What is the most useful and useless thing you had for your newborn?

[lyrablue]

I'm in the middle of making a list of things we may need for baby when they arrive but don't want to get things that we really don't end up using. I thought this would be the best place to ask for advice! So what's the most useful and useless thing you guys had for your newborn please? :)

Ewan the sheep was one of my best purchases! DD loved it and we still put it on for bedtime now she is 2.

Useless:
Swaddles
Bumbo
Mostly clothes - buying things before I needed them and then realising they don't fit or are wrong season. Some of the beautiful gifts I got broke my heart. My dad got her a fancy dress from John Lewis which she never wore as we were in lockdown and it was the wrong season, so it went into the charity bag with the tags still attached!

I have a 5 year-old and a 5 month old!
Best - ergobaby embrace baby carrier - it's soft like a sling but has sturdy buckles like a carrier so you don't have to worry about tieing your own knots and the safety of that.

Worst- Moses basket. Neither baby slept in it and outgrew it so quickly. We got a next to me style cot that goes up next to the bed and he uses that more although he still only sleeps on me for naps etc no matter what I've tried.

Baby 1 - useless - muslins
Baby 2 - essential- muslins

Baby 1 - essential - breast pump (exclusively expressed)
Baby 2 - useless - breast pump - (latched from the word go)

It depends on the baby IMO.

Chose a pram with a bassinet that was safe for nigh time sleeping. Used this instead of a Moses basket and handy if we were away from home.

I did the same, definitely worth it for me. Didn’t bother with a travel cot for the first 6 months and always needed to take a pram anyway. And a life saver with DC2 when we ended up spending most nights in the living room. They’d eventually fall asleep in the pram around 5am…. I got the bassinet stand for the uppa baby so we kept that in the living room.

Useful - muslins, V pillow, bath seat, a bag you can put changing things in.(it can be any bag rather than a specific "changing bag")

Useless - top and tail bowl (probably used 5 times for its intended purpose - now used as a sick bowl)
Manual breast pump - didn't find it any easier than doing by hand
Baby bath - easier and more convient to use the basin or a bath seat.

Another essential - the playpen. We used it from day one. Kept them safe. Put them in when you go to the toilet or have a shower, making dinner etc. it also gave the dog and cat a break from toddlers wanting to cuddle them all the time.

Liked: Someone crotcheted me a beautiful blanket for DS and it was just so warm and cosy, he would settle down as soon as he was in it.

Didn't like swaddling, DS hated it from the off. It didn't comfort him at all.

Useful - Moses basket (very portable and baby hated Next to Me crib at first but loved the Moses basket), Love to Dream arms up swaddle, muslins, Perfect prep (only buy if planning to formula feed, you can always order in a hurry if needed), baby bath, Baby Bjorn bouncer, disposable change mats (for poonamis and nappy free time, environmental crime I know but anything that saves laundry is good if you live in a tiny flat with no dryer).

Useless - baby carrier (baby hated it, if you are going to use one it’s better to try on a few at a sling library after baby is born before committing to find one that suits both you and baby), normal baby sleeping bags with arms out in 0-6 (baby preferred swaddling), movement sensor mat with CubioAI monitor (just gave false alarms), most baby outfits.

My little one is only 6 weeks but I can already add!

Useful:
Changing caddy downstairs (had ECS so couldn't run and up and down stairs!)
Folding changing mats - make any surface a change space
All the Muslims
Waterproof double bed sheet for our bed as she expels a lot!
All baby grows which have poppers all the way down the front - abandon All others!
Baby sleeping bag

Not Useful
White noise machine (maybe later?)
Newborn socks, shoes and "normal " outfits
All the books I read -nothing prepares you for the joy and the difficulties

Good luck x

Useful - perfect prep machine, can’t even remember how we managed for two or three weeks before it arrived

Useless - breast pump, fucking hated pumping with a vengeance

Most useful: a useful husband. Absolutely invaluable and sadly in short supply. If you have a partner please make sure you’re talking now about what you’ll need and how you’ll support each other. Especially if you’re choosing to breastfeed, they’ll need to do a lot more of the household maintenance as you’ll be feeding a lot in the early days .
Also a good carrier so you can move around with a baby that doesn’t want putting down, and lots of research on breastfeeding if you’d like to do that, knowledge is power.

Useless: Cot. On my second newborn and this one won’t sleep alone either. Even if you think you’ll never bedshare please do the research on how to safely bedshare just in case - it’ll be the middle of the night, you’ll be exhausted and it’s better to be prepared.

