What did you buy in preparation for having a baby that was wasted?

[HazelMaker]

For example a cot because they slept in your bed in the end.

In contrast we needed so many of these and ended up buying more. Some babies are very sicky while their digestive systems are growing and sorting themselves out.

I bought bottles and a steriliser thinking I’d express and sometimes use bottles. Never did because I absolutely despised the feeling of expressing milk.

Never used the changing bag I bought either. Just used my favourite rucksack for everything. I think they are probably good if you bottle feed as they’re designed with lots of compartments for bottles and so on.

A changing table! DS has been changed on that table maybe 5 times 😂 puppy pad on the bed/sofa every time. If he wees/poos mid nappy change, the puppy pad goes in the bin; if it remains unscathed then it just goes back in the changing bag to fight another day.

Also the Love to Dream swaddle bags. We were given them by a friend whose baby outgrew them but DS hates them. I’ll pass them on to the next person I know to have a baby as the original friend doesn’t want them back!

Breast pump

This

Sling, I never used it.

Moses basket. Friend bought it second hand and barely used because original owners baby hated it. Friend never used it because her baby hated it. I sold it on, fourth hand, and still barely used.

Clothes - we kept them in baby gros until 9 months and the changing table - rarely used it - just used a changing mat or towel in whichever room we were in

Agree with this. I've actually no idea why we bought one anyway. I didn't really want to breastfeed anyway and gave it up after three or four days with DD1. I never tried it again with the next two.

-All devices to help them sleep eg ewen the sheep, dock a tot type things, swaddling blankets etc None of them worked for any of my children.

• Changing table(multiple portable changing mats were far more useful)
• baby bath/top and tail thing

-soft toys

Best value things- play mats with dangling toys, baby bjorn bouncy chair, high chair, good sling, buggy obviously.

Baby clothes 0-3 months - both my kids lived in sleepsuits for the first 6 months. I had so many lovely but not very practical outfits given/gifted (and ones dh and I bought too) and dcs never wore.

With dc 1, we bought one of those prep machines, along with lots of bottles and a fancy breast pump. I guess we just wanted to be prepared and see how breastfeeding went.
I ended up exclusively breastfeeding both dcs & never used any of the above.

Things I never seemed to have enough of - muslin cloths. I used them constantly, especially the big ones. I don’t think you can have too many!

Never used normal sleeping bags in 0-6 months but DD did seem to sleep well in Love to Dream (first swaddles then the transition ones) so ended up frantically buying them online.

Breast pump ended up being a waste of money as I gave up completely after 2 months or so.

Never got on with the sling I brought.

Baby socks for newborns as only used footed sleepsuits or bare feet when it was really hot.

Car seat base ended up being a waste of money as our car has slightly sloped seats leading to head flop as the angle was wrong. Would have brought a different seat/base it just belted the seat in which solved the problem.

Not useful

-next to me crib. Baby wanted to co sleep. Second baby used it a bit more

• bottles. Dummies. Both refused over 50 times each child. Second baby took bottles from 1 year so I suppose useful in the end.
• cloth nappies. I really tried but too tired and also hard to dry in winter
• white noise stuff - could never get on with it
• swaddles Both hated it
• teddies
• complicated outfits.
• buying too many small nappies. Buy as you go along if you can
• baby socks and gloves

useful:

Pram
sling
muslins
video baby monitor
frida snot sucker
sleepsuits
angel care bath rest
baby bjorn bouncer chair SO USEFUL

From reading the above threads a lot of it depends on your lifestyle/ type of baby. Some Pp have said that a buggy wasn't worth it, yet we couldn't have lived without ours as we don't have a car.

Used the sling loads with the second cos DC1 was insisting on being in that and not walking.

I would suggest buying most things off Facebook marketplace, cos if you don't end up using you can sell on so no loss. My best bargain was a second hand nappy mat, it was a foam thing that wiped clean. Much better than those wedge ones.

First baby - no use for muslins or Moses basket, but thought the nappy bin was best buy ever and used it loads.

Second baby - used Moses basket loads and heaps of muslins, nappy bin sat there gathering dust.

I can’t think of one thing I bought that I didn’t use for one or the other, different babies just need different things.

Cheap electric breast pump. I couldn't get first baby to latch and had to express everything, so I needed a hospital grade heavy duty pump instead. Then second I was able to nurse, but the manual hand pump was by far more convenient to use for when I went out or pumped at work.

So many small size clothes, unused or worn once.

Puffy pram suits. Absolute pain to get the limbs in. Tuppence and Crumble star wraps, however, ate utterly brilliant and I had all 3 sizes. So quick and easy.

Soft toys. Had to have a serious word with certain relatives to please stop buying. My kids like them, but only the ones they've been given when older because they remember them arriving. The umpteen pale pink teddies for my newborns nobody cares about.

