What's the number one investment for making life with a newborn a little bit easier?!

[runlolarun10]

Is there anything that I could buy or request as a gift that might make life as a first time mum just a little bit easier?

a really good pram with flat carrycot they can sleep in

Earplugs for sleeping through the weird night time grunting and grumbling. You'll still definitely hear when they're awake!

Sleep!...but you cant buy that!!
dont get a baby bath-i bought a little ramp that sits in the bath(on a rubber mat) that you can lay baby on from newborn.it was fab-everytime a friend got pregnant i got them one and they loved them.You dont need to keep filling and emptying a baby bath and then find somewhere to store it,and the ramp just hooks over the bath to dry.it leaves both hands free so you have no slippery baby to hold.i think you can get them from mothercare.

I second the baby ramp for the bath.
takeaway menus
Box sets of DVDs - I found myself up at 3 in the morning during a growth spurt after 48 hours with no sleep watching "an evening with the stars of coronation street". it was trippy.
Annabel Karmel's Complete baby and Toddler Meal Planner.
Try to get out of the house once a day. It's free, and it will stop you going a bit funny in the head.... as much as is possible.

Gift cert for a night nanny!

Definately agree with a good travel system pram/car seat/buggy combo, grobags and on-line food shopping. Baby sling was a complete waste of time for all 3 of mine - none of them liked it. Microwave steriliser useful. Accept any offers from family or friends of help, a new baby is hard work especially if you are not getting a decent nights sleep on an ongoing basis, and that support is priceless. Good advice from Leonie to wait and see if you need it if it is something expensive and then look for it second hand. I know from my own experience that I have items that are as good as new because for whatever reason they didnt get used as much as I thought or were only needed for a short time.

Get all your relatives/friends/work colleaguess to contribute £££s to HELP - nanny, doula , cleaner .. Whatever you fancy ,instead of useless baby junk. Save yourself money on this by buying everything you need for about £40 from NCT second hand sale/freecycle/gumtree. Have done this x 5 myself !! People who spend £800 on prams and then go mad thru' lack of sleep/rest are mad imo !!

I 'd say that's a pretty good idea to save money on baby stuff and use it to get a cleaner for a while.

Another fan of white noise - soothed my DS and sent him off to sleep.

Definitely the swaddling blanket, although for DD we used one of those small (hole-y) cellular blankets from mothercare. Bought a swaddle sheet thing from JL and that was better as slightly bigger.

GroBag for when they start wriggling free from swaddling sheet.

The Mama's and Papa's baby bath with the built in support. We were given a used one and it was brilliant as it supports the baby which means it's less back breaking trying to lean into the bath to support and wash at the same time, IYSWIM?? www.mamasandpapas.com/product-4538472/4538472/type-i/

Cot Top changer - again - much easier on your back to change baby standing up that crouching on the floor or hunched over the bed.

The MOST IMPORTANT thing I think is to make sure you look after yourself too. Try and rest/get sleep when your baby is sleeping. And don't forget to eat/drink plenty of water. Don't forget about yourself. Your baby will be much more relaxed if you are. And don't try and do everything yourself and make sure you hand baby over to you partner/family to give yourself a break everyday.

Sorry I didn't mean hand over I meant, if you have someone who can help, let them hold your baby/look after your baby for a bit so that you can get a few minutes to yourself by having a soak in the bath or just having a cuppa and not just catching up on housework etc.

Grobag, smartphone/ipad, loads of facebook friends to share your lack of sleep with

Oh, and don't buy too much before they are born, wait until afterwards and then work out what you need from experience/seeing what others do/have, in reality you 'need' very little...

My 3rd baby is now 9 months old - the things we have used the most are :

• angel care breathing baby monitor (I could sleep much better knowing baby was sleeping on this)
• grobags
• feeding cushion
• a bouncy seat (we had a cheap second hand one that was quite upright and lasted lo much longer than some of the cosy looking newborn ones)
• changing table (we have the little ikea one which fits in our bathroom and is perfect for storage)
• hundreds of nappies / cotton wool and wipes.
• fantastic plastic ikea highchair (£15)
• baby food cooking books and storage containers for own food.

I would ask for mothercare vouchers to buy things as you find you need them. Start with the bare minimum as most of it is totally unnecessary. We invested in a maclaren stroller for ours (bought with vouchers and using the mothercare price match guarentee).

We borrowed things like a sling and bumbo as these things really don't last very long we didn't use a baby bath or top n tail bowl either. You can end up with lots of stuff that isn't needed. I recently discovered netmums nearly new site and others such as preloved and would never buy new again!!!

