Shopping list for a new Mum - what do I really need?

Lu_T

I'm a first-time mum-to-be myself (due 23 Dec 06) and have just come across this thread. What a fab idea! Thanks everyone for your advice.

Although I don't have the benefit of experience yet, I can say that asking around among friends and family is the best thing we've done.

Our list of freebies and long-term loans so far includes:

3 car seats (all belonged to nephew, so know there's no damage)
2 prams (a light buggy and heavier travel system)
2 full sets of real nappies - used by two other children, but still in fab condition
rocking baby seat thing
baby gym
moses basket
baby carrier
baby sling
changing bag

Wow! That's longer than I thought! :money:

People have been so generous and we've not said no to anything - we're not proud, we're Yorkshire money savers!

Other useful tips I've picked up include the already mentioned flannels instead of baby wipes and using a normal bag instead of buying a special changing one. Muslins or similar have also been recommended as life-savers.

We've found Matalan does good quality cotton body & sleepsuits and have just bought white newborn and 0-3mths ones. When family have asked about buying little gifts we've asked for 3-6mth sizes. We've not bought any outfits as we don't know whether we're having a boy or girl. I'm just putting a little money by each month so we can go and spend a bit when he/she arrives! Plus we know everyone will turn up with outfits after the birth.

If I come across any other tips I'll make sure to come back and post. And don't forget to join the MSE pregnancy club thread and add your DD to the list.

Hope you and baby are feeling well!:A

Thriftylady

I know some people disagree, but I find the baby bath really useful as although you can get those wee seat things for putting in the big bath, the baby bath takes very little water to fill. Just my own opinion though....

Doozergirl

Babies are happy and comfortable in babygros for the first few months. Most other things are cumbersome and waistbands make such horrible marks on their beautiful fat bellies.

If you are given particularly pretty outfits 'for best' remember there is rarely a 'best' occassion when they grow soooo quickly, so get use out of them while you can.

Buy a cheap, light travel system where you can put the car seat on the top of the pram. The quicker you get baby into a umbrella folding stroller, the easier life will be. Carrying a great heavy thing that takes up most of the boot space in the car is not practical and if you've spent a lot, you feel obliged.

I rarely used a baby bath, it was easier to either give them a quick wash in a shallow bath or just bathe with them. The skin to skin contact is good for their emotional wellbeing (and yours, you find!)

Congratulations by the way! Enjoy every second of being pregnant, even when it's rubbish. It's the most special time Spring babies are great too!

Not having a cot mobile is where I went wrong with my first I think. My DD still has her little star that flashes and plays music when you pull the cow jumping over the moon cord. She always knows it's bedtime then

Woby_Tide

everything you need for your first baby, you look at with a view to a seond and think what on earth were we doing, but by then it's too late!

Look at travel systems, but then ask yourself if you could cope with something else really, we had an M&P pliko thing with the car seat that could be transferred, once he was out of the car seat you realise the pram is fairly heavy and we ended up buying a Mclaren that we could have used from teh start but is half the weight. But everyones different! Likewise as perthe monitor opinion above that babies scream loudly, ours has proved useful on a couple of times as we've heard a small cough that sounded odd enough to check out, one time he'd been sick and was choking on it so was invaluable in our opinion. We've always used it both here and when away as some people may have bigger houses (or if at a gathering the noise from peopel chatting may mask things).

then again half the fun )if not the moneysaving) is buying something, seeing if it works for you and your baby it's fine, if not you buy something else and sell the other thing on, the item will always work for someone else

Becles

Thriftylady wrote:

I know some people disagree, but I find the baby bath really useful as although you can get those wee seat things for putting in the big bath, the baby bath takes very little water to fill. Just my own opinion though....

I have a baby bath that sits over the normal bath. I liked that as it's easy to fill from the bath taps, it doesn't take much water, and you can kneel and bath baby with your back straight. Leaning over into the bath isn't good for your posture.

It also had a plug on, so it was easy to empty as the water just ran away into the big bath.

lil_me

Congratulations.

My best buys as a parent were

ICE CUBE TRAYS (for homemade weaning)
BLENDER (to make homemade baby food)
TERRY NAPPIES
NAPPY LINERS/SQUARE (multi use)
COT WITH VARIED HEIGHT (I ended up having 2 C-Sections and couldn't have managed without it)
ELECTRIC STERILISER (Steam much safer than chemicals which made my sons poorly)
CAR SEAT (so they can come home aswell as other journeys)

Agutka

Don't have any of these baby things :sad: (yet?), but when my nephew was born he really needed mittens. Very sharp nails on babies. And they touch their faces a lot.
They never used a baby bath, just bathed with him (this requires two people however - one in bath, one in control). The bottles were sterilised in a normal tefal food steamer, which was also useful for healthy cooking. And I remember making a mental note to get one of those baby bouncers for my own offspring.
As he got older I had to have toilet/kitchen roll attached to my belt at all times for the dribbles, sneezes, etc. I will definitely be using lots of wipes...

Janepig

On the baby bath theme, we had one for DD which proved very cumbersome and heavy when full and DD used to scream the place down in it. By the time DS came along I'd given the bath to my auntie for use by the koi carp doctor (don't ask) so we bought a very cheap (99p) washing up bowl which was much lighter when full and DS loved his baths because I think he felt safer as it was alot smaller. Plus now he's outgrown it it's in use as..... a washing up bowl!!!

Matalan do excellent sleepsuits with fold over cuffs that act as scatch mittens. I found proper scratch mittens huge and would fall off all the time!!

Jxx

victory

Friends are always useful at this time as they would have had babies and things remain in attics- I was very fortunate there was a 7 year age gap between my two and so had nothing left, friends and neighbours rallied around and I ended up with two black sack fulls of clothes! Charity shops are fantastic also,car boot sales, local papers for baby items

Money_Maker_Shaker

Becles wrote:

I have a baby bath that sits over the normal bath. I liked that as it's easy to fill from the bath taps, it doesn't take much water, and you can kneel and bath baby with your back straight. Leaning over into the bath isn't good for your posture.

It also had a plug on, so it was easy to empty as the water just ran away into the big bath.

This sounds interesting, can I ask what brand it was?

I have a back problem and bending over the main bath was something thats worried me. I might be able to use our kitchen sink instead but the taps are in a bit of an arkward place.