What 'boring' stuff do I need?

[Aworryingtrend]

I'm 31 weeks and have more cute baby gros and cuddly toys than you can shake a stick at. But I have been a bit more remiss on the practical side of things so am putting a Boots order in now. So far on the list I have:

• Breast pads - planning to FF but presumably I will still need some?
• Maternity Pads- am having an ELCS but will I still need loads?
• Wipes
• Nappies
• Baby bath/shampoo type stuff? I gather I won't use this on a newborn but if I would need it within a few weeks I'd rather get it now before I go on maternity leave.
• sudocrem
• Should I get things like Infacol, Calpol now?

Any thing else you can think of?

TIA

Yes to all the above!
IMO best to prepared before the haze of having a newborn descends!

Breast Pads- Tommee Tippee ones I thought were good, you will need them whilst your milk comes in and then dries up. I bought a comfy croptop type maternity/nursing bra for this. My boobs hurt!

Maternity pads- yes lots and lots! Sainsburys ones I liked, nice and thick. Once it dies down a bit I used Boots thin maternity pads. I wasn't reccomended to use normal pads as they can hide infection and they are plastic and (TMI) sweaty.

Baby shampoo/wash- your call use what you fancy, we use Weleda but there are many on the market.

Nappies- I have a couple packs of size 1- the huggies ones have a little cut out bit at the top so it doesn't interfere with the cord clip. They are on offer £2.47 in Waitrose currently up to size 3. Get a couple packs of size 1 then if baby is bigger you can just buy size 2.
Wipes- your call again really. I used natural fragrance free wipes from the off with DS2 but used cotton wool with DS1.
Sudocrem- lots of different branded creams about again it's whatever works for you. No harm in having a pot in, better to have it and use if necessary. I got calpol in as well for the same reasons.

Hope that helps in some way!

Can you tell I'm getting organised for DS3?

Nappy sacks?
Cotton wool?
(maybe get one pack of wipes to use later on but I would use cotton wool to start off with.)
and I think you have the rest of it covered!

Huggies do something that looks nicer than bog standard cotton wool. It comes in a bag and is individual sheets, almost like wipes but nothing added to them and thicker.

I have some this time around for hospital bag, they came in my Asda huggies freebie box (go and register on Asda baby club if haven't already then print voucher).

Boots do baby emery boards - much easier to file their nails than cut as I found cutting just made them shorter not less sharp.

A little baby hairbrush - I never thought these had any purpose but have used mine every night after her bath since she was born.

A two pack of dummies just incase.

You can't use calpol until 2 months so don't rush out and get that yet.

I breastfed my DS for a year and never needed breastpads, as I didn't leak.

Am now pregnant with DC2 and am leaking already at 38 weeks! So each persons boobs are a mystery, even between pregnancies.

One thing I found really handy for myself after DS was born was having make-up remover wipes. The idea of faffing about with creams and toners etc to take make-up off just seemed like an epic effort. You can even use them to just give your face a wipe if you're like me and often too lazy to put make-up on.

When you say you need the practical stuff, have you got a changing mat and a big bag to shove everything in when you finally manage to exit your house (including a portable changing mat for when the only place to change the baby is the toilet floor and it's dirty)?!

Muslins. Loads of them - we are still using ours and dd is 3.5 - they now work as doll blankets, rags for when she's ill (mopping sewaty foreheads, catching vomit, pillow cover when she's snotty....), emergency bibs when we go out and she's wearing nice stuff and chooses pasta and tomato sauce - we rarely go anywhere without one!

Do you know what you will do with the baby for bathing? We had a bath cushion thing, which I loved as I didn't worry quite so much about holding onto a wet, slippery baby in the bath!

The other thing I bought fairly early on was a thermometer. I have found it useful not so much for telling how hot dd is myself (I tend to go by whether she's sweaty and warm to the touch) but for those time's I've called the GP/NHS Direct! I've found it useful to be able to say 'Her temperature is...' wen giving them info so they can decide whether to advise me to visit the GP or not.

Good luck!

I got calpol, gripe water, teething gel, infacol etc in advance- some of it you can't use for a while, but when you need it, you need it NOW!
Yes to muslins, about 6 million.
Swaddle blanket?
Steriliser, bottle brush etc
Andrex moist toilet wipe things for you (and a bag of dried apricots to start eating as soon as you've finished pushing )
not prunes as the sticky stuff looks just like meconium boak

Waterproof cot/Moses basket sheets

Anti bac wipes for cleaning change mats

Anti bac hand gel for out and about.

Baby suncream

Lansinoh (or however you spell it) cream for your nipples if you're planning on BFing. No other nipple cream will do.

However many maternity pads you buy, buy more. I had Em CS and I needed them for weeks.

Please excuse my ignorance..... Do you still need maternity pads even if you have a CS?

Sorry, just read your OP properly. Ignore my contribution!

ja9 yes you still need maternity pads if you have a CS (I was dismayed to discover)

I was dismayed too. I'd only bought one pack which lasted, ooh about a day. Had to send DH to Boots to stock up. I needed them for about 8 weeks (but I did have an infection which didn't help).

That's the first thing I tell every newly pregnant friend now as I wish someone had told me. That and buy cheap black applecatcher-pants from Primark that you can chuck away after those first few mucky weeks.

Thanks all, have added to the list! I would never have thought of baby emery boards and baby hairbrush. I'll add more mulsins- I have 6, is that not enough I take it?!

I've got changing mat and a bag and I have a feeling I have something that is a portable changing mat but I better check its not actually a blanket or something

Swddle blanket I have and all the steriliser and bottles and things...maybe I'm not as disorganised as I thought!

I have an adult thermometer- a digital one I used when temping when TTC- do i need a special baby type one? I'm going to get one of those gro-egg room thermometers as I worry our house is cold and baby will be a winter baby.

Do you have a baby monitor yet? If not get one with built in room thermometer, save on the gro egg which is rubbish anyway IMHO, it has a sad face saying its too hot when all three of us (me, DP and dd) are freeeeezing!

I'd get more than 6 muslins - maybe just another packet.

Adult thermometer should be fine. As I said, I tend to use it more when I am trying to describe symptoms over the phone to someone else. But that's also when I'm more worried - if I feel her and she's hot then that's what I think to myself. If she's really burning then I get anxious and prefer to know exactly!

The other thing I might think about is the lay out of your house. I kept a spare changing mat and basket of bits (nappies etc) in the living room tucked in a corner so i didn't have to go upstairs several times a day. Also our house was chilly and I tended to keep the living room much warmer than the rest of it so having 'seconds' of things helped.

And a bouncy chair or similar? Something you can safely put the baby in on the bathroom/bedroom floor while you shower/dress. Until the baby starts to roll it can go on a blanket of something but I found dd tended to be happier a bit more upright so she could see what was going on, even when she was quite tiny, giving me an extra few precious seconds in the shower!

If you are going to ff, it might be worth looking out for a container that dispenses the right amount of powder for a feed. I had one with three compartments - I could then take a bottle(s) of water with me and add the powder when I needed to feed her. (The cartons do the same job - I used a mixture.) (Something like this www.jojomamanbebe.co.uk/pp+breast-and-bottle+feeding?page=2&perpage=16&sales_group=NULL&filter_colour=&filter_size=&sortby=RELEV&inStock=NO&resfilter= although this one is way more fancy than the one I had!)

Vaseline is good for cradle cap, which is very common. Also if you do chose to get in a mini baby medicine cupboard in advance, something for a stuffed up nose? I got a plug in vaporiser thing - don't know if it helps dd, but it makes my bedroom smell minty fresh!