Newborn Essentials

[mama2be91]

Hello :)
I'm 20 weeks with my firstborn. Everyone has different thoughts on what they found essential for their newborns, I'd love to hear any tips/lists you swear by? I've started buying a few bits but so far that's only stretched as far a couple of outfits, a towel and some bibs and socks lol!
Thanks

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This thread is a little old now so some of the suggestions may be out of date, but if you’ve landed here looking for the ultimate baby essentials checklist, we’ve recently updated our newborn essentials article with the must-haves Mumsnetters think you can't live without when your baby arrives. We hope you find it useful.
MNHQ

My advice is to not buy a lot of these things as it is so different from person to person. For example, I don’t know what people use muslins for to get through so many. I have loads (as was told I’d need them) but only really use two; one big one and a little one and even then I use them rarely. I also didn’t ever need nipple cream, never used a sleepyhead, baby not interested in white noise etc...

I was annoyed when I had my first that I had ‘wasted money’ on a nappy bin yet I kept it and use it loads for my second.

For me the most useful things were:
Number for breastfeeding helpline etc
Wrap for carrying
Nappies
A few clothes (As pp said the HandM front popper stuff is good) as people bought a lot!
Sleeping bag

I wouldn’t bother with a pram if I did it again!

I have a 2 week old and the things we've used a lot are:
Nipple cream (lansinoh)
Giant muslins - we have picalilly ones and they're great. We use them as swaddles, for mopping up sick, for changing her on in an emergency, as a picnic blanket...the list goes on!
Ewan the dream sheep (or a white noise app)
Cloth baby wipes - so much grippier than wet wipes and they made light work of the meconium poo at the start and didn't leave DD looking like she'd been tarred and feathered like the cotton wool did!

Placemarking!!

They need

-Clothes
-Food (if bf this means baby needs nothing, mum might need breast pads and lansinoh)
-A means of transport (we used a sling, pram is usual, car seat if you'll be using cars)
-Somewhere to sleep (we cosleep so no cot needed.)

If yours is sicky or drooly, you need bibs/muslins

A bouncy chair is handy IMO

(and nappies/wipes. We use reusable ones but had one pack of moltex disposables for hospital)

Stuff we use constantly:

Muslins in all different sizes
Cellular blankets
Baby healthcare kit from tommy tipped (has nail scissors etc in it)
A decent nappy bag
Pram/car seat all inone travel system
Puppy pads (make a good changing mat when out and about)

For me:
Lansinoh
Feeding bras and tops
Insulated water bottle and coffee cup with lids
Hospital grade breast pump

We bought but didn't use:
Baby bath
Bottle steamer (I bf)

Newborn stuff:

Loads of maternity pads for you! I had to send a friend out on an emergency run when I first got home from hospital.

Nappies

Pack each of vests and babygrows in newborn and 0-3m sizes (apart from this, we had so many clothes given as gifts I didn’t buy any more til he was 6 months!)

Moses basket you can move from room to room

Lansinoh nipple cream

Breast pads in case you’re leaky

Muslins

Car seat

Stretchy wrap sling (cheaper on eBay - get it early so you can practise tying and be ready to use it when baby arrives)

Sports bottle that won’t spill and you can use one-handed: breastfeeding is seriously thirsty work.

Food you can open and eat one-handed.

Meals in the freezer for early days.

Puppy pads are brill for going under you in bed when you get home (lochia can be leaky. So are new-mum boobs from about day 3 onwards).

Because i used a sling, a shoulder nappy bag was impractical so I used having a baby as an excuse to buy a really nice Fjallraven backpack I’d had my eye on - plenty of pockets and much more practical!

Oh and not essential, but someone gave me a little dry bag which is great for stuffing wet/shitty clothes into when out and about so they don’t contaminate anything else.

How could I forget the puppy pads!
Great for the early days when they wee every nappy change!

A battery powered bouncy chair - a god send and allows you to grab time to shower/eat without having to rock the baby!

Muslins - lots of them!!!!

Basic clothes - vests & onsies (don’t bother getting any “outfits” - they are a faff and the little one will be far better in the basis to begin with

Snacks - for you and partner! Sweets, crisps, nuts, popcorn etc - so you can easily grab a quick mouthful during the day/night in those first few days!

Paracetamol, ibuprofen, lots of maternity pads, loo roll, big knickers, a good few pairs of comfy PJ bottoms or tracksuit bottoms or leggings so have comfy clothes to sit in 😊

Marking as finding reading this very useful!

IMO

Clothes - babygros, short sleeved vests, cardigans not jumpers. If you like then some t shirts and/or dresses and soft leggings or joggers. All other clothing types are too fiddly with a newborn, wait until they are older.

Car seat, worth researching but don't get sucked into the madness.

Buggy and or sling.

