Essentials for the baby

[Viletta]

Hi all,

I'm first time mum and find it so hard figuring out what essentials to get for the first couple of months. I opened a mother care site and went to 'feeding' section to find 15 pages full of stuff! Tried YouTube videos for baby essentials but most of them include lots of gimmicks not even mentioning bottles or diapers. How do you figure out what you need and what not? I hear people buying lots of things they don't need.. thank you for advice 😊

Congratulations!
I would go for a safe place for baby to sleep. Depending on your preference, but I would get one of those safe co-sleeping cots that goes next to you.
A changing mat, baby wipes and nappies.
Some clothes. Anything that wraps around is easier to start with than things that go over the head - very fiddly. No fancy clothes.
If you will breastfeed some feeding bras and pads, if you will bottle feed some bottles, milk and a steriliser.
That’s it!

I found mothercare and similar stores just wanted to sell you products. If you search here I'm sure there are loads of threads on this.

Ultimately you need:

1 clothes - simple sleep suits, vests and a cardi or two are the only essentials at first. Also a soft jacket and hat for when you take baby out. Many people keep baby in these for the first 12 weeks. Other clothes are optional.

2 somewhere for baby to sleep, plus blankets or sleep sacks. You'll need a few blankets and sheets as they will need changed a lot.

3 somewhere to change baby - a towel on the floor/bed works but a change table with a padded wipe clean mat will save your back.

4 transport - car seat, pram, carrier/sling.

5 feeding items - depends if you plan to breast or bottle feed. If bottle feeding just get a couple of bottles as some babies can be fussy on bottle types, so don't buy 6 of the same bottle till you know they'll use it. There are heaps of kinds of sterilisers. We used a Milton cold water steriliser, which is super cheap.

6 Muslin cloths and bibs.

Oh

7 wine 🍷

FTM here too. I'm making sure I get bare minimum as I don't want to waste my money on bits that won't get used.

So far I have on my list:
Next 2 me crib for bedroom
Sleep nest and seat for downstairs naps
Travel system (has newborn pram, pushchair and car seat)
Rain covers
Breast pump
Breastfeeding pillow
Handful of self sterilising bottles
Baby grows and vests
Bibs
Socks
A couple of blankets
Cot sheets and mattress protector
Loads of muslin's
Bath seat (not bothering with a baby bath)
Towels
Reusable breast pads
A couple of hats

Not included obvious things like nappies, creams etc! And feeding bits will depend on if you're breast feeding or not.

Oh also a cloth sling to wear baby and sleeping bags.

Hi all, this is super useful, thank you!

Also putting wine to my list of essentials as suggested 😂

Break it down into, food, sleep and poop. Also unless you live in the back of beyond most baby products are quick and easy to get hold of so you can always wait and see if you aren't sure whether or not you'll need some things.

Placemarking to copy ideas later. I'm 25 weeks and haven't bought a single thing!