please learn from my mistakes

[gymboywalton]

i have been reading another thread about special outfits for newborn babies and i thoughtit it might be fun to have athread where people can share mistakes we made when ours were new.

my number one mistakes was buying clothes/babygrows that fastened up the back. wtf was i thinking? impossible to get the baby into and they end up lying on the poppers and being uncomfy.

2nd mistake was buying babygrows made out of velour-they felt all lovely on the outside but insdie are scratchy and sweaty and horrible.l
the day i found out i was pregnant i went out and bought an outfit that was both velour AND had poppers up the back.
it was worn once!!!!

[honey86]

Tell people to bog off for the first day home... with ds2 i came home to 4 adults and 7 children. i broke down and went walkies in a mist of postnatal depression and got readmitted to maternity. cos of the pnd i didnt bond much with ds. when i had dd, i was on my own, mum went home and i spent time just me and baby, and a takeaway. it did wonders and me and dd have a amazing bond

dont even bother with reuseable nappies. too much work.

avoid teething beads. theres more chance of them breaking or choking a baby than miraculously improving teething problems. my sil put these on her dd she mite as well have given her marbles to play with. but thats my opinion.

if you drive, dont go buying pneumatic 'retro' prams. youll never fit it in the boot. even better buy a lighter stroller to keep in there.

can never have too many muzzies

dont feel you have to sterilise everything right til toddlerhood. i stopped sterilizing at 6 months and my kids rarely get sick. give them a chance to build up immunity through exposure.

and if you want to have peace and quiet, locks on the bathroom door helps as does an ipod when ignoring sweetie deficiency temper tantrums

[honey86]

oh yeah, avoid too many soft toys no1 buys them off u not even on ebay lol
and ditto with blankies, dd will be 4 soon and still carries her 1st blankie around with her. and sleeps with several have to practically tiptoe around her with it to sling it in the wash without her noticing. cute at first, pain in the a* later

[MorningHasBroken]

Puppy training pads... £5 for 100. Put them under the sheet and on the changing mat, far more absorbent than towels etc. also good to lie nappy-less baby on when they have bad nappy rash etc with no fear of accidents!

[nickelbabe]

we use disposable nappies for the first fortnight until we were used to stuff then we switched to cloth (on a nappy by nappy change basis just in case)

[magpieC]

Sunlight bleaches poo stains very nicely!

[notsoold]

If your baby really wants a blankie or comfort try to make it a muslin...that way you can have spares and wash to your heart content...

[SaggyOldClothCatpuss]

Have your DH well primed to bring you food if you have to stay in hospital. The first day after dd was born I hadnt filled out a menu card on the ward. Salad is not what you want to eat after giving birth, having no sleep and trying to BF.
No matter how pumped full of adrenaline, dont be tempted to stick the baby in the pram and walk 4 miles to visit MIL, 2 days after birth. You will end up hysterical!

[Kafri]

what saggy said. I was stuck in a week and the food was horrible. First few days I ate it while dh had whatever he brought his mum made for him, then I got fed up of the crap meals and started to get him to bring me something too.

my hospital had a snack room too, with cereal, bread with butter and jam gutted no toaster - dammed fire safety rules, tea and coffee stuff. really useful tho the number of times they ran out of cups/hot water etc right when i fancied a brew was ridiculous.

[halesball]

Drink plenty of orange juice and take Senna tablets. Trust me you do not want to be constipated when you have your first bowel movement. Its stressful enough. Mine was the most tentative poo i'd ever had i felt like my downstairs where giving birth again. I was that proud of it i considered naming it ha, i even told my horrified DP i'd done it (i don't even fart infront of him ha).

[NaNaNatman]

You will not have enough food in your hospital bag or at your house, I don't know what I expected but for about a week after giving birth I had the appetite of an elephant.

Cotton wool and water, although a faff, for us cleaned BF poo the best.

You can easily go through 5 vests in one day, stock up on vests and baby grows for when they are tiny, mine pooped every feed!

DON'T buy the big bulky travel system, you will regret it when they outgrow the car seat, honestly you will. Save yourself the money and get a stroller/pushchair

[nellyjelly]

I found long slleve vests plus leggings better than baby gros tbh.

[redredwine84]

Don't buy a baby bath! End up with water everywhere, cant hold them up in it, if they do a poo you have to empty the lot and start again! It takes moments to run a sink of water, did this with both of mine until they were a few months old.
Buy some big comfy cheap knickers for labour and afterwards, then go back and buy more and more, postpartum is messy I ended up wearing and binning most of mine after one wear.

