Do we need a baby bath etc? Any ideas for luxury must have?

[pippinleaf]

27 weeks and visiting a big town tomorrow which sells baby stuff. Nowhere near where we live does so think we need to buy stuff tomorrow - I hate shopping! We've got a pram, a crib, a car seat, a carrier and heaps of clothes - all from lovely friends and relatives.

So, do we need:
A baby bath (I'm thinking bog standard bucket might do the job)
A changing mat (or can I just put a towel down?)
How many nappies?
How many maternity pads? (Both need enough to get us going, don't fancy going shopping in the first week I'm guessing)
Small towels
Flannels
Anything else I've not thought of?

My luxury item is a cocoonababy. Is there any other luxury treat that you're glad you had?

Not too many size 1 nappies. DD outgrew them at 10 days and we had to give them away.

Breast pads. Lansinoh are very good.

I had a Mothercare over the bath baby bath which I liked because it meant I didn't have to bend and it had its own plug.

Second time round I had the luxury of a over the cot changing table and wish I'd had for the first too. I had terrible SPD and just couldn't have changed a nappy on the floor.

Baby Monitor gifted to us by friends who gave up using it for their babies. We didn't use it and were embarrassed to find we were tuned into the same frequency as neighbours when one night we heard them having a cracking row through the monitor. We were like OMG what have they heard coming from us

Bought muslins. To this day I don't know what they are supposed to be used for. They never got used. Ditto baby lotion.

Pfb luxury room digital room thermometer. Second time round the battery had run out and used my own judgement.

Another pfb luxury digital ear thermometer, loved it. Again non-replaceable battery had run by the time second baby came along and couldn't afford a replacement. Used forehead strip thingy indeed, did the job, just not so accurate.

I never used nappy sacks, just supermarket carriers and a nappies only peddle bin emptied very frequently. And I didn't use baby wipes at all for pfb. Cotton wool and water all the way. I wasn't quite so precious the second time round

I actually just for a baby bath for DD2 who is 6wks. I used a bath support for DD1. It takes forever to fill the big bath and I don't have time for that with a toddler. It's only £5 from asda. I tried using the wash basin but it didnt work because DD2 kept flinging her hands on the hot tap.

And you can have too many muslins contrary to what everyone says here. Neither DD1 nor DD2 brings up milk much at all. I still have a drawer filled with barely used muslins.

Also, an awesome chair.

We have an IKEA poang in DS's bedroom. It has had at least an hour's use every day since he was born (now 4yo) as settling, feeding, reading chair.

I bought a bath support instead of a baby bath, loads loads better, can be stored in the bath as it's small. I had a csection and DH did the first bath (me watching) then I was fit enough to do it myself from then on (I don't mean that how it sounds, DH still did his fair share!)
Loads of Muslins- useful for everything never leave the room without one!
I didn't need hundreds of maternity pads- I went onto normal sanitary towels within a few days - much much more comfortable and I didn't bleed very heavily at all after 2 days, everyone's different so don't over buy.
1 box of breast pads is plenty at first too.
Room thermometers which double as bath thermometers are very useful- but I acknowledge not essential- they help for reassurance though.

Muslins - saved shoulders from dribble or sick, wiped up sick or poo when it escaped (eg out of leaky nappy onto my trousers), mopped up blood when toddler banged head, now used 9 years later as fantastic cleaning cloths.

If you live in house rather than flat then get two changing mats for upstairs and down.

Got baby bath but what we found best was a baby bath seat as can be used for longer and saves you having to hold them under their head until they can sit up. Don't bother with top and tail bowl - use an ice cream tub!

Something to keep you warm in the night when breast feeding.

Plentiful supplies of chocolate to keep you going when you don't have time to get yourself a proper snack or meal ...

Napisan (getting poo stains out of clothes) and sudocrem (nappy rash) both still used years later (other stains and healing any wound / graze respectively).

If you're planning to breast feed, then plenty of breast pads and some lansinoh! And a BIG bar of chocolate!

I wasn't sure about a baby bath as loads of people said I wouldn't need it. As it was, I used it for about 18 months as DD was happy just sitting in it and it saved me masses of water each time I wanted to bath her!

A sling is a great idea even for just carrying baby around the house to free your hands up and help baby get to sleep.

lottie um a baby bath sits inside a standard bath. I use the baby bath inside the big bath, and stores it in there. The upside as I said was that it takes no time to fill. I use a bath thermometer. I turn only the hot tap on and the small baby bath is filled when the temperature reaches 38-39C. I used a bath support for DD1 so I have experience with both. I think it's like marmite really.

I found a baby bath a waste of time and much preferred those things they lie back in. It means your hands are free to wash them and dangle things in front of them and they are secure and safe in there until about 4mths.
The one 'luxury' (although not to us) item we bought was the breathing monitor. It gave me fantastic peace of mind esp when I picked him up in the middle of the night to feed and forgot to switch it off and the alarm went off. Very reassuring. Some on the market are a but rubbish with false alarms and stuff but ours has always been an excellent piece if equipment. And no, despite what some people say, it didn't make me less likely to be vigilant.

