baby bedding...

[MrsKSeveride]

Where do I start?!

Due in August but not optimistic about warm weather. So what blankets should he have in the Moses? Do I swaddle and then no blankets? Or don't swaddle and use blanket? Is a cellular blanket the one with square holes in?

When he moves to his cot, why do most bedding sets havea pillowcase and duvet? Surely blankets are suffice? So what bedding do I actually need?

Is everything going to confuse me this much?!?

Try swaddling. Some will advise against it. Your baby may love it or hate it.

Feel the back of the neck to check babies temperature but swaddling should be sufficient. Cellular blankets are ace as you can layer. Yes they are the ones with squares.

Your baby does not need a pillow or a duvet or a cot bumper. All of these things are dangerous for under 1's.

So in short:
Swaddling blanket
Cellular blankets
Gro bags (brilliant for once they are over a certain weight. Think around 8lb)

If you go to John Lewis you can have a nursery advisory thing which was great. Plus a free coffee and cake!

I have had some wasted money due to bedding, my MIL has worked as a health visitor and midwife, she told me no bumper, no swaddling (I assumed both of these were fine!) and that they should have a cellular blanket and lose sheet over them, less if its warm or more if its cold. I had spent a fortune on all sorts for the crib, even a drape and pole. Sigh. I suppose you will know what your baby wants when he is here and what seems safe to you and what doesn't.

Don't buy the bedding bundles, complete waste of money. The bumpers aren't recommended after 12 months (although I wouldn't use them at all suffocation risk) and the duvets shouldn't be used before 12 months, so the set that looks lovely is in fact just for decorating the cot and completely impractical.

I had an October baby and used a sleeping bag with a cellular blanket over the top.

I'll add to Preggers list 2 fitter sheets and a pack of muslins. The muslins are for laying over the section where baby's head will be so any drool/sick can be whipped away quickly without having to change the sheets. Grobags are wonderful and come in two tog ratings 1 tog for summer and 2.5 for winter. The instructions say no blankets over the top but I have done on particularly cold nights. Avoid the ones with zips to the chin as the zips dig in. The best ones have poppers on the shoulders and a zip down the side. You can then change the nappy without taking baby right out.

This advice is really helpful, the bedding sets I've seen are about £80! That's more than ours cost or a king size! I feel like I was being sucked in as its my first baby, however , going on how cold I am I think I would like to invest in more than blankets, are duvets a big no no??

What preggers and numtumdedum said. Definitely grobags.

C1982 - no duvets until after a year old. Grobags are excellent though, much better as they can't be kicked off.

Oh ok, so misleading as they market them for newborns :/ , I just hope that she will be warm enough they don't look very cosy

So a grobag is ok if I buy a newborn one? In the Moses basket too?

Preggers I like the sound of coffee and cake!

Another tip I heard (on MN, of course!) was not to bother with sheets for the Moses basket. A pillowcase fits perfectly, just tuck the corners under.

Grobags are fantastic once your baby is big enough, asda and Sainsbury's do their own version for about £10. They wash really well, mine are now being used again for dd2.

We have a cot bedding set that was a gift still in its original packaging, DS is 10 months.
After a recommendations on mumsnet we got the Merino Bambino sleeping bags, pricey initially, but worth it for us, no worrying or fussing with extra blankets and the fit 2-24, so a lot longer that most baby sleeping bags. DS was in them from about 4 weeks, but he is/was a big baby.

I swaddled with a giant muslin square all thrpugh the winter, amd added a warm.blanket over on cooler nights. I assumed the advice against swaddling was that some people may use too warm blankets? Not that swaddling sensibly was the problem?

Oh yes Muslins. Hundreds of them. They are so incredibly useful. I used them in the same way as numtum so you don't have to change sheets just the muslin.

So if I decide to swaddle... (which I don't know how to do either) and it's really cold, a blanket over the top works? Tucked into the sides of the cot really well so it can't come loose?

Also I have loads of blankets is there a difference between blankets to "greet" people and ones you should use for bed?

I feel like I don't know anything and I'm starting to panic.

I have a 10mth DD and all the bedding we bought was a complete waste of money! In the end we bought the sleeping bags which were the best and wish we just bought these from the outset. DD was in Moses basket for only 11/12 weeks before she outgrew it and clearly wanted to have more space around her when sleeping. As she's such a wriggler sleeping bags have been brilliant - no risk of getting her head stuck under the covers or the covers coming off when she spins 180 degrees in the cot at night! Ikea do packs of really nice huge thick cotton muslins (thicker than your usual Asda/Tesco muslin but thinner than swaddling blankets). I used them as blankets in the Moses basket as DD was also Aug born & very warm. YY to lots of muslins btw - Tesco/Sainsburys/Asda all do them for a reasonable price. We bought an Airwrap bumper - it's like breathable mesh secured by Velcro, not a padded one. We really like it and has stopped DD hands getting stuck in between the rails. You don't need this though until your LO is in a cot. HTH.x

What I did with the extra blanket was have a big square 'pram blanket' and would lay it down like a diamond, then put swaddled dd down in the middle of it (point at the top) and drape each side corner over her. It was low enough to not cover her face and if sje wriggled, the blanket moved off her to the side rather than up or down.

Youtube swaddling for

instructions.

Don't worry OP, I felt exactly like you with my first and panicked that I didn't understand anything I had to prepare for, my Mum kept reassuring me telling me that I would just get it and it would all fall into place - and it did! I'm now pregnant with number 2 (albeit nearly 10 years later!) and feel like I am starting over again as I have forgotten so much, but I am keeping calm that it will all come back to me at some point.

As for bedding, agree about the grobags. They are just fab and my DD was in them right up until 2, she loved hers and knew when it appeared that it was time for sleep. Some good ideas about using big muslin squares as moses basket covers. When my DD was in her moses basket, we used a cellular blanket. We discovered quickly that she absoutely hated being swaddled, some babies love it others hate it I think. I realise now that the £80 I spent on a cot bedding bundle was a waste of money, won't make that mistake again.

Muslins. Lots (as others have said).

Cheap white cotton cellular pram blankets, only cost about £3 in the supermarkets and you can use lots if its cold or just a single layer if its warmer, the holes mean LO very unlikely (impossible?) to suffocate. Can be used in the pram, the moses, the buggy, the lounge in the evening etc as a nice portable size. Different shops seem to favour different sizes of 'pram'. So I got one of each! They get softer with washing and strangely, ironing (tip from a friend that one).

I have five white cotton cellular, plus a beautiful mamas and papas knitted cotton number which was a present and a couple (3 or 4) of fleecy ones and a couple of granny knitted. All 'pram size' - sick pee and drool means there is usually one or two in the wash /drying at any given moment.

I do like a nice blanket

oh and grobags (sleeping bags). M&P usually have the 'older' designs cheaper. Or TK Max, or supermarkets.