BLW is Babyled Weaning. We had to do it with DD as she stole a sandwich at 23 weeks and ate it and then was a committed spoon refuser. She would only be happy if she was feeding herself, hence my comment about her LO might want to do BLW therefore migating the need for a blender and chopper. DD had a sunday dinner the first week she was weaned .

Ooh the IKEA antilop highchair is brilliant for 15 quid! We bought one for each set of gp's - easy to clean, easy to store. We've got a stokke trip trap at home (=silly money), and if I knew better now, I'd go for the IKEA / pocket money option instead ...

Another fan on the ikea plastic highchair - 4th baby in it now.

wish I'd bought this sooner

It's expensive but a good long term investment I think, children get Ill so often, and this thermometer is like a doctors one, literally 5 secs and you get an accurate temperature.

Grobags - ideally two but you can get away with one if you can wash in a day. They are expensive but worth it. The grobag 0-6 size does look like it will last my large son till 6 months - he's outgrown the other brand ones we were given.

Car seat that fits on pram wheels - essential! So you can go out, they fall asleep in the car, and you don't have to wake them

We have a second hand bugaboo which has been brilliant - esp as we got it for only £300 and it was pretty much as new. It had already done two children when we got it and it has now done our DD and now baby DS is in it. They are expensive but def worth it. If you get a new one you would be able sell it for a bit.

Double width worksurface that you can put a bouncy chair on! Our new house has worksurfaces that go all the way into the window recesses - which is great as I can safely put DS up there in his chair and he can see everything I'm doing, or alternatively be turned round and look out of the window. He sits for ages like that while I am getting on with stuff in the kitchen. If I put the chair on the floor he moans after 5 mins!

LaVita - definitely a good idea! We could never quite spend the £30 on a thermometer and then of course every time the children are ill we wish we had one!

In fact I am going to insist we buy one this month!!

A cleaner is the only really absolute must.

The ikea antilop high chair and I would recommend getting a from birth maclaren we had a bugaboo and they just aren't great for pushing down the bus, taking on the tube or storing since they break up into two bits.

Great sling. Different for everyone, was Babybjorn for me. Its difficult to try them out before you have your baby, but try with friends if you have a chance.

Bath seat, shaped a bit like the scale pan for weighing spuds in greengrocer, with suction things on the bottom for putting in the bath.
Don't bother with bowl for topping and tailing, I used a bowl-shaped thing that had had Ocken fromage frais in.

Costco membership - superb for nappies, wipes, toys and books, not to mention spare ribs etc etc
Boots Advantage card - so that the small fortune that you spend on maternity pads earns you points to buy something nice for yourself as a treat - choc, perfume, bubble bath etc

puddingnazi We have a babasling, I thought it was brilliant in the beginning, I wore it so many times when out (e.g. restaurants, parties, weddings....summer baby so went out a lot), it's great for settling LO but also means you have an excuse if you want to keep them close to you. And anyone else can use it as it's easy to adjust the size.

Later on I found it great for going round shops in our small town (very narrow pavements, shops down steps etc so unsuitable for the buggy). We still use it and DD is 8 mo.

Would second Costco, we recently joined and have bought lots of books from there. (Use washable nappies so can't comment on those). Also very good for stocking your freezer.

Also Boots card, we just got our next size car seat from them and with the advantage points it ended up being the cheapest place to buy. In fact - don't buy a car seat in January/February, we seem to have had issues both times as the collections change about that time so you end up with places being out of stock of old models but not yet stocking new ones.

Think many have said similar - don't buy until you sure if you want it - we had the majority of things given to us or borrowed etc the only blinking things I 'panic' purchased on 'whims' of it MUST BE WHAT I NEED (clearly insanity was setting in) were the thing's that cost most and have rarely used..

Suddenly decided I MUST get a breast pump - ran out, spent £60+ and barely used it.. just never really got opportunity to go out minus baby !!

2nd thing, Bumboo, again - ohh it will mean I can put her down safely somewhere - she hated damn thing, why I didn't bother to borrow first..

3rd thing - bloody baby walker - again, decided must have, dashed out to mothercare and again, rarely used.

Whilst obviously others have had great experience with all these things guess moral of my post is try and 'try before you buy' ask around and see if someone has one you can borrow first or really make sure that you are not just panic buying things and that they will last (I think I made my purchases as I say in moments of desperation / wits end and therefore the time for them was actually about to pass)