Essentialnew born baby list?

shiprob195

Our son is 6 1/2 months old now and the thing I have used the most is muslin cloths.

Very cheap and ours are washed so much they are are very very soft.

Vicky

jackomdj

I too use muslin's rather than a bib (you can tuck it under their chin a lot better)

One thing I paid a bit more for was a monitor that has the movement pad under the mattress, I had a big argument with my sister about paying out the extra, but my thought is....if a baby stops breathing they won't be crying so with a standard monitor it won't alert you...luckily we have had no problems with either DD but well worth it for peace of mind.

DD no 1 we used a baby bath, DD no 2 had one bath in the baby bath & after that she was in with her sister.

We had a moses basket downstairs & a crib upstairs, basket was a present & the crib came from e-bay with a new mattress.

Top tip, even if you are using disposable nappies get a pack of nappy liners! Our LO did about 10 poos on her 2nd night & I ended up almost running out of nappies at the hospital - at about 4am I had the inspired "I wish I had brought some liners..."

Also have LOTS of maternity pads....too much info but I was changing mine every 20-30 mins for 18 hours on DD number 2 - keep the receipt & return the unopened packs after.

Get lots of nappies/wipes etc when they are on offer.... don't get sudocream etc stockpiled incase LO is alergic.... & never use too much on them it should not be a big white pile it should rub in!

Highchair, we have a table/chair one & DD sits at the table on her little green chair whilst the baby sits in the highchair chair & I sit on the floor (a real family affair).

Another top tip was to put a muslin in the moses basket to catch sick dribbles (saves washing the sheet constantly) & finally (at last you say) when LO starts teething use Ambesol liquid...it works a treat!

Good luck
Nicky

Fizog

Muslin cloths a must for clearing up spills they last for ever ...now mine are dusters. Ask for vouchers too, when money is tight you can always get nappies, dummies, sterilising fluid etc.

heather38

i bf for 7 months but i had a steriliser so i could express milk for nights out and going back to work.
i borrowed a moses basket and bought a new mattress and bedding she was in it for 10 weeks so not bad.
travel system with car seat, i recently bought a buggy as it's smaller and light weight.
don't bother with a changing table just use the bed or the floor.
i was given so much stuff off my sisters friend, i was given a feeding pillow but i only used it twice, i couldn't get comfy with it, it was easy just using my arms.
i didn't have any formula in as i didn't want to tempt fate and luckily never needed it, i never used breast pads either, i only leaked at night and i just slept on a towel.

jak

Thanks everyone. Thaty is fab. I've got aq much clearer idea of where to start now! I'll post a list once my research is complete!!!
JJ
xxx

Big_Bird_4

A great thing Mrs Bigbird arranged when we were expecting our first was for us to have a consultation with an adviser in the baby stuff department at John Lewis. The adviser gave us a long list of stuff we might need and then spent about an hour showing us all the various baby bits and pieces and letting us try out cots, prams and things. It was fun. There was absolutely no pressure at all to buy anything (which I was really surprised about) and it cost nothing at all. If John Lewis still do this I'd recommend it.

Anthillmob

my cousin/god mother brought me loads oof baby bath, wipes, nappies, creams, etc when chops was born and im still using some of the lotions and shampoo now there were that many!

daphne_descends

That reminds me Anthillmob, I started stocking up on that sort of thing while pregnant whenever there was a good offer on - Sainsburys keep doing half price on all toiletries. I have a cupboard upstairs dedicated to it all

Would like a cousin/god mother to do it for me though!

Agutka

Hee hee, and then you're in hospital with your newborn and learn that the current guidelines say to put nothing on your baby's skin for 6 months apart from water. Wiping poo with a tiny cotton ball dipped in water? You can guess how long that lasted. I've even dared to use baby wash at bathtime. And I don't care, he smells lovely .

I'm another advocate of muslin squares. My house is littered with them.
I also couldn't live without a swaddling blanket or dummies! Or infacol... or breastpads (when is that going to stop!?)... oh and of course pram, carseat + car, baby swing, random people's shoulders - anything to keep the baby moving, which keeps him quiet...
Oh and if you happen to have a c-section, then any sort of pillowed padding for your tummy is rather helpful, as baby has active and strong limbs, which are usually positioned in just the wrong area.

Strapped

I'd say that "essential" all depends how hard-core you want to be about it. To take it to the extreme, you could get away with, for example, a set of 6 vests + 6 babygrows, a set of nappies and some cotton wool for wiping bottom (you get given samples of sudocreme etc in the bounty pack in hospital if you're having a hospital birth). If you take public transport home, you won't need a car seat but will need a sling or a buggy (one that goes flat to use from birth) or you could borrow a car seat just for this journey. You don't need a cot or a changing table/mat, as you can put a mattress on the floor for baby, with a suitable barrier pressed up against it so they don't fall off (and progress to putting it on a bed frame when they're old enough). You can change baby on a towel on the floor, and bath baby with you in the bath. You don't need a steriliser, as you can use any pan of boiling water, although I would recommend at least 1 bottle/teat and some emergency formula "just in case".

In the real, I-don't-mind-spending-a-bit-more-to-make-life-easy, world, if I were having another baby (2 already) I'd want my long nursing pillow and the musical baby swing (which we bought second hand and still going strong) which was a god-send for rocking grumpy babies back to sleep! Eldest son would no doubt be able to operate it now too lol. Also lots of muslin squares (or we used some old fabric napkins) for under baby's head in the cot to save changing the sheet several times a day. (Yes, we did have a cot too ) I'd also buy baby wipes (sod cotton wool), disposable nappies, infacol, lots of maternity pads and wash the washable breast pads ready for use. I never bothered with a moses basket, and although I bought a baby sling for #2, he was so big that he only fitted in it once.