FTM - what do babies REALLY need

[kittenpeak]

I'm pregnant with my first and everyone is telling to watch what I buy as they found they didn't use / need most things they bought. Moses basket came up a few times, as an example. I'm not talking about clothes / feeding equipment or "toys" but it's more the bigger things.

What do they ACTUALLY need day to day?

• Pram (need to research and think about the car seat combo - advice appreciated there)
• Cot for when they're in their room
• Next to Me for when they're in ours
• Sleepyhead pillow for during the day?
• Soft mats?
• Mobile?
• bouncy chair thing for them to lie in once they've graduated from sleepyhead?
• Changing table?

It's more what they need during the day to sit / lie in etc

Please don't laugh!! And I appreciate there are lots more things, it's just these main fundamental things I'm not sure about

Thanks!

I’ve not long had my first and we massively overbought, luckily someone I knew was having a baby a few months after so we gave a lot away.

What I needed was a next2me in bedroom, cot as he outgrew his next2me quite quickly (sleeps like a starfish). He’s never had a mobile or light as his groegg room temp had a light on. Downstairs we used a sleepyhead on the sofa and then as soon as he got bigger we took him upstairs for naps as it helped him settle into his cot.

Something for swaddling if you’re going to swaddle.

Our chair we got from Argos for £25 and he loved it and the colours to play with and sleep in sometimes.

Soft mats from eBay as you get much more for the price.

DS in now 8 months old and we’ve not long got him a playpen. One of the best buys as he was an early crawler/stander so it’s somewhere safe to leave him downstairs if I need to pop the loo etc as the chair stopped being interesting for him. Upstairs the cot is his safe place if I need the loo etc.

Don’t bother with a changing table, a changing mat and a caddy with your bits in is good enough and much cheaper. We had one in our bedroom and one in the living room, to save moving around too much when he needed a change, we also kept a spare vest and grow in each for poo explosions etc.

Jumperoo/baby walker for 6+ months although my DS was in his walker around 4/5 months as he just wanted to move. It goes so quickly that before you know if you’re rushing out to buy these things so if you have the space I’d buy it ready.

Make sure you’ve got things like snufflebabe, calpol, bottle cleaners, dummies etc. If they’re relevant to you.

Good luck and CONGRATULATIONS! Enjoy every moment x

Moses basket was one of my best buys my twins shared the basket till they got to big then went straight into a shared cot, ds slept in moses basket then popped moses basket inside cot for a while to get him used to cot. Bring it downstairs in the day it's better for consistency.
Other things - sling (great in the house as well as out and about), car seat that isn't too heavy, you don't need a travel system (I had a good quality stroller suitable from birth I was the only one of my new mums group that didn't buy a second pushchair), you don't need lots of clothes but make sure you have plenty of babygrows, vests and muslin squares, you don't need a changing table you won't want to be up and down stairs all day (I had a mat and box of supplies up and downstairs). Basic bouncer /chair that folds up handy especially if they can't be layed flat after a feed.

im not keen on Sleepyheads, especially im cots not a good idea, probably ok to snooze on the sofa next to you or something, ive heard of wipe warmers wouldn't bother with them.

Also, formula, bittles on standby incase you find yourself in a situation during breastfeeding where baby is not feeding and getting distressed. (if your choosing that).

There's a website that lists everything you might need for a newborn baby in order of how often they've been recommended by all the top online checklists and a panel of parents. So you can see really easily what you actually need. E.g. changing mats are 100% recommended and a cot mobile is 20% recommended.

It's www.getgetgot.com. You might find it useful.

It really depends on your lifestyle and recommendations change all the time, so it's no surprise it can seem confusing.

For me, a infant-to-toddler rocking chair & swaddling blankets, used those for naps and settling a lot. They also sat in there, on a blanket, or on one of us most of the time. Not needed, a mat with different materials and surfaces and things like this great chime puncher were really useful and fun to see them interact with.
The wraparound pillow was essential for me for feeding and they could nap on there with me during the early days.

I ended up giving away the pram I got and used a meh dai carrier most of the time, didn't use the stand alone cot as they ended up not going into their own room until about a year and we just use a low bed with a baby gate so they couldn't get too far down the hall. Mine are older and I will admit I had to google what a sleepyhead was and I never had a changing table. We did have a couple of mats, but once rolling it was awkward to get them to actually stay on it...waterproof blanket may be more useful. Really, they don't need that much but your lifestyle will make some things more useful than others.

@MeadowHay I've also bought a cosatto travel system with the carrycot and was planning for using it instead of Moses basket during the day, but when we assembled it found that it has a metal bar underneath which makes the carrycot incline so it wont stay flat when it doesn't sit in the pram frame. Was yours the same?

Very little tbh.

DS had a full size cot hitched up to our bed as a co-sleeper for the first year of life. He still sleeps in that now at nearly 2 although now in his own room. He slept in a cardboard baby box or his pram carrycot in the day (in the rare moments he wasn’t glued to us!). You could easily get away with just having a Moses basket for the first couple of months. A sleepyhead is totally non essential and expensive.

We had a bouncy chair which was useful when he was awake and you needed your hands free for eating dinner, having a shower etc. He occasionally drifted off in it although they aren’t supposed to be for naps.

We did end up buying a changing table after my cesarean as I didn’t feel too flexible for a couple of weeks but tbh could have done without it if needed. It was £5 on marketplace.

We bought our pushchair and car seat to last. We’ve got a Joie Every Stage which doesn’t come out of the car and an Out N About Nipper Sport as we are runners and live in the country. We would likely have been fine without a pushchair for the first 6 months tbh. The sling was a total lifesaver. I can still pop him on my back now if I need to.

@DJBebe not that I remember no, have you had your baby yet? Does it not need the baby's weight to push it back down flat essentially? (Sorry if I'm misunderstanding.) Might be worth talking to Cosatto about it, their customer service is excellent. We used the pram carry cot as a nap space sometimes in the daytime especially if we were visiting someone else so we could fold the pram base down and bring DD asleep in the carrycot into someone else's living room for example. And the same when coming home from somewhere as our house has a few steep steps to come in so I found it easiest to take her off in the carrycot and then fold the pram base and bring it in separately. DD outgrew it when she was about 5 months old though and she wasn't that big a baby but it was quite a small carrycot. But that meant it was easier for me to handle on the bus and stuff so pros and cons.

My worst buy for dd1 was a Moses basket. She was dinky (6lbs 9oz at birth) but still grew out of it by 7/8 weeks. She then moved into her cot (and I moved onto a foldaway camping bed in her nursery).

This time, definitely getting one of those next to me type cots.

From 2 months she almost exclusively napped in her bouncer laid flat (despite all my attempts for her to sleep elsewhere!!!).

Her playmat got some use and I will be busting it out again if this little bean makes it (currently 4+6).

@MeadowHay thank you. I didn't think of reaching out to cosatto, i just assumed it's a design fault and i won't be able to use the carrycot outside the pram frame. I wrote them a message, hopefully they'll be able to give me some advice. This is the metal bar under the carrycot. x

Guys you are being so helpful thank you! I'm making notes of everything - please keep it coming!

Not going to buy anything or properly research with husband until 12 week scan (8 weeks today).

It really sounds like every household and lifestyle is different

@kittenpeak you've got plenty of time, I've only started buying baby's things after 30 weeks. 😊