[SaggyOldClothCatpuss]

Personally I hate pushchairs, especially travel systems. I've had 2dcs, and much prefer to see them laid out in a carry cot than scrunched in a car seat. I also loathe forward facing for smallies. I like them to be able to see me and for me to see them. I'd take a 3 in one over a travel system any day! A lesson I learned fairly early on, a forward facing pushchair will need a rain cover. As you walk baby will get drenched even with the hood up and foot cover on. Rearward facing, the back of the seat takes the brunt of the weather as you walk, put the hood up and the foot cover on and baby will be lovely and dry and you won't need to worry about wrestling with the rain cover, taking it off when you go in a shop, putting it on when you go outside...

[nickelbabe]

don't buy the McLaren Quest just because it's a "second" (ie replacement for the crap one that could have been lovely if it weren't so bloody useless at being folded up)
Buy the McLaren Techno XT. It might be 50quid more expensive, but it's at least £200 better

[CheerfulYank]

I also had terrible pain when peeing! A squirt bottle is the way forward, or a jug as some have said.

[5madthings]

Drink plenty and eat lots of fruit to help with first poo and its often helpful to use a clean sanitary towel to press/hold against your perinium as you poo. Stops your insides from feeling like they will fall out and helps to stop the 'my stitches will rip' feeling.

[curiousgeorgie]

Personally I love my travel system and DD is now 2 & a half and I'm going to be using one for DD2 too when she gets here!

Being able to keep them asleep in the car seat and go into the doctors / a restaurant / shopping etc is a GODSEND!! Then the carrycot for longer days out, walks in the park, places walkable from home.

I would never have anything else, it made life so much easier.

[greenhill]

I loved my Mothercare travel system. My DD still uses the carry cot as a doll's bed. The pram was very sturdy and lasted 3.5 years, so I got my baby DS into it briefly too. I had to walk everywhere and it even managed some fields. I've had three pushchairs since that have been unsatisfactory after they've been broken in by hard wear and tear!

[Meringue33]

Mothercare have sleep suits, vests and dungarees that have Velcro seams instead of poppers - all baby clothes should be like this IMO.

Invest in a lot of bibs - the little cotton bandanna type. It's a lot easier to change and wash bibs than clothes.

If you're planning to bf, don't invite visitors until bf is well established, unless you are so comfortable with them can go topless.

Don't invite visitors to stay in weeks 3 or 6 (fractious baby, cluster feeding).

[soaccidentprone]

make sure your car seat is reasonably light. heavy car seat & baby after giving birth is not a happy combination.

as other posters have said - make sure you have fitted the car seat at least 1/2 dozen times before you need to use it the last thing you need is the car seat and baby in the car and you standing their with the instruction leaflet while it chucks it down with rain.

make sure whoever takes you to the hospital brings the right bag

rest as much as you can when the baby is asleep - you don't know when you might sleep again

put a coffee table or something by where you like to sit and feed. make sure this has the cordless phone, bottle of water, mobile, TV remote, baby wipes and a couple of muslin squares as well as a few snack things that you can reach for when your baby falls asleep on you and you are by yourself and the TV remote is 'just' out of reach

when your baby gets older, just buy lots of identical socks, then if you lose one it doesn't matter

ditto magic mittens or gloves. I always buy at least 2 pairs that are identical

stock the fridge and freezer with easy to cook foods even if it is just sliced bread in the freezer and plenty of butter or spread in the fridge and twins of beans in the cupboard

and lastly treat yourself to some nice bubble bath or smelly soap so that when you get to have a bath or shower you no longer smell of regurgitated milk etc

[nickelbabe]

oog car seat!
don't forget to sort one out before you get whisked off to gospital for post birth stutching. the drug /pain addled ramblings about how you have to leave your brand new baby with your friend who might have to feed her because you don't have a car seat can be avoided.
as can your dh picking the cheapest one from argos that was wholly unsuitable for a newborn (no matter what you interpreted by 0+ age) and the car you have so that you have to sit in the back seat holding newborn because it really does look like she's hanging upside down from it.
and then you'll end up borrowing a proper one from your sister.
save yourself the worry by buying one of those carry ones at least a month before your due date

[nickelbabe]

(went in ambulance to hospital and she was strapped onto me in there. that actually had to be explained to me. post natal mummies are a bit stupid

[nickelbabe]

soaccodentprone.
not just when it's rainjng. we were in the picking up bay (10 mins max), I was empty of iron and really sore and swollen underneath and I could bearly stand.
it took about half an hour before we gave in and decided it just didn't work in our car. I was knackered!

[nickelbabe]

that'll be barely.

[nickelbabe]

ooh yes 5madthings - i'd forgotten that! hold something against your bits when you poo!