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Pregnancy

Talk about every stage of pregnancy, from early symptoms to preparing for birth.

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Original poster

Newborn - must haves

29 replies

Bunny2021 · 19/04/2021 13:30

Hi everyone - I'm sure this has been asked so many times but I'm a first time mum and feeling slightly overwhelmed by everything we supposedly 'need' to purchase.

My husband and I have a shopping appointment at Mamas & Papas and I don't want to feel pushed into buying stuff we don't need.

It would be great if everone could share their must buy items for their babies - particularly summer babies (due July).

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This thread is a little old now so some of the suggestions may be out of date, but if you’ve landed here looking for the ultimate baby essentials checklist, we’ve recently updated our newborn essentials article with the must-haves Mumsnetters think you can't live without when your baby arrives. We hope you find it useful.
MNHQ

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Fleetw00d · 21/04/2021 16:46

Just get the basics for newborn clothes, sleepsuits and vests as you won't want to faff around with any proper clothes for them! Celluar blankets and muslins, you can try them in a swaddle using a blanket and then go from there, amazon prime will be your best friend! I've ordered various things since baby has been here to try her with!

Etherealhedgehog · 21/04/2021 17:20

Amazon Prime...

Lots of things that turned out to be essentials for us were bought after she was born... including velcro swaddles, a white noise machine, our baby carrier, the pram (we started with just a stretchy wrap but she wasn't a fan...). We don't have a dryer so needed I think at least 12 sets of vest/babygro in her first size (which was newborn) to cope with all the weeing during nappy changes in the early days. But you don't know what size they'll be so buy fewer to start with (Tu and George are great for multipacks of baby clothes).

Things we bought that I regret...

Two cellular blankets. We used swaddles or sleeping bags almost from the beginning, though one was useful for the pram (autumn baby)

Bottle steriliser...depends how you're feeding, we did a bit of supplementing for a while but mostly breastfeeding. Had I known about Mam self-sterilising bottles we would have got those instead of Tommee Tippee and a steriliser.

Did a fair bit of pumping in the early days because I had to (supply issues) but I wouldn't have otherwise, so only consider pumping gear as essential if you have a specific reason you want to do that.

Muststopeating · 21/04/2021 18:48

A lot has already been said, so skipping the basics but my must haves:

Some sort of bouncy chair, doesn't need to be fancy... our £15 one from Argos has been perfect and its super light so easy to move room to room.

Shnuggle bath... google it. Best bath ever. Advantage over just a support is that its super quick to fill and you can bath the baby anywhere. Bubs can pretty much sit unsupported from day dot (though obviously with very very careful supervision, holding an arm etc).

Multi mam breast pads if breastfeeding. They are pricey but cut them in half. Keep in the fridge. I only needed one pack per pregnancy while my boobs adapted (i found them infinitely better than lansinoh cream).

Swaddle and white noise (we just had an app on both our phones). Not for everyone. Worked for us.

I also find some sort of baby tracker app really helpful in the early days when everything is a fog. Otherwise you forget when baby last slept, fed, etc.

Best advice I can give you and is completely free... google maximum awake times.

orangejuicer · 21/04/2021 21:08

@Muststopeating