As for feeding; I BF all mine but still had some bottles in which I used for ebm after 2wks. But I also kept 2 cartons of ready made formula in the cupboard. I was lucky in that I didn't need them but BF is hard (I've bf 4 for 6/7mths each) some women really struggle through no fault of their own. If it's day 3 and you've been trying to feed baby on and off for 6 hours almost continuity and you're more exhausted than you could ever possibly imagine and your nipples are cracking or maybe even bleeding and it's just not setting baby as your milk hasn't come in and he's starving and you really are at the end of what you can take ( I know one new mum who in this state just fell over with slept exhaustion in her kitchen and smacked her face on the granite.) then it doesn't have to be a terrible thing to give him 2oz of formula do you and he can sleep for a few hours and presto! Your milk kicks in and bf goes great from there on in. I was lucky I didn't need them but it was reassuring to have them there. And on that note, a microwave steriliser is IMO the best option. Just bung bottles in and they steam sterilise in 5mins. No need for sterilising tabs or the like and if you decide a few wks down the line to use dummies then they go in there too.

Meant to also say that top and tail bowl was a silly buy too. Just do other bits before the tail end and you're fine with the same water.
Oh and lasinoh for nipples was excellent and metanium is the best nappy cream out there.

Fabulous ideas ladies, thank you :-) I will go shopping armed and ready today!

I really hadn't thought about bottles but the story about a friend falling over from sleep exhaustion and smacking her face in the granite floor (OUCH!) has made me think it would be sensible to get a few bits in!

My next challenge is to find some maternity pads which are organic as I am allergic to sanitary towels and tampons (I use a mooncup, the disposables give me a horrible rash inside and out). I'm hoping it's the bleach in them. I have washable pads but they're so sweaty and not very absorbent if there's lots of blood.

There are reusable breastpads but I leak a lot so can soak them. Most here seems to not leak as much as me though.

As for bf being hard work for night feeds, tbh I don't see how. Both of mine are fast feeders however. Usually takes 5-10min each side and so under 20min a feed. Also neither has wind and thus need no burping. Common wisdom is that bf babies are less windy. So Im back to bed within 20min after a feed anyway. My 6wk is doing every 3 hours but both mine are tiny at birth. (Under 6lbs). A bigger baby would be able to go longer. DH is working so wouldn't be sharing the night feeds and I dont go to bed until 10pm and next feed is generally 12 or 1. Honestly don't feel that tired.

I think a lot of the scary story around labour and newborn is just that.

On the nappy front definitely only get a few small packs of a few different brands - you can buy more once you know what works for your DC. DS reacted very badly to pampers newborn (red raw in 15mins of being in one - he hadn't even had a wee never mind a poo in that time). I actually returned them as unfit for the purpose. Another brand leaked on him but loads of people swore by them. The brand that didn't leak or irritate my DS were very much a Marmite type brand - people either loved them or hated them.

Also one bottle and a carton (plus microwave steriliser) that someone had bought me was my life saver at 2weeks. If I hadn't have had that I really think I would have had a complete mental breakdown before the shops opened the following morning (it was a Sunday night). You can get little presterile bottles and teats, with the ready made milk already in them too - these would be a good back up.

I always advise anyone planning on BF to buy some nipple shields.
Will never forget the excuritating pain of cracked nipples and my poor dad having to dash to the late-night chemist at 11pm at night to buy me some - instant painless feeding til they healed. Next time I will be prepared!

We used our baby bath with ds til about 18mths he sat in it at that time inside main bath - reasoning was it used less water. Prob won't use as long this time as baby will eventually bath with ds 4yrs.

Maternity pads 3-4 packs of 10 and some always/lilets nighttime extra heavy pads (I bled for 8weeks last time and hated maternity pads n used nighttime sanitary towels instead)

Breast pads some people leak some don't n it's a brand pref thing I like lansinoh n tommee tippee and will use for first 6mths if I leak like before and then I swapped to asda own as alot cheaper but comfort n quality not so great.

Nappies we stocked up on sizes 1-4 last time and have done again this time we are not brand snobs and have brought when on offer and Inc pampers, aldi n sains n boots nappies.

Wipes again we have stocked up again although not so much as last time as seems to be always an offer of less than £1 pk for branded which was a price guide before for us and we will use aldi sensitive mostly at 64p a pk.

lottie um a baby bath sits inside a standard bath. I use the baby bath inside the big bath, and stores it in there

Ha! Yes of course but I have the worlds smallest bathroom. The bath is not as wide as a standard bath and even if i did get one to fit in id need to take it out to shower myself and if it was on the floor of the bathroom I wouldn't be able to either open the door or stand on the floor myself!

TwoLittleTerrors - if your babies are wind-free, feeding for 5-10 mins per side and sleeping consistently for several hours between feeds then I can understand why you perhaps aren't finding the night feeds too hard! But with respect, a lot of people find night-time bf quite tiring, physically and mentally, for a variety of reasons.

I would get 1-2 cheap changing mats, as unlike towels, they can simply be wiped down when they get covered in wee/poo (which may happen rather frequently).

You don't have to have a baby bath, but they do make life a bit easier.

Newborns get through a lot of nappies since they have sensitive skin and need frequent changes- perhaps about 8-10 a day. As others suggested, start off by getting 2-3 different brands and see which one you get on best with. I would recommend either Pampers or Naty.

You might find that you get through an awful lot of breast pads in the first week or two, especially in the few days after your milk comes in. I had to change them at hourly intervals at one point. However, other people find they need very few.

Lastly, you may find it well worth your while to get a sling, since many young babies do not like to be put down and it will make your life a lot easier.

I was allergic to the natracare maternity towels, the boots ones were my favourite.

If you want reusables then the enormous ones by honour your flow would probably do the trick, they are sooooooo big and absorbent.