baby stuff, what you need and what you don't need, top tips for first timers!

[rogersmellyonthetelly]

I really could have done with this when I was pregnant with my first, I read the mothercare/mamas and papas guide and bought loads of stuff I didn't need or that wasn't quite right for my lifestyle! How about some of us bdtd mums share our top ten tips for getting the right kit for you?
My top ten tips would be:

1. when buying a pushchair, make sure the damn thing actually fits in your car!
2. get an in car base for you car seat if at all possible. Doing up the seat belt every time when you are terminally sleep deprived gets really annoying really quickly
3. breast feeding support cushions are only generally useful if you have small pert breasts or your boobs are situated on your shoulders. Otherwise a normal bed pillow is perfectly adequate and much cheaper!
4. Steam sterilisers don't kill thrush. Any old icecream tub with a lid and some Miltons tablets will kill thrush and is a much cheaper option
5. lochia (post birth bleeding) will be heavier than you imagine. Normal thin sanitary towels will not cut the mustard for the first couple of days. The inch thick nappy style maternity towels are a much better option and will provide some much needed padding for your abused undercarriage.
6. learn how to put your pushchair up and down in the comfort of your sitting room well before the baby arrives. The first time you have to do it for real you will probably be almost asleep (or wish you were) It will also be raining and your new baby will be screaming. Add to this the onlookers in the car park and it's a very stressful moment!
7. buy lots of sleepsuits and vests in newborn size. Babies ooze at both ends almost constantly. Buy cheap and lots, most will be hopelessly shit/vomit stained by the time they are outgrown.
8. your babies first poo will be like tar. Water and cotton wool balls do work eventually, but it will be messy!
9. simple rules of bf - if it's coming out the bottom end it's going in the top. If your baby is gaining weight and doing lots of wet and dirty nappies, this is all you need to know. Frequency and length of feeds is not a good indicator!
10. accept any help offered. Sod the housework. Make sandwiches and buy a couple of those travel cups with lids, it's the only way you will get a hot drink for weeks.

My top tip is to work out your shopping list, but don't buy most of it!

Seriously, you can get everything and anything really quickly, so buy when the baby has arrived.

The main groups are:

Bodily fluids - nappies, maternity pads and breast pads, plus muslins. Wipes, perhaps nappy sacks.

Feeding - nipple cream (someone else will have to recommend entry level basics and what to leave for later if ff)

Sleeping - cot or Moses basket, suitable mattress, sheets, blankets ot sleeping bag

Transport - car seat, sling or wheeled conveyance

Clothing - get a good set of plain basics, and see what you're given, then add what you fancy.

Marking my place, 34 weeks with my first and trying not to drown myself in shopping. Keep these coming and thank you!

Loving this, keep them coming! I've not popped yet, but my one tip thus far would be to order your pram well in advance, as some brands have long lead-times :)

Remember if money is tight your baby will not give a flying fk if the range is from mamma and pappa infact they won't even understand why they need a bedroom set until they leave home. Ikea do very reasonable furniture which is not babyfied that will see then through to later childhood. I got a cot wardrobe a nice unit (for books n stuff) a chest of drawers (6 tall) for 250 pounds. That would not have got me a bedside table in m&p.

And in all honesty I probably could of made do with the cot and drawers :)

Oh and just because you don't know "anybody" who has just had a baby - dont go out and buy lots of stuff because as soon as you do you will get masses and masses of stuff from people who barely know you or colleagues for free!!!

Adding to the below, all my newest ds has is a chest of drawers that cost me £20 secondhand. Stores all of his clothes and towels, muslins etc, put a changing mat on top too and voila, a nice functional bit of kit. We've not used our cot yet as prefer to cosleep, but ds used his pram carrycot instead of a moses basket, which again saved us money.
Stock up on breastpads whenever you see them on offer, and ditto nappies. I stockpiled a few packs while pregnant, ds is 12 weeks old and I'm just coming to the end of my stash. I'll disagree with needing lots of newborn sizes, my ds was a perfectly average 7 pounds 5 and was in them for about 2 weeks, if that. 0-3 is better to buy imo. And yes, nothing more complicated than sleepsuits that do up at the front, and vests with an envelope neck. People will buy you outfits.
A sling is a good thing to have too. My dp prefers the Babybjorn, I prefer the KariMe. And buy muslins. Lots of muslins...

