What to buy for first born baby

whitewing

muslin squares from Tesco are very useful for keeping clothes clean while burping baby. We have about 6 and DD now uses them as blankets for her teddies.

lilmissreading

Also if you are looking for bargains on bigger items the MSE ebay is amazing as it lets you search by postcode. For example we got a dream genii pillow for 1p and a travel system for under £6.

Agreed with everyone - new mattress and new car seat unless you know the person selling/lending you the car seat. Get measured for a proper mat bra. I waited until 12 weeks to do this (in denial) and wouldn't let the lady have it back it was so comfortable so took the tag only to pay for it.

online4baby was recommended to me and we got a good mattress.

We spread buying things so it didn't all come out at once. e.g. pack of wipes here, nappies on offer there. We are hoping one pack of everything will start us off and then DH can do any emergency trips as he drives, we have a car and are not more than 10/15 mins to a 24 hour supermarket.

We are surprised by who wants to buy things. Haven't seen my friend's mother for 10 years I think but she is apparently buying us loads of things! Only buy clothes if you see something you really like or actually ebay bundles are amazing if you want the security of knowing you have something.

Crabapple

When you get further along you will probably find a lot of people offering you stuff for free or cheap that their kids have outgrown!

We got loads of clothes given to us second hand and also plenty as gifts when the kids were born. We had to buy a few things just because people tend not to buy the first sizes for you, but it's hard to know whether your baby is going to fit newborn or up to 1 month, or come out straight into 0-3!

We were offered a moses basket for £5 together with some sheets. The new mattress was next to nothing to buy. I have always bought new mattresses - baby no. 2 is in the same cot as his big sister but even there we got a new mattress for him.

You've got time to keep an eye out for a good deal on a carseat as well. As most above have said, you should get a new one unless you can be very very sure of it's history. We bought new for my daughter, my son is in the same first stage seat now because we knew it was still safe. I have a second hand seat that lives in my mum's car for when she has my daughter, but it came from my sister-in-law and we know its history.

ViolaLass

I wouldn't buy anything to start with. When I got pregnant, I watched Freecycle and ended up getting a cot at no cost! I then waited to see what family members would buy us. Now, with three weeks to go, we're starting to buy things to fill in the gaps.

1971paula

All i got for my 5th and last baby is new cot mattress ,a new car seat and new bottles everything else has been 2nd hand x dont buy too might before babys born as they can be tiny or big and some nappies fit some babys better than others
Oh and if you have more children carseat can passed down and bottles x

lilmissreading

Also someone posted on the pg thread that car seats have an expiry date (due to the plastic potentially degrading) and modern car seats have an expiry dates on them to check. So even if you know the history check it is still in date!