What's the minimum I can get away with buying for baby?

[RedPony]

I'm not stingy promise! DP and I are in the process of buying a house, our offer was accepted in January but the seller's are still messing around and we are still not in yet :(

We are currently living at DP's parents house and I am starting to worry that we might not be in our house in time for when baby arrives. I'm 28 weeks PG and I have held off buying most things until we have our house but now it's not looking great I can't hold off buying forever! We have a moses basket and we have ordered the travel system to be collected 5 weeks before the due date. We also have a steriliser set with bottles, dummies, breast pump etc and I have picked up about 5 vests, 3 sleep suits, dribble bibs, 6 muslin, a few little outfits and hats and I have one of those Johnson purple boxes with all the shampoo and baby lotion etc in. I know there's heaps of stuff I still need to get for baby but what's the minimum I can get away with for the time being? Our bedroom is not massive so we don't have much room to store things.

You seem to have got most things covered. You definitely need more vests though as they will get covered in sick/poo etc. Get about another 20 if I were you, they won't take up much room.

You sound pretty organised to me. More vests, more muslins.

Get some scratch mitts too.

Changing mat? Can be stores under the sofa or bed.

Another packet of vests and sleepsuits in 0-3. Babies grow quickly out of newborn stuff. You may need a mountain of vests and sleepsuits, I did with DD1 who had reflux and an exploding bum, but hardly any with DD2. Wait and see.

I found I needed quite a few sheets for carrycot/Moses basket/crib/cot.

2 Blankets and sheets for Moses basket
Maybe a bouncy chair

Some bedding for baby, either sleeping bags or some cellular blankets.

Ooooo yes didn't think of scratch mits thanks! its horrible not being able to go out and buy everything and with a serious case of baby brain I can't even think of what to put on my list of things to get

Nappies, cotton wool and wipes and a change mat are pretty essential. And something warm to wear outside. Otherwise you have more than you need - just water to wash is fine! Bath baby in the sink. A bouncy chair/rocker is very useful and we use our kari me sling a lot but you would manage without. Personally I found scratch mitts never got used.

I wouldn't worry too much, you can always buy stuff after the birth, most bigvsupermarkets have everything you need pretty much 24 7.

You need stuff for yourself too, breast pads, maternity pads etc.

DP's sister is giving us her old bouncy chair so we have one of those. She's passing down nursery furniture too but that will have to stay in her loft until we get to move in our own house! Thanks for all the suggestions I'm putting them all together to make a list so I don't forget

Honestly? Bare minimum is probably vests and sleepsuits (think we had about 10 of each), a hat, some sort of blanket or outerwear, and nappies. Some sort bib or muslin would also be very handy.

The rest of the 'essentials' depend on how you do things (ie could come at no cost): place to sleep and bedding (sleeping bags are easiest), way to transport baby (could carry them but would get tiring so sling, pushchair, car seat, whichever ones you feel you need), bottles/formula/pump if you decide to ff and/or express plus steriliser... I think that's about it. Probably need the car seat to leave hospital, we borrowed one.

After that it's preferences and not necessities, imo. We got a lot of use out of a bouncer and baby gym, both of which were gifts (gym 2nd hand). We bought cheap clothes bundles on eBay, just search eg '0-3 bundle unisex'. Toys were largely pointless until 6mo, apart from the gym and one pram toy. DS lived in sleepsuits. Hated mitts and they don't really do much ime. If you're happy shopping online then you can order a lot of things after birth, if you find you actually need/want them, rather than stocking everything in advance.

Your list sounds fine. I would focus first on nappies, vests and sleepsuits as these will be getting the most use, and extra muslins. Maybe save bookmarks on the computer or an Amazon wish list of things you like the look of, then buy them if you feel you really need them. You can also keep an eye out on local Freegle/Freecycle for baby items, they come up often around here.

From personal experience I recommend getting an easy to use thermometer up front - you can make yourself very nervous with a new baby, can't remember how many times I took DS' temp in the first 2wks Never had a fever in his life thus far (16mo now) but saved me panicking!

Also focus on what you need for you - maternity pads, painkillers, witch hazel, drinks & snacks for labour, that kind of thing.

my main advice is to start small. as others have said you can always buy more things as and when you need them. I literally only have one pack of nappies for hospital for example with the plan that my first visitors are going to get some more when we know how big we need them to be.

Remember too that people will be buying you things and probably (hopefully) asking what else you need so consider that too :)

I would just buy stuff as you go along - more vests though! A carrier is invaluable, you can pick up a (please don't flame me, I also have two Connectas, two long wraps, a stretchy wrap, a rose and rebellion, a beko butterfly and a mei tai) baby bjorn second hand for a tenner and I find that men in particular find them easier to use than more complicated carriers. It's so nice to be able to go for a walk without a pushchair.

We found we got through a lot of cotton blankets - both my two liked to be tucked up in a blanket to nap but would often spit up a bit on them! The small ones for babies take up hardly any room, I think they're about a fiver from mothercare. People bought us a few receiving blankets too, which were bizarrely useful. I'd never have thought of buying them before!

You can get sleep suits with mitts built in from next I'd get another 4 of those. Have you got a baby towel?
People will buy you lots of clothes as presents when baby arrives I brought waaaaasy too much dd didn't wear half of it before it was too small

Don't bother buying sheets for your Moses basket, use pillow cases instead.

Get onto eBay or even better local facebook groups for mums because then you don't have to pay postage.

Somewhere for baby to sleep
Vests, sleepsuits, couple of hats, I'd say at least 10 of each in newborn and 0-3mnths.
Nappies, wipes, nappy bags
Muslins
Blankets
A way to feed your baby, in my experience even if you plan to bf have a bottle and a little carton of ready made formula in case of emergencies. I couldn't bf and ended up with a starving baby and unable to drive to the shop. Thankfully a friend had given me a carton of formula 'just in case' and we had some bottles.

You can use pillowcases as moses basket sheets
I used a towel instead of a changing mat and washed it if it got weed or pooed on, but might not work as well if the floor isn't wipe clean
I also didn't see the point of a baby towel, ds outgrew all of his in a few months and we use a normal towel
I didn't ever use scratch mitts for ds but some sleep suits have them built in anyway.

There's plenty of 'nice to have's but you can get away with very little for the first few months.

I would take the bottles, pump etc back. I did end up FF but if BF works for you then you won't need any of that stuff. And it's easy to pick up bottles once baby's born if you do need it.

Scratch mitts just come off, you're better off with sleepsuits that have mitts built in.

As long as you have a place for LO to sleep, plenty of vests and sleepsuits, nappies and cotton wool/wipes, everything else is added extras. Oh, and my DM bought me one of those Johnsons boxes. Never used it. All that chemical stuff isn't good for newborn skin.

IN 10 weeks or so we might be will be having summer, so maybe a sun hat and some sleeveless vests might be useful to. I always had about 12 vests and sleepsuits on the go, as they do get mucky very quickly. You don't want to be washing all the time
I never bothered with scratch mitts for either of mine - just kept their nails short.

Cotton wool/sensitive baby wipes, 1 pack of size 2 nappies, 6 babygros, 6 vests, 2 cardis, 2 hats, 3 muslin cloths, a nursing bra, Tommee Tippee breast pads, lanisoh nipple cream, change mat, nappy bags, pram blanket. A car seat of course and pram and or baby carrier.

If you have baby in a cot (as opposed to co-sleeping) you'll need 2 sheets & 2 blankets. If you formula feed you'll need bottles, a sterilizer, a bottle warmer, possibly dummies to sooth, thermal bottle holder/s, dribble bibs...