was 2 then gave it to a friend when she had a baby and she used it for a year.. so it lasted for 5 years total! so worth it i think! and bareing in mind it was 5 years ago you can prob get them cheaper now anyway (i recomend kiddicare!!)

medical kit - basicly an ear thermomiter as you can't give a newborn anything without a docters say so.

also join all the baby/parent clubs you can.. like boots, tescos ect as they will send you vouchers for all sorts off stuff... also sign up with huggies and pampers as both send you stuff... and i think huggies send you a free potty too!!

OK.. i'm sure i'v forgotten something really important..lol.... but i hope this has helped... good luck!!

Caz

Justamum

You could always sleep with the baby in bed with you and save on the price of a cot. I did this with all mine - I found it much safer having the baby in bed for night time feeds as with my first I was so tired I nearly dropped her on the floor when I had taken her out of the carrycot (I still didn't have a proper cot by then!) so from then on it was in the bed with us. She slept with us for nearly 2 years, my son for one year, and our second daughter for about a year.

Twig

If you are looking to get anything second hand try your local NCT branch , https://www.nct.org.uk , they have nearly new sales and the stuff is usually good quality

HTH

Fivenations

Dont forget the mouli to puree and sieve vegetables and fruit - it will come in useful long after baby has been weaned onto whole food for soup making. I found the small food processor next to useless but they may have come on the last 14 years.

My sister mother in law gave me 6 old fashioned cotton nightdresses which I used on both my sons until they ourgrew them - much better than babygrows in the middle of the night! They lived in them for the first few weeks, day and night. Cross dressing has done them no harm!

Extra virgin olive oil - for massaging away dry skin and cradle cap - my youngest had it really bad and nothing worked. My mother told me to massage oil in for a few days then to gently rub his scalp with a very soft toothbrush. It worked a treat. I then kept rubbing oil into his scapl after every bath. Works well for eczema and a teaspoon of raw oilive oiol added to pureed food is easily digested and full of essentai goodness.

If you dont need it now, open an ISA, in your name, and transfer the child allowance in to this for when you will.

Teach partner to cook ( or at least to make a sandwhich for you lunch before they go to work in the early days).

Dont feel you need to bathe your baby everyday - as long as you top and tail throughout the day they will be fine. Mine has delicate skin so only got emmersed in water once or twice a week, though I washed every bit of them them everyday with a flannel.

If you suffer from a bad back and worry about bending down over a bath, you may like a changing table that quickly converts in to baby bath. I put my back out both times so it was godsend. I put it on my wishlist and was presented with one from work!

carolt

All you need is lots of love and relatives/friends who'll give you some time off and/or help round the house so you can google the baby, sleep etc....

Don't get too hung up on stuff - we have far too much (3 kids) and are finally ebaying/freecycling a lot of it now ds 8 and three quarter months and growing out of first tiny baby stuff.

If cost is an issue, check out freecycle - there's loads.... And breastfeed - way cheaper, easier, healthier and saves you needing loads of paraphernalia.

Boatie_Bird

Some advice I was given by a midwife when I was pregnant which has proved to be extremely useful...
If someone (work colleagues/parents etc.) ask if there any bits you need then an ear thermometer is a pretty good idea.
They're very accurate and easy to use and you know in an instant if baby has got a temperature or if you're just been an overly worried new mum! There were a few times I thought my son had a raised temp but he didn't.
Also, if you do need to phone the doctors/NHS direct you can say to them "temp was this an hour ago, and now it's this" - makes it easier for them to give you correct advice.

I would second all those who have said you don't need loads of equipment. When DS was born we lived on a very samll boat and his home was a shelf in our room that the moses basket lived on.

I'm looking forward to telling him this when he's older - I hope he'll be appreciative. 'A shelf of my very own - thanks mum and dad!'

weegie_2

Whatever you do, don't think you have to buy a big fancy pram like I did with my first one. Spent almost £400 on one only to find that it really was a beast and I couldn't go half the places I wanted to. Getting it into the boot of the car was a nightmare. Ended up buying a cheap buggy at three months which did the business and stuck the old one away in the loft!

For baby no 2 I sold the old beast one and got a nice mclaren buggy, suitable from birth. Far far better and a only £100.

Things you also shouldn't be fooled into buying (well ones that i didn't do the second time around having learnt my lesson!):

changing mat and table - absolutely no need. You end up changing the baby on the floor half the time on a towel.

changing bag - no need - rucksack at half the price does the business

bottle warmer - no need. Quicker in a jug of boiled water.

baby lotions and bubble baths - they don't need it

toys - don't need it. more interested in the hoover and washing machine :-)

baby bath - sink just as good.

At the end of the day we were raised without all these mod cons and fancy things and we turned out all right - so do our babies really need them? I was astounded the other day when I popped into mothercare to see some of the things they were selling - like a mat that hangs from your bath with all the babies shampoos and soaps in them and has a kneeling mat attached to it so you don't get sore knees from kneeling down. Is there really any need? A rolled up towel for under the knees would do :-)

Definitely make sure you have a full freezer of loads of tasty meals. For my second baby I ended up having an emergency casearan and nearly lost the poor wee mite due to a cord prolapse. I hadn't counted on having a casearan at all and was completely unprepared for it - wasn't allowed to do anything for 6 weeks (not driving or pushing the pram for long distances). I had to rely on my mother in law to bring in meals for us and fill the freezer up - dunno what I would have done without her.

pickle

With the benefit of hindsight this is what I would NOW use:


Nappies
some lanolin in a tube for breastfeeding
a bouncer
a sleeping bag
6 baby grows (you can always get more if you need them)
a cot (I would now get one with a side which could be lowered and could be pushed against our bed) for ease of access and minimal disruption.
cotton wool or wipes
olive oil - as moisturiser
'infacol' for when colic begins at about week 5
a cheap mothercare travel change mat (or a bit of thick plastic would do instead)
Atlan mothercare pram - was excellent and now you can get a travel system in the same range.

That's about it.

What I bought and didn't use:

formula
bottles etc
dummy
baby bath - used kitchen sink
nappy rash cream and other creams
milk expresser - baby wouldn't drink out of a bottle at all.