You'll be buying all those things you'll never need - they say!

[MrsOzbek]

Hi everyone!

I'm 19 weeks pregnant and it's our first baby. We are so excited as is everyone else it seems! We're receiving lots of 'advice' from friends and it's all welcome of course - we have so much to learn.

The one constant thing that we keep hearing is: you'll be spending lots of money on things you'll never need or use.

So, please share with me what are the things you bought and never used?

Thanks :) x

Moses baskets (and ten thousand other random baby beds), copious amounts of blankets, baby gym, baby/child advice books, 0-3 month outfits that aren’t just simple onesies or shorts/tshirt type thing, separate baby bath, cot mobiles

I’m sure there’s tonnes more

Hehe we actually used a lot of those.. we had Moses baskets for our twins for in the day (they shared a cot at night) had a baby gym, had a lot of blankets given to us we used.. agree about clothes though, we only used sleepsuits for the first few months!

When I had my first son I was young and it was a bit of a surprise, we didn't have much money so it was all bought brand new but on a tight budget. I didn't go overboard and bought more things I needed as he grew and I realised I needed them. With my second we were better off so I bought loads of stuff. I wad so particular that everything matched and I had absolutely everything I thought we would need, turns out I didn't need it all. I remember saying to my dp, strange that I spent months making everything perfect and buying all this stuff and now he is here none of it matters really.
Buy the basics, don't do overboard with small clothes as they grow so quickly. You can always buy more as you need it.

Dd1 I didn't necessarily buy anything we didn't use, because money was tight so we made do with just the essentials. She didn't really sleep in the cot very often, but I was given it by a friend who had finished with it.

Dd2, the pram!!! She hated it with a passion and cried constantly whenever we tried her in it, so I used a sling. But you wouldn't know that til after the baby is born. She also didn't need any 0-3 month clothes because she was so huge she had to wear 3-6 month stuff to come home from hospital at 12 hours old. Again you won't know that til the baby is born.

My baba is 4 months

Things I have used:
Sleepsuits
Bodysuits
Bibs
Muslins
Moses basket
Snuz pod crib
Perfect prep machine
Bottles
Cold water steriliser.
Obviously the last ones are depending if you are ff or breast feeding.
Grow bag sleeping bag

Things that were totally unessecery:
Ewan the sheep
Changing table
Various cute outfits
A million blankets

Bottles: We initially bought TT, but then DD developed reflux and refused to take them, so I bought Avent, Nuby, Nuk but she finally settled in MAM!

Formula: again this is due to reflux, but I've must of spent £70 on milk that she never drank.

Prams: I'm on my 4th which is by far the best (Joie chrome). I've got a Mothercare amble for holidays abroad, a Silvercross Surf in the attic and I sold another Silvercross (can't remember the name).

Clothes: I was given loads but bought way to many 3-6 months.

The one thing I didn't have enough off was muslins! I used so many of these when she was first born!

Parasol for the pram. I looked around me and saw that no one used them, so decided not to buy one as it looked like you don’t need one. Baby arrived. Sun everywhere! Looks like you do need one, so bought one. But couldn’t actually get it to shade the baby effectively - realised that reason no one has one is they are useless.

We had the same advice but still went ahead and bought things we may or may not need but we bought most of them second hand on Facebook/NCT sales they all cost a couple of quid so if we don't use them I really don't care!

Things we bought second hand were, baby advice books, isofix base, baby bath, downstairs changing unit, moses basket, multiple bouncy chairs (to keep in different rooms), bumbo and loads of nice clothes (mainly JoJo Maman, Boden) size 0-18 months!

With my son we got a Moses basket (he hated it), an electric steriliser (we used a cold water bucket), a nappy bin ( that lasted a couple of days) and I bought so many newborn clothes and he was 9 lb 5 and barely wore any of them and when he did it was vest and sleep suits. Same as bottles I stocked up on TT bottles but he would only take doctor brown and I stocked up on nappies and had packs left over as he went up sizes so quick!

I'm pregnant with no. 2 a girl and will not be buying like I did with my son lol

I can't remember what I didn't use, but I will say you can never have enough muslin cloths, sleepsuits or bodysuits

Blankets.
A friend gave me literally 100s of hand me down vests/babygros - they would never have fit in the drawers.
Dresses for DD - she wore a few pre-walking but mainly they just rode up in a sling or the buggy, and got in her way crawling. Now she's older they are OK, as you can keep a really nice favourite going as a tunic when it's too short as a dress.

We never used muslins (but we didn't buy them either, just given a few). Now both DCs have a favourite as a lovey, but we still have masses lying around unused.

