Need your help! New baby buys, what have I missed?

immoral_angeluk

Thanks for all your tips! We've already got a 2nd stage car seat that our daughter is using at the moment so might buy one of the ones which can convert into a normal booster seat for when we need to upgrade both kidlets to the next size! As for toiletries etc we've always got some in that we use with our first daughter....

Judi101

Think about washable nappies. There are loads of different kinds and not much extra work at all. Just shove them in a nappy pail, when this is full run them through the washing machine. The hot wash will probably be on anyway. We have saved loads and loads on them and you will probably get £30 off through your local council. Our's did a 2 week trial of different kinds so you could decide if they were for you and if so which kinds. At the least you'd get 2 weeks free nappies out of it. We got most of ours off freecycle so keep an eye out. We also got about 3 packs of ikea facecloths and use them to wash her bum with when changing nappies. Chuck them in the wash with the dirty nappies. Saves money on baby wipes and saves the planet as an added bargain.

I would echo whats been said already, dont buy any more clothes or toys until after the little one comes along. My DD spent hours staring at black lines drawn on a white card and even now at 8months doesnt spend long playing with her toys, preferring pans and wooden spoons etc.

Get a nice warm hat and gloves. A less thick winter coat might be handy for those days that you dont need the full snowsuit for.

Get a hand blender with attachments for chopping as well. They only stay in the puree stage for a short while and its a major pain using the large food processor. Get a stack of ice cube trays for when you batch cook their meals up and want to put them in the freezer. Makes it easy to assemble them and they defrost quicker too.

Try washable breast pads, you can get them in boots. I found them much better than the disposable ones.

newmommyjen

Lillibet wrote:

I would recommend adding a baby sleeping bag (or 2) to the list! A million times more pratical than conventional bedding, especially for a January baby. I wouldn't be without mine!

I have never bothered with a Bumbo, I know too many babies who hate them, plus to be honest I didn't think of it until it was too late! A bouncy chair works fine until they can sit up unaided IMHO.

Don't bother with newborn toys, babies take no noitice of them at all. A mobile & a baby gym will be about as far as their interest goes on a good day!

You can hire a TENS machine, just google it, mine cost me £19.99 for 6 weeks hire last year but this was a good deal, most companies only offer them for 4 weeks & charged a bit more, it's worth hunting around.

Def second the recommendation to buy cheap knickers rather than disposable ones. I got mine from Wilkinsons & got large sizes with a bit of support in the tummy panel, they cost about £1.99 a pair but I was very grateful for the extra support in those first few post-birth days, jelly tummy which feels like it is going to fall on your feet any moment!

Don't buy any toilteries, they aren't recommended for use on babies under 6 months any more. Just warm water & soap when totally necessary. Get lots of cotton wool for easy cleaning, much ther best on a newborns skin. also get some kind of bath support so that you can bath babe in your bath, you can get shaped sponges (we had one of these & it was fab) or a towling reclining chair type support, both go in your bath & are very easy to use & far superior to any baby bath IMHO.

If you can afford it think about buying the 2nd stage car seat in the January sales, they can be gotten for half price which easily saves you £50 when the time comes!

Try freecycle for a birthing ball (or a spacehopper?!), the hospital should have them there for you & there is no gurantee you will use it at home.

HTH & good luck;)

mines is on his 2nd sleeping bag, after outgrowing the 1st one. he tends to toss and turn about getting comfortable b4 falling a sleep. as he sleeps in his own room, b4 using the bags, i use to worry all the time if he still had his blanket on. esp during the winter nites. Now he is one yrs, once i pop the sleeping bag on him, he knows its bed time
My local lidl are sellin them for £3.99 this monday. Normally would pay about 3 times this amount for one.

http://www.lidl.co.uk/uk/home.nsf/pa...eping_Bag.ar11

Lillibet_2

newmommyjen wrote:

mines is on his 2nd sleeping bag, after outgrowing the 1st one. he tends to toss and turn about getting comfortable b4 falling a sleep. as he sleeps in his own room, b4 using the bags, i use to worry all the time if he still had his blanket on. esp during the winter nites. Now he is one yrs, once i pop the sleeping bag on him, he knows its bed time
My local lidl are sellin them for £3.99 this monday. Normally would pay about 3 times this amount for one.

