Experienced mums: what did you wish you bought?

[Spooples]

Currently 26 weeks with baby number 1 and trying to start buying in bits for when she's here.

Ive had a look through the recommendations in my books and online about what to get, but is there anything in your experience you found was really useful but you maybe didn't know about it in advance?

What would be your top recommendation of useful things to buy for baby? Or even for child birth?

There's a much longer list of things I wish I HADN'T bought, tbh. It's very easy to buy into the marketing and think there's something which will miraculously make your baby sleep, or stop crying, or make feeding easier, and the chances are there isn't.

What people find super useful varies massively depending on the baby. I would err on the side of buying the basics before birth and seeing what kind of baby you get, then buying things second hand once they seem like they might be useful. It's really just not possible to be all clued up and prepped before the birth. You won't know what will help until you know who your baby is.

The one thing I'd suggest as very soothing for the large majority of babies is a sling.

Wish I bought less tbh. It’s a pain in the bum trying to sell on for Pennys when you are done.

Best buy : A buckle baby carrier (used for 2 babies)

Sling, Moses basket, play gym, bedside cot, nappy bin, muslins, nappy caddy for downstairs, a fleecy over layer for baby grow as coats are too fiddly and their arms get too cold just with blankets

You really don't need much in the early days, and what works for one baby won't work for another.
They also grow so quickly and things may only be used for a few weeks, if you can borrow bits then I would. Save your money for coffees and baby classes... it soon adds up!

Thanks Countess, that's an interesting take on it, and useful to hear.

I haven't really got much so far - just a few baby-grows, a pram in the sales, and some bottles so feeling a bit behind.

Oh! Lots more replies while I was writing that one. Thank you all! 😊

Ds is very long and outgrew his moses basket too early at 4 months so we then had to buy a crib for our room so in hindsight I should have bought a next to me crib instead.
Like a pp said we did buy stuff that didn't get used like a swing as he hates it

A baby zen yoyo. I ended up buying two prams because I needed a compact one for public transport and the first didn't quite hit the spot.

A plain cheap highchair, the classic ikea/asda one. We bought a huge expensive folding thing and it ended up as a spare for my Mother's house.

I am in the buy less camp.
Also I wish we had avoided things that were baby specific..For our second baby a change bag was be a day sack which I still use for walking and a bottle steriliser was a dishwasher that had a really hot setting. It is still used for sterilising jam jars and beer bottles.
Also consider second hand....there are a lot of people selling barely used things.

Oh and dr browns bottles ,we had tt ones and they were too big for our son's little face. I had to rush out to get 8 dr browns bottles as my son refused to feed one night due to the discomfort.

Grosnug. DS was teeny and we were constantly faffing with blankets and muslins until a friend lent us one of these.

I'm now pregnant with my second. As it was a surprise I no longer have any of my original baby stuff.

This time round I won't be buying as much. They grow so quickly that lots of things soon become unused or discarded... like another poster said, you get peanuts when selling stuff on.

I would just get the basics and then you can always buy extra things if you feel you need them later on.

If there's one really good thing you need to buy I would say a decent pram. My last one was awful and I didn't realise on purchase. It made life so difficult that this time round I'll really be doing my research!

I would definitely purchase a bottle making machine they are a slight expense but wouldn't be without mine, it's a proper life saver for night feeds 😊

A ring sling for the early days. Other than that, they don't really need much. A safe place to sleep, nappies, car capsule, and onesies. You can always buy more stuff later on when you need it.

Another one who wouldn’t have bought as much. The one thing I wish I’d known early was both my DC would hate Moses baskets and I should just buy a side sleeper cot. Someone recommended it to use with DD after three weeks of not getting her to sleep ever in the Moses basket. It was expensive but the best money we ever spent. From the first night she slept for six hours uninterrupted (which meant we did too) and I wept with relief (and woke paranoid she’d stopped breathing because she had never been that quiet before in her life!). Worth every penny.

A baby zen yoyo. I ended up buying two prams because I needed a compact one for public transport and the first didn't quite hit the spot.

