Are there any NON essential items that really helped with a newborn? Recommendations please!

[Jem9153]

Hi!

We’ve been doing a bit of shopping and I think we’re mostly sorted with the ‘essentials’ for when baby arrives.

We’ve got a little money spare and I wondered if there were any little extras which really helped but aren’t really considered a ‘necessity’?

For example we’ve been recommended ‘Ewan the Sheep’ to help baby get off to sleep :) any other ideas or recommendations?

Would love to hear from everyone 💕

Hip seat. It looks like a bumbag, but it takes the weight off your back when holding toddlers.

Most of the things posters have mentioned weren’t around when we had our DT’s. The things I’d wish had around are perfect prep machine and meals delivered from somewhere like Cook.

Sleepyhead, MyHummy white noise toy, Tuppence & Crumble star wrap, Groegg, black out blind, Snoozeshade for buggy and a Mamaroo.

Aside from the star wrap and the Mamaroo, we still use all of this stuff EVERY day at 16mo!

A lamp with a remote controlled bulb for the bedroom. Amazing for nighttime as you can keep it on very low for checking and feeding the baby without it being bright enough to wake them up.

Also, you can never have too many bibs. Bibs with poppers are the best, the ones with Velcro are rubbish.

Also, if you formula feed, I recommend 2 perfect prep machines - 1 downstairs and 1 in the bedroom. Saves having to go up and down in the night.

Also, measure the formula into pots so they're ready to mix the bottles when you need them.

You also need a basket or similar so you can carry the night time bottles and formula up in the evening and down again in the morning.

Good luck with your new baby.

We did some research around sleep aids (was going to go for Ewan the dream sheep) and found that comparatively the MyHummy was better. We went for the MyHummy Mini with sleep sensor.
Not used yet as baby is still a few weeks away but I love that you can adjust the sounds, volume, and even attach it to a pram etc if you want to take it out with you. There’s even the option of a Bluetooth setting so you can control it from your mobile.

I love this thread!! Added so much to my baby wish list on amazon 🙊

Love this, thanks OP, I've also added loads to my list!

Sleepy head. Sleepy head. Sleepy head.

Also cannot recommend enough the book; baby sleep guide by Stephanie modell. You can read it I. 1-2 hours - changed my life (she should pay me as I rave about it so much). My 14 month old settles independently and easily for every nap and bedtime. He slept 7pm-7.30am last night. I haven't had to go into him overnight (except when he had a fever) for about 4 months - which is particularly amazing as I'm 19 weeks pregnant with number 2 and no idea how I would have coped if he didn't sleep

Just realised my link didn’t work 🙈

kura-organics.com/

Thanks OP, needed one of these lists!

Great bits on here to add to my wishlist! Thank you

Agree with sleepyhead. Absolute godsend.

Also I had a pretty long recovery and wasn't very mobile, and my husband got a bulb for our bedroom with a remote control and loads of different settings (colours / dimmer etc) that I could control from the bed when feeding and checking on the baby. It was only cheap (less than £20 I think) but I'm still using without fail every night 5 months in (I've been recovered a while but you don't want to be getting out of bed if you don't have to!!) and will probably keep using it even when baby isn't in our room any longer.

Doesn’t the Lullaby Trust advise AGAINST the Sleepyhead and all sleep positioners etc. because of the increased risk of SIDS? I think I’d be too scared to use one, just in case.

Don't bother with Ewan the Sheep- if they're crying you need the white noise to be louder than their cry and Ewan only has two settings. Quiet and slightly-less-quiet. We used a phone app (Sound Sleeper - FREE!) and then when we got sick of not having our phones handy in the evenings we invested in a rechargeable VTech Myla the Monkey. It's also much more compact and portable than the soft toy versions.

We used a sleepyhead initially for just naps and then put it in her cot. She had reflux and when she was in hysterics it seemed to be the only thing that would keep her settled for longer than five minutes. The Lullaby Trust does not recommend them, but like anything parenting related you need to weigh up the potential risks vs the benefits. It's dear though, so you might want to spend your shekels on something you know you'll use.

Also on the reflux point, I found a carrier invaluable. I have the ergobaby omni 360 (on offer on loads of sites at the moment) which I went for off countless threads on here raving about them. Soft sling ones are great but I'm all fingers and thumbs and had visions of me dropping DD whilst trying to get her in it! The sling is also great for travel- not that we'll be going anywhere else any time soon.

If you're expecting a summer baby a snoozeshade is bloody fantastic. Ensures the pram is as dark as possible but the make up of the material means the air still circulates and baby won't overheat. We went to Florida last month and DD (six months now) snoozed away contentedly in her travel pram at her normal nap times, which meant she wasn't grumpy.

Also second a Shnuggle bath. They're just brilliant and made us more more confident bathing DD in the early days- even now actually, she's a slippery bugger. You can pick them up secondhand off fb marketplace for a tenner. I too loved fancy muslins, just a bit of frippery! And DD really likes the patterns on the Aden & Anais ones I got.

It's all very personal really, but I'm so jealous you get to do it again for the first time!

Sleepyhead, again. They were seen as ok for overnight when I had one.

Lactation consultant - if you want to BF it’s worth setting money aside for this as many women struggle with it (including me) but a lot of difficulties can be solved with the right advice early on.