Little tiny towels with ears on. We didn't buy any but got given loads and didn't really use them, managed not to drown DD in the normal size towels we already have.
We also got given loads of baby oil and talc and didn't use any of it

We were told to buy lots of muslin cloths, which we did and never used. Well, we use them now for dusting so it wasn't a complete waste of time :)
slings- both baby and I and my husband hated them as it gets so hot!
Jumperoo: daughter has never wanted to have anything to do with it.

All babies are different and I am sure some (most) would need the above.
We couldn't have lived without a changing table or moses basket, which some posters couldn't see the point of.

All in all, buy second hand stuff so you don't feel too bad if it doesn't get used.

Breast pump, Moses basket was used but not for long. If I had another I wouldn't buy newborn outfits just babygros.

We were given bags of hand me down clothes and then people bought us loads too in 0-3 that he might get to wear 10% of it! He's got about 10 pairs of dungarees which I refuse to put him in because they're a pain in the arse! Stick with babygrows and vests!!!

Bought a My Hummy and it's extremely hit and miss wether or not it works. Test white noise on your phone before investing in any of these gimmicks!

One thing I never thought of before he was born was a decent in ear thermometer. We needed it for his 8 week jabs and set us back about 40 quid. Don't buy fancy cute outfits invest in the thermometer!!

Didn't use:

Cot
Changing table (preferred mat on floor)
Pram (used baby carrier then pushchair at 12mths+)
Breast pump or bottles

Used a Moses basket but only for a few months

Newborn clothes that aren't simple vests or sleepsuits have barely been worn. People bought us loads of pretty dresses which, again, have barely been touched.

Moses basket has been very useful and the bouncer! Although my baby is only 6 weeks old, so there's still time

I loved my changing table, saved my bad back from getting worse. Maybe just buy the real basics and the rest you can get as you decide you need after the baby is born. I found the baby gym invaluable too so everyone is different and same for babies.

Think carefully about your lifestyle. If you don't drive much or at all, a fancy travel system is a bit pointless. Invest in a good pram which is comfortable to walk miles with.

And vice versa. Equally don't forget about storing a pram if you have a tiny house.

If money is tight Cot mobiles are pretty unnecessary as is everything matching.

Soft toys! You will get given loads.

One thing i have done for all 3 is a baby book. Nice to look back on. You could of course buy a scrapbook and make your own but I like the pre-populated ones.

Clothes and blankets are good ones. We were given loads of blankets as presents but not really used them much as since April the weather has mostly been really nice and a lot warmer than usual.

As for clothes, we bought a fleece pram suit and warm cardigan in 0-3months as we expected weather to rubbish like it usually is in early spring. However, it was never cold enough and it never fit DD anyway. She is only just fitting in 0-3 months now and nearly 4 months.

No need for a pramsuit in this heatwave!!

We did use:

moses basket
changing table
bottles
steriliser
dummies
Ewan the dream sheep
muslins
sudocrem
size 0 nappies
jumperoo
travel system (especially the carry cot part)
baby bath
soft toys
Proper little outfits

We couldn't use his lovely bear ear snow suit as he was too small and by the time he grew into it it was warm!

We didn't use:

Sophie the giraffe
nail clippers
perefect prep
breast pump (used a few time but breast feeding didn't work out)
nursing clothes (ditto above)
sangenic nappy bin
baby sling/carrier (son hated it)

Always used a Moses basket with all three of mine and will do with this one too. I had big babies though so they weren’t in it for long but it was still nice in the early weeks to make them feel secure and also I got a rocking stand so I could rock them back to sleep.

Didn’t get on with a manual breast pump at all, it really hurt my wrists! So had to get an electric one.

Only used a swing with DC1, DC2&3 hated it and just had a bouncer.

Agreed with pp’s about outfits, mine always wore onesies for the first few months.

Oh and I only used the baby bath for a couple of weeks before I found it easier to get a bath support for the actual bath.

Agree about the baby bath. Load of rubbish unless you have one of the ones with the built in support. Hardly used ours and got an angelcare support for the big bath as it was easier.
Again, Muslins. Got told to stock up on loads and hardly used any (but to be fair dd wasn't a very sicky baby).
Newborn and 0-3 outfits were a total waste. Wish I had just stuck to vests and sleepsuits (I am for this baby). They are so fiddly, especially considering you spend half the time changing them from milk stains or changing their nappies. Also they grow very quickly! Dd was in size 3-6 by about 8 weeks. Obviously not all babies grow at the same rate, but just try and buy essentials and if you need more then you can get some.

Lifesavers were:
Perfect prep machine
Changing table (saved my back for about 6 months)
Tommee tippee bottles. No fiddly parts and don't leak like the mam ones.
Grobags, blankets seem such a faff