MSE Pregnancy Club 28

FreddieFrugal

Morning everyone, what - if anything - have you been buying in terms of expressing and bottle feeding?

OH wants to breastfeed if she can, but we were thinking it would be a good idea to have some bottle feeding things on hand too, also just so she can express if need be and I can do some feeding - I mean feed the baby of course! With the expressed milk in a bottle.


We packed hospital bags yesterday and also washed his first clothes and bedding. What I'd imagined as a quick fun hanging up his ickle babby togs to dry turned into a very laborious task. But of card grenade had snuck into wash amongst the new clothes so we had to spend ages picking damp card shrapnel off everything!

ThinkPink

Oh thank you. I tried googling but could could only find changes regarding booster seats. The seat I'm looking at can be rear ward until 4, but some people have commented that their babies head falls forward, but it does look like it reclines enough for this not to happen so I wonder if they are either using the extra support too long or are taking it out too early.

Freddie- I'm really not sure about feeding so can't offer too much on express feeding. I have got everything I need for bottle feeding but will try breast feeding but haven't, at this point in time looked into breast pumps etc. If I get on with breast feeding then I may well explore this so that oh can help plus i wouldn't feel comfortable breastfeeding whilst out and about.

FreddieFrugal

What have you bought for bottle feeding Think and which types/brands?


I looked at some other car seats that can be rearward til 4 - but lots of reviewers commenting on the fact they can't imagine a 4 year old having anywhere near enough room for their legs, as even their two year olds are very snug facing rearward.

ThinkPink

I've got a couple of mam self sterilizing anti colic bottles as someone recommended them to me (I think it was sexymouse), plus I got them on a great offer in boots clearance. I will definitely need to get more but will see what happens when he is here, although I am tempted to get the starter set as I've seen it on offer a couple of times. I also have the tommee tippee microwave steriliser which someone at work very kindly gave me- she got it for her house for when she looks after her grandson, but it's only be used 3 or 4 times.

Yes, I've been wondering about leg space, but I think although a lot of them say rearward facing until 4 realistically hardly any will offer the leg space for this.

psychopathbabble

It's just what the kids get used to apparently. A lot of European countries are rear facing for years longer than we do it for.

Freddie I'm looking at the medela swing electric pump, but from eBay, so I can get the money back from reselling if we don't use it. It's won a mother and baby award and a couple of my friends have used it too.

Kynthia

Lots of countries rear face until 4. Sweden does until 6 and has virtualy zero child deaths from road accidents when in America it's the biggest killer of under 5s. However they may have bigger cars than us to make it easier or perhaps it's just the way it is and they get on with it, I don't know.

Children's hips are different to older children and adults. Therefore positions that are uncomfortable to us aren't to them. Plus having your legs hanging down with your feet unable to rest on anything is uncomfortable after a while too.

You'd have to do your own research and make your own choice but my daughter has been very happy until now and she's a very tall 2.5 year old. I don't know if we'll have room for two children to rear-face though as me and OH are tall, so we'll have to see what happens and what our options are. As long as we comply with 15 months then it's legal and all car seats improve safety. The biggest thing we can all do is make sure whatever seat we get is fitted properly.

ThinkPink

We've just put the pushchair together and then had a play with putting the carry cot, seat unit and car seat on the chassis, plus folding it all up etc. Really pleased with it, so easy to switch between the different modes, I'm very happy with our choice. Just want our little one here now so we can start using it!!

Beckyy

The new laws will be that baby has to be rear facing until 15 months minimum, I don't know for ages/sizes after that but most people seem to say the longer rear facing the better as it's much safer. Glad you're happy with your pushchair ThinkPink, it's hard to know 100% until you actually have it to try out at home properly.

Freddie, I'm hoping to breastfeed but apparently it's better not to express for the first 6 weeks until feeding is established so I'm not going to get a pump unless I see a deal too good to miss as want to see how things go but it would be good to hear if anybody has some recommendations as well.

When I went to the infant feeding session they mentioned hand expressing and also cup feeding instead of bottle feeding if Dad wanted to help with feeds when breastfeeding. Part of me is thinking that I might not get any back up formula and bottles initially as there are 24 hour supermarkets not too far away and I don't want to be able to turn to it too easily if breastfeeding is harder work than I expect... but that might be a stupid idea so at the same time it may well be wise to have some at home.

We got a free NUK bottle with a sample pack from Boots, and a soother and breast pads when I ordered some maternity pads and others bits so maybe worth checking if they still give them away. It was a click and collect order so no actual postage charge.

ThinkPink

It's always difficult to play with things like a pushchair in the shop because the sales assistant always watches over you offering help, plus they didn't actually have the carry cot or car seat in store for us to play with so today was the first time we had actually played with it properly.

I have got a formula starter pack which has 6 ready made bottles in plus sterlised teats just in case for any reason I cannot breastfeed straight away (for example my friend was so tired after giving birth the midwife strongly suggested she got some sleep and the first feed was formula and that she could then try breast feeding when she had rested). My hospital do not provide any formula etc and I just thought although the supermarket isn't far away it will like forever trying to comfort a hungry new born if I have to wait for oh to pop there and back.

FreddieFrugal

My mum and dad came round for tea, they brought us the crib that dad made for me when I was a baby. They'd ordered a new mattress to fit and he repainted the whole thing with baby safe paint.

It seems really ungrateful but we immediately set about measuring everything, checking gaps and depths and making sure everything fit within the guidelines (after they'd left of course) and it all does so that's great.

They also brought us some blankets, as we'd been struggling to find ones at one stage (turns out Boyes sell cellular cotton blankets for £3.50)

But the blankets/shawls are nice woollen ones, some were made for my older siblings. Good to have some extra ones available anyway.

Must admit the stuffy smell on them put me off at first. But after a good wash they came out feeling and smelling really nice.

They were really excited looking in the nursery!