What are your top recommendations for a time/sanity saving time with a newborn (particularly if it is your 2nd dc) - purchases/tricks of the trade etc...!

[milkyman]

I will have a 3.5 ds who will be at nursery 2 days a week. Looking at buying things - hated the moses basket first time and will be having c section and bottle feeding. Dh to hopefully be iff for first 6 weeks. Suffered pnd before so want to put in place plans.

Get the perfect prep machine. Best £80 ever spent.
We bottle fed last time and it was fine... This time round it is a dream!
Good luck. K

Have a separate changing bag/basket in your room, car and living room. Put in everything you could possibly need - nappies, wipes, cream, change of clothes/pjs..etc
Saves rushing about for things when you want to leave the house, and coming downstairs in the night.

A really good sling to carry them around in.

Agree about the wipes and nappies spare clothes in every room u sit and the car, don't bother with baby bath just bath in sink and then with your dd when too big for sink, get dd involved with her big sis role helping out with passing you nappies etc, singing to baby,
Prepare for dd to dissapear off and draw on the walls or something just as you sit down to feed baby
Prepare some food for freezer or get stuff in that's easy to do.

Get a sling! A stretchy wrap will make your life much easier for the first few months.

My making-life-easy things were - feeding DS food he likes for lunch - not getting into a battle over food with a newborn, having nappy changing downstairs, using toddler steps to help with getting into booster seat/bath etc.

Watching this thread with interest as I'm in a similar position. I have NO IDEA why I only had a changing station set up upstairs with DS. What on earth was I thinking?

Ocado
These (or the same in your preferred brand), I took them into hospital, the were wonderful
Wooden bedside crib
Paper plates and pizza/takeaway on a Friday

I'm only on DC1 but I did have a C section (unplanned). Things that helped massively:

• Co-sleeper crib. Absolute godsend. We have a Snuzpod and I love it. We're still using it at 4.5 months, baby seems to like it. It seems to last longer than a Moses basket.

• Changing table. If I have another by CS and we're in a house rather than a flat, I'll be following the advice above about having changing stuff downstairs but keeping it by a table to avoid bending.

• I did a lot of batch cooking in the final weeks of pregnancy, which was a lifesaver once DP was back at work. With a toddler, I'd be cracking into that stash earlier. If you don't feel like cooking yourself, and family don't offer help, go for ready meals or easy-to-prep stuff.

• The most helpful thing for me was having DP around for 4 weeks post-birth, so all I had to focus on was our baby and my own recovery. We didn't have family locally but they did visit (staying elsewhere) and helped, both with house stuff and taking baby for walks between feeds so DP and I could rest. This made a massive difference - accept any offers of help you get, and feel free to tell the right people what would actually be helpful .

Seconding the perfect prep. Amazing. I also use the aptamil ready made bottles for going out - no hassle of making bottle up and no worries about bacteria. The jumperoo is amazing for occupying baby while you need to focus on something else (like DC1).