Sleeping space- I love a co sleeping cot. Can't stand those sleepyhead things. So for me also useful is waterproof mattress protectors for your own bed too and some decent sized cellular blankets and a snuggly dressing gown for yourself. If not co sleeping some long sleeved vests as pyjamas and a couple of baby sleeping bags.

Muslins I liked.

Somewhere to put the baby down for a minute, I like a bouncer. A playmate is also great.

Nappies and something to clean their bums with.

I just bathed mine in the sink or in bath with dad.

Following this :)

Swaddle up sleeping bags - DS hates blankets and like to have his arms up

GroEgg thermometer

Bath seat

Dribble bibs - DS has reflux and they save so many clothes.

Bouncy chair - DS wouldn't use a Moses basket due to the reflux.

Moo Goo Mudder Udder nipple cream - lanolin free alternative to lansinoh.

Tommie Tippee nappy bin

Car mirror for checking on him while driving

Sock ons

And when DS wouldn't latch properly, nipple shields. He's now abandoned them.

I would buy the very basics - like nappies, a small amount of clothes etc. After the birth you will have more of an idea what would be useful for you.

On my first baby I only realised when he was about 1 year old how much money I had wasted on things I had wrongly thought would be essential or useful to me.

For me a buggy with a travel system was essential but other people prefer to use a sling. I bought a sling but never used it.

Everyone's different OP. Our DS (first child) is 14 weeks and our best things have been:

Perfect Prep (DS was FF from birth)

Mam bottles and dummies

Muslins

Chicco Next 2 Me crib.

LEKA baby gym - £20 from IKEA. We have it over the changing mat and DS adores it. Makes changing very easy.

A lie flat car seat (we have the Joie one). Expensive, but means we don't have to worry about the length of car journeys.

Things we haven't got on with:

Bouncer (the same Joie one that a PP linked to up thread!) DS screams every time he's put in it.

Slings of all types - we always thought I'd carry our baby in a sling a lot but he's huge and I'm small, and we both hate getting hot. Slings just don't work for us and DS loves riding in the pram, so we do that.

I also bought too many clothes. I didn't realise that all our gifts would be outfits (no one bought toys, books, or blankets for DS when he was born).

As you see, my two 'don't bother' items are several people's essentials! I think some 'mistakes' are inevitable, because some of it depends on the baby. Most babies love bouncy chairs - DS is a bit weird in that respect. And it's possible that if we have another DC we would have a little dainty one who hated the pushchair and only wanted to be carried...

We haven't needed a monitor yet - might buy one when DS goes into his own room at 6 months, but for now he's never on his own so not necessary.

Thank you so much for so many helpful suggestions - a few things I wouldn't even have considered!

I love the idea of a sling but don't think I'd get on with it!

Do you think a changing table is needed or would a mat suffice?

x

Just a mat is definitely ok - we changed him on the mat on our bed/the kitchen table (dettol wipes are your friend - for dining table, not baby!), or on the mat on the floor. Once they start rolling over they can flop themselves off the table anyway so unless you want a specific bit of furniture and can repurpose it a few months in (at 9 months my baby stopped lying down and would only tolerate being changed standing up. He just rolls over and crawls away!), not needed.

It is good having a changing box with wipes/nappies/cotton wool/nappy cream, one upstairs and one down. Terry nappies (the square ones) or old hand towels are also handy early on to put under them as they often wee mid change (up into their/your face if it’s a boy!)

Changing table definitely not necessary. We avoided it because our nursery is very small (just a box room) and it's been fine. We just change DS on a mat on the floor and we never have to worry about him rolling off it.

Mat is fine unless you have trouble bending down. DH insisted on a table for this reason. I never used one with DS1. We got given one for free though, they tend to be quite bulky and not very useful once outgrown so people do give them away. You can also create a makeshift one by just putting the changing mat on a table.

If you like the idea of slings but aren't sure if you'd get on, don't buy one but look up if there's a sling meet group anywhere near you and try going along when your baby is born, you might be able to try some things out and ask questions.

I've just noticed I wrote playmate earlier when I meant playmat. I'm sure that a playmate is great but you can't exactly buy them in John Lewis :o

Against the grain here but a changing table was essential for us, changing on the bed/table killed my back. But we did have a changing box downstairs also which was helpful.

Having snacks in for night feeds (probably more relevant to bf but I can imagine it's also hungry work if ff) like mini packs of biscuits are helpful, I kept them on my bedside table. Like wise a dimmable lamp and a kindle!

Our first loved the baby gym and it's a safe place to put them (unless you have pets and older siblings).

As others have said so much is dependent on your baby, and how often you are happy to wash, we had a sicky baby and unless I'd have been happy to wash everyday we would have run out of clothes based on some of the quantities recommended on here. So I take the view that I'd rather have too much

Low clothes quantities though are because people give you thibgs and because you don't know what size baby will be until they are born. The reasoning being you can always nip to supermarket for more but you're never realistically going to take anything back.