Its also worth mentioning that Perfect Prep machines don’t meet the NHS guidance for safe formula preparation and aren’t recommended by professionals as they’ve been linked to baby illnesses - though of course lots of people recommend them

Nappy caddy- I still use it now and he’s 2
muslins- reflux baby so a must. Inflatable mini bath to put in the big bath.

useless- baby shoes. scratch mittens/ most newborn onesies have them built in

useful
Perfect prep machine
Bouncer/swing (one or the other you don't need both!)
Sleeping bags - both my girls slept so much better in sleeping bags than being swaddled!
Star blanket - so cosy and great for travelling in the car seat

useless
An abundance of fleecy blankets - they only need one or two!
Scratch mitts - they just fall off and most sleepsuits have them built in anyway. I used to put socks on their hands when they were in outfits but still needed mitts 😂

Useful:
next to me crib
sling
sleeping bags

useless:
Ewan the dream sheep
Gro clock when they’re older

Useful - Muslins. If you have a sicky or dribbly baby you will get through them at a rate of knots. Basic baby grows and sleep suits. Have bought loads more since born as again any sickiness or nappy incident and you need fresh and this happens more than you expect before the baby is here. Wholesale size boxes of wipes. Laundry liquid. There is no preparing for the amount of laundry a newborn produces. Bath and room thermometer. Telly for the nursery as she mostly likes to sleep on me and I’m stuck there half the night!

Useless - anything feeding related. Loads of money spent on pump, prep machine, steriliser, bottles as we’d planned to bottle feed and she won’t cooperate and it’s all gone to waste. Nice outfits - so exhausted I have opted out of anything that creates extra faff or laundry. We also bought a cheap travel system which is clunky and not user friendly - wish we hadn’t been stingy about this now as it’s making life harder.

Stick to the basics so you have what you need in the first few days and you’ll quickly work out what would make your life easier. So long as you can provide baby with something to wear, somewhere to sleep, and a way to eat then worry about the extras as you find your feet.

Perfect prep machines are fine - the small numbers of problems have been from people not maintaining or cleaning them properly - they are invaluable.

Also multiple sets of mattress protectors and bed sheets.

Useful - babygros, and when they were older but still crawling, the dungaree type babygros with feet in that my mum made. You cannot keep socks on a crawling baby!
A sling
The book ‘Our Babies Ourselves’

Useless - cot and nursery room.
DH

Useful:
big muslins - yes they’re more expensive but they were multipurpose
sling (and then toddler backpack)
next-2-me crib
black out affair that was designed to go over the buggy for naps

Pointless:
outfits
baby bath
bottles (we were going to feed DS1 expressed milk to give me a break, he did not wish to cooperate)
steriliser (just used the dishwasher)

Useless: the dream sheep thing, colic drops, infacol, gripe water, any “solution” to sleep and colic, all bollocks. Muslins, she just wasn’t a sicky baby at all. Feeding pillows – just clutter and made feeding harder/created poor positioning. The expensive pram, she hated it and only wanted to be in the sling. The next to me crib, she hated it and only wanted to be in the bed pressed against me. Moses basket.

Useful: Ikea changing mats with covers, stashed under the bed and under the sofa; Gro-Snugs and Gro-Bags; crossover popper vests and tops and baby gros so you don’t pull clothes over their angry little heads; stretchy wrap sling; vast quantities of dairy milk and a sports water bottle. Lansinoh but a little goes a long way. Metanium for nappy rash/as a barrier cream. Bouncer to stick her in while I showered. Netflix subscription. Cook frozen meals.

@bussteward
I’d forgotten about Metanium! Brilliant stuff. And Sudocreme

I have 4 kids and tried most things. The ones that have stood the test of time:

• angel care bath seat - used it from newborn until they can safely sit up and saved my back!
• buggy that you can click the car seat into
• a few muslins
• bouncer chair
• premade formula for outings
• steriliser for 6 months then dishwasher
• sleep suits exclusively for about 4 months

Things I tried and got rid of:

• bumbo seat
• Moses basket
• baby bath
• cupboards full of plastic plates/bowls/cups/utensils. We start them pretty early with normal plates and cups and they have never tried to throw them.

It’s so good! I like to sing its name to the tune of Robbie Williams’ Millennium, which adds to the changing fun.

Oh! Also those snot sucker things, far preferable to direct sucking or trying to squirt breast milk up tiny noses.

Very tiny nail scissors, think ours are a Japanese brand – my teeth don’t meet at the front so I can’t chew the baby’s nails down while feeding, I have to trim them when napping. Miniature scissors much less scary.

Least useful- changing bag. I've never used it and just use my normal rucksack

Most useful- u-shaped breastfeeding pillow

It is very baby specific. Baby 1 I wondered why people loved muslins, baby 2 I need all the muslins and he loves cuddling them as well.

Most useful for both - breastfeeding/v pillow
least useful- gifted baby bath stuff, all highly scented and not suitable for baby skin.