babies, superstition and best buys on buggies

mamaoba

Get a cotbed not a cot - I was advised todo this as they cost the same yet a cotbed will take you till the child is 5 rather than 12-18 months. It's one piece of advice I'm glad I took now.

I agree about http://www.kiddicare.com great prices and good delivery service. Check out halfords to find the best fitting carseat (they do a free fitting service) and then make the purcahse online). Get the car seat while you are still small enough to check the fitting as late pregnancy is not the best time to try this out.

I'm not ovely keen on travel systems as I think nb's should lie flat. Also if you look at the britax website they can tell you which is the best carseat to fit your car. It's better to concentrate on getting the best fitting car seat you can for saftey reasons and then to get a seperate buggy. Often the 2 (your ideal buggy and the best car seat for YOUR car) don't go together so you end up with a compromise somewhere.

A lot of babies have outgrown the first size car seat by 9 months so then you are often left with a buggie that's too big for buses and your needs really. Also there is increasing medical evidence to suggest that leaving newborns in carseats for extended lengths of time is not good for the spine as they get hunched up. By getting the 2 items seperately you avoid this temptation and keep them lying flat when you are wandering around the shops.

Ebay often has good deals on buggies. I got a brand new carrycot pram for £60 off ebay which I used as a moses basket too for the first few months. I then got a brand new graco citisport for £50 (kiddicare) which I've used since - lightweight and reclining - it's ideal for me. I'd reccomend it to any city dwellers. My local baby shop has mamas n papas prams reduced from 300 to 75 at the moment so look out for closing down sales etc near you too.

I got what I could when I saw the bargains and stored the items away (mums loft is often a good place for this)

SamMoffatt28

HI and congratulations on your pregnancy!

If you are short on space until you move I would suggest that you get a moses basket instead of a cot. It will last until the baby is 4-5 months old, by which time you may have moved house and got settled in. Also its cheaper than a cot if you are a little strapped for cash. Secondly, your pram, if you dont want to pay it all in one go or if you are superstitious then mothercare have a payment plan where you go in and choose the pram you want. They then put it aside for you, you pay a small deposit then you go in and make payments on it when you can. You can collect it as soon as the final balance is paid, or they will hold it for you until the baby is born. This solves 2 problems a) you dont have the expense all in one go b) you can pick up the pram when you need it (so no storage problems).

There are so many things that you could get for a baby, but it can work out expensive!
your essentials really are

cot / moses basket + blankets - if you use someone elses always buy a new mattress, no matter how much it has been used.
baby bath
steriliser
changing mat
pram/travel system
Car seat - you must buy this new though

Good luck! It may seem overwhelming at first but it will be a wonderful experience. Make sure you take lots of 'me time' and relax!

pickle

I couldn't wait past 3 months to start buying baby stuff. To be honest I'm glad I did as now I'm 8 months I tire very easily and I am very glad I did the shopping earlier on.

I got:

Altan Mothercare Pram (£70) - can use from birth as fully reclines and one action to put down and up and comes with weather shield and good basket for shopping underneath. Also one of the lighter prams to pick up.
Mothercare car seat (£40) - but not part of travel system
Nappies - SAvers store - terry squares £3.19 for 4 in pack. Nappy grippers from Boots (£3 from memory)
Ethel Austin for a few items - £1 each on average.
Ikea for cot and cot mattress, I bought a mattress pad and left the plastic which it came in on the mattress as it wasn't pvc. Then I can throw the pad in the wash also. Around £60 all up.
Clothes - all from Charity shops and most look brand new. Same for toys. Look for the charity shops which have the clothes in a basket as they tend to be cheaper. Also got a baby sling, cozy toes, nappy stacker (£1), toddler cook book and various other items. I bought from charity shops first and the bigger items later, it also pays to go on a regular basis to get a wide variety of items. I've also seen prams on the rare occasion (but had already bought mine).
Washable breast pads - £5 from mothercare - although hankies would probably do instead.

