what essential baby equipment should we be buying in the sales?

[HardCheese]

Our first baby in due in mid-March, and I have this slightly panicky feeling that we should be buying some of the essentials (cot, pushchair, carseat, sling, changing surface?) in the sales, but have little or no idea what the bare essentials really are, and where we should be looking for them. (We have lots of clothes passed on from friends, but nothing else, and there isn't an NCT sale in the neighbourhood until just before my due date.)

We are in London, don't have a car, and have a very small raised ground floor flat, so a pushchair will need to be light and easily folded, and primarily suitable for getting on and off public transport, and space indoors is at a premium, so no very bulky or unecessary purchases. I would like to use a sling when the baby is small - but am baffled by the different reports on different varieties. My partner and I are also quite different builds, so do we need to buy one each?

Could anyone advise on what the basics really are, where might be a good source of information on options, and where might be good places to look during the sales? Thanks in advance - feeling completely clueness.

One more thing buy one special blanket only if you must as you will be given tons!

Changing table - bulky and unnecessary. Get a £5 changing mat, then you can put it on the bed and sit/lean if necessary to change baby when it's little or if you have back problems/recovery issues in the early days, and then you can bung it on the floor so baby can't roll or crawl off once it's mobile.

You can then just have your changing bag stocked up (either a free one from somewhere like the Boots Parenting Club, one that comes with the pram or a nice fancy one) and take that up to bed with you for night changes, rather than having one in the living room, one in the bedroom, one in the nursery and one on the pram...

Somewhere for them to sleep, method of transporting it, clothes, nappies, milk. That's it. We also got muslins (8 million) and lansinoh nipple cream (3 vats).

The baby city mini jogger whatsit is brilliant for public transport (folds with one hand). Slings depends on the person. We have wraps, pouches, coories, ring slings, an ergo etc and use them all. Try them all if you can.

I don't understand changing tables. Put the baby on the bed or floor or your knee or the sofa or the drawers. Adjust place according to size and rollability.

We were given 8,000 blankets but mainly use sleeping bags at home, blankets for when out.

And we cosleep too so the cot/bed doesn't matter for us for at least a year.

Do NOT fall for the lists of things you 'need'. Get utter basics. The shops will be open after s/he's here. And you're better off saving your money for later. Shoes for example and school uniform and more shoes and trousers for the 5th growth spurt that quarter and sylvanian sodding families...

SoH here it's star wars bloody Lego!

I agree - the lists of essentials are bonkers.

If I could have my time again for DC1 I would get:

About 5 babygrows (rather than the 20 or so I had)

About 5 vests (rather than the 20 or so I had)

Large cellular blankets to co-sleep safely (ie without a duvet) (rather than expensive crib she hated)

Muslins (£3 in Ikea for 3; do not buy pretty expensive ones from Jojo, or even Mothercare. Yes they are pretty, but they are expensive and are for mopping up sick/wee etc)

Cloth nappies - about 15 (Yes - managed one thing correctly!)

Sling - we started with a Close (DO NOT BUY A BABY BJIORN - how these are so popular constantly amazes me. In London, using public transport a lot, I would definately not buy a pram/buggy either, at least at first)

Car seat & ISOXFIX base (Can't imagine anything worse than strapping the seat in and out every time - thoughas OP doesn't have a car not relevant to her)

And that's it to be honest

Slings - I would say absolutely definitely don't buy a sling until you've tried it with your baby. Lots of people love the Bjorn - we were given one hand-me-down but even so never used it as it gave both of us backache. We ended up with a ultrabasic cloth sling which suited us & was used day in day out until dd was walking, but I know friends who didn't get on with same one at all . . . .

Thanks again, everyone - all advice very much appreciated, especially the ones that advise on the minimalism of the requirements for newborns! That is my own instinct, only I panic slightly at the idea of trekking to shops on the bus or tube with a tiny baby for something that turns out to be necessary, say if breast-feeding doesn't work out despite my best efforts and we desperately need bottles and paraphernalia!

Can I ask again what the best way of finding out about local sling meets is? Nothing seems to leap out from a Google - is the NCT a way of finding out?

Also, do we need a baby monitor, given the extreme smallness of our flat? We plan to have the baby in a bedside cot next to us at night, and at all other times it won't be more than about fifteen feet from us.

No you dont need a monitor at all.

www.slingmeet.co.uk/

Hardcheese - don't worry. There always the Internet.

We have a Mamas and Papas cot from a neighbour of PiL - just needs a new mattress and bedding.

MiL also got bouncer seat, moses basket, bottle steriliser, baby gym and lots of other stuff from a nearly new sale - so we have a whole stack of stuff already!

Just need to get buggy/car seat system and sling - or at least those are the 2 biggest things I can think of still not bought. (baby due in April).