http://www.lidl.co.uk/uk/home.nsf/pa...eping_Bag.ar11

God I wish I had a Lidl near me:rolleyes:

jellyhead

another fan of cheap knickers here, i tried both. hospital maternity pads, or others without sticky stuff are okay on paper pants but i preferred a more absorbent always ultra and the sticky bit doesn't didn't work with paper pants. cheap cotton ones from asda cost less than paper pants too!

i've always used sleeping bags with roo. he was a summer baby so i wasn't using them to begin with - i think there's a limit for using them, does the baby have to weigh 7lb, or be a month old or something like that? mine's a very tall baby and at 15 months he is too tall for the vertbaudet sleeping bags (supposed to last up to 3 i think) but he fits inside a grobag one for up to 3 year olds. i think the cheapest place for new grobags was kiddicare, but the vertbaudet ones were pretty cheap. asda etc. sell them for under a year old too, around £10.

one thing i missed off my list was a poncho instead of a coat. it cost over £20 but it was so easy to use especially when he was asleep and it lasted over a few sizes for him as he went into 12-18 month clothes by around 8 months old lol! i'd have had to buy a few different coats over that time period.

Lillibet_2

jellyhead wrote:

i've always used sleeping bags with roo. he was a summer baby so i wasn't using them to begin with - i think there's a limit for using them, does the baby have to weigh 7lb, or be a month old or something like that? mine's a very tall baby and at 15 months he is too tall for the vertbaudet sleeping bags (supposed to last up to 3 i think) but he fits inside a grobag one for up to 3 year olds. i think the cheapest place for new grobags was kiddicare, but the vertbaudet ones were pretty cheap. asda etc. sell them for under a year old too, around £10.

one thing i missed off my list was a poncho instead of a coat. it cost over £20 but it was so easy to use especially when he was asleep and it lasted over a few sizes for him as he went into 12-18 month clothes by around 8 months old lol! i'd have had to buy a few different coats over that time period.

The starting weight for using sleeping bags is 8lbs, or it was last summer, as my MiL was fussing about me using oen to soon. As it was Spud weighed in at 9 1/2lbs:eek::p:rotfl: so were safe to start using as soon as the weather turned. Spud has been in teh 18-36 month size bag since 13 months, & don't get me started on Verbatets sizing:mad:, although like Roo Rpud is about 3 months ahead of his sizes:rolleyes: Means I have to buy a new set of clothes int eh middle of each season as they won't fit him all the way through:rolleyes:

Would recommend the poncho, I have big wraps (made me feel like Margo from the Good Life) which were fab for discreet breast feeding!:rotfl:

jellyhead

oh, and if you haven't used a sleeping bag before now they tend to come in summer and winter togs. summer is 1 tog, winter is 2.5. asda ones tend to be somewhere in between i think, although they might be 2.5.

our lidl doesn't have them, that website checks which specials your local shop has. mine's a small shop.

finc

I bought my son's sleeping bags from a local independant baby store. It was £18 for one that went from 6 months to 36 months so great value for money. It has poppers on the bottom so you can shorten it when your baby is smaller .

Selling it on ebay at the moment and I'll be getting back about £7 from it's sale. That works out at £11 for 2 1/2 years wear!

Like Lillibet I had a big baby 9lb 15oz and he went into sleeping bags almost straightaway but they do a swaddle wrap for younger babies now. I haven't tried these but I probably would have bought one if I'd seen them. My son loved being swaddled when he was first born.

claireandella

I bought three of the Lidl bags today and they are really good quality! I refuse to pay Mothercare prices (£20-£30 lol) and have been buying these bags from sainsbury's in their sale (usually £5, but only £10 to start with, so still good value).

I have learnt from recent experience that it's best to get bigger sleeping bags because the excess fabric is at baby's foot end and doesn't bother or restrict them and they grow out of them quickly otherwise.

pickle

Better add earplugs and an eyemask to that list (you can buy in the travel section of ASDA) for hospital esp. if you end up having to stay in. Also take in flip flops for the shower. But you could ask someone to bring those in later. I got a nightshirt from Peacocks which buttoned at the front (didn't end up using it though!). Agree with lillibet - just a mobile and playgym will do.