Having a baby Old Style???

jellyhead

slightly off topic but just to reassure about having the coil removed, i've had a coil twice and each time the removal was nothing to worry about, hardly felt a thing - the insertion was another matter entirely lol! birth pain - you really do forget it. i had a baby 9 years ago and i honestly can't remember labour hurting much, i realise that it did hurt of course but i had toothache while pregnant and i'm sure it was worse :rotfl:

i read a book last week (can't remember which one, it was just fiction though) where a mum was pureeing her own abbyfood but was actually buying loads of ice cube trays and had a freezer full of them lol! empty the cubes into freezer bags, good advice

formula cost - never heard of omneo comfort. i bottle-fed my first baby (there were reasons) and i used one can of formula per week but i had a friend whose baby got through 2 cans every week, more expensive formula than mine too, so i suppose all babies are different. i see that boots now sell soya formula, it's a tad expensive though!

somersetprincess - about trying for a baby on holiday in october - think about how you'd feel today if you were about to give birth!! my baby is due on sunday, i got pregnant on holiday in october (it must be my fertile time, happened with both babies, same due date both times) and am due in erm, 3 days. being pregnant makes you much much hotter than everyone else, it's not been very pleasant this week!!!

both my babies will be july birthdays so among the youngest in the class. my firstborn had some developmental delay so it was even more of a problem. he's caught up now though and is in the top stream. i volunteer in school and it's not always the case that a summer baby struggles. their exam results are altered according to their month of birth, i think they do that until age 7 when they say age doesn't make much difference. my nephew is the eldest in his class, was actually 5 on the day he started school but he's struggling more than anyone and is in the special needs group. all children are different and in each class you'll see some older children who struggle more than some of the younger ones. you can't really predict it. having seen my firstborn struggle an awful lot, needing a statement of special needs to get him through key stage 1 i wouldn't plan on having another summer baby but it happened, we tried for 3 years for this baby i'm currently having and he'll have a july birthday, ho hum ...

jellyhead

on the sunject of saving money though, remember you should get tax credits as long as you earn less than around 56k between you. on a joint salary of between 24 and 56 it should be a tenner a week. while baby is under a year old you also get the baby element of another ten a week. i've used some savings i had and spent the 'baby element' of £545 already, i used it to buy maternity and baby equipment second hand, mostly from ebay, so when we get paid the extra by the tax credits people it can go back into the savings (not really savings, it's a loan we took out to build an extension, haven't got a builder yet lol!)

boots often have offers on nappies, clothes etc. and they give 500 points if you spend £25 on baby, so it's worth stocking up when nappies, wipes, washables, liners, whatever you use are on special. it doesn't apply to baby milk though. when they have clothes in the sale i buy extra to make my spend up to the £25, i'll buy something in the size for next year too, keep the bigger stuff in a box under the bed

Mary_Fisher

Babies don't need formula food, what comes with them is perfect for baby and mother in every way.

Babies don't need tinned and bottled food, if it's good enough for you to eat it's good enough for them. Invest in a blender, it has lots of other uses.

Babies don't need the gizmos which every new mother seems pressured into buying.

Why a baby changing mat? Knees were invented first, changing a baby on your lap is easy, quick, safe and gives extra contact.

Babies (and children) don't need all the 'interactive toys' which are advertised. Human contact is far more important.

I agree with the poster who talked about bringing up baby yourself rather than paying someone else to have the pleasure. It wasn't a hard reply, it was sound and pragmatic.

As for income - it's amazing how little you CAN live on if you can be satisfied with what you NEED rather than what you want - or are made to feel that you need. Believe me, I know from long experienceand we're extremely happy. So were and are our five children and their nine.

Stand up for yourself, don't be led into thinking that things are important. Babies are far more important than things.

AND THEY DON'T KEEP!

Mary

henrietta

I saved a fortune by using washable nappies and wipes
I bought most of mine here https://www.time2changeuk.com (they are one of the cheapest I have found) or on ebay.

also we bought most of our baby stuff on ebay and then sold it back again when finished with, made most of our money back

Curly_Jones

Hi

I am new to this but have recently had a baby (my 2nd, now nearly 5 months) and with my first son boutght everything new, I even ended up owning 8 pushchair/prams at one point - highly excessive! With my second son I have one pushchair and have bought most of his clothes either from eBay (second hand gap, carters - v.good american make, monsoon, next) very very cheap. I have not yet been disappointed by the things I have bought from eBay and I am starting to sell the stuff that No.2 son has grown out of. I bought my pushchair from there too and saved over £100 off the John Lewis price.

The only thing I would recommend you buy new is the mattress for your cot/moses basket/pram. And if you are going to get a second hand car seat make sure that it has never been in an accident.

I hope this doesn't get lost in this thread, there are some very useful things in it.

If you are looking for a free site for stuff then take a look at https://www.freecycle.org, as long as you offer something out you can usually pick up something good and it is all free. I recently got a beautiful rocking chair that has been a godsend for my collicky monkey!

Good luck and enjoy the planning stage!

Curly

Curly_Jones

Hi,

Sorry I forgot to say, join the Boots baby club as soon as you get pregnant, you get LOADS of free stuff. Pampers and Huggies also offer good vouchers for the odd £1 off here and there, you can usually use these vouchers in ASDA even if you have not bought the item.

In hospital you should get Bounty and Welcome packs, these are full of useful stuff and money off vouchers.

Curly.

Curly_Jones

jellyhead wrote:

my baby is due on sunday

Good Luck jellyhead, hope all goes well for you and your new one.

Curly

Katinkka

What free stuff do you get with boots? I joined it and have recieved nothing.

Mrs_T_13

Hi all,

Am pg with first (20 weeks) and am gob-smacked by the amount of utter tat out there that people try to sell you for your baby! Example: Baby wipe warmer!!!

I've joined every baby club I can find, Boots, Tesco, Mothercare, etc. and now have a nice little mountain of stuff coming in. I won't be buying many clothes as we're fairly suré we'll be inundated once the baby is born (if not before).

Which? provide good info on what equipment and bits really aren't necessary, so you can save money by simply not buying things in the first place!

Also, NCT Nearly New sales are great for good quality, second-hand stuff.

It really isn't necessary to spend a fortune and as mentioned by others, lots of the stuff you can sell on afterwards anyway.

Good luck for Sunday Jellyhead!

Mrs T

jellyhead

thanks for all the good wishes :-)

boots club haven't sent out any vouchers yet, the club only started a couple of weeks ago, the junk mail about child trust fund has started but boots haven't actually sent out anything yet. it said to wait around 6 weeks for your first mailing when i first joined. pregnant women should get a huggies pack (a changing bag and some other stuff from the looks of it), an avent pack, maybe sun lotion, i can't remember as it depended on how many weeks pregnant you were. otherwise it's 500 points and triple points on huggies. if you've already joined baby club you can print a voucher from the advantage machine to get triple points when buying huggies nappies and/or wipes. make sure you spend £25 to get your extra 500 points :-) i've bought a few huggies, i have my second hand washable nappies at the ready but will use disposables in hospital and also on holiday.