We are going to get a changing tray to go over the cot as OH is quite tall, so bending over a low chest of drawers is going to give him back trouble, we suspect. Have seen quite a lot of these advertised on Gumtree but we need to make sure it fits over the cot before we buy.

Will definitely start looking for the buggy and sling in the sales though - if they can be got cheaper it must be worth a try!

Another vote for the Maclaren XT. Can easily fold down on public transport/ into car boot, and much, much cheaper than a Bugaboo.

We preferred the Bushbaby Cocoon to the Baby Bjorn - similar concept to the BB but offered more support to both baby and wearer IMO.

Personally I would say still get a monitor, my flat is tiny but ds wakes up if he hears the tv on at night or us talking once he's in his cot, so we keep all doors closed, with monitor on. Doesn't need to be an expensive one - we got 1 with a movement sensor which we gave up on within a few weeks as the alarm kept going off on it for no reason!

I have the Bugaboo Bee from 2010 and am very happy with it. It is lightweight, I never have ever had an issue getting down the aisle in the bus. For city dwelling it is great and very easy to get collapsed even when you are putting in the back of a taxi. There was an issue with the wheels although this was only a certain production line of them and can be easily checked with bugaboo using the serial number if the Bee has been registered. I think there is a new Bee coming out during 2012 that addresses the wheel issue. One thing I would say is that I sometimes found the baby cocoon too hot sometimes in the summer and that the cocoon is quite small and definitely didn't last till 6 months old. Saying this I think it's a great pushchair - I don't think there is one that will be good at everything. the Bee, although good at city stuff is not great at rough terrain. Buy a carseat that is compatible with your Bee.
With regards to other space saving stuff a microwave steriliser is good. I had an electric one before the microwave one and it took up too much counter space (I breastfed and bottlefed). I also did not buy too much of the lotions and disposable stuff which was good because I landed up getting bought so many things for gifts like beautiful baby product baskets with wipes etc.
Cotton wool is great for cleaning your newborn.
I bought a padded floor mat for when I need to put baby down to answer the door.
Muslins are great!
Good point about price matching rockchick1984, I managed to get £90 off my Bugaoo Bee + hood + cocoon from Mothercare just by finding it for cheaper somewhere else.
For stuff like Bumbos, I found that I went on gumtree and got second hand ones that were almost brand new for much cheaper. That way when I run out of space and need to get rid of them I don't feel too guilty.

A friend of mine got the city jogger as she wanted a buggy she could fold and carry one-handed. She didn't initially like the fact it was front-facing but she managed to find a car seat that fits on top so baby can be parent-facing whilst he is still tiny.

Just done a blitz of ebay/Gumtree...made enquiries about a Mamas and Papas cot-top changer being sold for £20 on Gumtree (around £60 brand new) and watching a Baby Bjorn carrier for £15.

OH has just bought the Mamas and Papas mattress we wanted for £95 incl postage on Argos - would be £120 incl postage direct from M&P.

Quite happy with all that progress so far!

Oh dear just seen lots of comments saying Baby Bjorn are no good...a friend recommended it as she had initially bought a Mothercare one which was far too flimsy and switched to BB.

It also came out top in a Which? review page my mum tore out for me (or at least top of the affordable slings. There was something much more expensive described as the 'Rolls Royce' of baby carriers...errr...can do without that I think!)

I recommend the baby jogger city mini, its a fab pram. I have a bugaboo too but its been relegated to the garage. You can fold the baby jogger up easily and you can also fly with it too (this is why we bought it). its excellent, can be steered with one hand round the supermarket and my husband at 6ft1" doesn't find it too small either.
Also I found asda to be the cheapest for bedding, not as good quality as JL but pretty good for the price.

I also wouldn't bother with a changing station. I bought a nappy caddy basket and change mat, baby can then be changed wherever they need to be and the equipment slide easily under the bed out of the way until next change.
You can get Lansinoh free on prescription from the doctor if you need it. I would get one tube in for immediate use then see if you warrant a prescription for it once feeding is established.
I tried about 6 slings/wraps etc and the baby bjorn was best for me. I just wasn't great at handling all the material with the other ones.

A connecta is similar-ish to a BB, and about a million times better for baby. They're not all wraps with loads of fabric to contend with :)

Rose and rebellion sling is the best I've found, quicker to put on than a baby bjorn but same kind of thing with clips rather than fabric. IIRC the problem with baby bjorn is that baby's knees are lower than hips in it which is bad for their spine. They can also only be use for a short amount of time. The one I've linked to can be used til baby is about 3, places little to no pressure on your spine (my 24lb fatty feels light as a feather) and is much better for baby.

Heres some info on why baby bjorns arent good.

victoriaslinglady.co.uk/index.php?route=information/information&information_id=9

thanks for that link sleepevader, makes sense and I hadn't heard any of this before. Will be finding another sling option for DC2's arrival now.