A sling. The ante-natal woman was evangelical about them, but DS was bloody massive, really heavy and absolutely hated being strapped to me - he was just a wriggling, wailing, red-faced nightmare for the entirety of the one & only supermarket trip I managed before getting rid of the bloody thing.

A baby bath. Totally pointless. Just use the bath! Or a sink when they’re weenie. I had one of those little terry towelling deckchair things and that was great for sitting them in safely for a wash.

A Moses basket. Looks lovely, but gets used for a nanosecond before you need something more substantial.

Problem is, you’ve no idea what your baby will and won’t take to, so it’s pointless laying in anything but the basics. My best buys were:

Muslins. Used for absolutely everything (being used as dusters even now, when my kids are adults - still really soft and wash beautifully!).

A good pram that’s easy to manoeuvre and easy to collapse (one-handed if possible) and light enough to lift in and out of cars/buses/trains or up and down stairs.

A stable, convertible high chair that will work from newborn to toddler.

I was also given a little second-hand portable springy recliner seat by someone, and that thing was a godsend, got years of use with both mine and was then passed on to my cousin’s wife who used it for her three.

Second hand is the way to go for loads of this stuff. There’s a lot of barely-used, expensive kit floating around that you can try out for very little outlay, and just move it on again if it doesn’t work for you.

Newborn clothes. Didn't last long enough, first size was better.

Baby carrier - DS loved being in arms but equally liked his space to stretch out in the buggy, hated the carrier. Would try borrowing once baby is here instead of buying in advance.

Bibs - had a refluxy baby who spewed everywhere, needed muslins to catch it all, bibs did sweet fa 😅

Carseat blanket - found it faffy, normal blankets work just fine don't know why I felt the need for it!

Breast pump - had pathetically low supply and bought on the advice of Midwife. Got next to nothing with it. Hand expressing yield more for me. 200 quid down the drain 🫠

Microwave steriliser when I was using Mam bottles - it's entirely easier to sterilise them freestanding (can anyone explain why Mam even sell one?!)

A crib for downstairs - the bassinet of the buggy is safe sleep approved and he was more than happy to sleep in that. The sun shade on the buggy made him nap better than an open crib where it was always bright downstairs

Breast pumps (never used - was breastfeeding)
Moses basket (baby hated it),
Baby bottles and steriliser / warmer (tried bottles but she refuses, just bites them).
Complicated fabric sling (too hard for my sleep-deprived brain to follow),

Baby bath - baby didn't like it and we just held her beneath the back if her head in the normal bath.

I barely used a sling with DC1 but with DC2 a stretchy sling was invaluable.

Moses baskets seem to be the most Marmite thing. I was given one by a friend (it still had the tags in it!) and used it so much that I bought an (unused) one second hand to leave at my nearby parents. My dd slept in it downstairs until she was about 10 months.

cold water / microwave steriliser - I used a Tommee Tippee one to sterilise a days worth of bottles and one of the microwaveable bags if out / for anything else.

I finished up with x3 secondhand prams/ buggies. All were great but at different times.

Pramsuit - can’t wear in car seat, and not easy to remove when you go inside without waking baby.

baby monitor - I live in a tiny bungalow there wasn’t anywhere where I could hear the baby.

sleeved vests - I couldn’t get on with them under babygrows as the sleeves would disappear and bunch up.

The Tommee Tippee formula maker machine (forgotten the name). DS had terrible trapped wind and the machine would mix up the formula quite fiercely leaving loads of air bubbles which obviously didn’t go down well. We eventually ended up buying the ready made large bottles of formula milk as even making up the powdered version/letting the bottle settle was too much for his tummy.

Electric steriliser. Our first one broke after a month, replaced it and that one broke after another few weeks. Got a cold water steriliser bucket as an emergency back up and never looked back. It was so much easier!

Swaddles and fabric slings, both babies hated them.

Big fancy high chairs, bulky, awkward, takes up loads of space and harder to clean. Recommend to everyone to just get the ikea antilop high chair, so easy and practical. Only £15 too.

Electric bottle warmer. Waste. Of. Money.

Bibs I thought were a waste of space until he started teething, now we get through half a dozen a day. Cot sheets I agree with, he’s had a nappy leak into his sleepsuit or sleeping bag but never right through, I just change his sheet with the same frequency I change ours. We use the nappy bin in the bedroom for overnight changes rather than trudging to the main bin in the kitchen. We use bottle and sterilizer stuff every day as I’ve expressed since he was about 6 weeks old. I probably had too many clothes but it is what it is.

Use our giant off road Stokke pram daily (but were lucky enough to be gifted a travel one too, for the places the giant one won’t go), use the white noise machine, we use the sling often, used the Moses basket constantly when he fit into it…

Cuddly toys we’ve got loads but he’s not (yet) interested. Will see if that changes in time.