See, that's kind of my point in a nutshell. I also had and loved a Yoyo having bought the "wrong" buggy before the birth. But I'm a Londoner with a narrow hallway who takes a lot of buses. For someone else it might be the worst pram in the world. There's very little that is a "must have" for everyone.

My best buys have been

Tuppence and crumble star wraps, great for skin to skin with just a nappy underneath, and perfect as a warm outer layer when it and about as easy to take off when going in to the warm, and safe to use in sling and car seat (DD is now in the large size and we still use it loads).

Swaddle wrap, worth having one ready, as if you're little one needs to be swaddled it is a must have, we used swaddleme original, and swaddleme wrapsack when she was a bit bigger.

A good semi structured carrier, we have an ergo sport (I think) but had to use a newborn insert to start which was a bit of a faff, but I think ergo and Tula do a from birth carrier that doesn't need an insert, which I think would be better.

Out n about nipper, we live rurually and have a dog, it is a great off road pushchair and with car seat adaptors can be used as a travel system.

Snoozeshade, DD naps in her pushchair either on walks or in the garden, we have found this share indispensable.

Cheeky wipes system, we fully cloth nappy but even if that's not for you these wipes are brilliant, so much better at sticking to milky poop then disposable wipes, and you save a huge amount of money and the environment with them.

All the above items have been purchased second hand from either eBay or locally.

There was one thing I bought the second time around which I wish I had the first time around and that was a nursing chair.

Whether you're breast or bottle feeding it's so nice to have a comfortable rocking chair and not just the sofa. If my baby was crying I could sit and rock in it instead of walking around plus it has pockets in the side to keep all essentials.
Of all the baby things that was my most useful purchase

I'll just add I bought my nursing chair in the 3rd trimester and was really comfy for the later stages of pregnancy!

A BabyBjorn bouncer. We thought we could save £60 by buying a cheaper one from a different brand. It wasn’t as good and LO grew too big for it by 4 months old, leaving us in a difficult situation because he couldn’t yet sit independently but his bouncer was too small, and at that point we didn’t want to fork out for the Bjorn that we should have got in the first place.

Stargaze music and light playmat from Mamas & Papas was a lifesaver. It entertained LO every day for the ten minutes it took to eat a meal. If it wasn’t for that I wouldn’t have been able to put him down at all.

A good high chair is worth it too. Tripp Trapp and Nomi chairs are excellent but pricey. And Sophie the Giraffe is another expensive but excellent item. Oh, and wireless Apple earbuds so you can watch Netflix while baby sleeps!

Travel cot was utterly useless because LO wouldn’t go in it. Baby gates were useless too - we just shut the door. Removable baby seat was too heavy to carry so that was useless too, we should have got the rotating one that stays in the car.

I found Ewan the sheep invaluable. More Muslins than you think you could need. I'm sure I had about 40 or so.

Don't bother with outfits. They are impractical and you'll receive some as gifts.

Bouncy seat is only thing I didn't have with first 2 DC but loved with DC3+.

I used right size clothes, front baby carrier, pram, carseat, nappies - a lot. Rest seemed very optional.

You’re defintely not behind, theyvdont actually need much and you get given tonnes.

With the first I wish I’d had a sling which was easy to use, a Tummy Tub Ask he hated the bath and had read Babycalming.

A thermal mug to keep my drinks warm might if helped too

I would just say expensive isn't always better.

I got a really expensive chair, ds hated it I sold it and got a cheaper one that he loved. Same with baby gym, cheap one at my mums he loved, expensive one I bought he hated.

Next to me crib is amazing.

I wish I bought way less. Shops will be open when the baby is here. They are all so different.
For example, I was also told I need wayyyy more muslins than I think. I didn't, I still have a massive pile and DC1 is in school.
Both DC hated to be swaddled in anything. DC1 - loved sleeping bags, DC2 - hated sleeping bags. DC1 hated slings, DC2 loved them. And so on.
Also mine were both tall babies, so all my newborn and 0-1 stockpiled clothes went unused, and most 0-3 as well.
I would advise you NOT to buy room thermometers and similar things that tell you how wrong you are. They just made me worry that DC1 will overheat if the grow-egg was furiously telling me room is 1 degree too warm.