How would you spend "baby bonding money"?

[thenorthernluce]

My husband's workplace gives its employees £300 baby bonding money when they/their partner give birth. It's a cash gift, and there are no rules about what it is to be spent on.

I'm giving birth to our first child in August, so we will be the lucky recipients of this generous gift. I was hoping to tap Mumsnetters' experience to work out how to spend this money, so my question is: when you had a newborn, what services or goods would have made/did make your life a little easier and enabled quality baby bonding time?

Thank you!

A sleepyhead - more expensive than a Moses basket but can replace a Moses and is a lifesave - also helps with "bonding" as you can have it next to you in your bed.
Money for nice meals out while baby is young enough to get away with going to nice restaurants with them in tow , and when they hit their sweet spot of being able to sleep in their pram through dinner ( about 5 months for me) a hotel break with the baby.
Second what others have said about a cleaner so you can focus on sofa snuggles.

Personally I would firstly ear mark it for a lactation consultant, should breastfeeding not go to plan. If not needed for that then I would pay for a session with a sling consultant, use a sling library to hire slings and buy my favourite wrap or soft structured carrier. If possible I would also pay to do a baby first aid course. I also like the idea of using it for an extended rear facing car seat or baby classes, like baby massage or baby signing.

I think the baby first aid course is a brilliant idea!

Is it £300 before tax? How much does it actually work out as net on your DP's salary?

I'd splurge it all on a cleaner in the first month, particularly if you don't usually have one. Just to make life as easy as possible when you really won't feel like doing any housework1

I'd spend it on a course of baby massage classes, a cleanser and takeaways.

Cleaner not cleanser!

Couple of sessions with a night nanny when they're in the horrific newborn non sleeping phase.

A sleepy head, never had one myself but friends who did said they were fab. I hadn't heard of them with dd and couldn't justify the spend with ds. Passes for the national trust or a local zoo or something are great, but I would wait until the baby is about 6 months at least to get your value out of them.

Thank you so much for all your suggestions.

My husband and I have agreed that I will choose what we spend it on, but whatever I choose will benefit all three of us.

I really like the idea of saving it for after birth for a lactation consultant or sleeping consultant, if needed; if not, for extra cleaner visits and later babysitting/date nights. Oh, and gin!!