There's loads more and a good thread on here somewhere for more info.

SamMoffatt28

Ethel Austin for a few items - £1 each on average

Oh yes I forgot about Ethel Austin - their baby clothes are great! They also sell changing mats, blankets and other accessories. Sometimes you can even pick up some brand name stuff really cheap! Also try freecycle, my local group are always offering baby items.

jellyhead

like mamaoba i also bought the citisport pram from kiddicare for £50 and it was great for our visit to london. it fits on trains, tube etc. and is very light. but by 4 months my baby was uncomfortable in it, he was too big. his arms didn,t fit and he looked scrunched. he was fighting when i put him in, and usually got stuck under the bumper bar before i could get him harnessed in. so it didn,t suit us but buying a pram depends on where you live and what you want to do with it. if it just stays in the car boot and gets used for short periods when you arrive somewhere then your needs will be different to if you,re wanting to walk everywhere or take it on buses. everyone i know who bought a travel system regrets it though, babies who weigh less than the 13kg limit get too big for the car seat. mine was too big at around 6 months.

fivemice

Hiya

I'm 4.5 months too, due October

Definitely try https://www.kiddicare.com for travel systems, or if not then search on google and eBay. Forget the cosytoes thing, just use blankets. Try babiesRus (part of ToysRUs) for a moses basket, I think they have a complete one for £27 at the moment.

Step away from that Argos set. I bought it when my son was still being cooked, the holes didn't line up properly, it felt awful, the mattress was terrible and then I sat on the bed (no longer a cot) and it broke a couple of months ago (and I only weighed 10st7lb at the time!!). You'd be better off getting it all from ikea. I thought it would look naff but it doesn't. I've never used the wardrobe in that set. The cot at Ikea is about £40, they do a changing unit too. Or you could get some cheap ones in BabiesRUs too. I'm not sure if Ikea do cotbeds, but BRU do.

Nappies, I use disposables, Tescos own and they're fab, I think they've won a few awards too.

Apart from that, nursing bras were my biggest expense, but there was a thread on here recently that should help me with that

SamMoffatt28

fivemice wrote:

Nappies, I use disposables, Tescos own and they're fab, I think they've won a few awards too.

Boots own brand are very good too! and with tesco's or boots dont forget to use you clubcard/advantage card you can save up the points for freebies to pamper yourself with!

runrabbitrun

that is great, thanks you to everyone for their advice. The other half is really keen on getting everything matching, and i just want decent stuff that does the job!

A compromise is on the cards I think. I'll certainly keep an eye out at car boot sales and in the local paper for bits and pieces.

Thanks!

jellyhead

if it's all white, or all beech/pine etc. then it will be matching other half will never know :rotfl:

a changing table would be good if you find a cheap one, i have a chest of drawers at the correct height. the tallboy and cot match, and the tallboy will last for years - my son was still using it until he was 9 (and at 9 he still wasn't tall enough to use a proper wardrobe - worth thinking about if you want your child to be able to dress themselves for school etc. )

wardrobes don't really hold much anyway, only necessary for teenage girls wearing dresses in my humble opinion. my son uses a tallboy for the small easy to reach wardrobe bit (for his school uniforms) and keeps his underwear in the drawers of that but the rest of his clothes he puts into a shelving unit with doors, it holds loads. but maybe you have a big room and storage space isn't important. but i can't see my son ever wanting an ordinary sized wardrobe. a girl might when she's older but cheap furniture might not last ten years or more.

but this is your first baby and some people do want to do the nursery for a baby, to replace the furniture in a few years when they get a bed. if that's what you want then go for it, i know plenty of mums who do that, poring over catalogues of baby furnuture and planning the nursery with as much attention as detail as planning their wedding. whatever floats your boat :rotfl:

*Louise*

Buying a pram and then a travel system later on is a bit of a waste of money...I just got a travel system, but made sure the buggy part could lie flat for when the baby was small.

But some people like prams.....personal taste will rule on that one.

A changing table is great - saves on a lot of backache.