When to start buying

[Katie12346]

I've just had my 12 week scan and everything is okay so far, I've always thought this was the point in pregnancy you were supposed to wait for to start buying, but a part of me is questioning if it's still too early?

I'm not talking huge things like furniture etc. but maybe clothes and small items, or is it more sensible to wait until 20 weeks? Or even later?

Also when did people begin decorating their nursery? Looking at cots/prams etc.

I'd love to hear from other mums about when you thought the time was right :)

Started at 10 weeks fully finished at 21 weeks now 23 weeks so glad its done so no long waiting deliveries

Started buying quite early on - couldn’t help ourselves and now I’m 21 weeks and we’ve bought lots of clothes (probably not needed!!) muslins, blankets, a rocker and a snuzpod - waiting on the travel system and have a list of other bits of pieces needed. Starting the nursery this weekend before I get too big!!

I’m 15w. We’re not doing a nursery and done for DD & DS and it was basically a glorified dressing room as we co slept with them both until age 4 😂

I kept a lot of the big things from DC2 (pram, car seat, next to me crib etc) so don’t need to buy lots so will wait until at least 25w. Although I have seen some lovely sleep suits ...!

I'm 15w and have done research but no real desire to buy anything yet. We are also in the process of moving house. DH and I have been offered secondhand nursery furniture and clothes from immediate family. The only thing we will be buying before baby is born are the absolute musts: cat seat, nappies and one outfit that isn't secondhand. We've decided to wait for pram, people keep telling us to buy one for our lifestyle but we're big hikers and I've not yet found one that can go over styles and scramble over rocks. We might buy a carrier/wrap in advance.

Be careful about the sizing 100 years ago when dd was born she was tiny so we had to buy her a load of newborn outfits after the birth. Conversely my friend had a large baby who went straight in 3-6 months.

Currently pregnant with my second. My advice is start buying after 12 weeks. This is because a) it takes time to research and money to buy everything and b) you won’t feel like it in the 3rd trimester, trust me! You’ll want to be sorting out everything and nesting.

I waited until my 20 week scan because I was worried about a miscarriage.

Start researching, looking at prices and finalising your budget/saving for things.

After my 20 week scan x

I'm usually quite a pessimistic person and so before getting pregnant I would have said that it would be sensible to buy after the 20-week scan and ideally later. That said I saw some good sales and we bought a pram/pushchair two weeks ago when I was 17 weeks.

After the anomaly scan I started a list of things I wanted to buy an options. We wanted get as much as possible second hand so I started properly looking on online market places around 24 weeks.
We wanted to do cloth nappies and wipes so I took a bit time researching those.
As I started baskets on various online shopping sites and every few weeks I would pop in an order to spread it out.

What we did do quite early on was to go through all of our storage areas, cleared out things we no longer needed and improved to storage (more shelves etc). We tackled one a weekend for about a month and freed up loads of space. It's good to do it early before getting too uncomfortable and tired!

I'm 22 weeks and have most of the big items now, mainly because my pram was being sold as ex demo and it was buy it then or nothing and my furniture was half price.

The best thing I did was set up an Amazon wish list, not necessarily to buy everything from there or because I expect people to use it to buy things for baby (I haven't shared it with anyone) but because you can see the price fluctuations and get an idea of an items price range when it's 'cheap' and when it's 'expensive' which then helps you not panic buy!

I also joined Boots baby club (you get quite a few freebies and some good points vouchers).

I can understand superstitions and fear of jinxing things, but I've just tried to be reasonable in my mind about the risk factors and decide if it's worth it and what are the odds of being able to return it if the worst happens. We are also lucky to have the space to store the items which if we didn't would have have us hold off.

I've had lots of second hand baby clothes from friends and have been warned off buying clothes/bibs/blankets/toiletries because it's an easy gift choice. I've also avoided buying too many newborn things.

I can really recommend a website called babybundle (they have an insta also) my friend mentioned them to me and they have some great second hand items without the hassle of bidding on ebay! The bits I've bought I've been really pleased with.

Happy buying people, wishing you all healthy safe pregnancies

I’m 13 weeks and tbh have bought quite a few things already! I bought our pram last week as I found it for £200 cheaper in a sale so that was a no brainer for me. We’ve started picking up little things like wipes etc. I also found the MAM newborn starter set cheap so picked that up and a night light that was reduced in boots. We’re not superstitious at all and believe in just taking the opportunity to make savings and picking things up a little bit at a time to spread the cost.

Just remember that at the moment some of the bigger items (prams, car seats, furniture) might have delays on them due to covid and brexit. I was working in the nursery industry until the end of November and some of our most popular travel systems and furniture ranges were being delayed by 10-12 weeks.
Brands have had to halt production, then start production again on a skeleton staff due to social distancing/self isolation and now there are issues with importing the items too due to new regulations after brexit. I spoke to my old manager yesterday and they’ve been waiting a month for a Bugaboo delivery. It used to be 5 working days!

Not wanting to scare anyone but if you have your heart set on a particular item, I’d get it at least ordered ASAP to avoid disappointment

Hiya, I’m 16+1 and started buying clothes and small bits since our 12 week scan. Had my 16 week midwife appointment and heard the heartbeat so I’m going to continue buying little bits and pieces here and there and after 20 week scan will start to think about bigger things. Personally I like to be prepared and would like to spread out the cost of everything between now and due date. Xx

I'm 27 weeks now and we've just bought a car seat. We bought a pushchair and crib at about 20 weeks in the black Friday sales. I can't bring myself to buy anything 'personal' yet, definitely not clothes. Ill start buying at about 32 weeks. As baby will be in our bedroom, we won't do it's bedroom up until its 6 months old, but this is mostly because we are decorating the rest of the house and I can't bare to add another room to the list right now!