For the first 6 wks or so you dont need alot at all.

Pram, carseat, sling or carrier, moses basket.

Changing mat, nappies, cotton wool balls, sudocreme, top n tail bowl, bath or sink.

Vests and babygrows, couple of blankets and towels.

BF- bras, pads and lansinoh.
FF-?

Maternity pads and knickers, slippers, button up or nursing nightie (BF), dressing gown, for a CS a sports bottle is good for drinks when you cant sit up easily.

Great idea this, I'm 8 weeks on Monday and already wondering what we need! We're not finding out the sex either so will have to stick to neutral until baby arrives, I know so many who've had girls the last year so plenty of hand me downs if we have one

Deffo agree to get quite a few vests/sleepsuits - nothing worse than a leaky nappy in the middle of the night with no clean clothes!

If breastfeeding, lansinoh is your friend. And I am large of nork and LOVE my feeding pillow ('my brest friend').

Get food in that needs minimal prep - DH was lovely and wanted to make me Nice meals, but they often took too long to prepare, and DS had woken again by the time it was ready. Food is just fuel to begin with. Make sure you have snacky things in your hospital bag for your overnights

Vanish soap for when a nappy just isn't enough!

My top tips are you cannot have too many muslin clothes! Perfect for mopping up milk/sick, make shift cover-up when bfing on the move, cot liner (so don't have to change the sheet everytime baby is sick in the night). I had them all over the house!
Also, if you're already thinking that you might not want a massive gap between children then think about buying a travel system which can be converted into a double later on so you don't have to buy a completely new one next time round (which is what I've just had to do!)

Don't go overboard stocking up with new born nappies - babies grow scarily fast and you may find you have a large surplus after a week or two. Buy one or two large packs at a time no more!

Get a car seat that slots into your pram (travel system) expensive yes but much much easier than lugging a sleeping baby in their seat into the doctors / your mates house / round the shops or worse having to wake them up to put them into their pram.

Incidentally don't feel bad if doing the poppers up on baby gros stumps you - I've had two babies but I still get them misaligned

Cheap baby wipes with alcohol in then get all sorts of stains out of your dry clean only clothes should you be crazy enough to wear a silk top while holding your baby like I did the other day

Beg borrow or steal a jumperoo

Don't bother buying a tummy tub, bottle warmer, Sophie giraffe, mini purée maker / steamer, those baby nightie things with elastic at the bottom or baby (non walker) shoes.

Do buy loads of muslins, at least 3 bedding sets in case you have a puker/nappy leaker, lots of ready meals, cool packs for sore nether regions and cabbage for sore nipples, lots of hand cream - my hands always get really really dry in the early days after a baby prob all the hand washing and bf leeching moisture out of my body.

I'll 2nd the dry hands. I must be the only mum who has never bought a single muslin square ever after 3 DCs!

The muslins are brilliant. I would be permanently covered in sick and drool without them. I put one on my chest between my top and baby in sling. Obviously also good for burping the baby. And I put one under his head tucked into the crib so I am not going through two sheets a night.

I had 9 newborn vests and sleepsuits -just plain white ones from Asda - and that was about the right amount to have enough changes of clothes without having to be constantly washing. Definitely buy the nice stuff in 0-3. If you are predicted a baby of more than 8 pounds, buy a little less newborn, If you are predicted a baby of more than 9 pounds you may be skipping newborn size and going straight to 0-3. But if you get newborn ones and keep them in their packets they can always get exchanged if they don't get used.

Don't fork out on fancy breastpumps in advance. at the most, get a manual one and a couple of bottles. Even that can wait though, although I started giving expressed milk in the second week and that worked well for us. I waited till 8 weeks to get the electric pump and by that time I knew what I wanted.

