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? :)

Useful:
A blanket that has holes for the straps in the car seat. You put the straps through it and then you can wrap baby up warm without compromising safety as it hasn't added extra bulk.

Sleeping bags. The change in temperature from warm you to cold cot is the biggest thing that wakes babies, with a sleeping bag you can feed baby to sleep and put them back down again without any change in temperature.

Muslins. All the muslins.

Lanisoh breast pads.

Useless:
Most of the fancy gadgets to be honest!

Useful:
Another vote for muslins. We used them as nappies for the newborn stage, then as sick catchers, now for dotting around the house when the toddler has a cold and constantly streams snot everywhere.
Also tuppence and crumble star wraps up to about 6 months or so. Mine lived in his.

Useless:
Any clothes with a waistband in the first few sizes, they just seemed so uncomfortable.
And anything denim, i still never bother with it for my 1 year old, it's just too stiff.
Infacol, gripe water etc, did absolutely nothing for my baby.

Both my girls love their Ewan the sheep (previous PP mentioned it). My 8 month old uses it as a comforter and the womb sound and red glow helps her nod off, we also have other white noise on Spotify, on of our best buys.

Basically you won’t know until your baby is here for a lot of stuff!

Useful - perfect prep machine.

Useless - bumbo seat

OOOOHHHH, so THAT'S what the hole in the sleeping bag is for!!! Here I've been thinking for months it's for checking his nappy 🤣🤣🤣

Well, I can say that this has been very useful when looking up wunderkiddy.com/ activity for kids. Can recommend

This reminds me of the other vital thing but that surely everyone already has: phone with a torch app. So you can do “poo torch” at night for a quick nappy check without the full disrobing to check for poo after they fart. This is also why zip-up sleepsuits are only handy if they have a zip at the bottom rather than just from the neck.

Most useful for me both times has been a lightweight bouncy chair. Both my babies have been at their most content sitting up in it, it's easily transported around the house with them in it and frees me up to get on with stuff. Might be specific to my babies but it's completely liberated me both times in those first couple of months.

Also useful is a sling, for similar reasons to above.

Not so useful have been muslins, surprisingly! Maybe because neither of my babies have been especially sicky.

Also didn't get much use out of the travel system. It took up a lot of room in the boot and was a bit of a hassle to put together so we quickly moved on to a lightweight stroller. Most recent baby (11wks) hasn't even been in a pushchair or pram, we just use the sling when we go out.

Useful essentials:

• Milton cold water steriliser bucket & tablets
• a spectre breast pump from eBay (hospital grade & best there is)
• a fold out baby change mat that has pockets for nappies/wipes/change of clothes - we still use it now. Fits inside the baby bag and use it for baby changes on the go. Really really handy! Bought from Oysho about £30.

Useless things :

• people buying clothes as gifts; hardly any fit or were seasonally ok! No baby needs jeans or waistcoats imo.
• photo gifts - frames or daft photo props for baby moments like a mat with numbers on so you can take a pic each month! Ridiculous and just clutter
• wish I’d done more research into car seat options - mine was so heavy and it broke my back, carrying it about to appointments. Get as light as you can find for the car seat and push chair!