Freaking. Out. Nothing - and I mean NOTHING - purchased yet. HELP.

[Burmama]

Help me please.

25 weeks and still working full-time, have not got round to buying anything yet for the baby or coming to terms with the fact that I will actually have to take a tiny person home from the hospital and somehow figure out how to look after him.

PLEASE TELL ME WHAT I NEED AS MATTER OF PRIORITY. Apart from carseat which I already know.

Also, this may be a separate question but I have to put together a baby registry for my shower - what should go on that? And, more importantly, what shouldn't?

THANK YOU :)

Hi Burmama! I second the ton of muslin cloths, I also used them as a reusable nappy for my newborn as everything else was too big.

A baby carrier for the baby registry would be a good idea. Ergos are very good (we still use ours for our 2.4 year old) but this was our all our favourite:
www.babyhawk.com/ we actually have the exact one pictured on the home page and you can reverse it so that it's just plain red.
It was the only one we could use for our tiny newborn and we used it far more than the others (we have a lot!) until he was well over a year.

Ultimately, like other have said, you really only need a place for baby to sleep (we did bedside cosleeper crib), some kind of baby transport (carrier or pram) and a ton of little clothes and nappies, you can work out what else you need when baby comes along.

You'll be grand! x

Ooh the BabyHawk looks great! Im sling hunting now for dc2 and was going to go for a Close Caboo from birth then an Ergo for afters but that Hawk looks suitable from early on. Did you use it from.Newborn?

Yes, ThinkIveBeenHacked - our son was just 6lbs when he came out of the hospital and nothing else held him in a safe position, so many carriers only start at 8lbs. It was our go to carrier for so long for that reason. Really, it's the best ever. Also has the advantage of being much more adjustable that the Ergo (maybe like the Caboo?) so it was easy to get a good fit on both my 6'1 broad shoulder OH and me. How to tie it did take a bit of figuring out, and it was a two person job at first, but once we'd practised a bit it was easy peasy :-)

I've set up a wishlist on John Lewis's website - not to share with anyone, just to keep track of the things we need. They also have a list of essentials on their website that you can use to find things - though I wouldn't say everything on it is essential.

I didn't use a carrier for months when DD was born - so wouldn't consider that essential. I also would have liked to get a City Jogger Baby Mini which lies flat/almost flat instead of the massive travel system we got.

Also consider what you could borrow or get from friends/family.

I think it would be ok to have some more expensive things on your list - maybe people would club together?

If you're near a Aldi I find their muslins good and they're cheap at £2.40 for 3 (I think). I used them to help transfer my baby from warm me to cold crib - put them on us to warm up and moved them with baby. A friend of mine swears by using them for bum drying after wipes when nappy changing - she's convinced residual dampness gave her babies nappy rash.