Totally agree about the base for the carseat, makes life so much easier. And also getting a compatible pram and carseat so you don't have to wake the baby up to take them out of the car.

I personally wouldn't stock up massively on breastpads, I haven't used them much since the first month. And the cheapo ones are crap anyway, the lansinoh ones are good though.

Definitely get decent maternity towels. Mothercare sell some with wings. They are more expensive than Asda ones but way better. For the first two days get some hospital ones. Hospitals don't generally provide them but if you google hospital grade maternity pads you might be able to buy them online. I happened to know someone who worked in a hospital...

Big black knickers much better than those disposable ones, especially if you have a C section as they'll pull up over scar.

I was sorry I bothered with a breastfeeding pillow and scarf thingy for breastfeeding. Also found expensive breastfeeding tops a waste of money (the ones where you stick your boob through the hole!). Much better and more discreet to wear a vest which you can pull down & a top you can pull up! Having said that, I think the 'brest vest' is very good as it sits under your bra.

Napisan is fab for removing stains - soakin it then add some to your wash.

Couple of things I didn't know existed but were very handy (all from Amazon)

Water wipes-easier than cotton wool & water, but no chemicals.

Mirror you hang on headrest in back of car so you can see baby in rear car seat.

Hooks you can hang on pushchair to hold your bags.

Bathing - just use water - no need to put anything in bath. If your baby has patches of dry skin use olive oil. No need for soap, shampoo etc!

Babygros that have fastenings at back or pull over the head are a pain for newborns. But now my baby can sit up I prefer pull over head type!

I didn't realise that vests withenvelope necklines can be pulled down to remove if you have a poo explosion to contend with!!

incontinence pads are bigger and better for nights than materniyy pads. I also bought sainsbury's own sanitary towels (about 30p for 10). They're really thin and can use lots without spending much.They were great after a couple of weeks when my bleeding had nearly stopped but not quite.

This is a great thread - thanks ladies, keep 'em coming! I like to think of myself as a pretty practical person who won't be swayed by all the marketing but....well, it's great to benefit from others' experience!

A good quality car or mini vac is invaluable IMO not for straight away but for later when the weaning stage starts and baby drops everything in the floor from her high chair. I've got a black and decker one it's so fab and best of all Ds1 (3yrs) will happily suck up all the crumbs with it as he thinks it's a fun game !

You do not have to give baby warm baby milk. Get baby used to milk at room temperature, that way when you are out and about you do not stress about finding somewhere to warm bottle.

Buy a king sized bed.

This is great. I'm just trying to sort through everything now and make sure I've got everything I need, thanks for the help and keep it coming :)

Stock up on washing powder, vanish, napisan. And if you have a autumn winter baby a tumble drier. We had a load of washing at least daily initially. If your breastfeeding; I found a u shaped cushion fab, DVDs and snacks for you while you're feeding initially.

I agree with shartsi

Babies don't require warm milk. Room temp is perfect and it means they get used to that and it's less hassle.

Dylon colour catcher is a miricle worker. You can bung all your colours and white in together, saves seperating washes.

Ok ... What i wish I did/didn't buy

Don't bother with a top and tail bowl.. U won't use it, or If u do it will literally be for the first three baths and then you'll realise it's too much faff

Don't by lots of baby bath products etc. plain water is best.. And we r still using the same bottle of baby shampoo we had when our dS was born in DECEMBER

Don't buy clothes in first sizes other than basic. You will get lots of presents and they will also grow out of them quickly. Save your money for the 6-9 month age when people stop buying presents

Don't bother with fancy bibs... They will end up minging

Don't buy huggies... They leak all the bloody time

Vanish stain remover spray is amazing

If you live in a flat a nappy bin is a must

Enjoy every precious second as they grow up so quickly.

Second the tumble drier for autumn/ winter (or summer this year ) babies.

Disposable bed mats for saving your mattress from immediate post birth lochia leakage and for later on when your baby has a stomach bug. I used one from 38 weeks onwards in case my waters went whilst I was asleep which they did so very handy there too!

And I second the OP about the jumperoo!!