Due DECEMBER 2008 - just over a hundred shopping days to Baby

[LadyThompson]

New thread, people, unless someone else has started one...

I've got some from Dorothy Perkins they are lovely. Would really recommend them.

Also flipflops invaluable! Havianas particularly.

I used a handpump (the Avent Isis)

BUT you prob won't need one in teh early weeks, so I wouldn't worry about it until you see if you want to express and how often IYSWIM. Def not essential - all you need when bfing is you and the baby (though things like lansinoh and breastpads make the whole thing more comfortable)

Also just wondering - my sister is giving us her cot and her son only came out of it about a year ago - do we need to get a new mattress?

thanks Effie. am also quite keen to get DH feeding the bambino from quite early on, to bond, so think I'll be pumping pretty quickly - think he'll love it and won't feel left out!

I think a new mattress is recommended.

I think you;re supposed to leave off the bottles for the first few weeks - it can mess with your supply and some women find expressing difficult and depressing . Can't remember the earliest date for introducing bottles, but maybe 3 weeks or 6 weeks?

there are plenty of ways for men to bond with babies - DH did lots of changing, cuddling (very good for colicky babies, he was much better at settling DS than I was) takingout for walks etc. etc. Plus he has the v v important job of keeping you supplied with cups of tea, snacks and the remote control

electric pump defo so much easier than a hand pump.

Also get a new mattress even if it is just for peace of mind.

Havianas are a must or crocs the ugliest shoes around but the comfiest.

The farmers have been muck spreading today so consequently my house smells of poo.

hahah! I'm definitely ready for the snacks! just having a Dairy Milk now!

Yep its my first. Am very excited and the advice on here is great, I have got loads of 2nd hand baby stuff from my sister in law so thats handy to know, I will try not to buy too much more.

Havianas are defo must I have about 10 pairs (slightly obsessed but they were gifts from Brazil!) Don't buy them in the shops though they are far to expensice go to rubbersole.co.uk (crocs) or bellyflipflops (havinanas)

Second hand stuff is great
I think all that we wont have been given by the time bubs comes will be a cot. But have already been passed the moses basket and pram, plus black bags full of closthes and bedding.

And I bought a grat pair of sandals from M&S last year but they have similar styles in again this year, go for the footgloves they are so comfy and the ones I have you can let the sides out when your feet swell up

God, old lady feet here we come! I always said that when my ankles started hanging over my shoes, I'd like to be put down. But I retract that fully now!!!!

Thanks for all the tips - what a speedy response! I love MN and all MNetters!

Welcome Jezza and good luck with the second half of your pregnancy

Z.x

OMG - has anyone else got really bad wind at the moment? Sorry to be gross, but I'm at work, so can't do anything about it, apart from go to the loo... Gets really uncomfortable, though!

Welcome Jezza!

Re stuff - very little is so urgent that you need it straight away! You get given lots of stuff, especially if its your first, so you might as well buy the absolute minimum possible to start with and then see what you need/would find useful when the LO arrives.

Re pumps - electric deff much easier than manual, but it all depends how regularly you're planning to use the pump. Find it very hard to know what to suggest re introducing bottles. DD had a hard time getting breast feeding going (so much so she ended up getting readmitted to hospital with severe dehydration - vv scary), so we didn't mess with bottles too soon once she was feeding. But then again she refused to take bottles point blank. Ever. Even when I went back to work full time. So really don't know what to do this time round!

The one bit of kit that came in handy a bit later was one of those bouncy seat things. You don't need one of the fancy ones at all - a simple cloth on a wire type was just fine, but it was a very handy place to put DD down...

The wind is not so bad now, a couple of weeks ago it was none stop.

I know how you feel I am at a desk of 4 people!

Oh brill re the bouncy seat - my mum found a brand new one in a charity shop for £4 - great! Delighted with that.

I might have to get an electric pump - hoping to express a fair bit as the idea of breast feeding doesn't really do it for me. But I'll give it a go!

Good tips from Effie, thank you. Useful, as I am an ignoramus and incapable of imagining what a baby might need. DD has too many clothes already, thanks to Mum and an over excited DP. I've just bought a few babygros and sleepsuits.

As to fat feet, I am now in flip flops due to swollen feet/ankles/legs, but apparently you shouldn't really, as they offer no support to your tootsies, especially in the city. Comfy though.

ooh my P&T vibe arrived this afternoon, took it out for a spin with DS and the dog. Really like it.

Am I a bit weird in actually looking forward to labour? I know I'm obviously a first time Mum, so I have no idea, but I'm really quite excited about the whole thing - and finally having it! 9 months seems like forever!

Our antenatal teacher got us to do an exercise where we had to thinkg of the things we would need if the baby arrived the next day. It basically boiled down to:

• Something to eat (boobs or bottles)
• Something to wear
• Somewhere to sleep
• Nappies

There's a whole lot of other stuff that Mothercare et al will try and persuade you is essential. I do agree on the bouncy chair tho, you can bounce them off to sleep with one hand and MN with the other

i had the medela mini electric pump but it was insanely loud. I ended up trying the avent isis and found it blissful in comparison once i had the knack - faster than the medela and MY BABY STAYED ASLEEP! (this is important lol)

Kmp I'll be at st helier hosp.

Apols for garbled post but on mobile!

I have always used the Avent Isis too. No Noise
DS2 never (never ever ever) took to a bottle, when I was told by the docs at 7 months to stop breastfeeding we had a terrible time finding something he would drink out of. Avent again were my saviours he used the bottles with the teething spouts on them, but I dont think they do them in this country anymore.

I also have a ds who never took to bottles which made life pretty tricky since I was back at uni 10 days after birth! I ended up feeding right before classes and handing him over to dp then racing home to feed again. Thankfully all the frightfully expensive hand pump, bottles and steriliser have found a more useful home with a friend. I would def say to start out with a hand one or hire and electric one until you really know how much you will be using it! Realistically if you are pumping for your dh to do feeds then to maintain supply you will have to pump at the feed time anyway, but you don't always get as much pumping so you are pumping between feeds too.....far too much like effort! Would have loved ds to take expressed milk though for the occasional time off, I had friends with babies who could do extravagant things like go to the cinema once in a blue moon...amazing!

Other stuff, as others have said, boobs or bottles,a handful of vests and sleepsuits, maybe some knitted cardies, a snowsuit useful for these winter babies and a sling and/or pushchair. Slings are great though as baby all snauggly and warm under your coat and, given that we are all giving birth in winter, you have a hand to carry your brolly! Bouncy chairs are pretty good as a place to put them down other than cot and I found a baby bath good but I lived in a funny old flat with a freezing cold bathroom so we used to bath him in the living room where it was warm!

Have decided that dc2 is evil, or that he possibly has a knife. He has been right up against my right hand side and stabbing me. It fecking well hurts.

I hate new oven gloves when they are all stiff and you can't grip things properly. My kitchen has been redecorated in cottage pie. Fetching.