What is the best thing you bought for your baby?

[dadtobe19]

Wife is expecting our first baby in 2 weeks and we have bought everything we need.

We are interested to know if there is any one thing in particular you bought that helped you through those first few months? Anything special that kept the baby amused/helped out you?

Another vote for the tummy tub - easy to use and dd loves it.

Also the Amby baby hammock for sleeping. She sleeps much better in it than in Moses baskets or the bednest, and when she starts to wake, a good rock of the hammock will often get her down again for another hour. Also helped with her reflux. And it's portable for travel.

Also second the recommendation of the Tripp Trapp chair.

White noise app .. Brilliant

Fisher price toddler bouncer - the mama and papa one only lasted few months - so upgraded to a bigger one and its still going stong and fine for newborn

Another tip- we got lots of gifts for 3- 6 months so returned for gift vouchers and had clothes for baby until 12 months or so. Only so many dungaree sets they need

Label maker and white Boxes to organise clothes and momento type things

Gro bags - plenty of them

Bambino Mio nappies.

Colief

• bedside crib, I recommend this, as it's bigger than most. DS would have outgrown others way too quickly. www.amazon.de/FabiMax-Beistellbett-Babymax-Matratze-PROTECT/dp/B00M481JF6/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1421418812&sr=8-1&keywords=fabimax
• Amby Baby hammock for downstairs, he loved it.
• Babybjörn bouncer

For yourself, Kindle Paperwhite for night feeds.

For when they're a wee bit older - video baby monitor. Ideal for figuring out if you really need to go in when you hear funny noises in the night! If I hadn't had it I would have been accidentally waking baby DD left right and centre. We are still using it in various scenarios, and DD is three.

Braun ear thermometer
Calpol (ready for 6 week jabs)
Metanium nappy cream (you will need it one day)
Plug-in night light
Plenty of tea bags and coffee (loads of guests)
A few home-made dinners in the freezer (lasagne, chilli, bolognese etc)
Lavender and Tea Tree essential oils (add 12 drops of either to a shallow bath to aid the healing of stitches)
Hand cream at every sink (lots of extra hand washing makes your hands really dry)

This is the stuff you don't even know you need until you're in the thick of it!

Close Caboo sling - fantastic, so easy and invaluable for public transport.

Wallaboo footmuff - I wish they did them in adult sizes!

A pram that suits you - don't settle for a borrowed one unless it's the one for you. I struggled for ages with a kindly lent pram but I hated it and ended up buying a Sola.

A white noise app on your phone - like magic

Some way of accessing boxsets!!

Wouldn't bother with-
Tuppence & crumble star thing, £25 for a bit of fleece.

A gro egg - I've never worried about the temperature (I've worried about everything else!)

A feeding cushion, I never used mine I just use pillows or cushion from the chair.

Fancy clothes for smaller than 3-6 months, we just used babygrows and vests as DD seemed far more comfy in those than jeans or fancy dresses.

Those massive Aden and anais Muslins. Brill for sunshades, lying baby on, swaddling, mopping up sick, bf cover, etc etc.

A sling (another vote for the connecta, I love mine!) - Avoid the baby bjorn sling as it doesn't support their hips well.

Swaddle wrap (I was rubbish at swaddling with the blankets, this makes it so much easier, you just velcro the relevant spots

Sleeping bags

Muslins

Tomy Eggs (DD is inexplicably obsessed by them and has been from approx 6 months)

Ikea Antilop high chair! Brilliant and cheap as chips.

Ewan the Dream Sheep. I miss it now it moved with my DD into her bedroom...

And when she was a little bit older the Fisher Price Rainforest Jumparoo. My DD adores it and will quite happily bounce away in it for ages giving me the chance to have lunch/a cup a tea etc

Feeding pillow, nursing chair, and low wattage light bulb for night feeds. Baby bundlers so no need to fiddle with those infernal poppers at night. The next two you can't buy but: amazing husband doing all the cooking, cleaning etc whilst I recovered from the birth, and a baby that knew the difference between night and day from the moment she was born!

Sidecar cot
Cheap v-pillow from Argos for day feeds and great for taking some of the weight when I'd had a section
Kindle paperwhite for night feeds
Cot mobile for when I want to get bath ready/sort laundry etc
Bath support
Muslins (I have sicky babies, DS projectiles over me on a semi-regular basis)
Snot sucker thing and saline spray for the sniffles

I'm hijacking - a few people have mentioned the tummy tub. It seems to me that it's a £20 bucket - what's so great about it? (I'm a naive first time mum to be)

Ooh adding to things we had no idea we needed....
A bissel carpet cleaner. Didn't know we needed it until ds1 drew on his carpet with a nugget of poo

Close parent changing mat (so soft and fluffy, by far the best changing mat we had. We ended up with two, one in the changing bag and one at home for nappy free time). Really easy to wash/ dry.

Close caboo sling. My little one hated her pram and the car seat. And doing anything that did not involve being held!

Also the gro egg is great, it's still useful now dd is 21 months. I like to know I'm dressing her warm enough at night.

Lunastarfish - I just bought a black builder's bucket which worked really well as a tummy tub.

Sling. A stretchy wrap to start and then something else...it can be addictive though...I know have an Ergo, 3 woven wraps and 2 ring slings.

Cloth wipes. I have not saved a penny by using cloth nappies...too many pretty prints! But, 25 wipes are still going strong two and half years later. We use Cheeky Wipes.

Stokke Tripp Trapp with newborn insert. We wanted to buy this for DD1 but were put off by comments here. Best buy for DD2. It's been used every single day at least 3/4 times a day.

Stokke Bouncer. We borrowed a vibrating chair for DD1. Bought this for DD2. Far, far better.

Troll crib. We have co-slept with DD2 from her first night.

Baby nightgowns. Found out about these after DD1. No bloody poppers in the night! Brilliant! Some are only 0-3 months but these are 0-6 months.

www.welovefrugi.com/baby_toddler/view_all_baby_toddler/babygrows_rompers/buzzy_bee_gown_natural_buzzy_bee_print.htm

www.piccalilly.co.uk/products/baby-bundler-nightgown-crazy-caterpillar

www.sense-organics.com/en_gb/kalson-nightgown-4246.html

For baby- grobag sleeping bag, gro egg, baby bjorn sling, nappy bin,

For me- Tablet (playing candy crush saga at silly o'clock in the morning whilst bf). I wish I had bought myself a kindle too.

Muslins
Dummies
Sling
Calpol
Tripp trapp high chair
IKEA Poang chair and footstool, comfy, cheaper and more stylish than ugly overpriced feeding chair/glider thingies.

Oh, forgot the two 'N's: Netflix and nipple cream!

Soft sling was everything to us! A cd of lullabyes (Rockabye baby do lullaby versions of rock songs - pixies, nirvana etc if that's your bag, kept me sane). This is a really boring one and totally inessential but I liked having a nappy bin (Tommee tippee one). There was just so much mess everywhere and it was nice to know that the dirty nappies were away, and also it wasn't always easy to nip out to the big bins. Good luck it is amazing...